“There is something else wrong that happens here on earth. It is the kind of mistake rulers make” (Ecclesiates 10:5-15 NCV).

This past Monday our church was honored to host the Innovative Church Community’s monthly peer-learning gathering. Our band led in powerful worship, our many volunteers worked as greeters, ran the registration table, cooked and served lunch, and took great care of the over 50 attending pastors and their church staffs. I was privileged to be the presenter for this month’s learning.

Instead of teaching from our successes I decided to talk about our mistakes. Specifically, I talked about a certain kind of mistakes that leaders tend to make. With so many to choose from, I narrowed the list to my top ten leadership mistakes (Inspiration for this talk came from reading Hans Finzel’s The Top Ten Mistakes That Leaders Make and Geoff Surratt’s Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing). I also included my learnings from each. Here are five of them (I’ll list the other five in my next blog, so stay tuned).

1. Attempting to do too much by myself. In the first years of the church I would unload and set-up our portable sound and nursery equipment. I led worship, preached, talked to guests, then took everything down and loaded it back in the van. It was the “come watch Gary do everything” show. I wore myself out and often struggled with bitterness because no one offered to help. I finally learned to ask for help. Learning: Give your job away. Keep only what only you can do.

 2. Putting the target ahead of the team. We’ve all heard the truism “Never start a ministry without a minister.” But I would add a new one, “Never launch a ministry without a ministry team.” When we first planted WCC, my team was my family. Our first sound man was my ten-year old son, Stephen. He became an expert at rewinding the cassette, so we could sing the last chorus again in our “Karaoke” version of worshiping to split-track tapes. I almost burned out my wife and my kids in the early days. I had put the target of launching a weekly worship service ahead of building a core team to support it. Learning: Make building a team your first target.

3. Failure to communicate adequately. Here are some of the things I used to say, “But I already told them during the announcements.” Or, “It’s in the bulletin!” I ultimately learned that you have to repeat messages over and over in order to be understood. Communication has not taken place until understanding has occurred. And don’t let the message get ahead of you. If you keep people in the dark, they’ll make up their own message. People are always down on what they’re not up on! So, use every tool in your communication toolbox to gain understanding. Learning: Communicate until everyone involved knows what’s going on.

4. Promoting competence over character. When you first plant a church you’re often so desparate for help that you’ll take anyone that’s breathing. Be careful. The Bible says that we shouldn’t “be too quick in the laying on of hands” (1 Timothy 5:22), and that they must first go through a “time of testing” (1 Timothy 3:10). After years of making mistakes in this area, we’ve come up with two lists of traits that we look for in our team players and leaders. One is the acronym F.A.T. Is the candidate Faithful, Available and Teachable? The other list we call “The Four Cs.” They stand for Character, Commitment, Chemistry and Competence. We used to look for competence first, but after we learned that you can teach competence but not the other three Cs, we shifted our order of priority. Learning: Make sure you test a person’s “F.A.T.” factor and their “4 Cs” before promoting/hiring them.

5. Failure to recognize my role as chief fundraiser. I always hated asking for money. In the early days of the church I would sometimes forget to take the offering. Of course, I’d remember when the church treasurer couldn’t pay me that week. Over time I realized my mistake. Jesus talked about money, so why couldn’t I? As the pastor I couldn’t delegate this job. I needed to learn to make the big ask. I was willing to give sacrificially. I believed in our church’s vision. So, why not believe that others would join me? Learning: Don’t be afraid to share the vision and make the big ask.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31 ESV).

The word “believe” is in the book of John more times than the other three Gospels combined. In the English Standard Version translation of John it occurs 85 times, while in Matthew it is found only 8 times, in Mark only 15 times and in Luke only 9. Clearly, John’s Gospel is aimed at sharing the Good News about Jesus Christ, so that we “may believe.”

John’s Gospel was probably written later in his life. He may have been the last living apostle at its writing. He wrote with a perspective that makes his Gospel unique as compared to the other three. Like a master communicator, he carefully organized his Gospel to support his purpose of bringing his readers to believe in Jesus.

While John was prolific in his use of the verb form of believe, he was careful to avoid using the noun form, “belief.” By the time of John’s writing, apparently there was already a needed correction for what it meant to believe. For John, the saving kind of believing required a verb and never a noun. He treated the word “to know,” the same way. Knowledge and belief are not enough. “Head” knowledge must include “heart” knowing. One must know and believe.

“The evangelist, therefore, exhibits his communicative skill in completely avoiding the Greek nouns for knowledge (gnosis) and belief or faith (pistis) and chose to use only the verbs for knowing (ginoskein or eidenai) and believing (pisteuein)” (Gerald L. Bochert, NAC John 1-11, p.116).

