Monthly Archives: February 2011

Feb 21 2011
Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Holy Spirit, Theology

Alan Taylor at Ivy MCR on Ecclesiastes 2

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Haagan Daas ice cream advert – says it gives you the desires of your heart in a way that lasts and lasts.
Yeah, right.

Advertisers know we are wired for pleasure

What’s that got to do with God?
It has everything to do with him because you were made to be a worshipper

Where are your desires? Do you enjoy God? If you do, you can have everything else!

Solomon’s wealth has been estimated at $126 Billion!

We live in a hedonistic world. Check out the student lifestyle- sex and drugs and party to truly be ALIVE.

It promises life.
The bible warns of the evil desires of youth. Some never grow up!

Pleasure in anything else but God will not satisfy, neither will performance. How do we know? Solomon tested it. Other are testing it now and being broken in the tests.

Wine and folly:
33,000 deaths in UK every year through alcohol. Look at any casualty dept to see this incredible brokenness.
40% in casualty there through alcohol.
Do not be drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit! Why? So I can be myself, not get drunk & pretend to be someone else.

Sex?
He had 700 wives and 300 concubines! Go to freshers week and you’ll see how crazy this casual sex goes and how many abortions (106 a day) and the escalating number of STDs there are.

We are aiming natural desires at the wrong target.

Could be football, work, eating: promises Life; but deceives you- because only God can satisfy.

What do we abstain from – to gain Him? Choose something 40 days, no coffee: no football: because it may have a hook in my heart and I want God to have it all.

Are we interceding for our nation? Be a watchman on the Walls.

Performance can be an idol. Status.
We could love our to do list. This doesn’t mean we are passive! But Solomon built great buildings etc. Nothing satisfied him.

What are we going after? Is our first desire the Kingdom?

That’s not to say we get caught up in religious activity all the time if that’s for approval of others, or even God.

Antidote? Sabbath means stop, cease, be fully OFF. Get some worship music on, get into enjoying Gods presence!

Solomon outperformed & outachieved us all- there’s always going to be someone better!

Bs 11 & 12.
It’s vain!
Pleasure is not found in selfishness but in serving! Did you learn to love? Everything else is vanity!

Jesus said there will come a day when the ‘love of most will grow cold.’ We have to live as if Jesus could come back very soon. Are our hearts hot toward him? We are in a selfish & individualistic culture. Will we be different?
Love most. Sacrifice most.

The only real pleasure is in God , who is’ most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him’ (Piper)

God is glorified by people who get satisfied in Him. Seek first the Kingdom. He can add the rest!

Satisfied doesn’t mean you have settled on a level. What’s your vision for your relationship with God?

Real life isn’t found on a pleasure ride, or religious performance – but receiving. Finding our true home. Entering into the divine life.
How to pray?
Please and thank you

Please Holy Spirit, fill me.
Thank-you that you do..!

Feb 20 2011
Bible, Christianity

Debra Green’s Talk today on Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

I’ve put this together as notes for Ivy CR Grow Groups from Debra Green’s talk this morning in our new series.

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
Compare the passage in various translations, including the Message.
Ecclesiastes is the Questers journal on life. Its good to do that if it helps you. Discuss in the group- who among you keeps a journal? Is it helpful? What experiences do you have of journalling?
These seem like strange sayings don’t they?
The words are meant to disillusion of our illusions: life is more significant than what can be measured by short term gains can give.
Rather than pursue various things (list them as a group), pursue God!
Does your life at the moment reflect that you are pursuing God first & foremost?
How might someone objectively viewing your life judge that?
Consider the phrase ‘under the sun.’ it means ‘all I can see, touch, hear & feel here.’ We need to look at what’s above the Sun. How much of what the media, government, science etc loses any heavenly or eternal perspective and encourages us to base our lives on what is here and now alone?
How might we gain and keep that perspective this week?
Tolstoy’s: ’1st order question’ Is there anything in my life that will survive my inevitable death?
What’s YOUR answer – in the context of eternity – to Tolstoy’s question? Discuss and list.
The Quester’s bottom line is in Ecclesiastes 12:13. Read that- and thank God for your purpose.
This life is preparation for eternal life. We can live with destiny. Eternity starts the moment you become a Christian- you see it in 3D, not just under the Sun.
Pray for one another in the group that we will fulfil the purpose for our lives that God has, and settle for no lesser dream than he has for us.
Feb 07 2011
4 Comments
Bible, Church, Holy Spirit, Manchester, Religion, REVIVAL, Uncategorized

