Ministry Intern Orientation

When a LEADER gets better, EVERYONE gets better.

That’s why I take our internship program at Life Church so seriously and passionately.

I love investing into emerging church leaders!

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““These early Christians were ON FIRE with the conviction that they had become, through Christ, literally sons of God; they were PIONEERS of a new humanity, founders of a new Kingdom.

They still speak to us across the centuries. Perhaps if we believed what they believed, we might achieve what they achieved.””

— J.B. Phillips, 1947

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For what it’s worth, here’s the most recent orientation sessions for our Ministry Interns…

- Matthew 16:18

- "You are the KRISTOS (Christ)"

- They believed to their core that Jesus was the Son of the living God!

- Luke 15 is the HEARTBEAT of Life Church

- Matthew 28 is not a Great SUGGESTION, it's the Great COMMISSION!

- Ezekiel 11

- Dichotomists vs Trichotomists

- Acts 1 = Pray

- Acts 2 = Spirit-empowered witnesses

- Acts 2:42

- Acts 2:46 & 4:32 = High Tech + High Touch

LifeChurchMichigan.com/getinvolved

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“I prefer the way I do evangelism to the way you don’t.”

— D.L. Moody to his religious critics

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* Read 'Holy Shift' for the history and unique ministry strategy of our church

Narrow the Focus

- WHAT is the mission? Luke 15

- WHO is our mission field? The Lost, Let-Down & Looking.

- Our Vision: Reach the Lost at Any Cost!

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LIFE CYCLE of a CHURCH:

• Healthy Things Grow

• Growing Things Change

• Changing Things Challenge

• Challenging Things Drive Us Toward God

• Trusting God Leads to Obedience

• Obeying God Leads to Health

• Healthy Things Grow...

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At Life Church, we think STEPS, not PROGRAMS!

- High Tech + High Touch

- Post-COVID World = Strengthen our High Touch

- Our role is to help people take next steps from Crowd to Christ to Core!

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Lifers are our CORE.

- What is a LIFER?

A Lifer is someone living out the 4 G's of Life Church:

1) GROWTH - I am committed to the GROWTH of my church by INVITING!

2) GROUPS - Watch your faith grow through investing in GROUP relationships with people who want to learn and grow with you.

3) GIFTS - Use your spiritual GIFTS and start volunteering right away -- see the immediate difference you can make by serving on a Team.

4) GENEROSITY - See God’s promises fulfilled through your GENEROSITY and take ownership in what God is doing through this ministry.

MORE INFO: LifeChurchMichigan.com/getinvolved

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Life Church STRUCTURE

- We are structured for SUCCESS!

- Jesus is the Senior Pastor (1 Peter 5)

- Lead Pastor is the Quarterback (1 Peter 5, Titus 1, 1 Timothy 3)

- Lead Pastor is accountable to Board of Directors

- Accounting Firm is accountable to Board of Directors

- Staff are accountable to Lead Pastor (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1)

- Ministry Interns are accountable to Staff (Paul - Timothy - Titus)

- Lifers are set-up for SUCCESS every Sunday by Staff and Interns (Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12)

Process of moving Crowd to Christ to Core: Begin, Belong, Believe (think steps, not programs!)

LifeChurchMichigan.com

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"Every heart with Christ is a missionary; every heart without Christ is a mission field." (Dick Hillis, missionary to Asia)

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Dream Bigger

One December evening the cry of ‘Fire!’ echoed through Thomas Edison’s plant.  Spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room and within moments all the packing compounds, film and other flammable goods had gone up with a whoosh.

When the family couldn’t find Edison, they became concerned.
Was he safe? With all his assets going up in smoke, would his spirit be broken? He was 67, no age to begin anew.

Then they saw him in the plant yard, running toward the family.
‘Where’s Mom?’ he shouted. ‘Go get her! Tell her to get her friends!
They’ll never see a fire like this again!’

At 5:30 the next morning, when the fire was barely under control,
Thomas Edison called his employees together and announced: 
‘We’re rebuilding!’ 

One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area.
Another, to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought he added, 
‘Oh, by the way.  Anybody know where we can get some money?”

Later on he explained, ‘You can always make capital out of disaster.
We’ve just cleared out a bunch of old rubbish! 
We’ll build bigger and better on these ruins.’

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Whatever happened last year is now in the past. 

If you had a great 2020, great!  But if you had a rough 2020, it’s over and done. And if there’s anything we can learn from Edison in this New Year, it is that you do not have time to maintain past regrets.

This year, start fresh. 
Dream big. 
Stand back up and stretch your faith further.

