Category — Communication

Whose People Are We Anyway?

Gifted evangelists absolutely blow pastors out of the water with their gifting and charisma.  Thus, they scare pastors.  Pastors don’t know what to do with an evangelist unless said evangelist is just ‘passing on through.’ 

Evangelist are generally not very welcomed as a part of a local church for long for obvious reasons.  When a ‘10+’ communicator is present next to the week-in, week-out guy, it is difficult, as they say, to follow that act. 

There is no act, obviously.  But human pettiness, jealousy rears its head invariably around gifted evangelists. 

Such a person is a huge threat, unfortunately, to maintenance-minded pastors who see those present as ‘their’ people. 

Observation:  With every church I have launched, the message has come through loud and clear from nearly every pastor locally that my presence was ‘interesting’ (how can a move to a city be ‘interesting’?).  They appreciated my ‘enthusiasm’ but there were already plenty of churches in the city. 

Translation:  ‘This is my city / my part of the city / my geography… If I hear of one person leaving to attend your place - well, you don’t want to know what will happen.’ 

Some reading this, honestly, have been on both the receiving then oddly, the giving end of such communications. 

When first in a city that is far under served by existing churches, you were clearly not welcomed (understandable) - but when you got up and running did you begin to send the exact messages to new church launchers? 

To quote Tom Cruise, who offered us one of the great lines in live TV history when on The Today Show, "Matt (Lauer), you don’t want to take me on regarding this issue.  This has to do with psychology.  I know a lot about psychology.  I have studied psychology." 

Good ‘ol Tom was right on to bring that point up.  After all, he eventually did get a certificate of graduation from high school.  Also, he regularly reads Psychology Today magazine and all of L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi novels. 

Point: In our brokenness, we cannot speak out of one side of our mouth today, and the other side a bit later and continue to think we have integrity.  Without integrity we have nothing. 

Such behavior clarifies we are in need of deep healing from God. 

Without this healing, we will continue to see a drip of evangelism instead of the flow of the river Jesus has in mind.

I recently sat on a two hour flight next to a guy who initially was a bit miffed when I asked if I could sit next to the window where his ticket read because I have great difficulty getting up and down on planes (my damaged legs and all).  This tall guy reluctantly agreed.  I am no little person myself.  As we got airborne I engaged him in conversation and the mood shifted.  He was wearing the shirt of his company.  I have been a big fan of their culture, their founder-CEO, his amazing pioneering spirit that is rare these days.  I asked him a number of burning questions I had about their inner workings.  In short, we were engaged in conversation quickly. 

As we spoke he mentioned he had recently moved to Tampa from Ohio… specifically Cincinnati.  I asked if he had ever heard of something called the Vineyard.  He said “Everyone in Cincinnati knows the VIneyard.”  I told him Janie and I got the ball rolling with all the Vineyard churches in Cincinnati a bit over twenty years ago.  He was unbelieving.  He said, “I don’t think so - nobody started the Vineyard - it has just always been there…”  I laughed!  “Well, everything has a tendency to start if you think about it…  Look up my name in Google.”   

He started to look at me differently - like I was “them” and he was “us.”  I’m used to that look.  I quelled that quickly by telling him my story - how starting at age seven when my mom very rarely drug me to a certain Lutheran church I would tell her “Please don’t take me back there - that guy who speaks is a flipping hypocrite!”  Since then, my challenge was not entirely with God and his reality, but with what turned out to be the linear, Americanization of the message of Jesus.  Now I realize that has been the problem all along…  That continues to be the problem.  That will likely be the problem for a long time to come.  We parted as friends.  We have been emailing.  He has read one of my books and we are setting up lunch that will take place soon. 

Why Toxic?
If you have taken a sociology class in college you are familiar with a helpful word that described an aspect of the brokenness of all the sons and daughters of Adam - all people groups  on the planet are ‘ethnocentric.’  That word means we all think our culture, our way of life is the best way of life.  Further, if all the rest of the world could just see things the way we do, life on the planet would be oh so much better.  If you are an American do you see how our well intentioned efforts have not been necessarily been equally received worldwide?

Also, can you see how it is virtually impossible for teachers of the scriptures in the western world (namely the U.S.) to present the scriptures without laying a lot of the U.S. - western perspective upon our teaching - impartation to those we are influencing? 

That influence is what amounts to us as leaders being toxic. 

Freedom from toxicity is an encyclopedia full of discussion.  Step one - humility.  We come before God and his word with a heart of honesty.  Our prayer (in general) follows:

Yesterday I was invited to speak at a local church that is in its early stages called Victory Community Church.  It does not have a website yet.  The primary leader, Sammy Ortiz, is a great guy – very teachable, very much a lifelong learner type.
 
There was a great spirit there.  They have been at it for two years.  They are a part of a planting group that is headed by a good friend of mine, Rice Broocks.  Rice has spoken at a number of events where I too have spoken.
 
I suspect great things lie ahead for VCC – mostly because they are so teachable and hungry to reach out to the city around them.  There is a huge connection between a teachable attitude and forward progress in the flow of God’s Spirit.  It is when people stop asking for help / stop asking questions that rigor mortis sets in – whether a “body” realizes they are dead or not.

For those reading this blog who will speak / communicate this weekend, no matter how you do what you do, no matter what you focus upon, please speak from your heart – not your head alone.

People who are present with the anticipation of walking away with a life change will not be “nourished” by information.  Those who are looking for mental nourishment scare me.  Hope they scare you as well.  I don’t understand those people.  The scriptures have a fair bit to say about such people – not much of it is encouraging in the least. 

Heart to Heart connections bring about amazing changes in other’s lives.  It really is very simple.  So simple, it confounds those who are wise in the eyes of this world.

Sorry to say goodbye to friends.

I continue to thank God that I am alive at this point in history – with email especially. I have a smart phone so I am able to access my email at all times – plus I have a high speed wireless card that goes with me everywhere. I tend to redeem my time well most of the time.

At events like the one this week I ask EVERYONE for their email addy, their snail mail addy and their mobile.

My oh my, how different things are now from just a decade ago.

The great good news is…we are in amazing contact with one another.

I call it “pinging” – connecting with 25 or 30 people a day via email – some days over 50. (Thank you Mrs. Anderson for teaching me to type at Globe High School in Arizona – one of three actually worthwhile classes those four years!)

I am working on plans for late 2008 to mid 2009  – writing and message plans. 

Monday
It is exciting to go to Google on weekends to put in key phrases to see what phrases I can gleen on from  weekend messages.

Contrary to what some might naturally think, I am stoked about others using the phrases I have coined and developed to hopefully better explain the expansion of the kingdom of God upon the planet.

My one desire is and always has been that what I give away freely - that others not make money on in their books, screen, training materials, etc.

Unfortunately, many have not heeded this as time has gone by.

Maybe this is another situation like Paul’s - “Regardless of motive, the gospel is being preached…”