New Wine and Old Wineskins

For years while I was in leadership settings in Anglican churches, with some glorious times of course for which I am grateful, I kept coming up against a particular short parable of Jesus and feeling like, ‘He’s talking to me, he’s talking about me.’ It’s from Luke 5, that old stuff about new wineskins:
read it here

I would go to conferences, go up for prayer, or just in my daily Bible readings for me and Zoe this passage would leap off the page as it seemed to describe so much of what I was attempting to do, which was at times stymied by the structures which were not ready for change.

It’s been fascinating for me to read pretty much in one sitting, a book that was sitting around on my shelf probably for about the last six years, which has incredible insight into how the parable relates to church now and how it will look in the future. C. Peter Wagner’s ‘Changing Church’ has been at times really like somebody reading my mail! I’d read a similar book of his,  Churchquake, and maybe I wasn’t ready for it then but it didn’t grab me quite the same as this one. I don’t agree with everything he says of course but there is so much plain sense here I could’t stop reading way past bedtime! In the book he talks about a new Reformation that is coming to the church, in fact it’s already happening. And it’s the change from old wineskin to new.

If we look through the history of the church, God has continually been creating new wineskin after new wineskin so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when he does it in our lifetimes.

A new wineskin, a new Reformation, will of course mean massive gains for the kingdom of God while at the same time huge amounts of disruption for the status quo.  For that reason Wagner  identifies for us and  alerts us to the demonic ‘Corporate spirit of religion’ which is assigned to prevent change and maintain the status quo by using religious devices.

Its target is human minds, particularly people in positions of influence and religious structures who unconsciously allow themselves to be manipulated so that they will not hear what the Spirit is saying ( present tense) to the churches as in Rev 2:7  but instead to only focus on what has already been said in former times.

In conversation with many good friends during those times, when I sensed God was saying if I trusted him to really step out then he would  open a new door – so that I would not have to remain in the structures which had become strictures – that objections that were raised kept me within the fold –  sometimes because of a sense of loyalty, but if I’m honest, often also lots of fear.

Anyone with any experience of the way these things work would think it quite obvious that those in high positions of denominational leadership would worry about and oppose, directly or indirectly, whatever they might perceive to go against ‘unity at all costs’ or be a threat of the new doctrine of democratic ecclesiastical government and not allow the old wineskin to move into God’s new times and seasons.

But Wagner points out to us that the strongest opposition to new wine skins actually comes from representatives of the most recent old wineskin. Those with the newest incarnation of old wineskins are likely to be myopic in recognising that’s what they hold, so they stretch the old one but resist the necessary changes to gain the new, even though the old wineskins will not be able to hold the new wine, the wineskins will break and the wine will be lost.

Denominational leaders have often dutifully affirmed while at the same time skillfully domesticating charismatic renewal and its leaders, effectively turning down the gas on the fire of the Holy Spirit so that it’s safe, manageable and doesn’t burn their house down.

So I wrestled for many years with the uncomfortable thought of not staying within my denomination to be an agent of renewal but instead to step outside if necessary in order to open up a new wineskin that God might want in his grace to pour into.

Together with many of my friends however I was perhaps falling under the spell of that spirit of religion, because I wasn’t able to discern its influence or presence. If it was easy to spot, why would anyone fall for it?!

On page 51 Wagner lists the kind of things that were said to me by friends (and I said them to myself) which kept me where I should not have been for longer than I should have been as he lists the reasons why many leaders will not consider leaving the denomination to found what he calls ‘New Apostolic Networks.’

  • This is the church of my family I would betray my family heritage
  • My friends are all here
  • The denomination holds my ordination credentials
  • The denomination holds our church facilities, and we would lose them.
  • All my clergy colleagues, including my support groups, are in the denomination
  • This is my employment – how would I support my family?
  • My retirement funds are here, I would forfeit that if I left
  • My religious affiliation is part of my personal self-identity
  • I must avoid the sin of rebellion and remain loyal.

And so it was (despite the pain involved in stepping outside of a denominational framework of leadership which had so much I love and have enjoyed) that I finally and personally  came to the place of realistically giving up the notion that internal reform was possible in what too often seemed a hopelessly compromised old wineskin setting; which restricted growth, rewarded incompetence and rejected orthodoxy. I took one of the biggest risks of my life  - to move into a new wineskin.

