The Role of Money 3

In the first post I gave an introduction, using Matthew 6:24, on the role that money plays in our lives. It is either a tool that you use or a god that uses you. In the second post I gave ten indicators that money might be a god in your life. In this final post I want to give five indicators that money might be a tool in your life. That's God's intention for our life.

Before going into our list, it's important to point out that money is simply a tool that helps us to accomplish our goals. It's tied to our values. You can determine what a person values simply by looking at how they spend their money (and time - as you'll see, these two are inextricably linked).

1. You have articulated your values, dreams, and goals. To take them a step farther, you've written them out. Two helpful resources are Michael Hyatt's "Creating Your Personal Life Plan" and Mark Driscoll's teaching on Reverse Engineering (audio and notes). Both of these have been extremely helpful to me.

2. You have a handle on money. You know what's coming in and you know what's going out. This is what is meant by budgeting. Budgeting can be as simple as writing down expected income and expenses on a sheet of paper, using spreadsheets, or using an online tool such as Mint.com. If you're not budgeting before the month begins, then at the end of the month you're going to be left wondering how you spent so much money. As it's been said, people don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan.

3. You are content with, and thankful for, the things that you have. Godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:5). Contentment and thanksgiving without a doubt change your perspective on life and finances.

4. You freely give what has been given to you. This is so much more than tithing. It's stewarding (managing) well our time, talents, and treasure. You're free with those things because you know that you're a manager, not an owner. God, the owner, has entrusted these things to you, and we honor him in how we use them. Not only that, though, we find true joy in doing so.

5. You have margin in your life. This applies to time and to money. Margin is counter-cultural. The tendency today is to max out everything in life. Filling up our calenders makes us feel as important as buying things. Margin is a gift, but it's something that we have to fight for. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was once asked by Forbes magazine what he would do with a $100,000 windfall. Check out what he said (question #9 on the list). This is all about margin.

Compared to the ten indicators I gave yesterday, doesn't this sound so much more appealing? Is it counter-cultural? Yes. Will it take a ton of re-training? No doubt. But it leads to freedom. Freedom is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Christianity. We believe that following God confines and restricts us, but it actually gives us true freedom.

This is Discipling

This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

Church in Need of Recalibration

Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost: We believe that the church must constantly return to Jesus to find itself again, to recalibrate, to test whether we are indeed in the faith. The inference is that by and large the church as we currently experience it in the west has to varying degrees lost touch with the wile and dangerous message that it carries and is duty bound to live out and to pass on. As Jesus' disciples we are called to a Christlike life, and no matter how we configure it, that must surely mean that somehow our lives and our communities must be in significant congruence with the life, teachings, and mission of Jesus. The degree that we are living the life laid out by our Master is directly proportional to the degree that we can call ourselves authentic disciples (ReJesus, 64)

The Benefits of a Small Church

I like any pastor or leader wants the organization I'm a part of, in this case my church, to grow. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. However, there are some major benefits for being a small church. This weekend we had our first 24 Hours of Prayer in preparation for Advent. The awesome thing was that almost every person in our church took on an hour. We began at 5:00 on Saturday night and ended at 5:00 on Sunday night. Then we debriefed during our worship gathering. God met with us in a powerful way. It was wonderful listening as people shared about their encounters with God.

Here's the thing, though. Everyone knew that if we wanted to fill up 24 hours, they had better sign up. I wonder what the participation would have been like if we had double the amount of people. Would we have had two people sign up for each slot? I have my doubts. I imagine that many would assume that if they sat this one out, it would still be successful. With a small church, the value of participation is greatly increased. The same is true for discipleship and mission. We have almost 100% participation in Community Groups, Life Transformation Groups, and outward projects.

I love the DNA that is being created here. I do pray that God would continue leading folks our way, especially those with less than ideal church experiences, but more important, I pray that they would see this value of participation and get involved!

Catching Up on Some Links

Way behind on this, so I'm going to have two posts on some of the great things I've read online over the last few weeks. First, some great resources...

150 of Tim Keller's sermons available for free

Summaries from some of the talks at Catalyst this year

Free ebook on discipleship from Winfield Bevins. I'm printing it out right now and am looking forward to reading it.

Videos from The Nines

Video/audio from the Lead09 Conference featuring Tim Chester and Jonathan Dodson

Fight Club

Last week I finished up reading Fight Clubs, by Jonathan Dodson. You can download it for free here. It's a quick read, but very helpful on the topics of discipleship, fighting sin, accountability, religion, and the gospel.

I also just came across audio from a men's conference on this same subject.

How I Got Here - Discipleship

I mentioned in a previous post that my friend Dieter Zander introduced me to Missional Church nine years ago. During that meeting he suggested another book that I was unfamiliar with at the time: The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard. I have to admit that I had a difficult time first working through this book. However, over the last five or six years his work has played a major role in shaping the way I view discipleship.

