Tommy Mitchell / The Rurban Church Blog

But If Not.....

From the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego:

Daniel 3:16-18

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not , let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up."

What are the BUT IF NOT'S of your life?  These three men had been told that they would be burned alive if they did serve false gods and bow down to a golden image.  They were absolutely confident in God's power to deliver them.  However, their faithfulness to God was on full display in verse 18 - BUT IF NOT - if God's plan is to let us perish in the fire - then so be it - we will not bow down to idolatry!

What are your spiritual BUT IF NOT'S??

Are there spiritual non-negotiables for you! No matter what happens! Think about it! There should be many! The world is constantly pressing in on the church.  If you don't know your BUT IF NOT'S before the world presses in on you - you may be devoured by compromise and sin!  Think about it!

Wild Goose Chase!

WOW!  The last 5 weeks have been wonderful on Sunday nights! Our breakout groups @ 5:00 pm have had an excellent "Chase the Goose" study!  Then I have enjoyed preaching on the themes of the "Wild Goose Chase" book by Mark Batterson.

Let me share a few of my favorites over the weeks - including some from those coming the sixth session this Sunday night.  (all of these come from Wild Goose Chase and are either direct or paraphrased quotes)

1. Overcoming the Cage of Responsibility!  (My message on this one was Pursuing Your Passion.)

When God puts a passion in your heart it becomes your responsibility!

Passion plus obedience is always greater than ability minus passion and obedience!  In other words -qualifications mean little if we won't pursue the passion!

Be responsibly irresponsible!

2. Overcoming the Cage of Routine! (My message title)

Change of place + change of pace = change of perspective!

(I loved this one! Batterson reminded us of the way the early church experienced nature as they followed Christ. Absent church buildings, they worshiped in the storms, the heat, the dry dusty roads etc..  This led to our first "Wild Goose Chase" prayer meeting, announced by Facebook, on a rainy day at the church pavilion. It is different praying outside while listening to thunder and rain.  We will do more "out of the routine" gathering!)

God doesn't want to be lip-synced, He want to be worshiped.

3. Overcoming the Cage of Assumptions (My message title)

When we make God in our image, we are left with a God who can never surprise us, never overwhelm us, nor astonish us, nor transcend us.  (p. 71)

Faith is not  logical. But it isn't illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation!

4. Overcoming the Cage of Guilt! (My message title)

If you want to impact someone's life, love them when they least expect it and least deserve it.

Guilt has a shrinking effect. It shrinks our dreams. It shrinks our relationships. It shrinks our hearts. It shrinks our lives to the size of our present failures! (p. 114)

5. Overcoming the Cage of Failure! (My message title)

Failure is walking away from His plan!

How we handle the shipwrecks in our lives will determine whether our lives become a tragedy or a comedy!

When our plans fail, it enables us to consider other options.

6. Overcoming the Cage of Fear! (My message title)

We are so afraid of making the wrong decision that we make no decision.

One of the key missing ingredients in the church is guts!

As we grow, God gives us more difficult things to do!

One Word Fits All!

This morning I was just thinking about the challenges that face our church! These are not challenges that are unique or focused only on us! Every church has challenges!  What I was thinking about, is that no matter what the challenge may be - a personal challenge or a church challenge - they are all solved with one simple word - OBEDIENCE!

Not obedience to you or to me - but to the Lord!  Every person and every church is one word away from a victorious life and church!

If your church is having financial struggles (and ours is a little stressed), obey the Lord - give the tithe!

If you or your church is having relationship problems - obey the Lord - forgive, and you shall be forgiven!

If you or your church feels a lack of growth - obey the Lord - share the good news! It will bring your spirit to life and add people to the Kingdom of God!

If you or your church is not experiencing the leadership and movement of God - obey the Lord - pray without ceasing!

If you or your church is having "control" issues - obey the Lord - submit yourself unto God!

Every possible problem - from the spiritual to the material - can be met with one word - OBEDIENCE!

As the great hymn says, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus - but to trust and obey!

I Reckon Jesus Knew What He Was Doing! Do We?

Generally speaking, I think we all agree that Jesus knew what He was doing while walking on this earth! I'm pretty sure we don't have too much if any "arm-chair quarterbacking" on His methods and strategy!  Which leads to the question - do we know what we are doing?

I'm am really pumped about Sunday's upcoming message! Jesus is sending out 72 folks to engage the population!  One might note that His method of discipleship was basically two-fold - watch what I do - and - go do it!  Jesus' concept of discipleship was not weeks, months, years of study followed by ....nothing!  This tends to be our method!  Take a class on how to share your faith in Christ with another person - and then - follow through by never sharing our faith!  Then make constant statements about how we are "not ready" or "not trained enough" to do so!