Having a belief about Jesus is inadequate. It’s too passive. One must believe into the name of Jesus. This is an active thing. John tries multiple ways to help us understand this.

I think John was on to something. According to Barna, something like 85% of Americans claim to be Christian. They claim to be believers. But I don’t see the evidence. Most so-called believers live just like the rest of the world. They may have some of the right “beliefs,” but there is little fruit of their “believing.”

The other mark of John’s writing is that he isn’t so much concerned about what you believe as in Whom you believe. He confronts his readers with the resurrected Son of God and challenges us to BELIEVE IN JESUS the person.

Do you have right beliefs or have you come to believe in Jesus? The first is inadequate, while the second leads to eternal life. Understanding this distinction is why John wrote.

“During Gideon’s lifetime, the land enjoyed peace forty years” (Judges 8:28).

Everyone should congratulate Amanda Manuel and Stephen Combs. Amanda celebrated two years on our WCC staff in June. Stephen celebrated his 6th year on staff at WCC this July. Make sure you tell them how much their service means to you and to our church family!

It’s wonderful to have people who commit to serve over the long haul. In ministry there is a clear connection between longevity and church health.

One of the marks of healthy, growing churches is that their senior pastor has been in the job for ten or more years. Leadership longevity is one of the key characteristics of nearly every thriving church.

With my 20th anniversary as WCC’s pastor approaching in a few months, I’m thankful to God for giving us the blessing of longevity. We must thank God for it because there are too many variables out of our control to say that we have accomplished this. However, there are certain commitments that one can make that will leave room for God to bestow the blessing of longevity.

What got me thinking about this was a recent interview I gave to an author doing research on a book he is writing about healthy, gospel-centered churches. He asked, “What are the top five things you would list for young pastors and church planters about longevity in ministry?”

Here are five commitments that a young pastor can make to leave room for God to give him and his church the blessing of longevity:

1. Be sure of your calling. Fast and pray to know with certainty that it is God who is calling you to this work before starting out. After you begin it will seem that everything conspires against you to test your calling. There will be days where your calling seems to be all that remains.
2. Take care of your family first. This is one of the criteria for elders and deacons in 1 Timothy. Is your house in order? If not, how can you lead in God’s house? Know going into ministry that your marriage will come under spiritual attack. Commit yourself to put your wife and family ahead of your church work. Otherwise, you may disqualify yourself for both.
3. Buy your tombstone. When I first planted WCC, I told God that I would invest the rest of my life in this work, if He would allow it. I did this even though I was not from this city, but did feel sent to it. Ministry longevity begins with a commitment to stay. Buy your tombstone in the city to which you’ve been called.
4. Build a team. The Great Commission says to “make disciples.” Don’t try to be the hero. Powerful personalities can often get a big work up and running, but over time they burn out without a team to support the work. If you want to survive for the long haul, find people that will commit to run the race with you. And don’t be afraid to pick people who are better than you in your weak spots (Maybe even in your strong ones too).
5. Never quit on Monday. Too many pastors quit during a down season. They say they feel “called” to leave, but often they are just too beat up to stay. I often ask young pastors during a season like this, “Do you have clarity on this today?” Don’t quit on Monday. Don’t make a decision to leave when you’re feeling hazy, lazy or crazy (or all three). Wait. Ask yourself, “Am I running away from or towards God’s call?”

These five commitments are important for longevity, but when all is said and done, being allowed to stay and prosper in one place is really a gift from God.

As I study the Bible, I see a clear connection between God’s blessing on a leader and on a people to allow them a season of peace and longevity. In the book of Judges, Gideon and Israel were blessed to have him lead them for 40 years. Israel’s good kings and leaders were often given 40 years of longevity. This was a reflection not only of the leader’s commitment, but the people’s as well. Forty years was the length of a biblical generation and seems to be the time span that God would give as a mark of His approval. Leadership longevity is certainly a blessing from God.

As we approach the 20-year mark in ministry at WCC, I wonder if God has 20 more in store for us?

I’m up for it. Are you?

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

While preparing my sermon for this coming Sunday, I started humming a song to myself. At first, I didn’t notice my own activity. I was deep in thought about the freedom that we have in Christ. Getting ready to preach on the Sunday before July 4th, I wanted to talk about the true meaning of freedom. As Americans we either tend to take our freedom for granted or we totally misunderstand it.

Those who take it for granted forget that freedom isn’t free. It has a cost. For those who believe in Christ, our freedom from sin, death and the devil was a cost we couldn’t pay. But Jesus paid it on the cross. He purchased our freedom and offers it as a gift.