There's a great article that I'd like to recommend for anyone who is unfamiliar with Dallas Willard, or who simply wants to understand better what it means to follow Jesus. I say "great" for two reasons. The first reason is that it's short; 2 pages. Anyone can read 2 pages. Second, it encapsulates some of the major themes from The Divine Conspiracy, such as:

• Disciple = apprentice
• Discipleship is not primarily about knowing facts. Instead, it centers on the amazing fact that Jesus wants to show us how to live life. He is the model. He is the teacher.
• Discipleship is not a passive activity. It requires more than just "trying." It requires training.
• The purpose of spiritual disciplines
• The Kingdom of God

I'll recommend one more article. Though a bit longer, I want to recommend it because it focuses on his VIM pattern for spiritual formation. It comes out of his book Renovation of the Heart. This has been helpful in showing not just why we need to become Jesus' apprentices, but how we become Jesus' apprentices.

Hebrews 12 & 13

Scripture

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:1-3, NIV).

Observation

The word "therefore" is pointing back to chapter 11 (the faithful servants of God), but I think it can also point us back to the message of the entire letter. The author of Hebrews has given reason after reason for us to be grateful to Jesus for the work he did on the cross, and to surrender our lives to him. Now he is telling his readers that we have a job to do. The job is to live in light of this knowledge, in light of this gift.

Application

God has "marked out" a race for us. In order to complete this race (or "task", as Paul puts it in 2 Timothy 4), we first have to fix our eyes on Jesus. He has run the race before us. He has been a faithful Son. Second, we have to recognize that sin, as well as other "weights" (ESV), serve to hinder our running. These need to be thrown off or else we will not finish well. We will be "weighed down" by the hinderances (anything that distracts us from our purpose of running) and tripped up by our sin. Finally, we need to remember the work of Jesus so that we will not grow weary and lose heart.

Prayer

Father, I thank you for this letter, which, though written almost 2000 years ago, applies in so many ways to my life today. I thank you for the reminders of what my Lord, Savior, and King did for me on the Cross. May I live my life in a way that brings honor and glory to you, and may I be faithful in accomplishing all that you would have me to do.

The Role of an Apostle Pt. 1

This week I'm reading 2 Corinthians for my LTG. Today I was reading chapter 4. Paul gives the Corinthian readers a description of his life. I can't say that this excites me. Following Jesus is hard. Giving your life so that others will follow Him is even harder.


2 Corinthians 4:7 - 12 (ESV) ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹²So death is at work in us, but life in you.

The Divine Conspiracy

As I wrote in my last post, our church is spending a few weeks discussing Discipleship. Today I've been rereading chapter 8 of The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard. I don't think there's any book (other than the Bible) that I've wanted to internalize more than this one. As I was reading today, I typed a few quotes. Enjoy!

The assumption of Jesus’ program for his people on earth was that they would live their lives as his students and co-laborers. They would find him so admirable in every respect – wise, beautiful, powerful, and good – that they would constantly seek to be in his presence and be guided, instructed, and helped by him in every aspect of their lives (273).

The narrow gate is not, as so often assumed, doctrinal correctness. The narrow gate is obedience – and the confidence in Jesus necessary to it. The broad gate, by contrast, is simply doing whatever I want to do (275).

A disciple, or apprentice, is simply someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is (282).

And as a disciple of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. This is the crucial idea. That means, we recall, how to live within the range of God’s effective will, his life flowing through mine. Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did (283).

Only with such images (pearl & hidden field) before us can we correctly assess the famous “cost of discipleship” of which so much is made. Do you think the businessman who found the pearl was sweating over its cost? An obviously ridiculous question! The only thing these people were sweating about was whether they would “get the deal.” Now that is the soul of the disciple (292).

The entire point of this passage (Luke 14:25-33) is that as long as one thinks anything may really be more valuable than fellowship with Jesus in his kingdom, one cannot learn from him (293).

The counting of the cost is to bring us to the point of clarity and decisiveness. It is to help us to see. Counting the cost is precisely what the man with the pearl and the hidden treasure did. Out of it came their decisiveness and joy. It is decisiveness and joy that are the outcomes of the counting (293).

Weekly Links

• Ten Blogging Tips from Mark Batterson

• Ben Witherington concludes his challenge of the thoughts found in Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna.
  
  
• Jon Zens responds to Ben Witherington
  

• NT Wright on The Colbert Report
  
  
• Hulu - Mandy and I have just discovered this site for tv shows, movies, and clips. We've been watching Arrested Development together. I don't know why I never watched it before. It's awesome!
  
  
• Ed Stetzer gives a bullet point review of the new research from The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
  
  
• Dallas Willard on Discipleship. We're going through a series on discipleship at NC, and this was one of the nuggets I (re)discovered and read last week.
  