Jesus had a different method! He threw His disciples into the deep end of the unsaved pool and said - "go for it!"  When we study Luke 10:1-20 this Sunday, we are going to see an ALIVE and ALERT bunch of folks!  Nothing quickens the senses and causes us to depend on Jesus more carefully than walking into unfamiliar territory!  I'm leaving out a lot (because I am preaching on this topic Sunday) but when the 72 returned, they were pumped! They were excited! And what is really neat is that Jesus was pumped right with them!  They were all men of God on that day - and they all shared in the victory and the power of God!

Jesus knew what He was doing! He was engaging men who believed in Him to immediately act on His word -to obey Him sooner than later and leave the results to Him!   We tend to take a different approach - acting only if we are almost certain that we can control the circumstances and the response!  That approach may rarely produce results, but it will do so without any power and leadership of the Spirit!  

Come to worship Sunday! We will discover the power of "Doing Kingdom Work" as we go "Forward in Faith!"

What's the Difference? (LAST ONE!)

So, will we have a good church or a great church? (I just assume that no one wants a bad church!)

We must always be moving towards a great church! The reason - if we are His, and if we are following Him, we will be a great, Christ focused church!  There are certainly things that a church can do to help it move towards greatness, but the key issue remains the heart of the child of God!

If we follow, love Him, obey Him, live out the Word of God, stay in constant communication with Him (prayer,) then when we collectively gather together, we will be a great church gathered!

Why is being a truly great church important? It is the only way we can please Him! Praise God! He is the one who transforms us, making the church truly great! 

May we become the great church He wants us to be!

What's the Difference? (just a few more nuts and bolts)

There are just a few more nuts and bolts on this topic!

One thing that I came to firmly grasp when I served as an Associational Missions Director (AMD) was this organizational truth for the church - FORM MUST BE DRIVEN BY FUNCTION!  Unfortunately, too often, we allow function to be driven by form!  Understand??? Let me explain briefly.

Most churches have a form that arose out of the post World War II era! It was much like the industrial revolution that was taking place across America.  We mastered mass production in and following World War II. The same thing happened for the church!  The denomination had a certain preferred organization and challenged every church to adopt it! (a little over simplified, but not by much)  Each church aspired to have a Sunday School, a worship service, and a standard Baptist hymnal!  Eventually, the organization extended to some form of discipleship which has evolved in name - but for many years was called Training Union! Now, if a church has it, it is called Discipleship Training!  The structure of the church was predominantly organized around committees. The smaller church had a fewer committees - the larger church had more committees.  There were nominating committees, finance committees, personnel committees, Sunday School committees, missions committees, evangelism committees, and the ever present committee on committees! These are just a few!  I have served churches fewer in number than the church I now serve that had twice as many committees! I believe the largest number I remember was 37 committees!  Anyway, you could basically go from Baptist church to Baptist church and experience the same thing!  (See Reggie McNeal for some great writing on this topic)

This was the form that was encouraged!  This form still exists in many, many Southern Baptist Churches.  The form we have will too often determine our function!  Unfortunately, this form is INSTITUTION HEAVY!  The form is designed, above all, to perpetuate the institutional life of the church!  If our goal is to have a great organization and a solid institution, then this form is for you! And somewhere along the way, we adopted the idea that we choose a form, then allow function to follow! 

But if the purpose of the church is know Christ and make Him known - to be missional in action and Kingdom oriented in focus, you will find yourself in conflict with the institutional form!  For example, I have seen churches (personal experience) that wanted to gather with other churches on a Sunday night to be a part of a missions and evangelism emphasis but could not do it! Why? They had to have a business meeting to discuss it. You see, the Constitution and By-laws said that the church would meet on Sunday mornings at 11:00 am for worship and Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm for evening worship! After much discussion, they agreed they could not meet with the other churches! Why? The constitution settled the matter for them! They had to meet at 6:30 pm - for worship at their geographic location. Their constitution would not allow them to participate in a larger, kingdom emphasis - even for one night!  You may not believe that could actually happen - but any pastor reading this has no doubt! Their form dictated their function!  The FORM has been allowed to dictate FUNCTION in Baptist churches far too long!

Yet, we serve a God who is very mobile, spontaneous, and who desires to lead His people on mission throughout the world.  Most of our church FORMS will simply not allow that to happen!

