May 30

The Perfect Wrath of God

Bible, Hebrews: Supremacy of Christ, Sermons, Theological Musings No Comments »

Strange title, huh? The perfect wrath of God? For most of us, we wouldn’t mention perfect and wrath in the same sentence. Yet in God’s character, He can perfectly hold and exercise His great love and His great wrath. A couple of years ago I was at a prayer retreat reading, meditating, and praying through Colossians 1 where Paul contrasts the kingdom of darkness with the kingdom of light.

The kingdom of darkness, the kingdom controlled by Satan, who is the great enemy of God and the people of God and who longs to steal God’s glory. Therefore, Satan’s kingdom is a counterfeit kingdom. His mode of operation is the great lie and the great deception. And people buy into the lie… they believe that life can be found outside of who God really is, what He has given, and what He has done for us. Jesus has come to rescue us from the lie, deception, and counterfeit kingdom. And through His great work on the cross where He absorbed and exhausted the wrath due us, we’ve been brought back to God in the kingdom of life and light. In contrasting these two kingdoms, God’s perfect wrath began to make sense. Here’s what I wrote in my journal on that day:

Perhaps the wrath of God is passive and active. God’s wrath is passive in that He allows us and even turns us over to our desire to believe the lie.  This is what Paul says in Romans 1.  And God’s wrath is also active. God will actively judge and destroy those who actively propagate the lie, the great deception, the great counterfeit… not only because of God’s rightful kingship and “glory,” but because His glory is His presence.  And His presence is our greatest good, our greatest joy, and our greatest gift of life. Anything that robs God’s created humanity from living in His presence and experiencing the gift of Himself will be crushed and destroyed in His perfect wrath… not because He is a “narcissist” for Himself, but because He knows that our greatest hope is found in His presence, His light, His love, and His kingdom.

I know that’s intense and a bit wordy (welcome to my brain). But God’s perfect wrath is part of His perfect character because He will remove anything that stands in the way and robs us of our opportunity to see and experience Him for who He fully is… because God and His glory is our greatest good and our everlasting joy.

Think for a moment about your perception and view of God. Does it include the perfect love of God and the perfect wrath of God? Even if we can’t figure out how love and wrath work in concert with each other, in God’s great wisdom and perfection, somehow they do. Remember, your thoughts on God (i.e., your theology) are your most important thoughts because they determine everything else in your life.

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May 25

Book Review: Linchpin (Seth Godin)

Book Reviews, Leadership, Leadership Development No Comments »

With the new book Linchpin, Seth Godin (leadership and business guru and blogger extraordinaire) has delivered part treatise on the new post-industrialized economy and part call to a new kind of leadership and influence. In the hyper-competitive, technology-driven economy, we’ve added a new team to the traditional teams of management and labor.  The new third team is what Godin calls “linchpins… people who own their own means of production, who can make a difference, lead us, and connect us. The linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create, and make things happen.”  As a new economy, society, and culture emerges, linchpins are indispensable to teams and organizations.  Godin’s task is to help define the qualities of the linchpin and encourage people to become/be one. If you’re looking for an “out-of-the-box” vision for leadership as art and gift, I recommend Godin’s new book. Five key themes resonated :

1. Linchpins recognize that the world has changed.  Note: not “changing” but “has changed.” Since the industrial revolution, we’ve hired cogs to run the machine.  And unfortunately, to maximize profits in a capitalistic, industrialized system, cogs are dispensable.  If we can find cheaper cogs elsewhere (i.e., outsourcing), then we will.  Godin identifies the essence and frustration of the problem: “The working middle class is suffering. Wages are stagnant; job security is, for many people, a fading memory; and stress is skyrocketing. Nowhere to run, and apparently, nowhere to hide… Organizations [turn] employees into replaceable cogs in a vast machine.” So the linchpin recognizes this new reality and maximizes the opportunity to bring “humanity and connection and art to her organization.  She is the key player, the one who’s difficult to live without, the person you can build something around.”

2. Linchpins create art. This was the metaphor that dominated Godin’s book.  “Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.”  Everything we do has the potential of being art… creativity in the way we connect with people to bring life and value to their world… creativity in the way we lead a team to bring out the best in people… creativity in the way we solve problems (old or new) with insightful solutions that bring change to our lives and our world.  As a leader, I want my leadership to be art.

3. Linchpins don’t need maps, they make them. People who need the map, who need instructions, and who are content being told exactly what to do will never be linchpins.  Remember, in the new economy and new world, people who need maps and instructions become dispensable. So linchpins forge their own path and discover new routes to connect people and ideas to bring change and impact.  Linchpins see the world as it really is and have the discernment to develop the right map for the right moment at the right time.