  

Life Transformation Groups

This morning I began meeting with two guys from my church in a life transformation group (LTG). Jason is getting a second group started in the next couple of weeks. I think the ladies' book group is going to begin implementing the ltg into their time together as well. There are three commitments that we make to one another:

1. Mutual accountability and confession of sin
2. Scripture reading
3. Prayer for our friends who are not followers of Jesus

I am so looking forward to the growth that I know will take place through my involvement with these guys, and I'm excited about how God will work in our church through this.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God

Last week I started reading through the Gospels using The Daily Bible. I'm seeking answers to this question: What would it look like for Jesus to be at the center of my life? Of my home? Of my church? In order to answer that question, I feel like I need to better understand Jesus' mission while he was on earth. This morning I read the Sermon on the Mount. Here's an overview...

Beatitudes - Jesus was proclaiming that His Kingdom was available to all people, but especially to those who were treated well in the present earthly kingdoms. He wanted those who had been treated well in the present earthly kingdom to understand that His Kingdom was different.

Upside-Down Kingdom - this seems to be the central theme throughout this sermon. God sees things differently than we see them. When we begin to understand the KOG, we too will see with different eyes. As Keller says, we will begin to handle things like money, sex and power differently.

Father - We will also begin to think differently about our role and God's role. We don't have to "run after these things" as the pagans do (Matt. 6:32). What are "all these things?" Clothes, money, food, success, worth, etc. God is a loving Father who knows what we need and desires to provide for us. He actually desires to do more than just provide. He desires to lavishly pour out blessings on His children.

Children - When we begin to see things from God's perspective, we too begin to see ourselves in a different light. On the one hand, we are deeply loved children. We are created in the image of God and are made to co-create and cultivate with Him. He has chosen us to partner with Him. On the other hand, we will also come to understand that if it were not for Jesus, everything would be different. We would be totally lost (out of place). This should give us a sense of humility.

Discipleship - "Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matt. 7:14). The disciples were no doubt asking themselves which gate they were walking through. We must do the same. It's probably not a matter of walking through just one time (like I've grown up reading this). It's something that we choose everyday. Discipleship is something that we must choose everyday. Wait a minute. Jesus doesn't even mention discipleship. He mentions life. Jesus came that we would have abundant life. How do we have this abundant life? By seeking His Kingdom. By seeing things from God's perspective. When we do this, our greatest desire will be to surrender our lives completely to Jesus. How do we know when this is happening? We can look at whether or not we are producing fruit: A good tree produces good fruit.

Reflections from Orlando Pt. 3

Discipleship seemed to be one of the primary themes that emerged for Jason and I. His first breakout session was on this topic, and it continued to come up throughout several other sessions. As I mentioned in the previous post, Hirsch said that Jesus must be at the center of everything that we do. This prompted some questions:

1. What would it look like for Jesus to be at the center of our lives? Our homes? Our church?
2. What does it mean for Jesus to build and lead His church?
   
3. What is our system for making disciples?
4. Have we been faithful in presenting the true calling of following Jesus: Come and die?

One of the big takeaways for me was understanding that our methods are determined by our goals. Here are a few questions regarding goals and methods:

1. Do we have goals for the different things that we do as a church?
   
2. If so, are they the best goals?
   
3. Are our goals God-sized goals?
4. Do our goals fit our mission?
5. Do our methods match our goals?

A few weeks ago, Jason and I discussed starting one or two Life Transformation Groups (LTG's) with the guys in our church. During the conference this was affirmed over and over. It's been over two years since I was in an LTG, and I know that I personally need to be a part of one. If our goal for the men in our church is for them to love God, love their families, and love their world, then I know of no other system that helps this to happen than LTG's.

We also talked about our Sunday night worship gathering. We have an awesome facility in the Skinner Center. Mark Batterson talks about the day they realized that they would never be able to build a Union Station (where they're church meets), and therefore they would always rent. I feel the same way about the Skinner Center. It is such an amazing setup for us, and one that we could never recreate. We have a great park outside. We have a gym and a pool. We have a kitchen. And we have more rooms than we need.

So the question is, "How do we make the most of the time and space that we have on Sunday nights?" This is a question that Jason and I are asking, and will take to the group in the next week.

Spiritual Transformation

I spent a little time this weekend organizing my office. I ran across this quote that a friend of mine gave me awhile back. If I remember correctly, it's from Dallas Willard. If it's not verbatim Dallas Willard, it's definitely inspired by him.

Spiritual transformation into Christlikeness requires conscious, clear-headed and public commitment to living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That is, to a decision to give our lives to him as his constant students, learning from him how to live all aspects of our lives as he would live them. Evangelism should be understood as a call to receive the gift of such a life.