Maturity And Experience

 "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil." Hebrews 5:14

Over the years I have heard some Fellowship kids testify by saying how they were raised in a Christian home and how they knew right from wrong. This always sounded strange to me. I know these kids do not have a radical conversion experience like someone whose life was wrecked by drugs and alcohol. But how can a young person know a weighty subject like the difference between good and evil? The apostle in our verse says that this kind of understanding only comes with experience and maturity to those whose senses have been trained by years of practice to understand things that even Adam and Eve did not understand.

Our Fellowship dismisses older folks who are no longer on the front lines of evangelism and who are not candidates for being sent out. We do what we do very well. We do not know what to do with people who are still here, waiting to leave.

I know things today that I did not even think about in years gone by. I did not read these things in a book, I lived them out in daily living. I have forgotten more than some folks will ever know.

When your senses have acquired a taste for solid food, baby food is uneatable.

Blame, Or Love?

 Here's a thought. If a guy is pastoring a church of 60 people and is not growing we tend to blame the man. But what if that man pastors a church of 600 people. Do we dare look beyond his success and blame him for the lack of numerical growth?

Maybe we need to not blame anyone. Maybe we need to appreciate more and criticize less? Maybe we need to love one another no matter how big or small we may be?

I vote for more love all around our Fellowship.

Innovation Or Maintenance?

 Most of our Fellowship churches follow a similar trajectory. An initial burst of growth followed in time by a long period of plateaued maintenance. Prescott grew to 300 very fast, then to 600 at a much slower pace, and has not grown significantly in many years. It doesn't seem to matter if a church is 90 or 900 members, every church levels off and experiences no more explosive new convert growth. Why is this?

I recently read that most innovation comes from people with the least experience. They do not know what works or does not work yet. They have ideas that more experienced people can find dozens of reasons why it can't work and not one reason to try it. 

When I was sent out, pastor Mitchell told me to find out what God is doing, and do that. We interpret that to mean, go out and copy what you have seen us do. Do what we do and you will see what we see. Except, only in a very few instances does that work. What if God is doing something different where you are than what the mother church does?

A pastor, to get started, must take chances and do some unorthodox things to make it happen. Experienced pastors have too much to lose to risk it all on one throw of the spiritual dice. The experienced leader has too many responsibilities to try anything new. His responsibilities are to maintain what he has at all costs. God help the pastor who tries to change what the church is accustomed to!

Pastor Mitchell set the example of leaving his church to pastor someplace else. But while he was in Australia the first time the man he selected to pastor the Prescott church got into serious trouble for trying new things or doing things different. The man he chose was trying to hide spending so that it would not show up on the church's accounts. Not for illegal activities, but to do something different.

We need to return to the days that, when we send couples out, we give them the freedom to do what God is doing where we send them. Otherwise, we are just a Bible college teaching men to toe the company line.

The Changes of Life

 The death of my wife, after 40 years of marriage, was one of the hardest things I have ever suffered through. My whole world was torn apart. My faith was shaken. And I have never felt so lonely in all of my life.

The loneliness of grief is a real thing. The absence of a needed relationship is tangible. It became clear to me during this time that no person could help me or minister to me in any meaningful way. This was something that only God and time could heal.

But as I look back over that troubling time, I wonder how little it would have taken to keep me where I was. Most of us need so little to keep us from leaving or fading away. Trauma alone is not enough to sever long standing relationships. It does take something though, and it would seem that even a little encouragement might have tipped the scales in favor of me not leaving.

I know that my reasons for leaving were legitimate and compelling and those issues are still there. The suffocating memories of a life that no longer was available to me. The constant irritant of the sights and sounds of a place that had died to me. The fog of memories of places and people we used to know and reference points that no one but Kathy would appreciate. I had to leave.

I am grateful to be where I am today. I have new friends to replace the old ones. I have new hope to replace the old hope. I have opportunity here that I had lost there. And I have a few old friends there who I keep in touch with.

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. 

Staying By The Stuff

 My friend in the Prescott church sent me some pictures of those people who have been in the Prescott church for a long time. I counted 49 who have been there since 1978, 56 who have been there since 1981, and 69 who have been there since 1985. These are the faithful people who have stayed saved, stayed faithful, and who have supported the vision of the Prescott church and pastor Wayman Mitchell for a long time. These are those who were never sent out, or who returned after being sent out, or who just stayed by the stuff all of these years.

