My excitement over this makes me a “ministry geek”.

Here’s the backstory on this.  One of my “pace-setters” in ministry that I want to learn from is JD Greear, the pastor of a great church in North Carolina named Summit Church.  Pastor Greear hosts a blog that, every Friday, does an “Ask-anything Friday”.  The blog gets thousands of hits daily and each Friday receives hundreds of submitted questions.  Last Friday my question was selected to be responded to by Pastor Greear!

BY FAR, the hardest thing about the last year at The Bridge has been the relational strain of the church doubling in size (twice as many people we want to spend time with) while my time hasn’t. It feels like my bills doubled and my income stayed the same.  That’s not just hard, but painful sometimes.  So here was my question…

What is the most important thing for a pastor of a church that’s out-growing the “everyone knows the pastor” phase to do?

I think the most important thing is to, before you get to that phase, develop a culture in the church that leadership is multi-leveled. That comes from teaching on the egalitarian nature of ministry gifts–that each believer is empowered by the Holy Spirit with gifts to minister to the body. I often tell our congregation that according to Ephesians 4:11, when I became a pastor I left “the ministry.” I became an empowerer.

There are small but significant things you can do to inculcate this, like referring to yourself as only “one of the pastors,” or sharing significant stage time with other leaders. You can strategically not show up at certain events so that other leaders can be seen as such. People will whine and moan about this at first, because everybody knows if you (the lead pastor) are not there it doesn’t really count in God’s eyes… but overall, that’s good pain for them to go through and they’ll get used to it.

And, for you, the pastor, you have to get used to having people disappointed with you. If you’re a type-A people pleaser like me, that’s difficult. I have to remind myself that God didn’t call me to please people by meeting all their expectations, but to pastor a church. My assignment is a proactive, not reactive one.

I also found it very important to set a precedent, from the very first week I was pastor, to emphasize to the congregation that the greatest thing I could do for the people was teach the word of God faithfully and creatively each week, and so we would guard viciously my preparation time. From the beginning I’ve never taken calls or emails before 11am, because that is my time in prayer and the word. I could be a wonderful counselor, administrator, phone call answerer, problem solver, etc but if I am not teaching the Word of God with power each Sunday then the church suffers. Flipping that around, if I teach the Word well each Sunday, other things may struggle for a while, but the church will be healthy and other leaders will arise to do those things… or, through faithful preaching, you can grow the size of your congregation to where you can hire someone to do them. Either way, guarding my time in the Word has been a key to developing multiple leaders.

I have also found that developing a culture of sending people out is important in raising up leaders–whether that be out into the community for ministry or somewhere to plant a church or new campus. Real leaders love a challenge and compelling vision. Leaders like to lead, not just follow. They will not be content to be cogs in “your machine”; they will thrive when you are empowering them to see the things that they can lead in the church and community. We at the Summit often emphasize that the best ideas for ministry are in the congregation, not in our offices. Our role as pastors is to inspire and release. I would rather our church be like a group of wild steeds and our staff be like the reins trying to keep all the horses running the same direction than I would our staff be more like the engine driving a car.

Surprisingly to me, considering the size of our church, I feel relatively balanced, and I think that is because of we have a large leadership culture. People in our church really do see a host of pastors, small group leaders, and coaches as every bit as able to minister the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit as I am. I have the freedom now to talk to people comfortably after service, and am able to return most of the phone calls and emails that come to me. That’s in part because people from the church don’t email me as much anymore–because there are multiple leaders they can talk to. That wasn’t always the case. I used to get asked about every question you could think of–from theology to complaints about the church to math word problems (that’s not a joke!).

Tim Keller wrote a great article about churches going through new stages and new demands on the leaders… I’ve read it but don’t have it and don’t know what it’s called. Anyone know?

Here’s another blog on this subject.

OK… I feel like I’ve rambled on… hope this at least plants some good ideas.

Someone visited The Bridge recently and anonymously messaged me with the question I hope every person who ever visits a worship gathering leaves asking…

Hey Pastor Josh. I was wondering what about your God inspires you to follow and pursue him?  What do you personally think makes him worth dedicating so much heart and life to?

I don’t know who you are or what has brought you to this question, but I want you to know I’ve been praying for you since you messaged me and pray that you read this with seriousness. Here’s my response:

God – revealed in Scripture and made available to us through The Cross – is the only thing I’ve ever chased that has satisfied the thirst of my soul and given me lasting joy.  I don’t pretend to know you, but you are human and made to worship.  Whether you know it or not you ARE dedicating heart and life to something in place of God all the time – a counterfeit god.  Something occupies the “position of glory” in your heart.

