Ministry...

My daily devotion has had me reading in 2 Chronicles this past week or so.  I really get a kick out of chapter 7.  My charismatic discipleship early on gets real excited about the first 3 verses.  God's glory filling the temple, fire from heaven, people falling on their faces in awe.  I love that stuff.  But it is in verse 4 that the really good stuff happens.  Ya know the stuff that you go "wow, that would have been awesome!".  I'm kidding of course.  Let me share verses 4 and 5 with you.

4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.
5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.  So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

That is a lot of animals going to the slaughter!  If PETA was around there would have been problems for sure.  Anyway, this passage has some real significance for anyone who is in ministry or feels called to the ministry.  Can you imagine having to slaughter all those animals?  The blood, guts and goo?  Your nice white robes and tassels all soaked on blood and entrails.  I think I might be sick by ox number 10,000 or so.

The point is, we love to see God pour out His glory in ways that remind us of how awesome and magnificent He is, but we forget the sacrifices and day to day offerings we are to be to Him.  Romans 12 anyone?  But serving Him becomes gooey, bloody, messing and sometimes just plain boring.  Come on be real, doesn't is get old sometimes?  I mean you are on sheep number 200, and you have 119,800 to go!  Any all you hear is more bleating of these 119,800.

Now of course, I am not talking about a very important part here.  Teamwork.  I know it wasn't only one priest doing all the work.  I bet is was every priest and every Levite in the the kingdom!  And if you read on to to verse 6, there was a band playing!  Yes, music to serve the Lord by.  In addition, the priest were excited about serving God.  Also, they did just see the God of all creation, rain fire and smoke down on the temple.  And it wasn't cause someone left the smoke machine running back stage!

Anyway, I love the encouragement I get from know that serving God is not all clean and neat.  It gets messy.  It gets loud, and dirty.  But you get to see God too.  I hope everyone gets to see God today...
happy serving my fellow Levites!

Passion pt 2

Had a great all staff meeting on Monday night at the home of Marlin and Elaine Gill. After discussing mission, vision and goals, we all gathered around Kenny Thomas prayed and licensed him as a Minister of the Gospel. Kenny was blown away. The leadership team had been watching him and grooming him, and he didn't even know it. Kenny just started revamping the kids environment at Epic and never has looked back. So we laid hands on him and prayed for his anointing to increase and it was awesome. It reminded me not to overlook the little things, because God uses the simple things to confound the wise. Kenny is passionate about God, and about kids knowing about God and His son Jesus. I will call him Pastor Kenny, he still can't believe it. I think it's awesome.

After that, we had some cake and coffee and talked at length about the road Epicchurch.tv has been on. Marlin and Elaine shared about God calling them to start a church back in 94-95 (Marlin kept reminding God that he was a Doctor not a Pastor). They shared the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows. Through it all I thought "these guys are sold out to Jesus on a level that is hard to fully understand". The reason for my reaction to their story was, they grew up in church and then did something crazy, they went against the norm and totally pursued the calling God gave them. Amidst all kind of obstacles and roadblocks, they are here today, still excited about God, still passionate about serving Jesus, and still pumped up for the vision called Epicchurch.

Then I looked across the table to Justin and Amy Potter, our Youth directors at Epic. I wanted to know their story. I wanted to know because, Justin just spent 10 or so hours of his off time from work, to help me with lighting in the auditorium. In addition to the time he and Amy put into preparing for Revolution on Wednesday nights. I thought surely he grew up in church and thought that serving was the "right thing to do",out of obligation to the system, not out of passion for the Savior. Not that all people who grew up in church are that way, I'm just stating my observations. Obviously the Gill's are not those type and they grew up in church. It is my blog, and my opinion...nanny nanny boo boo. Back to Justin. I found out he never even stepped foot in a church growing up. Not even like me, the Catholic boy, who at least heard about Jesus.
But yet he encountered the grace of God, and the love of Christ, and you can't slow him down.

So it is the Kenny Thomas', Justin Potters, IV Marsh's, Jack Alford's and Moviepastors, Elaine Gills and countless others that pour out passion in all things Kingdom of God. Passion and a desire to see lives changed by the Gospel of Christ. I love being around people like these. But I really love to be around people who don't know, or want to know Jesus more. So enough typing and off to the streets of Decatur.

Passion...

Awhile back I was contemplating the difference between the "sold out" for Jesus person and the "regular church attender". Both believe in Jesus. Both have acknowledged his Lordship in their lives. However, one is consumed with a passion for Christ that is evident in every facet of life. It goes beyond attending each Sunday. Don't get me wrong, attending each week is an awesome part of being a Christ follower. But for "sold out" Jesus person, attending church is as natural as breathing. It is consistent, sustaining, and live giving.

Regular Church Attender, RCA, has a heart of gold and may even give consistently, but there is a time when they are confronted with a deeper level of commitment to the body, that forces them to stop in there tracks so to speak. That crossroads is, serving in the church. Sold Out, SO, person is serving from day one. Get saved, wants to start doing something for God right out of the gate. And yes we all know someone who does it for the wrong motives. Time weeds those people out. I remember sitting in silence after accepting God free gift of salvation and thinking "how can I ever repay him for what he has done for me?". In fact I can't, but because he is my King, I will be a loyal subject in his Kingdom and do whatever he asks of me. And believe me, he has asked me to do some very challenging things in my time as his disciple. My point is, I never thought about not serving in the church. I made a big mistake early on in my journey and being on the worship team, I was asked to sit out while everything was worked out. It was, but in the mean time, it was killing me not to do something. So, I volunteered for everything that I could to from picking up trash to wiring mic cable. I even ran the monitor board in the new building. Which by the way was in the back and no one even knew you were there. Once my situation was resolved, I was back on the team. But I learned a lot about serving. I learned, it didn't matter how high profile the position was, or how behind the scenes it was, I loved to serve the church. By the way, it was not a moral failure as to why I asked to sit out. To long of a story to put on this page. By me a coffee one day and I'll tell you.

Fast forward 10 years. I still have that drive and determination. It has ebbed at times, but only because I was introduced to some different philosophies about serving in ministry. As with everything, there is a season. I have been a part of 2 church plants, and am now serving with one that is 2 years old. And SO person is the reason they are successful and survive. Even thrive for that matter. The more SO people the greater the movement will be.

SO person wants to mow the lawn, direct traffic, vacuum, hang lights, run sound, play music, teach a life group, and all at the same time if they could. So, how do you get RCA, to become SO? Is SO person just bent that way naturally? Maybe we, the leadership, needs to become creative in way to get RCA involved in a way that is meaningful to them. Maybe, SO has some RCA friends and doesn't know how to get them involved? Again I am just pondering these things. I think of this passage when ever I get thinking about this.

Luke 7:47 (English Standard Version)

⁴⁷Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Don't really know the answer, I just know I can see a difference. I love RCA's and SO's equally and don't pass judgment. I have seen some SO's blow out cause they get going so fast they forget to pause and "Bam" they are out. More on this later. I'm going to search my own heart and make sure I am doing all that God wants of me. Later...