a disciple's blog

Worship is more than just singing a few songs, performing a few rituals, and enduring one of my sermons. We should come expecting to experience the presence of God, to acknowledge his authority in our lives, and to worship Him as our Creator.

Join us this Sunday as we continue our sermon series "God Given Guidelines for Growing a Great Church". We'll be discussing Guideline #2 - Worship God Every Week in Spirit and Truth.

In the meantime be thinking about these three questions and read John 4:21-24.

1. Does our worship honor God?
2. Does our worship inspire, uplift, and transform the worshiper?
3. Does our worship draw visitors closer to an encounter with Jesus Christ?

Have a great week and we'll see ya Sunday.

...our job is to disciple them. Friday morning, I read Oswald Chambers' devotional, My Utmost for His Highest and the devotion for that day has stuck with me. Brother Chambers was warning us against desiring spiritual success and his scripture reference was Luke 10:20.

As a Pastor, I believe that we can sometimes get so caught up in having "spiritual children" that we forget to raise them. Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be concerned with reaching the lost. I'm saying that we're not the ones doing the saving. We can not allow ourselves to get caught up with numbers. If we are making ourselves available to be used by God and if we are taking advantage of every opportunity that God gives us then the rest is up to Him.

My biggest concern is whether or not we are making disciples. Once God places a "spiritual newborn" in our arms are we then walking away leaving them to fend for themselves? As a Pastor, I believe that we have a greater calling to make disciples; to raise up mature believers in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately our attention span is short and discipling can take years. Many of us are not even in our current position/church long enough to see a brother or sister in Christ reach any resemblance of maturity.

My call to Pastors, including myself is to stop focusing on numbers; stop seeking greener pastures and start investing. We need to invest our time and energy into maturing the Body of Christ. We need to turn so called churches that are a mile wide and an inch deep into bottomless reservoirs for the Holy Spirit to dwell.

Will it be easy? No. Can we do it alone? No.

As Brother Chambers said in his devotional "...our work only begins where God's grace has laid the foundation. But it is our work, work that God has given us to do. Now lets get to work building up the Body of Christ in His image!

This Sunday I'll begin a new series called "God-Given Guidelines for Growing a Great Church". This series is based on the book "When God Builds A Church" by Bob Russell.

In a culture where truth is relative, it's essential for the Church of God to remain dedicated to proclaiming the truth of Scripture.

Sunday's sermon will be titled "Proclaim the Truth" and our text will be 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

If you'd like to get a head start on your note taking, here are my three main points:

1. Believe the Truth (The world doesn't)
2. Teach the Truth (Many churches don't)
3. Apply the Truth (Many people don't)

See ya Sunday!

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As a Pastor, one of the saddest things is when someone just disappears from your church (and it was not due to the "rapture"); one day they're there and the next day they're gone. It's hard to lose someone you've come to care about without so much as a goodbye. So is there a good way to leave a church? I found this post on one of the blogs that I read (The Slice by Stephen Collins) and found it to be very helpful.

Pastor Larry

How to leave a church

There is a lot more written about growing a church than there is about leaving a church. The fact remains that many people choose to leave a fellowship and attend elsewhere and I believe the way this transition is handled determines how blessed we are in our new place of worship.
I am thinking about this because I spoke this past weekend at Gateway Church in DFW where I was a staff pastor for almost seven years. It was great to see everyone and I was welcomed back as a son who had left with a blessing.

It was like returning to my parent's home. I am not sure all of us have had the same experiences, but Pam and I love going back to our childhood homes. The grandparents take care of the kids, we sleep a little later, we do not have to cook and we get to experience the joy of the house without carrying the burdens of the house.

I have left churches poorly in the past, but when I left Gateway in 2007, I transitioned well because some wise mentors taught me some simple principles of leaving a church.

Leave after telling someone

Many people just disappear from church and the rest of the people are left wondering why. Often we assume the worse and that is how gossip starts which always damaging. I believe we should have the courage to tell leaders why we are leaving and at least ask for them to pray for us as we leave. The best person to tell is a mature person in leadership who has influenced, encouraged and mentored you the most.

Leave after forgiving

I believe God rarely blesses a transition that happens because of hurt feelings or personal offenses. It takes more maturity to sit down and discuss issues than to leave upset. God wants us to live in authentic community which is more than just parties, laughter and ice cream socials. Authentic community requires honest discussion about misunderstandings, hurts and conflicts. I have found that people who leave one church because of hurt feelings that are unresolved normally have their feelings hurt at the new place in short order. God requires us to forgive and work through the difficulties of relationships and the best place for this to happen is in the church where we currently attend.

Leave with a blessing

Many times people tell me they are leaving because God told them to leave. That may be true, but it leaves little room for me to disagree with them. If I do, I am arguing with God and that never works out well. The right way to tell someone is to say, "I am sensing that God is leading me to leave but I am open to your counsel." This changes the entire tone of the conversation. Now, the leaders get to be a part of the process and they have a chance to pray with you. Most of the time the decision remains the same and you leave the church for your next assignment. The difference is you leave with the blessings and participation of the leaders and that is really important.

When I speak about this topic, I often use the analogy of a wedding to explain my convictions. None of us would want our children to tell us they had chosen their spouse, they are leaving our home and the wedding has already happened. We may very well love the person they chose but we would be hurt that we did not get to be a part of the engagement party, the wedding celebration and the reception where we send them off to their honeymoon.

It's time for a little "Spring Cleaning". Over time our minds and hearts can become cluttered with ungodly beliefs and attitudes. And that hinders our relationship with God. It hinders our fellowship with one another. It hinders our ability to experience joy, and peace, and power in the Christian life. What I’m going to talk about on Sunday morning is how we can prevent that from happening, and how when it does happen, we can clean out the clutter, so that our fellowship with God and one another will be free and unobstructed; so that we can enjoy the kind of abundant life that Christ wants for us. Our text will be Proverbs 4:23.

See ya on Sunday!

This Sunday is Easter Sunday! I can't wait. My sermon title this week is The Stone is Rolled Away. Our scripture reference will be Matthew 28:1-10. I'll be asking the question "Why was the stone rolled away?" and "Who was it rolled away for?". It should be a wonderful service.

See ya Sunday!

PS. Don't forget the Easter Egg Hunt and Bar-B-Que on Saturday.