Vertical Church: Chapter 4 An Epic Failure

The church in North America is fading - fast.  If you are a Christian that sentence should hit you hard.  If it didn't, please take a look at some numbers that James MacDonald lays out in this chapter (pg. 130):

• 6,000 churches close their doors every year
• Only 1 in 10 pastors retire while still in the ministry
• Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church
• Only 15% of churches are growing numerically in the U.S.
• 800 new church plants survive each year
• 10,000 new churches would be needed each year to keep up with population growth

If you are a numbers-person like I am, than those numbers should hurt.  If you're a growing Christian who is sold-out for Christ, you should be concerned.  If you love the Church, you should want better.  We need better.

We've tried the horizontal approach.  We've welcomed business leadership principles, man-centered strategies and entrepreneurship to teach us how to reach customers - the unsaved.  We have replaced lethargic legalism with competency church.  Our approach has been wrong. (p. 134)

I urge you to pick up a copy of this book.  I read this chapter 3 times, and it hurt every time to read it.  I'm not a pastor, I'm not an elder or a deacon.  But I'm sold out for Christ and I want the church to be healthy, growing, thriving and making disciples.  I want that for you.  And I want that in my church.

If you've followed our story, than you know that this winter Joel and I found Harvest Bible Chapel.  Our lives have been changed as we work alongside other sold-out Christians to plant a church near where we live.  We are excited to be part of a church that is ridiculously excited to build a Christ-focused church where people are saved, lives are changed, disciples are made and God is glorified.

I don't know where you are in life as you're reading this - if you go to church, if you're growing in your church - maybe you're church homeless right now.  But God wants you in a church where He is welcomed, His Word is preached and the Great Commission is fulfilled.  So, how do you know if you need to look for a new church home?  I sat down with our pastor and we discussed some Biblical reasons for leaving a church. I pray that these reasons may give you some guidance and peace.


When to leave a church...

1. When a church isn't preaching the Gospel.  Either the Gospel isn't been proclaimed on Sunday or the church has adopted a false version of the Gospel.  (Gal. 1:6-9)
2. When a church is not preaching/teaching sound Biblical doctrine.  (Romans 16:17)
3. When the church leadership does not model or promote a Biblical lifestyle.  (Phil. 3:17, I Pt. 5:3)
4. When the church refuses to practice church discipline.  (I Cor. 5:6-8)
5. When your spiritual gifts are not being used.  (Romans 12:3-8)
6. When you're not growing in your walk under the leadership of the church.

If you're a Christian, Sunday should be your favorite day of the week.  You should look forward to Sunday morning all week - and you should leave the church doors saying I can't wait to go back.  My prayer is that would be your experience, if not, pray what God would have for you.

Vertical Church: Chapter 3 Glory

to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus

throughout all generations, 

forever and ever.  Amen.  Ephesians 3:21

In February, I sat in a hotel conference room with about 40 other people.  We were all there to find out one thing - to find out more about this church plant we all had heard about.  We all came from various churches all around our area - God drew us together that night.  As our pastor was speaking and sharing about the vision for this new church, one word stood out to me - glory.  Now, glory is something we Christians hear about often and say and sing about frequently.  But there was something about the way our pastor spoke about glory that made me think.  Why is he so passionate about bringing God's glory to this town?  Isn't that what every church ultimately works for?

James MacDonald sums-up this big God-word in chapter 3:  Remember that glory is any manifestation of God, glory is evidence for God, it is proof of God's existence.  Glory is when we see something that could not be by itself, which is everything our eyes fall upon.  And while the creation is whispering His glory and the saved are singing His glory, the gospel of the Son is heralding the message:  there's a God, there's a God, there's a God! (pg. 99)

So, glory is a God word.  It's a church word.  We use it a lot.  We say we're doing it in the church. But are we really glorifying the Almighty?  Church has become a horizontal pursuit - proclaiming truth while ignoring grace, avoiding truth while teaching an ubiblical view of grace, clinging to personal comfort in worship, allowing preaching on the pastor's thoughts and experiences rather than proclaiming God's word... these are all part of the horizontal church (John 1:14, John 7:18, Mark 12:30).  But God never intended the church to be horizontal.  It is supposed to be Vertical - man seeking God's glory and God displaying His manifest presence.

