Clash of anointings?

Several things have taken place lately to cause me to ponder if there could a clash of anointings, or could it be less spiritual and just be a clash of personalities?

Are there people who just rub you the wrong way? Every encounter becomes a confrontation, even when you go into it hoping this time will be different. Having spent a lot of my life as a professional salesman, I became pretty adept at the art of making friends, being passably agreeable and avoiding offending people.  It is not so much a need to be liked as it is a desire to find common ground and build bridges, and yet, despite that, there are some people who just will not allow the first brick to be built toward a bridge.

But many of them are blood-bought, redeemed children of the Living God, and we will spend eternity in His presence together. It would be wonderful if we could learn to live together here first.

Some things just resonate

On Jude2.com I posted a note about an old song by Chuck Girard, "Lay Your Burden Down."  That song stuck in my head, even though I have not heard it in years… some songs, some messages just resonate in your head and heart.  As I prepared a sermon from Matthew 11, and came to the familiar passage that says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I sat in my office with the sound of Chuck Girard's voice repeating the signature lines of that song, over and over.  I found myself wishing he was here to sing that song as an invitation at the end of that sermon.

After posting something about Chuck -- (I had not heard anything about him in a long time, and had no idea where he was) -- I was surprised to get a response from another poster on Jude2 who said "Chuck attends our church…"   That meant he was relocated to Nashville after years in California. Small world, indeed.

Chuck may never know until heaven the influence he had on people like me. I wore the grooves off of some vinyl disks when I discovered songs like…

    "Little Country Church"

    "A Love Song"

    "Don't Shoot the Wounded"

    "Rock 'N Roll Preacher"

    "Sometimes Alleluia"

    "Lay Your Burden Down"

Not only was his music authentic, and heart-felt, but it was GOOD. I was really turned off by the only other Christian musical genre available to me up until that time -- Southern Gospel was not a relevant style for me, when my secular influences were the Beatles, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago, James Brown, Poco… the whole four-guys-in-matching-tacky-suits thing was a huge turn-off to me. Here comes Chuck, Larry Norman, Keith Green, Richie Furay (speaking of Poco), Phil Keaggy, Leon Patillo, Gary S. Paxton, and a few others, and suddenly I didn't feel like I was out of sync with what God was doing; I was just out of cultural sync with the Alabama of the late 60's and early 70's.  

It is unlikely that Chuck or any of those artists will stumble across this, unless they are GOOGLING their name to see what is out there, but if they do: THANK YOU for giving me hope and talking about Jesus in a way that made me think, explore, and hunger. Thanks for expanding my horizons and making me see that there are many valid expressions of the truth of God's Word, and that God simply won't crawl into the box for any of us.

I recommend Chuck Girard's book (what on earth is the title??) that deals with music, anointing and worship. You can check it out online at http://chuck.org/newbook.html

Building a team without building an empire.

One of the strengths of my local church is the cooperative team leadership. I know a valid argument can be made for strong, one-man leadership. Some of my friends lead their churches this way. But an equally valid argument can be made, I think, for team concensus and collective leadership.

There is strong Biblical evidence supporting the position that the local church is to be led and directed by multiple elders operating as a plurality of leadership rather than by a singular pastor. In fact, while “pastor” is listed as a ministry gift [“pastor-teacher” actually] there is little scriptural support for the office of pastor as currently practiced.

These examples are included for your consideration:

• In Acts 14:23 we are told that “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders [plural] for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them [plural] to the Lord, in whom they [plural] had put their trust.” No mention here of a singular pastor.

• Titus 1:5 — Paul sent Titus to Crete to correct some problems and set up leadership. Paul writes “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders [plural] in every town, as I directed you.” No mention of a singular pastor here.

• Although we make distinctions between these terms, it is apparent that presbyters (also translated “elders”) and bishops (also translated “overseers”) were used as synonymous terms — in other words, these words refer to the same individuals. In the passage cited above, Titus 1:5, the phrase “appoint elders” is followed (verse 7) by “for a bishop must be blameless.” The transitional “for” in the English connects the two and indicates that bishops are elders/elders are bishops. (Why would Paul inject qualifications for a group not being appointed by Titus?)