Now please keep on pouring it out Lord!

I am still an Anglican with the credentials of having been ordained as a priest in the system, and I am very grateful that the Bishop here has been gracious to grant me permission to officiate while I’m experimenting in whole new ways of doing church. Permission without restriction is the best of both worlds. But I had to be willing to lay it all down and I was. And God is faithful.

I don’t see myself as being disloyal to or rejecting my denominational roots, though I have become disillusioned and dissatisfied with its spiritual and theological directions. Many great people and leaders I know will choose to remain (I was told over and again, ‘you have to be in it to win it’).

If that’s what the Lord is telling YOU, fantastic – but while nothing in this post should be taken to say that denominations or any particular denomination is bad or beyond redemption, I simply invite you to consider the question I grappled with so long and its implications for you – if God is choosing to pour out new wine, but you choose to remain in the old wineskin, how might you miss out – and might that be more than you stand to gain by remaining?

Feb 02 2011
Uncategorized

BILL HYBELS Leaders Q & A – afternoon session

Bell curve

BOOMING DECREASING

ACCELERATING TANKING

As the weekend service goes, so goes Willow.

There have to be

Explorers
+
Beginners
Growers
christ-centred people

Build a weekend service that is catalytic across all 4 segments.

However fast you may be climbing up the left hand side – here’s the problem: What’s AWESOME now, will get tired, some time from now. The cycle is happening faster these days! We need to re-invent ourselves, if not, we will go into decline, and tank.

You must start the NEW curve, (that’s putting you down bottom left again).

More important than where you are, is agreeing where you are.

Do people know what’s going to come this Sunday already? This is not reinvention to be cool. Do it to be spiritually catalytic to the whole spectrum of people you’re trying to reach and disciple.

ENERGY BURSTS

What to do when you don’t know what to do next about a big issue: methodically, prayerfully -
Anything biblical you want your church to become – you’re likely to do it if, you put in the focus and devote an energy burst to it.

Then -
put the name of it on a piece of paper.

Read – get some great material on the subject. Devote the next three wednesdays between 11am and 1230am and don’t bail, don’t let yourself on the hook till you’re progressing.
What people do I know who’s heart would also be engaged in this? – to lead to a course of action (new evangelism strategy? new staff member?). Who’s done this before I can lead from or model?
Plan some more planning meetings devoted to it. Name the team. Get the solutions and work them.

One of your best friends in leadership is your calendar, because YOU get to put on it what you want to see happen.
If it’s full – disappoint somebody!
Tell Fred you can’t meet with him – for a year, use that time.

Breathe energy into the right stuff.
You don’t have time for reports – send me an email.

Tell us about REVEAL and how that’s changing church.

The Reveal data was a painful pill.
He wanted to get every pastor to go through the survey to discover how effective they are being. But hardly anybody wants to do that survey. Why?
It’s easier to just do good Sundays.

Eg – how many explorers are there in the church? Should there be?
What our % of our people are beginners, growers & Christ centred people.

The power of it all is the move from being a grower into a FULLY converted, live or die Christian. You can change the world with those people, they give, serve, pray and bring their people. GOAL therefore – bring as many people as possible to THAT. (Full surrender). Saying ‘all I want between here and the grave is to hear God’s voice and obey it’ – you can’t stop that. Not afraid to die, cos they no longer count their life worthy. ‘Does our church have a need? If it’s an ongoing need, it’s in my heart to serve because all I exist for is God’s glory advancing in the world.”

Everyone else has a value proposition going on – ‘If it’ll benefit me…”

They don’t do it by merely attending your services.

The highest predictors of whether this happens are NOT number of services attended but…
Engagement with the Bible.
Prayer
Community
Servanthood (especially with the poor).

People engaged like that, it doesn’t matter about the buildings you meet in.
So – what if we leverage our services toward these kind of spiritual practices?

When they are finishing the services now, time and again he says,
“We can’t read your Bible for you this week. Will you pledge to do that.
We can’t pray your prayers for you… will you plan to do that? etc…”

On the world scene – what do you see that cheers you or breaks your heart?