Let's stop making church about me.  Let's put an end to seeking out our comfort zones within the church walls.  Let's stop using church to pursue our own desires, our ambitions.  Let's start proclaiming God's glory.  Let's start seeking it.

Show us your glory, Lord!

Vertical Church: Chapter 2 Manifest Presence

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory." Psalm 115:1

Last week, I wrote about Chapter 1 - God's transcendence... that yearning inside of all of us for the eternal.

This week the topic isn't any lighter.  God's glory and manifest presence.  I'll be honest, this chapter has a lot of weight to it.  I've read it several times now and my pages are covered in highlighter ink.  As I've read the pages again and again, I've come to realize how important these truths are and how central they are to the church.

As I've thought about His manifest presence and glory, I've come to realize how necessary both are to the church and in our daily walk with the Lord.  Let me share with you one example of God's manifest presence in my life...

In February of 2007, Joel left for his first tour in Iraq.  This was our first deployment as a couple, and my jaded understanding that being married to a military man was all fun and romantic quickly shifted.  I didn't know how I was going to cope as a "single mom" while he was away at war, let alone how I was going to deal with the gravity of what Joel was about to do while deployed.  My emotions were up, down and completely unpredictable.  The weight of all of the unknowns was almost too much to bear.

D-day came.  The day us military wives dread.  I cried on and off all day, but tried to keep things as positive as I could for Joel and our then 11 month old Grace.  Soon, Joel's best friend came to the house to bring Joel to the base.  We said our goodbyes, I shed a few tears and soon he was out of the house, down the driveway, and gone from sight.  

I remember Grace standing in the middle of our living room floor in her footie pajamas, like it was just another night.  As she giggled and played, I fell to pieces.  Before long, I was balled-up in the middle of our living room, on the floor, weeping.  I still can feel how my whole body shook - as I thought about the man I loved on his way to many, many months of unknowns.  In those few moments, I felt alone, afraid and without strength.

I called out to God.  Please Lord, help me.  I need You.  I can't do this without You.  Be with me.

For those of you who know God's manifest presence - who've felt it - it won't surprise you to know that in that moment of complete weakness and helplessness, God's presence fell on me.  He was near.

In the few hours that followed, God was with me as I talked with Gracie.  He was with me as I loved on her, read to her and tucked her into bed.  His presence was with me and before me as I carried on those many months.  He carried me through.  He was near.

Sometime, in the middle of that deployment, I came across a sign at a local store that summed up my prayer... my prayer for that deployment, the two that came after that one, and for all the times in between.  It hangs in my kitchen, and is a constant reminder of my yearning for God's presence in my life, His nearness.

We need His manifest presence.  It should be our desire as a church to have His presence, His nearness on us and with us each Sunday.  That's what I want in a church, and He wants that, too.  In Exodus 33, we see a glimpse of a conversation between God and Moses.  Moses was a great man of God, a great man of faith.  But in these verses we see that Moses didn't want to go anywhere that God wasn't.  God continued to remind Moses, to calm him by saying My presence will go with you.

I don't want to take one step in my life without the presence of God with me and before me.  I don't want to go to a church where God doesn't show up.  I need Him with me.  I want His weight on me.

Me in the Mirror

I know it's been a while since I wrote a legitimate post.  Sorry for the hiatus - it wasn't planned, but I needed it.

The last two months has been both equally great and difficult.  In so many ways, God has shown up and provided me with abundantly more than I've asked of Him.  In other ways, He has allowed me to go through some pretty muddy times.  Hard times.  And that's what this is all about.