• Paul calls the “elders of the church” at Ephesus together for a final meeting in Acts 20:17. In verse 28 he addresses that same group as “overseers” (or bishops). It is therefore reasonable to apply passages that refer to bishops also to elders.

• The terms elder and pastor are not, however, interchangeable. “Elder” is used to denote an office [1st Corinthians 12:7-11] held by virtue of appointment or election, while “pastor” is a spiritual gift [Ephesians 4:11] of the Holy Spirit. It is possible to be given the pastor gift and not serve as an elder; conversely, it is possible to serve in the office of elder without having
the gift of pastor.

• There are only three New Testament passages in which the verb “to pastor” appears in reference to spiritual shepherding:
(1) John 21:16 — Jesus instructs Peter to “shepherd/pastor my sheep.” It is obvious from the context that Peter is not being appointed as a singular leader, but as one of twelve apostles in multiple leadership.
(2) Acts 20:28 — the Holy Spirit tells “the elders” of the church in Ephesus that they [plural] have been made overseers “among the flock to shepherd/pastor the church of God.”
(3) 1 Peter 5:2 — “the elders [plural] who are among you” are exhorted to “shepherd/pastor the floc of God which is among you, overseeing it.”

Each of these three references clearly point to plurality, or shared leadership in the function of shepherding/pastoring.
Though speculative, it may be inferred that the firstcentury leadership model for the local church was the familiar pattern of the Jewish Synagogue. In the Jewish tradition congregations were directed by multiple elders. Further scriptures indicate that there are to be multiple elders (overseers) in each local church:
• Acts 11:30 — elders at the church at Antioch
• Acts 14:23 — Paul and Barnabas appoint “elders in every church”
• Acts 15:2, 4, 5, 22, 23 and 16:4 — elders at the church in Jerusalem
• Acts 20:17, 28 — elders/bishops at the church of Ephesus (verse 17 — “elders of the church”)
• Acts 21:18 — elders at the church in Jerusalem
• Philippians 1:1 — the church at Philippi has bishops and deacons [both plural]
• 1 Timothy 5:17 — e l d e r s at the church of Ephesus
• Titus 1:5 — Titus is to appoint elders in every town
• James 5:14 — call for “the elders of the church”
• 1 Peter 5:1-2 — “the elders among you”

Given that understanding, it is my desire to build a strong leadership team, with shared vision, a common heart-motive, and a genuine sense of cooperative eldership. I try to surround myself as much as possible with people better, smarter, and more talented than I am, and have had some level of success in doing so.

And that leads to a dichotomy.

The building of an incredible ministry team is a step toward becoming the great local church we believe we are destined to be. Walking from the vision into the realization is a mine-field process. We have examples --some right in our city-- of churches that have done so with varying degrees of success. Some are admired and respected; others resented and distrusted.

We seek to be instruments for God's use in a great fellowship, but human nature and historical precedent teach us that more empires than ministries are built. Ego, greed, competition, ambition --- these are the enemies of God's purppose.

Lord, please keeep us out of Your way as You work Your will in us, and with us and through us. Help us to decrease so that You may increase.

Branches of the family tree

Before my father died in December of 1991 he developed an interest in researching and documenting our genealogy. He spent endless hours in the local library straining to read old microfiche census records. His book and charts were entrusted to me and I have attempted to add to the branches and flesh out the knowledge base. I have interviewed some relatives, probed for names, dates, places… it has been interesting so far, though I have not made it a huge priority.

The tree so far.

If you are a relative in possession of more information, or if you have corrections for erroneous data, feel free to contact me.

In the beginning…

I think I heard that somewhere. I am really hoping to see how I might use this as a tool --- communicating with my Pastoral Staff? Podcasting sermons? Venting when I am frustrated or trying out a new idea on my inner circle of friends and trusted advisors?

It remains to be seen.