We could not be in those pictures since we were sent out in 1977 and we returned to Prescott in 1994. 

These are those whose reward is great in Eternity.

Giving People A Reason To Stay

 Many years ago I read a book about the Long march of the communists under Mao. One thing that stood out to me when I read was how the Chinese communists treated the sick and wounded soldiers. They left them behind and abandoned them. This troubled me. This showed how little the Chinese communists valued human life.

In our Fellowship our focus is on soul winning. We aim to reach the lost with the Gospel. We have been successful in doing this for a long time. But my fear is that we become like the communists in the way we treat those who are not now or are no longer on the front lines.

When it became obvious that I was not making it as a pastor, pastor Mitchell did not abandon me or leave me behind. He bailed me out and helped me come home. I am still saved today because of the way pastor Wayman Mitchell ministered to me even in failure.

We can get so concerned with how many are coming to our services or our outreaches that we do not notice those who quietly slip away out the back door. We can get so absorbed with our families that we do not notice those who are alone and lonely and who could easily slip away unnoticed.

I will begin to try to be aware of people beyond my circle of family and friends to see if I can give someone a reason to stay in church.

My New Ministry

 For a while now I have been wondering what to do and how I could be useful to this church. I went from, everything that I could do here I did for years in Prescott, to what do I know how to do that I could do here. So I made myself available to be an usher.

I rarely ushered in church in Prescott. I ushered for years in Prescott conference. I know what to do and I understand how to do it.

So as of tonight I am an usher for the Door in San Antonio. I finally have a way to serve this church that has done so much for me in the past three years.

A Church In Balance

 Pastor Rubi talked about the clergy mentality in Sunday school recently. This is the idea that only a select and chosen few can actually do anything for God. We talked about the big name healing evangelists in the 1930s, 40s, and beyond in America. God's man of faith and power they called themselves. They had a distinct gifting of ministry. They healed the sick. They preached the Gospel to the poor. But they made no disciples and once they were gone their influence went with them. This can go way back to when only clergy could minister and common people could only watch.

There is a truth concerning headship in the Bible. We have pastors and leaders in our Fellowship who do specific things that only they are called by Christ to do. Pastors preach on Sunday morning. Pastors counsel and pray for everyone. Pastors set the tone of the local church and give direction to the assembly. They have their job to fulfill.

We as the common folks are like the Levites. We do the day to day things that keep a local church working. We serve and minister at a different level. We pray and give and support the vision of our pastor. 

"Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business." Acts 6:2-3

So the church reaches its full potential and expression when everyone does their job and no one does anything beyond their calling. We expect our pastors to minister to us, they can expect us to do everything else.

Technology In Prophecy?

 I used to think that technology would play a big part in the end time events in Revelation. But as I read the Bible it seems clear that, while there will be supernatural events happening, none of them could be construed to be the result of technology. For instance, the mark of the beast. I thought this could be an implant. But the Bible says it is an actual mark on you skin, like a tattoo, not a chip under your skin. I thought that the beast whose deadly wound was healed could be AI. But while it will be deceptive, it will be an actual creature, not a hologram.

There is enough to be aware of in prophecy without getting sidetracked by modern technology.

Tongues and What Else Will Cease?

 "Love never fails. But, whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away." 1 Corinthians 13:8

Unbelievers use this verse as their reason why speaking in tongues is not a valid Christian experience. They believe that all supernatural actions and expressions of the Holy Spirit ended with the death of the last original apostle. No more Divine healing, no more baptism in the Holy Spirit, etc.

If this is true, what else ended with the death of the apostles? The verse says prophecies will fail. That all of their talk about the Rapture and the end of time is unreliable and may not come to pass. Knowledge will vanish away, so why go to university or seek to learn anything since there is no guarantee it will be of any worth in the future.

It is dangerous to pick out the parts of the Bible that we don't understand or agree with.

Just As We Are

 I have heard more than one pastor use the statement from the pulpit; that most churches are full of good people doing nothing. Is this true?

1. I am there, in the service, present and waiting to hear what you have to say. I join in worship. I support in prayer and giving. I agree with the vision and I do not resist the moving of the Holy Spirit. That is something.

2. If a church is inactive and uninspired, the blame is on the pastor, not the people. Maybe the pastor has not said anything to inspire us. Maybe his words and his actions do not agree. Maybe the pastor is not sure of what we can do, so he challenges us to do what we can't do, and then gets frustrated when we don't do that.