There are many who misunderstand this freedom and see it as a license to sin rather than liberty to live for God. But Christ doesn’t offer us this freedom so that we can sin all the more. He wants us to be free from our slavery to sin, so that we are free to be the image-bearers of God.

Anyway, this is what I was thinking when I noticed my humming. “What is that song?” I asked aloud, with no one in my breakfast nook but me. “Do you recognize it, Lord?” I thought, while continuing my humming.

Suddenly, the words started coming… “Thank God I am free, free, free from this world of sin…” I couldn’t remember the rest of the words yet, but I did have a memory of my mother singing the song.

When I was young, my mother would make my brother and I sit in the den while she got the other kids and herself ready for church. Every little bit, she would peep into the den to make sure we weren’t messing up our neatly combed hair and wrinkling our dress clothes wrestling with one another.

“Why don’t you watch something good on TV?” She would say while turning the channel to a local station that aired Southern Gospel. “Oh, I know them. Our quartet sang with them at a church up in [some place I’d never heard of]…”

If they were singing a song she knew (which was pretty much every gospel song there was), she would stand there in the den and sing along.

One of the groups that we used to see on a TV show called “Jubilee” was the “Dixie Echoes.” I looked them up on You Tube and guess which song I found?

Enjoy!

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory” (Hebrews 1:3 NIV).

Scientists tell us that it takes eight minutes for the light from the sun to reach earth. Having reached the earth, sunlight is refracted through the atmosphere creating a glorious effect. These sun beams are what we see. We see the sun’s rays of light.

But do we really see the sun?

I remember seeing a total eclipse of the sun when I was in elementary school. As the moon passed between the earth and sun, blocking the light that fell on the Eastern U.S., it left Mrs. McConnell’s third grade class awestruck. We couldn’t see the sun, but we could still see its rays. It was like the orb of the sun was black, but the rays still shot out all around.

I suppose the real question is concerning the light from the sun. Is the radiance of light that comes from the sun, the sun itself? In a word, yes.

• The sun and its radiance are one.
• The radiance is different than the sun itself, yet one emanates from the other.
• This radiance is what we see. It is the glory of the sun. The sun does not create it. To see it is to see the sun.

Perhaps the author of Hebrews was gazing at a sunrise as he contemplated the Christ. We cannot see God, but Jesus has revealed Him to us. Christ is the radiance of God’s glory. He is the beauty of God.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).

My son, Jonathan, is at Fort Jackson this summer for 12 weeks of basic training for army chaplains called “CH-BOLC.” Even though chaplains don’t carry guns, they are still required to go through all of the physical and mental training of other soldiers and officers. They have to know how to survive in a war zone.

So, Jonathan has been receiving training in such things as how to respond when tear gas is deployed against you.

“I understand why they teach us to properly put on a gas mask.” He told us during a recent Skype call. “But why we have to take it off inside a gas-filled room and recite our name, rank, and serial number, escapes me!” He continued with a laugh.

They have taught him how to crawl under barbed-wire and keep his head down while “live fire” is flashing 18 inches over his head. “Can you say, ‘Sandpaper face?'” He asked, while describing his day crawling in the sand in 100 degree heat, in full combat garb including kevlar vest with armor plating.

Basic training is physically and mentally demanding, but they are preparing our sons and daughters for war. Chaplains go to war with their fellow soldiers, putting their lives at risk while at the same time offering encouragement and solace. This is a paradoxical role. Wearing army green, but carrying a Bible under their arm instead of a rifle. (Photo: Jonathan is the one in the middle with the big smile.)

Jesus plays a paradoxical role too. Even though He is the “image of the invisible God,” with all the “fullness” of God dwelling in Him, He came to our warring planet without a weapon in His hands. The Son of God became one of us. Even while we were at war with God, He laid down His life for us at Calvary.

This Christ is the Supreme Reconciler between God and man. He is the only way to be at peace with God. He is the only hope for peace in this world. One day, this peace that He has paid for with His own blood will be made fully manifest upon His return.

When Christ returns, as the song says, “We ain’t gonna study war no more!”

Until then, I’m thankful that there are young men and women who are willing to fight to defend our country. And I’m especially thankful and proud of those who answer the call to be representatives of our Supreme Reconciler on the field of battle to our soldiers. Thank God for chaplains.

This weekend, my grandson and daughter-in-law are going to visit Jonathan. They really miss him. Before they left, I asked my 2 year old grandson where he was going. “Goin to see Dada at chaplin school!” He answered, while clapping his little hands.

“Nate, you tell Dada we love him when you see him. OK?”