To be very honest and frank with you, at different times in my life I’ve dedicated heart and life to…

• Fame – the love and admiration of peers
• Lust
• Success at work
• A romantic relationship
• Financial betterment

I don’t know what you’ve chased but if you look you’ll see that all of them promise joy.  None deliver.  They have all left me ruined, hurt, deeply ashamed and hopelessly unfulfilled.

Hope beyond hope – In Scripture we collide with a God so powerful, loving, righteous, and holy that he finally satisfies the hope of our hearts.  He gives us joy.  David – a dirty sinner like you and me – echoes this in Psalms:

You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forever more.   Psalm 16:11

You responded to a one-sentence message I sent you to this effect:

I see he gives you joy, but doesn’t he give pain too?

The Bible doesn’t and I am not equating “comfort” with “joy”.  In fact, God promises us that if we are willing to seek joy where it can only be found that discomfort will follow.  2 Timothy 3:12 (written by a man who was beheaded for following Jesus) says…

In fact, anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

No, seeking God will not eliminate discomfort in your life because we live in a world that is (for now) in rebellion against God.  But he will give you joy in the midst of pain and sorrow that sustains you where nothing else will.  Again, I don’t know you, but I sense from the tone of your messages that you are in the midst of pain.

Sometimes it feels like God is killing us when he’s actually saving us.  Maybe – just maybe – God is painfully removing from you some of the things you’ve trusted and tried to build your happiness upon so that you can finally find the only real, lasting joy that exists.  This can only be found by turning away from chasing, trusting, and obeying other things and placing your faith in Jesus – that he was God and took the place that you deserved on the cross because of your sin.

My head is hurting but my heart is on fire after spending the day studying for this week of the Doubting your Doubts series: There can’t be just one true religion.

The issues/worldview series that we do at The Bridge are always A) the most fun for me and B) the most difficult.  This Doubting Your Doubts series is no different.  While my doubts have usually arisen elsewhere, we talked this week about something that obviously struck home with a lot of people as Grandpastor Rick examined the question “How could a good God allow suffering?”

I saw/read these two things a while ago but both were so Biblical, powerful, and helpful that I saved them.  The first is John Piper exalting the cross in this issue and the second is a post by JD Greear on the question.

And here’s JD Greear on the Problem of Evil

Thank you God for today.  Long, incredible story short: The Bridge had its highest attendance ever, highest [normal] offering ever (which = more missions and more ministry), highest “dang-we’re-excited vibe” in recent memory and we kicked off an incredible Doubting Your Doubts series.

I’ve been looking forward to this series for about 5 months. Here’s the linup

Week 1 – What to do with our doubts

Week 2 – How could a good God allow suffering?

Week 3 – There can’t be just one true religion

Week 4 – The Christian church is responsible for so much injustice

Week 5 – Science has proven the Bible is a myth

Week 6 – The clues of God

Next week will be one of the most anticipated sermons we’ve ever had besides “The gospel and homosexuality”, I think.  Since we announced this series, a slew of emails and requests for the issue of suffering have come in.  We’ll also have national speaker and founding pastor of The Bridge, Rick Howerton (pictured below) tackling that one.

I’ll be out of town for the next few days so the blog is on a break.  I love my church!

Tears are on my cheeks as I type this after watching the video below.

Not always but every now and then someone will listen to our preaching at The Bridge or go through our New Member’s Class and kind of dismissively smirk at our theological emphasis.  Every other sermon series, we preach exegetically through a book of the Bible, we have little sayings for good interpretation of The Bible woven into our culture like “Context is King”, and one of our core values is being “Theological”.  In my experience, most Christians THIRST for this but every once in a while someone will roll their eyes at it and say something like “You’re just splitting hairs for no reason. All that’s important is that we love God.”  And sometimes I’ll start to wonder if they’re right.

Then I see something like this.

When I first saw this I couldn’t decide whether to cry, break my computer screen, or buy a plane ticket to Africa. I decided to write this blog post instead.  Here’s what we learn from this:

Careful attention to right Biblical interpretation and good theology ISN’T JUST ABOUT BEING RIGHT FOR THE SAKE OF “BEING RIGHT”. It’s about the glory of God in Christ, the eternal salvation of the nations, the healing of the world, the happiness of all marriages, the joy of all peoples, and a thousand-thousand other things.

Good theology is important because stupid and evil crap like that (see above video) happens when we don’t first carefully study to know what God approves and doesn’t approve.

