BOUGHT IN to the vision

“Bought in” is when a person decides to relinquish their old lifestyles and pursue another way. To give up an old way of doing things in exchange for the new.

Though God’s vision for an individual or the church may not be completely clear, it IS clear enough to desire a change in how they have been doing things. Are you BOUGHT IN to God's vision for your local church?

We see the example of being “bought in” in the story of Zacchaeus in the Book of Luke in the Bible. Jesus paid a visit to Zacchaeus' home after Zaaccaeus went to tremendous lengths just to get a glimpse of Jesus, to “see who Jesus was” as he was passing by.

Just by just being in the presence of Jesus, Zacchaeus realized enough of God’s purpose for his life to make a bold change in the direction of his life.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." (Luke19.8)

So, let's do a quick math lesson here. If Zacchaeus' possessions added up to, let's say, $1000, this would mean that he made an immediate contribution of $500 to the poor. That leaves him with $500. If we divide that amount by four, we come up with $125. That means that if Zacchaeus had cheated anybody out of more than $125, in our example, and he paid them back four times that amount, he would be flat broke, and unable to fulfill his commitment to Jesus.

So in order to pay back more than this amount, or any amount, Zacchaeus would have to continue to work to make money to repay his debt to others. A stark contrast to why he was working before meeting Jesus. Before, Zacchaeus' vision was working to build his own personal kingdom. After meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus was repaying others, in order to follow Jesus’ vision of expanding God’s Kingdom.

Yep. I would say that Zacchaeus was “Bought In” to Jesus' vision for his life, wouldn’t you?

Sold Out

I recently tweeted an idea I thought I would share here on the blog to help unpack it over the next few days. The statement was:

When your staff's SOLD OUT for Jesus, BOUGHT IN to the vision, PASSIONATELY serving others, & ON FIRE to see life-change, leading is easy!

SOLD OUT for Jesus
For me, the phrase “sold out” means that a person is giving all they have. They have no reserves left. For those of you who are poker players (or watch “Celebrity High Stakes Poker”) a similar term would be ALL IN.

In the Bible, there is a story where Jesus asked a man to “sell everything” and follow him...

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mark10.21)

“Everything” for the man in this story was what the man depended on… For him it was his wealth. This is what Jesus asked him to give up, in order to be “sold out”… but the man just couldn’t do it.

At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"(Mark10.22-23)

For some people it’s not wealth they depend on, it’s power. For some, they depend on being accepted by others. Or maybe they depend on being at the center of everything. In fact, for some, they so badly want to be seen as having what others have that they're willing to depend on DEBT…

From this story I have learned that whatever it is you depend on other than Jesus, you need to get rid of it! You need to be SOLD OUT, COMPLETELY, then, and only then, are we able to truly understand what it means to enter into the Kingdom of God, the place where Jesus wants to lead us.

My chips are in the middle of the table. I'm ALL IN! It's your move...

What’s behind your Smile?

I married “up”.

I married a FANTASIC woman with brains and wit, whose smile lights up a room. In fact, when Jodi smiles at you, it’s so contagious that you can’t help but to smile back. This week I found one of the sources of Jodi’s smile. It’s something that I am ashamed to say I have overlooked over our 28 years of life together. Shame on me, but hey, now I know!

Several weeks ago, Jodi, who works part-time as the Financial Secretary for one of the local churches (not LifeSpring) here in town, was asked if she was interested in picking up a few more hours of work. That church's current receptionist was leaving soon and they were considering changing the full-time receptionist job into two part-time jobs. Of course, with the economic condition of our country and the financial state of our checkbook (eh... mostly driven by our checkbook), she agreed to interview for one of the part-time receptionist jobs, to go with her part-time Financial Secretary’s job.

This week Jodi had the interview with the church committee responsible for filling the receptionist position. When she got home, I asked her how it went.

After she answered some questions about her current job as the Financial Secretary, the committee began asking questions about the new part-time receptionist position. One question, and Jodi’s response to it, stuck out to me.

The team had asked Jodi how she would feel to be sharing the work and responsibilities with another person who is also part-time? Who would be in charge? Did she foresee any problems?