For those who are Christians, you know there are too many times in our walk that we feel that everything is going pretty well.  There are no obvious tribulations.  Relationships are good.  We're pretty happy, and maybe even joyful at times.  There are no obvious sins in our life.  We're basically coasting through.

That's been me for the last while.  Joel and I are doing pretty well - no major problems or fights but we're not really growing a whole lot.  My friendships are good, but they could be better.  I'm pretty content most of the time, but still have moments when I want more out of life than what God has given me.  I don't have any major sins that I'm dealing with.  My relationship with God is good.  Steady.

But if you're mature in your faith, you know that our relationships should be moving forward.  Our relationship with Christ should be growing.  We should always be aware of areas in our life where God is pushing us to grow - convicting us.  We are to also be content all of the time with what God has given us now - knowing that God gives us what we need today, and we don't need to worry about the next day, month or year. 

Last month, I went with a group from our church to a church conference in Chicago.  It was amazing - our group really grew together and God showed up in big ways.  Lives were changed. The first night of the conference, we started with worship.  I mean amazing worship.  In normal Jill-form, I started crying pretty heavily.  A friend turned to me, gave me a hug and asked if God was peeling away some layers.  I told her, no, that I am just a crier.  But the truth was He was.  He was beginning the process of peeling back some areas in my life - bitterness, hurt, loneliness, pride...  Throughout the next few days, God continued to show me where I've put up walls and He was tearing them down.

See, during the last few months, I haven't seen obvious sin in my life.  I don't cheat, steal, lust... you know, Ten Commandment-type sins.  I haven't been dealing with the big ones.  But God has revealed so many areas in my where I am living apart from Him - apart from His perfection.

During times of conviction, I have found that you either flee from God or run to Him.  Well, I've been running toward Him.  My quiet times have been more consistent and meaningful then they've been in a long time.  And while it feels good to be in His arms and under the Spirit, it is hard.  The peeling back of those layers is hard.  It hurts.

In the mornings, I've taken a break from listening to my iPod in the bathroom and have instead started listening to sermons.  I listen to James MacDonald with the Walk in the Word app on my phone.  In the past few weeks, I've listened to sermons about guilt, fear, people pleasing, and living for futility.  Sometimes at church it's easy to space-out during a sermon and not allow the pastor's words to penetrate your heart.  But I've found that during my 25-minute routine in front of the mirror every morning, that it's impossible to look myself in the face - look at my reflection, while listening to God's Word be preached - and not be convicted.  And it's during those mornings that God has pushed on my heart the hardest. 

So, that's where I am today.  God is pushing on my heart - hard.  He is showing me the areas in my life that I've chosen to live, apart from Him. 

I'll write about those areas more.  I'm still trying to process through it all.  But there are some things that I've blogged about struggling with before, that God has shown me that I'm still struggling with. 

If you want to know where my heart is right now, read Psalm 139.

10 Things to Smile About: April

Wow!  April is over - how in the world did that happen?  It was a crazy month around here - a good month, but a bit of a blur.  So here are 10 things that made me smile last month...

1.  Grace continuing to grow in knowledge and in her heart.  She came home with this handwriting work from school - this made my heart so happy.  God is growing her.

2.  Easter.  We had a lovely brunch with my parents, followed by an Easter egg hunt.  With all that's been going on in life, this was a truly sweet day.

3.  Lots and lots of time with new friends.  I'm amazed how quickly I've grown to love a group of people, I've only known for a short time.

4.  Autumn turned 2!

5.  Continued success with our journey to become debt free. Our grand total since September 2011 is $10,900.  Lots of hard work to do still.  But we've made a ton of progress and I can't wait to know how it feels to be able to say "we are debt free".

6.  A new workout routine that I'm incorporating with my workouts at the YMCA.  The workouts are hard, sweaty, but somehow super fun.  I'm seeing some good progress in just one month... can't wait to finally be ok with swimsuit season.