4. Linchpins fight the “Resistance.” In the most challenge theme of Godin’s work, he defines the resistance (the lizard brain). The resistance runs from fear and discomfort.  The resistance tells you not to go into uncharted, chaotic territory. It wants safe. It wants the map. It wants the instructions. “The reason the resistance persists in slowing you down and prevents you from putting your heart and soul and art into your world is simple: you might fail.” Linchpins recognize the resistance and fight it at every step where it would threaten their art of leading and connecting to bring clarity and direction.

5. Linchpins give gifts. Supported by a persuasive exposition of the gift-culture (and the decline of it post-Reformation), linchpins are indispensable gift-givers.  They give their heart and their art often at no costs.  The internet provides scalability to the number of recipients who can receive and connect around their gift.  And linchpins grasp the counter-intuitive nature of giving… knowing that their leadership and art connects and builds “tribes of like-minded people.”  And as we give ourselves (and our love) to others, we become indispensable because we are connectors… connectors of ideas, people, and change.

Have you read Linchpin? If so, what were you thoughts?

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May 21

The Power of Preaching

Bible, Leadership Development, Theological Musings No Comments »

Last summer, Dallas Seminary, my Alma mater published the Dallas Connection for alumni with several articles and numerous great quotes on preaching.  Here are a few quotes about the power of preaching that deeply resonated with me:

  • “It’s not too difficult to be biblical if you don’t care about being relevant. And it’s not too difficult to be relevant if you don’t care about being biblical. But to be both biblical and relevant is the art of expository preaching” (John Stott)
  • “We might preach until our tongues rotted, till we would exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless the Holy Spirit be with the Word of God to give it the power to convert the soul” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
  • “It’s a long time since I preached a sermon that I was satisfied with. I scarcely recollect ever having done so.  You do not know, for you cannot hear my groanings when I go home, Sunday after Sunday, and wish I could learn to preach somehow or other” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
  • “If the fountain of living water does not flow from the mountain of God’s sovereign grace on Sunday morning, will not the people hew for themselves cisterns on Monday, broken cisterns that can hold no water?” (John Piper)
  • “To love to preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach is another” (Richard Cecil)
  • “Never think of giving up preaching! The angels around the throne envy you and your great work” (Alexander Whyte)
  • “Preach the Word. Don’t preach from it or about it. Preach it. Read it, explain it, illustrate it. Allow the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ, producing salvation and sanctification” (Robert Gromacki)
  • “While so many today expound on life and illustrate with Scripture, we must return to expounding on Scripture and illustrating with life” (Stephen Davey)
  • “Preaching the Word is the pastor’s highest privilege and most awesome responsibility” (Don Geiger)

And the most important one…

  • “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:2)
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May 12

3 Keys to Building Trust on Your Team

Leadership Development 2 Comments »

This weekend I’m teaching a couple of seminars on leadership at the Young Life Men’s Weekend in Malibu (Canada).  When you’re given the topic of “leadership,” how do you narrow it down into a one-hour seminar?  So I decided I would focus on “3 Keys to Building Trust on Your Team.”  Patrick Lencioni addresses this key team leadership facet in his Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  Lencioni explains that dysfunctional leaders and teams conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from each other out of fear and lack of trust.  So how do we develop trust on our teams.  I see three key areas:

1. Identity. Leadership begins here.  Who am I?  Am I defined by what I do or who I am?  This is crucial because so often we get our identity and esteem from what we do and how we do it.  For Christian leaders, our identity begins with who we are in Christ because of what He has done for us and in us.  If I have identity issues, I’m bound to have leadership issues.

2. Vulnerability. Am I willing to admit my weaknesses, struggles, and mistakes to the team?  If not, my team members won’t admit their weaknesses, struggles, or mistakes and we’ll never really go deeper or get real things done as a team.  Am I willing to be fully “human” with my team?  I am willing to be honest and vulnerable with them that I don’t have it all together… that there are times when I’m really not sure of the next step.  Not only does this reveal that I need their help (hence the need for team), but it also indicates that I’ll be there for them as their leader when they don’t have it all together and they’re really not sure of the next step forward.

3. Feedback. This is crucial in developing trust.  And feedback must go both ways.  As a leader, I must not only be willing to give feedback, but I must be willing to ask for feedback.  I must regularly ask my team, what can I do as a leader to be more effective?  Do you see areas of my leadership that thwart my effectiveness and potential?  What do I do as a leader that holds the team back from accomplishing what we’re called to do?  When we start to genuinely ask team members this question, it opens a whole new door of relationship and trust.