There are so many pockets around the world where the Kingdom of God is advancing with power. The Acts 2 deal. Lots of great stuff. BUT

Very few congregations have figured out the twenty-something generation. Most pastors are scratching their heads over that, and unwilling to take the risks associated with trying to do that.

More and more churches are actually being led by leaders. This is encouraging! Otherwise, those who are leaders in the world come to church and shut their brains off. Their talents are not engaged.

There is nothing like the local church when the local church is working right!
You only have from this day to that day to be in the fight, day to day, advancing the purpose of God against the evil forces of this world – one shot. With all eternity to talk about it.

Feb 02 2011
Bible, leadership, Religion

BILL HYBELS at Stafford. Leadership Q & A

My notes from the morning session with this amazing leadership hero!

Where are you?

Dangerously Over-challenged

Appropriately challenged

Under Challenged

You’re BEST, just North of appropriately challenged. Just beginning to be over-challenged.

People who are sharp, leadership oriented – you’ll LOSE unless you over-challenge them.

You have some people who are RETAIN & DEVELOP at ANY COST people.
Distinguished from good staff & great staff. These are people who it would rip the heart of the organisation if they went. They are rewarded differently and TOLD them who they are. ‘You have character, competence, fit our culture. We want you to be here serving till the Lord returns.” Identify these people!

Exercise:

Here are all the people in your dept.
If there was a 50% reduction – who would you lose? If someone HAD to go – who’s your end of the line person.

Why is this person always at the end of your line?

When/Why someone has to go…
It probably didn’t start as a dismissal issue. It starts with a problem.
What do you call ‘the problem with Fred.’
What’s the issue? How do you talk about it?

We have a ‘fit concern’ with Fred…
How many categories of that are there? How many issues are there really?

Attitude?
Under-challenged?
The organisation has grown faster than he has
Character?

Of all these and such issues – what time frame do you allow each of these issues to unfold before its addressed?

How long do you give to sort out an attitude?
Can you have a bad DAY? There’s grace for that! SHORT TIME.

But you can’t have 8 in a row… we don’t want that in our culture LONG. Because scripture talks about not being a grumbler.
If you hear there’s an attitude problem in that department – it needs to be resolved this week.

If there’s a character issue… VERY SHORT TIME. Zero tolerance.
Fred tells lies.
Deal with it – straight away.
You can’t have people who lie on your staff. It’s supposed to be setting an example. Character stuff is REALLY short. ‘You need to work this out with a counsellor etc, but this is not the place for you to work while you work this out.’

? When they love God and the church but are not growing at the rate they need to be for a growing church…it’s not a try harder issue, it’s a capacity… try to deploy in another area, train him up, MEDIUM to LONG time…

What about when the chemistry doesn’t fit?
You can have forthright conversations about that kind of thing. People jumping in all the time. Disinterested body language. Bad breath.

Ken Blanchard: When you’re thinking about bringing somebody onto the team – if there isn’t a positive emotional charge when they walk in the room, don’t hire them. Why? You need to be with people who fire you up.

You will do more coaching with someone you like than someone you don’t. You’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. You will bring minute corrections to them. But if you don’t, you won’t.

What about employment protection/ law?

How do you give people feedback, along the journey?

Make your HR standards better than the law requires. Have a great performance review system!

Jack Welch: ‘The kindest form of management is the truth.’
Everyone wants to know, ‘Am I doing good?’
Until you get told you are… you wonder.

You’re doing great – I’m going to tell you where you are doing great (A, B or C), and where you can improve if you want to..

Evaluations twice a year.
If you get a C – uh-oh! It’s a concern.
2 Cs in a row… C u later! Because there is a problem we can’t resolve. If you’re happy with C work in the church – you have a problem.

Talk about..
What was achieved?
HOW was it achieved?

“You got great results;
but you shouted at too many people and didn’t build team…”

The excellence & seeker focus = what differentiated Willow in the 70s and was their ‘competitive advantage’ –

But so many other churches are now doing great things

So now – it’s about Fantastic people doing Fantastic work for a Fantastic God. So finding, developing and deploying fantastic people is where it’s all at. That’s what will make you unique, and will help you reach your unique potential.

If you’re a 5 leader (pretty good) – the only people you will be able to gather & lead are 4,3,2 & 1s.

A 9 will not follow a 5 for long. They’ll be bored & frustrated.

If your staff is made of 5s, but you have 6, 7, & 8 people – they are not going to be engaged.