3. I wonder if the unrealistic expectations of leaders is rooted in their lack of appreciation for their parishioners. Marriages deal with unrealistic expectations all the time. It doesn't work in marriage. It doesn't work in church. Marriage gets better when the couple begins to appreciate their spouse as they are and stops expecting them to be what they will never be. I wonder if the same thing would help a local church.

To conclude, I think the problem is unrealistic expectations, uninspiring preaching, and an unappreciative attitude. I think that these things coming from the pulpit drives a wedge between the pulpit and the pew. We love our pastors just as they are. All we ask is that they love us just as we are in return.

Prayer Worked!

 Recently I had pastor Martinez pray for me. I had pain in my lower back. After he prayed the pain was significantly diminished. But since he prayed for me I find that my health has returned and I feel as strong as I did over one year ago. God has renewed my youth as the eagles. I am grateful to be able to do things that I used to do and that the year of physical ailments is behind me. I am grateful to be in good health again.

Inspired or Inspiring?

 The word inspire basically means to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural influence or action. It is a word that describes the effect that one person or the Lord can have on another person. It is not a Bible word per se, but the work of inspiration is fairly common in the Bible narrative.

The Bible itself is God breathed. Men wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired them to write.

"for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:21

The root of the word inspire is the idea of to breathe or blow into something. The idea I thought of is how you can blow on hot coals and make the glow hotter or burst into flame.

The overall idea is being inspired to act. Inspiration motivates people to action. 

I am at an age where the men who used to inspire me are either gone; as in, they left the Fellowship, or backslid. Or they are dead, as pastor Mitchell is dead. 

The other idea is to live a life that inspires others. I live the best I know how. Whether I inspire anyone is unknown to me.

One final thought. Preaching that tells about Bible characters does not move me the way stories about real people does. I know that Bible characters were once real people. But what about today? It's like using Bible characters give the story more weight than telling about people we know today.

A Tempest in a Teapot

"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." Matthew 24: 6-8

For the war mongers among us it seems that if someone in the middle east stubs their toe, it is the end of the world. Let someone launch a rocket or drop bombs and surely the Rapture cannot be far behind.

Let's look at what the Bible says. First, it assures us that we have no reason to be upset or troubled by these events. When the events in Bible prophecy really happen you will know, or you will not be here to experience it at all. Second, all of the things that Jesus told us about are only the beginning, not the end. Jesus said that we need to understand that the end is not when you see these things happening. The end is not yet.

No man knows the hour or the day. All we are responsible for is doing what we are called by God to do.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

Thoughts From Genesis

 "And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Genesis 2:18

Adam never asked God for a wife. Adam did not know what he did not have. Nowhere does it say or even imply that Adam was lonely or that something was missing from his perfect life. God saw something in Adam and God went to work to meet his need for companionship. Marriage was part of the plan of creation. Maybe God was waiting for the right time to introduce marriage.

All of creation is described as very good by God. Adam's single condition is the first thing that is called not good.

In chapter one, verses 27 and 28, is the first account of the creation of mankind. In verse 27 God first uses the term them. He created them male and female. Then in verse 28 he commands them on what they are to do together. God created him, but God blessed them and God said to them. So chapter one and chapter two give parallel accounts of the same event.

God's work is never done by individuals. It is always done by couples.

Pray for those of us who are alone. We may not be lonely. But two are still better than one.

Rich And Poor

 In my daily devotions I was reading in Isaiah 32. I am amazed how often God speaks against rulers who oppress the poor. In verse 6 it talks about foolish people who "keep the hungry unsatisfied" and " cause the drink of the thirsty to fail".  In verse 7 it talks about those who  destroy the poor with lying words. In another place it talks about the rich who despise and abuse the poor.

"Because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor..." Amos 2: 6-7

In America it is only the efforts of political leaders that protect the poor from the hatred the rich have for the poor. If it were up to the rich, they would have it all and we would be judged unworthy to live in their society. 

"But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgement seats? Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by the which you are called?" James 2:6-7

God has chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of God. God loves those who the rich hate.

Stop admiring the rich and stop making excuses to justify their wicked behavior. And stop despising the poor who make up most of the population of our small planet.

The rich say bigger is better. The poor say, enough is enough!