As Lencioni points out, developing trust is the foundation of decreasing dysfunction in our team and leadership.  What would you add to this list?  How have you developed trust with your team?

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May 05

Northshore’s New Spiritual Growth Tool

Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

For the past two years, we’ve been working on a new “tool” to help us develop areas of spiritual strength and areas of spiritual growth.  The fruit of our labor is Northshore’s new Spiritual Growth Tool. It’s a great tool to help evaluate where you’re at in your relationship with Jesus and how long you’ve been there (i.e., are you growing?).  It can help you take an honest assessment of your relationships within the community of Christ.  It will help reveal your biblical outlook.  It will show you areas of strength and growth in prayer and mission (local and global), as well as other areas of your spiritual journey with Jesus.  We really do believe that if done in an honest, transparent way, it can be a great tool for personal spiritual growth and accountability within your community.

As mentioned previously, a couple of disclaimers:

1) It’s not a perfect tool.  Some of the questions might have a weird wording or not set right with you.  That’s okay.  Press through it.  One of the reasons that it’s important to discuss the personal report with a friend or small group is that others can help validate or invalidate any of the specific areas of growth, etc.

2) It’s absolutely confidential.  No one can trace your answers back to you.  Your small group leader is not going to force you to hand over a copy of your personal report.  So be honest as you take the inventory.

Here’s a helpful video by Wayne Phillips, Northshore’s Pastor of Transformation, on the Spiritual Growth Tool

We’d appreciate your feedback on the tool and the process.  We want to continue to make the tool more effective each iteration.  Thanks for pressing into the process!

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May 02

Profiles of the Spiritually Immature & Mature

Bible, Hebrews: Supremacy of Christ, Sermons, Theological Musings 3 Comments »

This past Sunday I preached on Hebrews 5:11-6:20 in our Hebrews: the Supremacy of Christ series.  This passage is one of the most controversial theological passages in the New Testament.  The interpretive challenge centers around a possible loss of salvation.  But after studying it, praying through it, and preaching it, I think the heart of the passage points to growing in our life with Jesus move than losing our life with Jesus.  It’s an exhortation and encouragement to keep growing in our life with Jesus as we move from spiritual immaturity to spiritual maturity.

Spiritual Immaturity is marked by Impatient Pragmatism & Shallow Faith. The American Church is rife with these two characteristics.  Impatient pragmatism says, “If following Jesus doesn’t bring immediate results for me right now, I’m done with it.”  The spiritually immature tend to treat Jesus like a personal servant rather than the Lord of the Universe.  Here’s the way Michael Horton explains it in Christless Christianity:

[In the American Church] everything is measured by our happiness rather than by God’s holiness, the sense of our being sinners becomes secondary, if not offensive.  If we are good people who have lost our way but with the proper instruction and motivation can become a better person, we need only a life coach, not a redeemer.  Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups. My concern is that we are getting dangerously close to the place in everyday American church life where the Bible is mined for “relevant” quotes but is largely irrelevant on its own terms. God is used as a personal resource rather than known, worshiped, and trusted. Jesus is a coach with a good game plan for our victory rather than a Savior who has already achieved it for us. Salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God’s judgment by god himself.  And the Holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we can plug into for the power we need to be all that we can be. (compilation of quotes from pp. 15-19)

When life gets hectic and the world gets hostile, the spiritually immature tend to wither because of a shallow faith.  We have a tendency to dumb down the Christian faith, not wanting to talk about the more difficult, complex, and mysterious things of God and faith because they are difficult.  And we like it easy.  But the problem is, when life gets tough, easy doesn’t cut it.  Easy doesn’t last.  Easy and shallow faith wilts and withers.  This is the profile of the spiritually immature.

Spiritual Maturity is marked by Patient Perseverance & Deep Faith. Those who are spiritually mature persevere whatever comes their way with patience.  Here’s why: their deep faith has nurtured them and matured them to understand and know more deeply the character and nature of God.  People who are spiritually mature have a resiliency and a resolve in their life with Jesus because they believe in the gospel and promises of God. They want to understand more and more deeply who Jesus fully is and what He has done on their behalf.  They want to mine the depths of God’s Word.  And in that process of going and growing deep with Jesus, they develop deep roots that keep them from wilting and withering when the storms and droughts invariably come along.  This is the profile of the spiritually mature.

Where are you on the spiritual continuum of immaturity to maturity?  Where are those areas of your life where you seem stuck, unwilling to move forward? How can you see Jesus Christ for who He fully is, the crucified and risen Lord, and grow in your depth, love, and worship for what He has fully done on your behalf?  Keep going and keep growing in your life with Jesus as you move from spiritual immaturity to spiritual maturity.


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