Jana and I debated this yesterday over dinner. What is the best and the worst Halloween candy a kid can get?  In my opinion, any full or king-size candy bar is an absolute score.

On the other hand, both of us agreed that there is hardly anything worse than either circus peanuts or those generic orange and black peanut butter candies you only see at Halloween.

So we submit this to you in the name of Kid-dom everywhere: What is the best and the worst Halloween candy?

Yesterday was The Bridge’s Trunk-or-Treat. It was pure, laugh-your-head-off fun.  The best way to make the gospel believable is to love and serve the world in response to the gospel. What better way to do this than dress up as a giant potato or walking Twister board???

It always feels like family with The Bridge.

Bridge Family – tomorrow’s Trunk-or-Treat has been rescheduled for 2-4pm on Sunday instead of tomorrow night.  Although the rain may be gone by tomorrow afternoon, the field on which Susan and our [awesome] Missions Team were hosting our Trunk-or-Treat would probably still be muddy from earlier rain.

The church-wide bonfire, however, is STILL ON at the Shoopman’s house tomorrow night at 8pm. For directions, email Scott at scott.shoopman@thebridgespringhill.com.  See you tomorrow night with a smore in-hand!

This is a post from JD Greear. Jana and I read this together over breakfast yesterday. We both struggle to believe the gospel. Just seems too good to be true…

_____________

The word “enough” is the enemy of the Gospel. The word “enough” about killed me spiritually.

For many years I have lived with a complex… Have I given enough? Do I love enough? Do I share Christ enough? Do I sacrifice enough? Should I be living in a downtown Durham project? Should I adopt 3 adolescent runaways from Russia? Should I be sharing our house with a homeless man? Should I give away 50% of my income?

Every time I have heard a new preacher with a new “cause” I have left thinking, “Do I have to do that to be a real disciple of Jesus? Am I doing enough?”

That is because many well meaning (though I think misguided Christian preachers) preach a message built on enough. Their message often appears to be, “Do you give enough to the poor to really consider yourself a good Christian? Why don’t Christians in America die like Jesus’ first followers? After all, good Christians… adopt, live poor, die martyr’s deaths, win all their neighbors to Jesus, use only recycled cooking oil, drive hybrids… etc.” I am forever left thinking, “If I were a real Christian, I’d be doing this or that…” (and, to be fair, it’s not always the individual preacher’s fault, sometimes it’s how I misinterpret them–which has more to do with me… I seem addicted to works-righteousness and can turn anything into a new “standard” to reach.)

Obviously, giving and any form of sacrificial living are all important questions and things that many Christians who have experienced the love of the Gospel will want to do. But never in the context of “enough.”

Whenever we preach “enough” we preach legalism. Legalism has two unmistakable marks: pride in those who feel like they live up to the standard or guilt-complexes in those who don’t. The Gospel creates neither. The Gospel is not about how much you give, or whether or not you die, or if you adopt, or if you go overseas, the Gospel is about a heart of love that does things simply and freely in response to what God has done for us.

“Not under compulsion” is one of Paul’s favorite phrases in the context of generosity. The word “enough” is its own type of compulsion. The Gospel is not about any response that is “enough”; the Gospel is about the free response of love flowing from gratefulness for the sacrifice of Christ which set us completely free.

The Gospel is not about what we are to go and do for God, but about what He has done for us. There are only two ways to approach God… one says, “I’ll obey some standard, and because of that I’ll be accepted.” The other says “I’ve been accepted by what Christ has done for me, and I love in response.

This is why the preaching of the announcement of the Gospel (that Christ has DONE all that is necessary to save us) is so absolutely essential for all Christian living. If you do not preach the announcement of acceptance because of what Christ has done, there is no way he can create free love. Legalistic preachers, no matter how “evangelical” or “radical” they seem to be, don’t create love for Jesus in people, they create pride and guilt-despair. Because they don’t preach an announcement of freedom, they preach an obedience of captivity.

 

Paul said in 1 Cor 13:1-4 that “real Christianity” had nothing to do with “giving enough” or “dying enough” or “suffering enough” or “witnessing enough.” He said it had to do with love, and love, as I’m saying, only grows in absolute freedom.

The only time the word “enough” ought to be used for the Gospel is in reference to what Christ has done for us. Those who understand this will live their lives in response, and their lives will be characterized by radical love.

The Gospel is not spelled “D-O” or “D-O-N-T” but “D-O-N-E.” If you don’t love and live radically, think about what Christ has done. Repent of the idols and saviors you have served in place of Him, and when you do , He will change your heart from one of selfishness to one of love.