Three Little Questions that Changed My Life

24 01 2012

Tuesday Re-mix - 

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

There is a very simple explanation for why so many people outside the church accuse the church of being full of hypocrites…why people who profess to be Christians often appear to talk one way, but walk an entirely different way.  It is because it is absolutely true.

I learned some time ago that knowing the Bible does not make me a better follower of Christ, and in fact, does not really change me at all.  I can attend church every Sunday, attend small group every Monday night and discuss in great depth what I believe this scripture means or that scripture means…I can listen to Christian radio all day long and can subscribe to podcasts of my favorite preachers…I can read my Bible every day…I can graduate from Seminary with advanced knowledge in Greek and Hebrew…I can do all these things, but if I am only a knower of God’s Word but do not become a doer of God’s Word, I am the biggest hypocrite of all.  And I am not changing for the better.

In The Gathering, which happens to be the class I have the privilege of teaching on Sunday mornings, we talk about each of us having a “next step” to take toward God.  No matter where we are in our faith walk, from the strongest athiest to the most mature believer, we each have a next step to take.  Scripture teaches us what that next step looks like.  The same passage of scripture may show one next step for you and another entirely different next step for me.  That is the beauty and the power of God’s Word.  But in every case, taking that “next step” is what makes us a doer of the Word and not just a knower of the Word.

So, when I study scripture, I always have three simple questions I ask myself.  My friend Dr. Ann Farris taught me these questions (in an entirely different context, but they work perfectly in this context as well).  When I am honest about my responses to them and when I really press myself for right answers to them, it always changes me.  The questions are simple: What?  So what?  Now what?

WHAT? What is God saying to me through this passage?  Not just what does this passage say, but what do I believe it is saying to me?

SO WHAT? Why does God have this Word for me?  What is it about my life that this Word is addressing?  Why do I need to hear this?

NOW WHAT? In light of how I have answered the first two questions, then what is my next step?  What do I need to do right now in order to begin to bring my life into compliance with this Word?

These questions have revolutionalized my study of scripture.  I am no longer content to sit around a table and pontificate about what this scripture is saying to some unknown, third-person.  I want to know what it is saying to me about me.  And until I can answer that, I’m not finished with this scripture.

The really interesting thing about this process is this: I’ve been studying scripture long enough now to be going through the Bible for my 4th or 5th time as a teacher, and for the umpteenth time for a lot of these scriptures.  But every time I do, these questions get answered differently, because the scripture finds me at a different place in my walk.  But no matter where it finds me, it still has a next step for me.

And when I take that step, I once again become a doer of God’s Word, and not just a knower. Oh, I’m still definitely a hypocrite in so many ways!  But the more of God’s Word I DO, the more of my hypocrisy falls away.  And that’s a good thing.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : leadership, missional, Spiritual Formation

Leaders Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down

3 11 2011

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  2 Corinthians 4:7-9

Is it just me?  Does anybody else read these words from the Apostle Paul and remember those corny Weebles ads about “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down” (with apologies to all my international friends who all think I have finally lost my marbles!)?  Weebles are those cute little Hasbro/Playskool toys with the weighted bottoms so that they literally cannot be knocked over.  They are a near-perfect illustration of this revolution we call Christianity.  No matter what the world tries to do to stamp it out, it just gets back up and keeps growing.

And it is that same “struck-down-but-not-destroyed” spirit which inhabits you and me as church leaders today.  That is the encouraging word here from Paul to us.  We are filled with this same indestructible spirit.  The question is, does it feel like that to you?  And if it does not, how can you recapture it?

It seems clear to me that this spirit of “indestructibility” which Paul talks about in verses 8-9 is very much tied to his “jars of clay” illustration in verse 7.  In other words, it is only when we lose sight of our position as flawed and fragile vessels that we begin to set ourselves up for destruction.  When we, as leaders, begin to believe people’s scouting reports on us as “amazing communicators” or “extraordinary people”, when we begin to see ourselves as being just a little bit better than most of those around us, when we tend to forget that it is only the Spirit within us which makes us any kind of leader at all, then we begin putting into place the very cancer that will eventually become our demise.  Rest assured, when your leadership rests on your human shoulders, it is doomed from the start.  When you allow yourself to be placed high on a pedestal, you only ensure a much higher fall in the end.

But when we can say (with Paul) that we are mere earthen vessels, flawed and fragile, but carrying an invaluable and indestructible Spirit given to us freely by the grace of the sovereign God for purposes of His own glory and not for ours, then we can indeed be hard-pressed but not crushed, struck down but not destroyed.  We can survive even the most painful season of grief and betrayal and failure…not because of who we are, but because of Who we have with us.

That encourages me greatly!  I hope it encourages you as well.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : Corinthians, leadership, Spiritual Formation

Your Ultimate Commendation (the One that Matters)

27 10 2011

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.  You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  2 Corinthians 3:1-3

I will be the first to admit that I have validation issues…O.K., maybe not the first to admit it, but I do get to that admission eventually. :)  What other people think of me probably matters more to me than it should…words of affirmation are definitely how I feel loved (thank you, Gary Chapman).  Add to that my (mostly-healthy) competitive nature and then stir in my very American-public-school-achievement orientation, and you have a recipe for a man who is all about constantly assessing his successes versus his failures.  It is important to me.  Maybe it is important to you too.

I measure everything.  I measure my case load and my billings at work.  I measure my workouts and my sleep hours at home.  I measure my quality time spent with my wife and with my daughters (never enough).  I measure the conferences and speaking engagements I do, the writing time I have, the churches with whom I consult, and the budget dollars in my ministry.  I measure the attendance in The Gathering, and my teaching time there.  I measure my readership, my “hits”, my “click-throughs” and my subscriptions to this blog.  I am always assessing and reassessing and measuring the success and/or failure of all these endeavors.  I’ll bet you do as well.

The question is, in ministry, what does success look like?  How is it really measured?  I know you have already read many, many articles and posts on measuring success in ministry (if not, look here for one of my own).  But will you allow me this one simple reminder, straight from the apostle Paul himself?  The clearest testimony of the effectiveness of your ministry is the lives God has changed through it.  Ultimately, it is not the buildings you have built, the budgets you have grown and/or met, the attendance you have amassed, the books you have sold, or any other such measure…except to the extent that any of those things have actually changed lives in the past and are continuing to do so now.

In ministry, everything we do, every new direction we take, every step along the way, is ultimately aimed at changing lives.  If not, then it is a step in the wrong direction.  Those stories of changed lives are the only measures that really matter.  Those testimonies are the best evidence that we are getting it right.  All the other “indicators” may well be pointing the wrong way, but if lives are still being changed, then we have success.  On the other hand, all the other indicators may well be pointing the right way, but it just does not matter unless lives are being changed.  The lives changed by your ministry are the most important commendation you can have.

When it comes to all those other “indicators”, those of us in Christian service would all do well to remember that Jesus himself started his public ministry with huge crowds following him and ended it with just a hundred (or so) followers still hanging on…and it is His Spirit who is driving your ministry.  [*gulp!*]

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : Corinthians, Everyone's a Minister, leadership, missional, Spiritual Formation, strategic planning

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