I love to dream about the possibilities of the church really being the church - of committing to the function of knowing Christ and making Him known - and allowing that purpose to create our FORM!  Our form should always be adjusting to our function! This is a foreign concept to people who do not follow Christ in their personal relationship!  Failing to adopt the mission of God before finding the form that best suits the mission is what keeps good churches from becoming great churches.

If a church is to really transition from being a good church to becoming a great, Christ-focused church, it must have a biblical function - and then develop whatever forms and structures are needed to fulfill its mission!  And those forms and structures must not become set in stone - they need to provide enough structure to provide for the mission - but not be so rigid as to prevent new methods and approaches.

What's the Difference? Part 3 (Can You Transition from a Good Church to a Great Church?

This is a gnawing question? Can you transition from a bad church to a good, Christ focused church? Let's put it this way! Your chances of being struck by lightning are far greater!

Can you transition from a good church to a great Christ focused church? YES!  Is it likely? Not really! But is it more possible than going from bad to good? YES!   How long does it take?  Therein lies the problem!

Most self-study type programs that are designed to "revitalize the church" tend to focus on bringing new energy to a good church! Or, they just identify the problems and shortcomings of the good church!  Transition from a good church to a great church requires more than a study! Remember, programs can't transform a church!

In my opinion, after studying the church for years, you really don't want to "revitalize" in the first place! We don't need that! What we need is a total rebirth - an extreme makeover - TRANSFORMATION!  These only happen by an action of the Holy Spirit!

People in the good church will not achieve greatness just by a willingness to embrace changes.  New music, new styles, new media, new dress - all of these are the mistaken "magic bullets" of moving a church from being good to being great!  Indeed, in many a good church, new music, new styles, new media, and new dress may split the church into many unhappy parts! 

The transition that must take place is in the hearts of people!  People must be changed by the Holy Spirit of God! This is why it is difficult to "transition" or "transform" an existing good church into a great church! The pull of the institution is strong beyond belief!  It is hard to break out of an institutional model of church and turn to a Kingdom model of church!  We have so incorporated "democratic" values into the church that we give as much weight to the constitution and by-laws as we do the scriptures! 

For example - suggest to the church that some other form of decision making be implemented other than having business meetings, and you will think that you have suggested the overthrow of the country!  Yet, in most churches, the worst moments in their history have come in business meetings. Most great churches have found it better to trust in leadership for everyday decisions - whether it be staff decisions, elder decisions, or some streamlined team approach - like having an admin team, a strategy team, and a missions team making decisions.  Again, just suggesting this in a good church can lead to a bad church moment.

It is not impossible to transition from being a good church to being a great Christ focused church - but here is the big problem! People are perishing all around us! By the time you transition a church, if in fact you are able to do so, to being a great church, it is likely that seven to ten years have gone by - or more -  and a lot of battles! Many people will remain unreached for Christ during that time. Do we have the time? Is it good stewardship of the time? These are not questions that have easy answers. I suspect that in some good churches the answer is no while in others it is yes!  And I suspect that the difference is in one factor alone - the willingness to allow God-sized, Spirit directed transformation of the church body and church structure!

The only thing that can shorten the transformation dramatically is a great move of the Holy Spirit that people are willing to trust and obey!  This is why so many pastors are leaving the existing "good" churches and are planting new work! That way, the new work is begun with a missional DNA - it has the opportunity to be a great Christ focused church following God from the beginning.

I have a good friend who started such a "great" church several years ago!  He has worked very hard and so has his staff! He has told me on several occasions that one enduring challenge he faces are the people who come from other churches to the one he planted, and seem determined to move a great church to once again become a good church! Most of them get upset over not getting to vote on anything!  (and just so you know - I do believe you can have a great church and still have business sessions!)

TOMORROW - TRANSITION "HOW TO's"

What's The Difference? Part Two (How do you do it?)

In the previous post, we examined three kinds of churches. At the most basic level, they were:

A bad church, a good church, and a great church!  I concluded with the question, "How does a church become a "Christ-focused" church?  Here we go!

I heard one country preacher describe in plain language why so many ministers burn out! He said, "It's because they spend so much time trying to get lost people to act like saved people!"  This observation starts us on the path towards an answer to being Christ focused!

What we normally do in trying to become a great church is to start with the symptoms and not the cause! We will try new programs! These programs are designed to get us to do things that we don't have the heart for doing!  We will have some type of "read the Bible" emphasis! Or we will have a "tithing and stewardship" emphasis!  Or we will have another "soul-winning" training! Or we will have another "attendance campaign!"  Or -well -whatever the program of the day happens to be!