7.  Going to Harvest University in Chicagoland with my new church... wonderful teaching, inspiring ministry and God-glorifying worship.  It was truly amazing.

8.  A sleepover with 3 Kindergartners.  It was crazy.  It was loud.  It was exhausting.  It was fun.  Oh, and thanks Mom, for putting up with all my sleepovers.  I had no idea!

9.  Our first trip to the zoo this season. 

10.  With only a month of school left, we are making fun plans for the summer - a trip to the East coast, a trip to Seattle and some horse riding lessons for Miss Grace.

Bible in 90 Days: The Old Testament

I was a bit shocked to turn the page in my Bible on Monday and realize that we were in Matthew.  When we started this journey 71 days ago, I had the attitude on Day 1 that I couldn't wait for the New Testament reading to begin.  Initially, I wasn't looking forward to reading through the Old Testament.  But soon I became immersed in the stories of God and His people - their journey together.

Now that we're in Matthew, I'm still going back in my head to the truths of God that the Old Testament reveals.  It's so obvious to me that in order to be a healthy Christian, you have to be rooted in the God of the Old Testament... because He's the same God of the New Testament.  I've often thought (and said) that the God of the Old Testament seemed distant and harsh to me.  But I can firmly say that I no longer believe that.

Some things that I learned about God through our Old Testament reading....

• He wants genuine relationships with us
• He loves through discipline
• He cannot stand sin
• He requires holiness
• He offers a way to holiness
• His plan is perfect
• His heart is hurt, like a father, when we walk away from Him
• His love for us is at the center of all that he does
• He is always in control, even when things seem chaotic
• He is just
• He knows our heart and desires it
• He created perfectly
• God works through us, even with our imperfections
• He desires our praise
• He desires our heart
• He can use our failures
• His love never fails
• His love never ends
• His Word is life

For those of you who are Christians, especially those who have been saved for a long time, these truths are not ground-breaking.  They are truths about God loved by His people.  And although we may know them in our mind, too often we do not know them in our heart.  We do not always live like we believe them.

I've learned that it is easy to be academic in our understanding of God.  But that gets us no where.  And God doesn't want that.  The last 71 days have been heart-changing for me, and I pray that they've been that way for you, too!

Source: janefarr.blogspot.com via Ashton on Pinterest



Don't Go, Daddy

Sometimes I feel very selfish.  Let me clarify - sometimes I feel more selfish than usual.

I often feel that our life is always in someone else's control (ahem, military) that I need to control everything in my life in order to feel somewhat balanced.  If the military's going to dictate our life, then I want to be able to at least feel I can control something. 

Just a few days after Joel left on this deployment, my dad left with a group from church, to work in Haiti.  This is his second trip since the earthquake.  The two main guys in my life were going far away at the same time.  I was in freak out mode.  I had come to deal with the fact that Joel was leaving, but the closer it got to my dad's trip, the more I felt the urge to sit on his foot, grab his leg and tell him he wasn't going.

Selfish.  I know.

I already felt my world was tipping and the guy who has always been consistent, my dad, was leaving and suddenly my world felt even more off kilter.

I should be proud, and I am really, that I have two great men in my life who are willing to work hard in a place far from home, working with people who need so much help.  But having them both gone at the same time was hard.  I really lean on my dad when Joel's on deployment and I didn't know if I could do it knowing he wasn't right across town.

But it's not about me.  It's about all the people in the middle east and in Haiti who need help and support.  And my two guys are so strong to go and do that hard work.

Dad came back last week so invigorated from his experience.  He got to help build homes for the homeless, love on children who were parentless and witness to those who don't have God in their life.  I'm so proud of him for that.

Here's a picture, from a Sunday church service, I believe.  My dad loves kids and is so great with them and kids just naturally flock to him.  There are so many better pictures of him with kids, but I wanted one that didn't show their faces.

Love you, Dad.  I'm so proud of you!