BUT if you read and are mentored and stretched and become an 8… you can lead everyone except a 9. So many more will be engaged. This is the way life IS!

If you’ve only got a few staff – you need to make sure they are top end! You can’t afford someone in the lower range.

How do you deal with the fall out when people have to go/get downgraded?
Nobody enjoys such conversations.
But every foot soldier deserves competent command.
Yes, you’ll hurt their feelings but he’s hurting others…

Keep this on the playing field of faith, and spiritual gifts. Everyone’s leadership has a scale, scripture calls it ‘a measure of faith.’
You can have two Pastors, one’s ready for the bigger deal, the other is just as smart etc., but wants to go slower and keep smaller.

You have to be true to how God wired you up.

How do you get volunteers who are giving ‘good enough’ to give GREAT.

Malachi 1. ‘God’s ticked with you…’
WHY?
God sees the kind of lamb you’re giving at altar time. You’re looking for the smallest, half dead, leaning against a fence post – and offer that to him. You think God’s pleased with that?
It says God says would rather have you shut the door to the temple than bring a blemished lamb!
But there are times when I’m not singing my best to ‘How great is our god.’ But I’m not focused. I’m not giving my best I can.
When i use my spiritual gift. I know what a ‘good enough’ sermon is – and what an unblemished lamb looks like.
God has only ever given me his best. His best creation. Best to save me. Preparing the best eternity for me.
Why would I give him a blemished lamb?

If your teachers don’t teach on passages like that, people will think, ‘At least I’m bringing something.’

Be aware of what IS my best and what isn’t.

e.g. – the spiritual gift of Giving; (you have unusual satisfaction from giving to things that advance the kingdom of God). Teach on that – 8% of your people have this gift.

‘You will one day stand as accountable to God for how you steward that gift, as I will for my stewardship of my teaching gift.’

When you are doing the sound, do it the best you can, for God – make it an unblemished lamb.
Imagine what your church would be like if everyone brought an unblemished lamb

Every volunteer doing what the Spirit is whispering at their best.
Everyone singing their best.


TOOLS FOR SPIRITUAL GIFT ANALYSIS

Network. Saddleback’s SHAPE.

What’s your top three gifts?
What’s the ORDER?

Your TOP gift – using it energises you. You do it recreationally. (Evangelism)

Your middle gift = neutral (Teaching)

Third level might drain you. (Leadership)

Build your ministry around the rank order gave you.

How do you discover your gift?
DIVE IN! In the pool, swimming round, moving round, experimenting – you learn where the right gift in the right ministry with the right team – you have a ‘that’s IT’ moment. It’s built on servanthood. The church does not exist to help you to find your perfect gift this week. Wash some feet. Find the heavy end of a log and lift it.

How do you know what level of leadership you’re at (1-10?)
Is this a self awareness issue or a level of feedback? Both/and!

No matter what your number is – YOU CAN RAISE IT! – if you choose to. You read on it, you lead something, you hang around leaders better than you, you go where leadership is taught.

What to look for?

Look for INFLUENCE in a room, look for DRIVE (Energy enough to energise others). Look for INTELLIGENCE. (Relational Intelligence is what separates good from great bosses; understanding the feelings of your colleagues).

What about megachurch?
The megachurch phenomenon has screwed up Pastors.
Bill left something BIg (the company) to do something small, and it grew.
Don’t get into church work with an eye on making something BIG.
Be the BEST YOU, at the level God has for you, do what you’re called to do.
We are all called to build Acts 2 churches, locally & globally.

There are companies in the state who can show you how to get to 2000 in 36 months, by building in the right area, etc.

In certain parts of the world you can attain a scale and get wealthy too! You can be rich, visible and a christian celebrity now. That was unheard of 20 years ago. We are going to give an account to a guy who only had one robe, and a towel.

Just love people and build them up.

Eric Mataxes – Bonhoeffer. Great book.

How do you integrate a new, strong person into an established team?
Let the team be part of the process. All the leadership team has to be in on the hire, or it’s a no.
Get the people to hear their story.

How do you attract/ build a multi-cultural church?
Passionately believe that God has called you to Pastor a footprint of geography. Eg – everyone within a 20 min drive. So we want to reflect the diversity there is within that area. The church is meant to be a house o prayer for ALL nations, so you’ve not reached your redemptive potential yet.

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