Do you realize the futility of all these things? Just take the "tithing emphasis" for an example! Do you buy your children stuff? I mean, across the board! Do you buy them clothes? Yes! Do you buy them something for their birthday? Yep! Generally, in most loving homes, our tendency may even be to lavish too much on them! Do you provide food for them? Yep! Do you take them to the doctor and pay the bill? Yep! Do you give them money for the ball-game? Yep!  Why? And, do you have to have a "reminder" course on it? Does someone have to have "Prove the Provision" day with you to convince you to provide shelter, clothing and food? NOPE! Do you buy things for your husband / wife?  Do you have to have a course on "buy the birthday" present? Nope! The only people that I know who consistently fail in providing both necessities and gifts to their families are those who don't love them properly! 

Now, back to the church! We will not become a Christ-focused church by having all these "programs" to improve our Christian participation in the Kingdom! The reason - they are only dealing with symptoms. The focus problem is not in the head - it is in the heart!  If you are industrious enough, get online and find the testimony of Johnny Hunt about his first days at First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA!  I don't have space and time to tell it here - but not too terribly long after he began there, squabbling and problems were the dominant reality. Until something happened! The Lord SAVED the church! A good number of the membership and quite a few of the deacons got saved in a glorious move of God! The church has been Christ-focused since! And, there has been no end to the powerful things that God has done through them.

The number one way to become Christ-focused is really the only way! People must have a life-changing, soul soaring, transformational salvation experience in Christ!  Now, the outward emotional expression of salvation may certainly vary from person to person - but there will be a consistency in real salvation - there will be REAL change, REAL transformation, and REAL change of focus!  THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THIS!  The GREAT church, the one that doesn't care about "my way," "my deal," "my opinion,"  - the GREAT church that doesn't spend endless hours protecting turf, taking votes, taking sides, whispering about others - the GREAT church that does not do these things but rather focuses on Christ does so for only one reason! They have been forgiven much - so they love much! They have counted everything as loss for the cause of Christ Jesus!

It is impossible to be a great church and be predominantly filled with unsaved folks! It is impossible to be a great church without a heart that has been born from above! It impossible!  Programs just treat symptoms. They actually provide a temporary delay in dealing with the real issues of the heart!  Too many churches are trying be Christ focused by programming a change! But the programs ALWAYS fail! Why? The heart must be changed. When our heart is His, we don't need a program to remind us to give! We do so because we love Him! We don't need a program to gather with brothers and sisters in Christ. We will do so because we love Him!  We won't need a program to figure out that we need to pray - we will do so because we love Him! 

So, do you want to be a bad church? Probably not! Most people don't say so anyway! Do you want to be a good church? More folks than you might think are probably satisfied with that!  Do you want to be a great church? There is only one way - surrender your heart to Him! Then you will be a Christ focused church!

Tomorrow! Can you transition a church to a great church??

What's the Difference?

What is the difference between a bad church, a good church, and a great church?

What is the difference between a church that gives God a bad name, a church that occasionally gives God a good name, and a church where God's name is exalted?

What is the difference between a church consumed with petty squabbles, a church that occasionally squabbles, and a church that puts everything to God in prayer?

What is the difference between a church that is destined to the dung heap, a church whose destiny could really go in either direction, and a church that is soaring under God's leadership?

What is the difference between a church that can only say bad things about each other, one that says good things about God and some bad things about each other, and the church whose conversation and life is reaching the world around them?

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE????????

FOCUS!! It is focus! 

The first church in each of these questions is focused PURELY on self! All they can ever think of is self! Everything in their vocabulary begin with "ME" or "MY!"  The building is "my building!" The parking space is "my parking space!" And forget God's will - everything is "my opinion" or what "I think!" The meanest people on earth are in this kind of church! God has long since removed His Spirit from them! They are dead men walking!

The second church in each of these questions is where an awful lot of churches reside! They are looking through binoculars that have the two sight tubes separated. Their focus is often disjointed. Instead of magnifying Jesus, they have one focused on God and the other one moving around. Occasionally they get it together and for a time the focus is on Jesus. But then they get to looking around, someone makes them mad, or somebody doesn't get their way, or someone just gets their focus off Christ, and the gains that have been made in Christ are set back, halted, or trashed until silly season is over.  It is so frustrating in that environment - because people get so close to breaking through at times for God's glory - but then, because their focus becomes self-interested, they are willing to trash, disrupt, even destroy regardless of the impact to others. The emotional ups and downs in this kind of church are devastating in the long term. Burnout is common because people work so hard! They have seen and tasted of the glory of God, so they work to move the church in that direction. They know what the church is capable of becoming. But they get set back so often, they wear out trying.