That’s the beauty of following Christ: your vision is never too big for God! He forgives, He authors second acts, and He releases you from your past (see Romans 8:1).

Now be careful; don’t waste this fresh page. 
Don’t be obligated to ordinary. 
No one will ever follow you down the street if you’re carrying a banner that says, “Onward toward mediocrity.”

Instead, take risks.
Paint a big picture of what could be and should be.
And then do it.

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Every time the Wright Brothers would attempt to fly their plane, they would bring enough extra materials for multiple crashes.

Which means that every time they went out, 
they knew they would fail. 

They would crash and rebuild.

And crash and rebuild. 

And that's why they took off.

If you dream big and work hard, you can do anything in this world.

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3 Pastoral Thoughts on the Washington, D.C. Insurrection

Like millions of Americans, I was flabbergasted and deeply saddened January 6th by the words and behaviors flying across social media sites and news programs.

The Washington Post had a heckuva lede in telling the story:

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Every person who cherishes their democratic freedoms should feel shaken today.

This is was not democracy in action; this was an attempted coup.

I say this as a pastor and a student of history.

For what it’s worth, here are 3 Pastoral Thoughts on the Washington, D.C. Insurrection:

1. This is not our Home.

   Like Daniel, we are exiles. As C.S. Lewis once said, “We were made for Another World.”

   
   Waving Confederate flags, Jesus 2020 banners, and political signs to the cameras while forcefully desecrating a place of government cherished by millions is not how we will reach the world for Christ.
   
   ”Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.
   Blessed are those whose help is from the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the LORD their God.”

   (Psalm 146: 3 + 5)

   
   What happened on January 6th makes self-professing Christians look crazier than Mike Tyson in a Spelling Bee.
   
   Gen Z was just handed yet another pitiful example of what happens when you mix politics with religion: you get politics. You want to know why the younger generation has stopped going to church? It’s because they’ve been to a church.

   
   There is a difference between making a point and making a difference. Wednesday’s actions did neither.

2. Walk Away From Your Media Echo Chamber

With so many entertainment and news options offered by whomever we choose to follow on social media / radio / streaming news services, we now live in a time where we can self-isolate within a chosen media echo chamber.

False narratives are unhealthy (and ultimately are what led religious people to crucify Jesus!). Rhetoric is not just empty words; the Scriptures warn us over and over about how the tongues has the power of life and death.

"Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.”
(Isaiah 8:12-13)

Let’s choose our fears wisely.

The more you pursue an idol, the less it delivers and the more it demands.

Let’s choose conversation over condemnation.

Cancel Culture is not the Way of Jesus.

3. We Have More Work To Do in terms of Political Discipleship.

Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world, for if it was His servants would fight (John 18:36).

Peter struck out with sword, but Jesus said, "No more of this!" (Luke 22:49-51).

Love is:

• patient

• kind

• does not boast

• not arrogant

• not rude

• not irritable

• not resentful

• does not rejoice at wrongdoing

• bears all things

• believes the best

(1 Corinthians 13)

As a pastor, I was disappointed seeing social media responses in the Insurrection’s aftermath from Christians: conspiracy theories, leaps of logic, trumpeting freedom of speech over loss of life.

As a father of three African-American children, I cringed.

The ugliness of white privilege was emerging from within public, online posts from Christians.

The Facebook comments I was reading were coming from my own friends.

Please, please, pause and reflect before posting about any correlations with last summer’s racial tensions.

As Jesus pleaded with the Father, in your anger you know not what you are doing (posting).

Please consider taking some time to try and understand why your African-American and Muslim friends are seeing January 6th’s words and behaviors through a different lens.

We can all make room for more historical education and understanding and empathy in our lives.

Maintaining a posture of humility and teachability is a prerequisite for following Jesus.

In closing, thank you for being open to hearing my thoughts.

I am not perfect.

I am not infallible.

By the grace of God, I am who I am today.

For my part, my door is always open for conversation and understanding.

In Christ, the best is yet to come!

PHOTO ESSAY: NEW YEAR, FRESH START AT LIFE CHURCH

“Resolution One:
I will live for God.

Resolution Two:
If no one else does, I still will.”

— Jonathan Edwards

When Christians are Addicted to Outrage

In my opinion, the Best Article of the Year was this March column from Ed Stetzer in Christianity Today.

Highlights:

We’ve become addicted to outrage and it’s killing us.

We have turned outrage into an emotional version of junk food binge-eating — it’s too common, mostly unnecessary, and almost never useful. And, it doesn’t change things for the better.

Rather than seeing our world through the lens of everything that’s broken I argue we should use a lens with four main features:

First, when dealing with others we must be empathetic.

