Who Are You Working With?
Build up the Body.
We all have talents and gift sets. Some of us are writers, artists, bloggers, teachers, car repair workers, landscapers, cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers.
What are we doing to help others with our talent?
I am writing this post as I talk to a guy about blogging. He is starting his own blog and I am (hopefully) being helpful in answering some questions. We talked a little about a logo and I was thinking about how this can create a “spec art” disaster. Spec art is when companies take advantage of an artist by making them work for free. I don’t want to get into that argument, but I must say, some spec artist stuff is over blown. It can be downright selfish. And you can quote me.
Because our work should be unto the Lord.
Everything we do is because God gave us the talent to do so. It is by His Spirit we can do anything at all. One of the biggest shames is to NOT use our talent to glorify and Honor God. I am not saying we should do everything for free, etc, but we should be willing to help our brothers and sisters. A good example is a guy at my church. He is an electronics genius. The dude can ground your home wiring, set up an HD surround sound system, run cables through your walls, and set up sound boards. He talks about the spectrum-prism-something-or-others like its his second language. He will then come to your house and hook up your stuff for free. He set up a sound system, projectors, and re-did a TON of the electric in our old church building out of the kindness of his heart and on a shoe string budget.
It does not end there.
He is teaching about 15 guys to do the same thing. He knows it is important to use the gifts God gave him to help the church in its mission to spread the Gospel. It is not about us, but about Him and His glory.
What are you doing? Who are you investing in and training? Who are you working with?
Who is working with you?
While we all have something to give, we all have something to learn as well. What are you learning and from who?
-Don-
Santa Clause
Ho, Ho, Ho!
I grew up in a fundamentalist environment. At least for a few of years. From the time I was five until about 11, there was no rock music allowed in our house (Christian or otherwise), King James Bibles galore, Halloween was void of certain decorations, and the Easter Bunny, Leprechauns, and Santa Clause were banished. Especially Santa and Rudolf the Pagan Reindeer.
St. Nick got a bad rap.
St. Nicholas of Myra was the man. His original intent was to be a monk and live a life in solitude. After having a dream where Jesus gave him a copy of the Gospel and told him to “live among the people” Nicholas entered public ministry. His name is derived from nike (meaning victor) and laos (meaning people) which literally means “victory for the people.” (Thank you Wikipedia!)
He was a 4th century Greek Christian who was very generous to the poor. One story tells of a time he saved three Christian women from being sold into sex-slavery. Others, weirder, stories exist. During a famine, a butcher lured three young boys into his house, chopped them up, and prepared to sell them as ham. St. Nick came to the rescue and prayed for the boys who were resurrected on the spot (I am assuming they miraculously got put back together). Another story still tells of a time when three men where wrongfully accused of a crime and St. Nicolas grabbed the executioners sword and ordered the men free from their bonds.
But here is my favorite story about St. Nicolas:
While attending the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea, the heretic Arius claimed Christ was a created being and not an eternal being. St. Nicolas was so infuriated he repeatedly slapped Arius. Because of his actions, he lost his position as Bishop. However, several church fathers had a dream that night of Nicholas being reinstated by Jesus himself and decided to reinstate him the next day.
Knowing is half the battle.
December 6th is a day we can honor St. Nicolas (Santa Clause, Father Christmas, etc.). I think it is a wrong to allow the pop culture myths to reign over what we know about Santa and for Christians to ignore him completely. Yes, there is plenty not to like (namely the works-based-righteousness people teach in Nicholas’ name). But there is so much to like. We have the opportunity to teach our children on multiple levels. We can show them an example of one who gives generously to the poor, a man who rescued innocent people using his own funds and courage. We can teach of a man who was fiercely obedient to Christ (to the point of slapping the “s-word” out of someone).
What do we do with modern Santa?
I think it is funny we can read The Chronicles of Narnia, love Lord of the Rings, and watch the most ridiculous TV shows, but we get our undies in a bunch over Santa. I believe we can tell the tales, even the fantastic parts (delivering toys to all the kids, going down chimneys, and yes, even the Sears created story of Rudolf), to our children. I believe we can teach them about the real saint as well. We can tell them the error in thinking only “good little boys and girls” get toys. We can really utilize St. Nick as a pedagogical device (I just learned the word pedagogical and could not wait to use it). There is so much we could teach our kids from Santa.
You know, besides how to avoid him in December.
-Don-
School, or an Audi?
I love me some German engineering.
I have hinted before at my displeasure for the cost of education. This is a catch 22 with me. I believe pastors and elders should be well educated. It is scary to think there are people in our pulpits across America who have never studied under anyone or have never been held accountable to anyone. Equally as scary is, there are those who have and who are still teaching bad doctrine and heresy.
Some churches still look for that Masters in Theology….for their youth pastors.
I have seen many listings for pastors and part timers with insane qualifications. My favorite to pick on was a posting I saw for a youth pastor which asked for a Masters degree, several years of experience, married, and willing to work 30 hours a week with no benefits and making about $25,000 a year. Yea. That supports a family that just paid almost $70,000 for an education.
What if the church trained its own?
What if, instead of having “Bible Colleges” where students mortgage their futures, we had churches that properly trained their people to take the reigns and pass the torch?
****SIDE RANT****
What the heck is up with Bible Colleges being so expensive and then willingly accepting money from banks as student loans? Granted, I paid for college this way (and now $300 a month afterward for the next 7-10 years), but I have found it to be rather un-biblical. The act of taking out a loan forces a person into a financial slavery. How can a Bible college support fiscal irresponsibility among its current and potential students? I understand for accreditation they may have to accept all forms of government aide, but they should AT LEAST discourage it and AT MOST, lower their stinkin prices! Nothing makes you feel better than looking at ugly plastic flower hangers and stupid little concrete benches used solely for decoration after you have signed off on another $4500 loan.
****End SIDE RANT****
I believe it is time for churches to start training their congregations to be pastors, elders, deacons, missionaries, and ministry entrepreneurs. This may cost those who are being educated some financial burden, but it should not be in the tens-of-thousands of dollars. In turn, we should be willing to hire and advance those we have trained.
We have to be willing to turn in our “pedigree” to be servants
I stole the “pedigree” thing from Dave Ramsey. Some people just want the degree because they want others to know where they learned. This helps them get jobs and shows them to be better candidates. If we could facilitate a paradigm shift to church-lead training in ministry and the Scriptures, the congregants would have to be willing to shift as well.
My prayer for our church plant…
I want to be a church which aids people in education for the purpose of ministry. I would like to offer classes where people can learn the Scriptures, doctrine and theology at a professional level. I would love to offer scholarships for those who felt called to higher education.
I would love to remove the myth that we need to be in six figures of debt to effectively spread the Kingdom.
Follow-up questions
Have you paid for higher education for ministry? Do you feel paying that much was “worth it” and would you do it again the same way? How would you like to see the church help people get education?
Leave it in the comments.
-Don-