Jodi responded that she had no problem working with someone in a situation like this. She said typically there could be potential problems with one of them wanting to be in 'charge' or be the 'main' one that people looked to. However, she continued, that wouldn’t be the case with her because she had no desires to be ‘in charge’ of the other person. In fact, she said with a smile, “I have no problem submitting to the other person’s authority. I’m more of a ‘behind-the-scenes support person’ anyway. That’s what makes a difference and that’s what I’m good at.”

WOW! When I heard this I was blown away! That’s the kind of humble, confident attitude and approach to life that Jesus can build a church on. “I don’t need to be in charge or to be seen as being in charge to make a difference in people's lives.”

I now believe Jodi’s confident attitude of knowing who she is in Jesus Christ, and her understanding that humility and a servant's heart is what Jesus desires is the source of her SMILE. A smile that is contagious and brings joy to others.

What’s the source of your smile?

P.S.- After the interview, several on the committee told Jodi how nice it was since she had begun work at the church, to come into the office and see a big smile and a person with a willingness to help out anyway they could.

Yep, I married “up”.

Monday Morning Reflections 4/26/10

Yesterday, LifeSpring Church took a RADICAL step in being a different kind of church to share Jesus’ love. Instead of GOING TO church and having a "music-and-message" worship service, we decided to BE the church and serve others. We invited our congregation to come to cook and serve hamburgers, baked beans, and "the fixings" to some special people in our community. Those people were the employees of the Statesboro Police & Fire Departments, the Sheriff’s department, the EMS, the residents of the Summit Apartments, and some random people of Statesboro who lived near the Fire Station. Despite some serious early morning thunderstorms and rain most of the morning, we had 61 volunteers to come and serve over 250 plates and give out 30 Bibles! Here are my observations of the day...

Some signs that LifeSpring is on the right track to share Jesus' love:

• Servants' Hearts
  I was blown away at the way that all the volunteers “jumped in” and helped wherever it was needed. No matter what the task, someone was willing to serve.
• Inclusiveness of All
  It was good to see so many different ages laughing, fellowshipping, & working together. I realized how close our LifeSpring community has become in this last year as there seemed to be less awkwardness in the conversations as people who may have been just acquaintances realized that we were all here for the same reason… making a difference in our community for Jesus Christ. By the way, that’s a COMMON VISION we all share!
• Moving Outside Our Comfort Zone
  I went with a group of about 15 people (13 of which were under 20!) to the Summit Apartments to deliver plates to low income families. I was so impressed with how these young people jumped in and over came the feelings of awkwardness and began to knock on doors, introduce themselves to total strangers and offered people a hamburger plate.
• Fellowship in Community is Important
  There is power in numbers. Despite how much work was involved, for the most part, no one was burdened with TOO much work to do. Everybody just pitched-in and got things done. What a great example of the church family operating as a BODY.
• Our Connection is Greater Than Our Differences
  As things wound down a basketball came out and several began to play some pick up basketball games. WOW, we have some tremendous athletes in our church family! Conversations began to circulate about future recreational softball & basketball teams. What I loved about this was that our church family began to find out that as different as we all are, there are many things that we have in common. And then they wanted to build on the common things…

And finally, near the end of the afternoon, the church family pulled me to the side and presented me with a birthday card and sang “Happy Birthday” to me and individually wished me a happy birthday. As I looked in the eyes of these once strangers who now care for me and my family, and whom I care for deeply, I realized, THIS IS WHAT JESUS' LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN PERSON.

Thank you Jesus, for allowing me the privilege to serve as LifeSpring’s pastor.

Staff Meeting at NewSpring

Really excited about attending the NewSpring Staff meeting with Perry Noble today. Several of the LifeSpring staff are with me. A couple for their first visit @ NewSpring church. It will be great to get feedback from their experience.

Perry has asked us to read 2 Kings 4:38-41 in preparation for the day and for a talk he is giving us. We discussed this as a team driving up here to Anderson, S.C. and had several thoughts on how he will tie this into church leadership.

Here are a couple of those thoughts...

• People with good intentions will try to help "feed others" by contributing to the meal. In their zeal to help and serve, they mistakenly put "poisonous" food into the mixture and contaminate all of it, making potential "death in the pot" for all.
• Is there really "death in the pot"? Does Elisha give the group a placebo in response to their fear that the stew is poisonous.
• No mater what the problem or who the cause behind the problems in the church (death in a pot), the other people in the group (other prophets) will yell at the leader to do something…

What do YOU see when YOU read this selection...

More on this subject after today's meetings.