The third church in each of these questions actually does exist. We write about them, we use them for illustrations, we rejoice in them - and praise God we have them or the Kingdom of God would never be spread to ALL THE NATIONS!  These churches are focused like a laser beam on God and His Kingdom. These churches individually do more for the Kingdom than 100 of the second group. And they individually do more than all the first group!  Why? They have decided to follow Jesus. When they are tempted to claim their own way, exercise their own will, or disrupt the fellowship, one of two things happen. They, by experience, pray and seek God's truth about their behavior and repent and decide to follow God rather than self-interest.  The other thing happens if they decide to disrupt. Godly people who only fear God confront them with their behavior and give them a chance to repent, or be disciplined for the sake of the Kingdom.  The really great church has long since decided that devotion to God and doing whatever He wants is far more important than anything else.  The spread of the Kingdom, the salvation of souls, the transformation of lives, the evident power of the Holy Spirit on display, the commitment to excellence, the devotion to the many small and great jobs that must be accomplished, the total desire that no person gets the glory or credit except for God - all these things are the reality in the Christ-focused church!

This leads to one more question which I will answer tomorrow.  How do you become the third kind of church? How does a church become Christ-focused?  Tomorrow!

Just Stuff!

Just random stuff each and every Saturday!

1. Missing in Action - It is an interesting thing how many people in church go AWOL from time to time! They will be there working and participating - then - suddenly - you realize they are missing! We start asking around! Have they been sick? Don't think so! Been on vacation? No, they are at work! Had something happen? Not that we know of!  Finally you are able to track them down!  No problems, we just had this or that one Sunday! Then the next we just felt like sleeping in! Then the next we decided to run to the beach for a couple of days! Then the next one - we just got out of the habit!  After observing this type of deal for 30+ years I have found that there is only one answer and observation rolled into one that solves this! Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also! Matthew 6:21

2. The Rain - Today is Saturday and it is raining! Since I have been up I see that a softball team cookout scheduled for this afternoon has been postponed! A roadblock for the fire department to collect money for the scholarship fund has been canceled.  Understand, that is fine! But I can't help but smile about it after reading the Wild Goose Chase!  I have been looking at weather differently lately!  The Lord, the disciples, and the early church experienced "church" and the Christian experience in the elements! They climbed mountains, had theological studies out on the water, in the rain, even in the storm!  They got hot and thirsty and had to send for water!  They prayed in the dark before morning! They spent entire evenings out in villages healing the sick!  Again - I understand the cancellations today- but I have been thinking about how neat it would be to schedule a prayer time under the pavilion in the rain, even a bit of a storm! How much would it make us "alive" and "aware" of our surroundings?  Instead of "canceled because of rain" how about "scheduled because of rain?" Chase the Goose!

3. Grandchildren - Yesterday was National Grandparents Day! I didn't really realize that until I was driving down the highway yesterday evening listening to the news. Well, it would have been that with or without a day for it - we were on the way to see RILEY!  We stayed from 6:00 pm until 10:30 pm playing, talking baby talking, bouncing, napping, hugging, loving, kissing, feeding, changing diapers!  Ain't life grand???????  She's beautiful!

4. Building a Foundation - A lot of work was done fine tuning the foundation at the church yesterday! They spent a lot of time shaping the ground around the foundation to get some drainage problems addressed that had been created in the foundation building process. They got the foundation ready to dig for plumbing. They had all the batter boards up!  It would help about now if the rain cleared out for a couple of weeks!!!!

5. Who is well? It has been amazing that so many people have been or are sick! Whatever the "crud" is - it is a real doozy!  The rest have flu, swine flu, or the nastiest - stomach flu!!!!

6. Power Bills - Ok, now my curiosity is up! Did they just significantly raise rates? When my power bill went up a couple of months ago by $75.00 to $220.00, I was not surprised.  We had 100 degree days, and I was watering my yard, thus running my pump.  The next month it was around $198.00. Still not too surprising because it was still hot, and I was running my pump some for watering.  This month, it is $188! Now that one puzzles me! We have one less person here, we run the thermostat up some during the day, we have not watered the yard at all, and yet it only fell by $10.00.  Before the big "jump" a few months ago, it ran about $150.00 every month!  I guess I need to compare bills to look at the rates!  Andrea and I had a meeting - we decided to go ahead and pay it!!!! :)

7. Perry Mason! Using Playon, a media streaming software, I am able watch original episodes of Perry Mason. I watched one yesterday! It really was a good "mystery" crime show! One of the first things I noticed - everyone smokes!  It was the "cool" thing back then!  Also, if you want to be charged with murder, just hire Perry Mason as your attorney. That makes being charged a sure thing!