Instead of putting on our best Pharisee fatigues and going to war with people, we start with the view of Scripture, that our world is broken, lost, and in bondage. God’s solution for the world’s sin was not to be outraged but to love, sending Jesus to die for us.

Second, we respond with humility.

In Philippians 2, Paul told believers to be of the same mind as Jesus. And what is that mind?

“He humbled himself.”

The third aspect of our lens is to see people as image bearing.

We value people as created in the very image of God. Even those who hate us are entitled to being treated with dignity. Remember Jesus told us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us.

Finally, our lens includes being sacrificial.

We will not win people to Christ by shouting at them online or spending all our energy in protection mode.

…Show the love Jesus shows: compassionate, respectful, and courageous (see Matt. 9:35-38).

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Part of the reason why 2020 hurt so much was because it exposed our weakened relationships with God.

A.W. Tozer once said that we all have as much of God in our lives as we truly desire.

Together, let's make 2021 different.

Instead of being a fan of Christ, let's press in and become fully-devoted followers of Christ.

DISCOVER MORE at LifeChurchMichigan.com/bold

Reflections on the Final Sunday of 2020

“The Son of God became a man so that all men might become sons of God.” (Athanaseus)

God entered our brokenness to provide redemption. Then He audaciously invites us to join Him in reaching others through the Church.

Blown. Away.

I love my church! Our team has grown stronger, bolder and healthier through all the hiccups, hurdles and heartaches thrown at us in 2020.

Scripture is true:

“... even though lately you’ve had to put up with the grief of many trials. But these only reveal the sterling core of your faith, which is far more valuable than gold that perishes, for even gold is refined by fire. Your authentic faith will result in even more praise, glory, and honor when Jesus the Anointed One is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)

This year I’ve seen:

• how crisis reveals men’s characters

• how Satan uses gossip + fake news to destroy

• I’ve watched God provide for us during impossible situations again and again

• I’ve discovered who my true and loyal friends are

• and I’ve had the joy of watching my shy awkward teenage son blossom into a worship leader on stage!

Today was our final Sunday worship of 2020 (we always take the Sunday after Christmas OFF to thank our Lifers!).

Our church family is now living a vibrant, honest faith filled with authentic friendships and real community.

If it took the events of 2020 to help us discover true wholeness in Christ, then I would do it all over again.

Cheers.

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The Real Santa Claus

December sees not only Advent and the beginning of Christmas, but (appropriately enough) the Feast of Saint Nikolaos of Myra — aka Saint Nicholas!

Born some 280 years after Jesus in Patara, part of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Nikolaos lived under the shadow of the Roman Empire during its time of transition from persecuting the faithful to nascent Christendom.

Orphaned at a young age by wealthy parents, Nikolaos received a substantial inheritance and was raised by his uncle, the Bishop of Patara.

Eventually, Nikolaos became a bishop himself, serving in the ancient Greek city known as Myra, also located in modern-day Turkey.

Ministering to the early Christian community here, he took to wearing red clerical robes.

He is said to have encouraged a culture of generosity among the people he served, saying “The Giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving, by grace, through faith and not of ourselves.”

Many tales surround Nikolaos’ own legendary generosity, none more poignant than that of three young sisters and their impoverished father.

In the sisters’ time and culture, they were likely destined to a life of forced prostitution, with their father unable to pay proper dowries to potential suitors.

When Nikolaos learned of this, he intervened by providing an abundance of gold to each of the girls as they came of marrying age, coming under the cover of night so as not to bring shame upon the family.

Their benefactor was a mystery to them, though the second girl, hoping similar gifts would be coming her way, allegedly set her stockings out the night before her birthday, which were in turn filled with gold.

When the final sister came of marrying age, their father stayed up all night to see who this elusive gift-giver was. Nikolaos, crafty in his generosity, tossed his final bountiful gift through the chimney so as to avoid detection.

Various miracles were also attributed to Nikolaos (and his relics, or remains) in the following centuries; he was eventually recognized as a saint, and considered a patron saint of children, sailors, merchants, thieves, and pawnbrokers!

To honor him and his legacy, people around Europe in the Middle Ages exchanged gifts on the day of his death, December 6.

In time, stories of his generosity and miracles traveled the globe. Saint Nikolaos became known to many as “Saint ‘Klaus,” …aka Santa Claus.

How do we maintain a finely-tuned conscience, honor rooted in dignity, and bold, clever generosity in these trying times?

May the spirit of Christ and Nikolaos remain with you this season as you discover your own answers to this question, inspiring you to fresh expressions of radical given-ness!