“OK Papa.” He pledged while hurrying to climb in his car seat to leave.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…” (Philippians 2:5-7).

“Can I intern at the church this summer?” Auston asked, a look of real sincerity on his face.

“We can’t pay you.” I said, watching to see his response.

“That’s OK. I just really want to help any way that I can. I really feel called to help our church.” He said, his enthusiasm bubbling over.

“Alright.” I said. “But ministry isn’t all that people expect it to be. Some days it’s standing up front preaching, but on others, it’s mopping the bathroom floor.”

Auston Jones just finished his junior year at NC State. He started interning with us a couple of weeks ago. Since we just moved into our newly remodeled building, a lot of the work we have to do is very physical and often menial. The first week of his summer internship with us he was assigned the task of organizing and cleaning the storage room.

“Hey Auston, great job on organizing, but when are you going to mop the floor?” I asked, while pointing at the storage room floor.

“Hmm… I did already.” He answered. “It just won’t come clean.” He continued with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Well, you’re going to have to get some mop-training from someone because mopping is more than just moving the dirt around. It’s getting the dirt up.” I said, with a wry smile softening the critique.

He nodded his reply, his shoulders drooping a bit.

I knew this was a real test for him. At WCC, we’re looking for disciples who are “servant-leaders.” Before we promote someone to leadership, we want to make sure that they are willing to serve no matter how small the job. We want leaders who are first of all great followers and great servants. We want leaders who serve and lead like Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God, yet He humbled Himself and became a Servant. He demonstrates to us the kind of obedience He wants in His followers. He also shows us the kind of character He wants in those that He calls to lead. Jesus is looking for servant-leaders.

A few days after I had talked to Auston about getting some “mop-training,” I was a little surprised to see him standing outside the storage room smiling. In fact, I was surprised to see him at the church at all. A lot of volunteers lose their enthusiasm for ministry when they discover its reality. They often feel “called” to do something else.

“What’s Auston smiling about?” I asked one of our staff.

“He wants you to come look at the storage room floor.” She said.

“Why? Did you finally teach him how to mop?” I asked.

“Nope. He said that he googled “How to Mop” and watched a training video.” She answered with a giggle. “You should really go look. He is very proud of his floor.”

I went and looked at the floor. “Not bad.” I said. “Let’s see what else we have for you to do.”

So, this past week we had Auston teach at our high school youth meeting on Sunday evening, he taught at our men’s meeting on Monday evening, and on Wednesday evening he organized and led the Hot-Diggity-Dog church picnic.

On the morning after the picnic, I saw him sitting in our church coffee shop reading. “I’m surprised to see you here. I figured you’d take today off after last night.”

“Yeah, I am pretty tired, but it’s a good kind of tired.” He replied.

Auston is learning the value of service. When we humble ourselves to serve like our Lord Jesus and according to His empowerment, we discover a real sense of fulfillment, a “good kind of tired.” We also discover that our faithfulness in the little things leads to God trusting us with bigger things.

I’m praying that God keeps trusting our church with young men and women who will learn to become servant-leaders.

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NIV).

Robin and I celebrated our 32 year anniversary this week. We went to the beach for a couple of days to mark the moment and to thank God for all His blessings through the years (I took a few photos to remember the occasion. Here’s one of our beach chairs. Sorry, none of us. Seeing me in swimming trunks these days is not something worth remembering.).

As usual, we spent part of the time discussing our wedding day. This is something we do every year and this year was no different.

“OK, it’s 10 AM. What were you doing at this time 32 years ago?” I asked, while leaning back in my beach chair.

“I was in a panic about my hair not looking right.” Robin answered, pulling her hair back in the ocean breeze to demonstrate.

“I was looking for white dress socks at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke. I didn’t realize my white tuxedo rental didn’t come with socks.” I said, laughing with the memory.

At 2:00 P.M. I hummed “Here comes the bride” and said, “What were you doing at this time 32 years ago?”

“I was doing something that I would gladly do over again.” She responded with a smile.

“What was that?” I deadpanned.

“Saying ‘I do” to you!” She answered, leaning in for a kiss.

“Wait a minute.” I said. “The preacher doesn’t pronounce us for another 30 minutes!”

“Very funny.” She said with a little smirk.

This kind of reminiscing usually goes on throughout our day. It’s amazing what power those two little words “I do” have. This is especially true for the bride. She marks her life long commitment with those words and then even her name is changed.

The Bible says that the Church is the bride of Christ. When we receive Him as our own and believe into His Name, we get a new name too. We become part of His family.

I have said “I do” to two very important people in my life. The first and foremost is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The second is my sweet wife of 32 years, Robin.

There is real power and blessing in saying those words and meaning them.