Relationship To Win

Recently we had a really cool example of God rescuing a church member from the brink of (or at least the potential danger of) spiritual disaster in the wake of some devastating circumstances in their life. And I wanted to share it with you.

We have been doing triads in our church for several years now. And that has produced some wonderful relationships, and some disciples for Christ, and catapulted others into spiritual growth. And I am convinced that this is what rescued this person spiritually.

The three of them were meeting regularly when a huge bump in life's road made it difficult for this person to gather with the church. But their triad kept meeting. For weeks the triad was the only thing that was consistent spiritually. And now after many weeks, still going in the triad, he has been restored unto the weekly gathering of the church. It seems like such a hard thing to do to get people back that struggle like this, but God used the triad to do it.

Do you know what the main component was that so powerfully worked in this situation? Good, theologically solid material? Nope. Weekly structure and prayer? Nope. RELATIONSHIPS. The relationships within the triad were the saving grace that drew back the wanderer.

As a shepherd, I am just glad to feel like a situation like this turned out well! So, whether it is a triad ministry or not, build deep relationships with those that you gather with. This is not just a good idea, but what sharing life together as the body of Christ is all about!

Suffering Silently

I just want to take a few minutes to address what I think has become a problem in our lives as believers, and maybe even a curse--the curse of silence.

One of the reasons that God placed us in a body of believers here on earth is because the body needs the ears, hands, and feet to carry out its task. The other reason along this line is that we need the body. The body is to be the safe place that we may encourage and be encouraged; strengthen and be strengthened; help and be helped; love and be loved no matter what. We are told to take refuge in the Lord, and the church is His body--a refuge for us. Ideally in the church freedom should exist to open up our lives to our brethren sharing our deepest fears, hurts, and needs. And the body to still embrace and care for us, and love us through difficult seasons. The hands of Christ will minister to us in times of need. And some churches are refuges...

But many churches are not. Some have an atmosphere that creates just the opposite; a place to hide your true thoughts and feelings, and a place to be very cautious about sharing life. Many feel that their pain will be the talk of the church or town in an unhelpful way. Many feel like they don't need the body's help. Many are afraid of what those in the body will think about them or their situation. They expect harsh judgmentalism, envy, disagreement, unloving rebuke, etc. Thus we have the curse of silent suffering.

We go through our problems alone when God has provide for us a support system; not so that we could make "unspoken requests," but so we can share our heartache with others. The body cannot help if it doesn't know...

That having been said, a couple of qualifications (you have to add qualifications to anything you say, so that as many people don't get angry) and warnings. QUALIFICATIONS: I realize that there are certain issues that would be better handled in private (but this doesn't mean alone). And I also realize that God wants us to come to Him first, and that sometimes we come in quiet, peaceful submission and patience alone. And I am aware that there are people that are so shy in their personality that this is incredibly difficult. But in general we don't share when we should.

WARNINGS: 1) forced intimacy is not helpful. Let's say in your small group or Sunday School class, you decide to begin by going around the room and asking people to share their deepest hurts...not helpful. If someone shares voluntarily, that's different. 2) If you are one who is overly judgmental, gossipy, self-focused, too busy, or uncaring about others, please spend some time with Jesus in the gospels and note how He ministered opposite to all these things to very difficult people. Ask God to hear your sincere prayer of repentance and change your heart. 3) If you are one of those that is overly sensitive, fearful, self-sufficient, or just simply unwilling, please know that the peace, comfort, and encouragement is far worth the risk. At least find one or two fellow believers in the church that you can truly trust to give you good counsel and an encouraging verse from the Word. And as we all do this, others in the same situations will benefit.

Thanks for reading...

"There's A Man With a Machete in Our Church!"

Well, I just figured I would share the most memorable night of our Fall Challenge Week (revival). People usually remember revivals because people come to know Christ; or marriages get saved; or passion is rekindled in their spirits; or God moves in a spectacular way. But we will remember this one for a totally different reason.

FCW goes from Thurs night to Sun morning. Thurs night was fairly normal revival, good attendance, good worship, good movement of God upon His people, and a great start to our week. But then on Friday about halfway through the speaker's message, a man somehow ended up in our building. He was really drunk, and he had one of those strap-on deer-hunting flashlights on his forehead. AND he was carrying a big machete!

For a few minutes he walked up and down the back hallway screaming and beating on the doors with his machete. One of the doors that he knocked on was the door to the nursery, where the women and children were, and they opened the door to see this guy with his machete looking back at them. Needless to say, they were terrified! Slamming the door they began to text message several people out in the church for help.

Well, it was church, and so everyone's phone was off or on silent. So they were trapped. Not good, with a possible deranged killer loose inside the building. Eventually this guy found his way into the back door to the choir loft behind the pulpit, and he stumbled right in to the worship service with his light and machete, about 10 feet from the pulpit. Needless to say, this was unnerving to lots of people. And Erika was elbowing me and punching me, telling me to "do something!"

The light on his forehead distracted most people from the large machete, and so most of them didn't see it. So nobody was panicking yet (except Erika and the ladies in the nursery). After I decided that this wasn't a skit to go along with the message, I found the biggest guy in the church, and told him to come with me. (I needed someone to tackle him that was bigger than me)

We went to the hallway, and told the man to come to us out of the sanctuary. He wouldn't! And he wouldn't give us the machete. So, I did what any brave pastor would do--I told my big deacon to watch him real close, told the other deacon to go check on his wife, and I went to get my gun from the truck and call the cops (not necessarily in that order).

By the time the deputies got there (less than four minutes, but seemed like forever, kudos to all my boys and the TCSO), the man had changed his mind, given us the machete, come out of the choir loft, and said he needed to find a restroom. And right before they arrived, one of our men in the church, who happened to be a neighbor to this guy, came back to fill us in (where were you the last ten minutes!!!!).

He said that this guy was like the town drunk, lots of substance abuse issues, and probably just needed a ride home. And so we said, you go and see. And so he went into the restroom, and talked a bit, deputies arrived, and we got that guy a ride home. Not in handcuffs, much to dismay of my nursery workers, but out of our church all the same. What a night! And I stepped into the sanctuary just in time to pray the closing prayer as if nothing happened, like anyone believed that!

It makes me smile now (because I don't believe that this man's intention was to hurt or scare anyone), but then it was really scary. None of us wanted to be on the news the next day. In our day, you just don't know. Don't think many people remember much of the sermon. But we did learn how ill-prepared we were for just such an event. And there are many changes to come about how we handle things like this, and much preparation is in order. We are also very grateful to God for His mercy upon us. For even though this guy was very drunk, and very confused, this could have gone really bad. We are encouraged that Satan us using strategies like this to distract us, and trust that something big in the Kingdom is on the way.

Please pray for us as we continue to deal with the after effects of an event like this. Pray that we forgive, fix our eyes upon Christ, refuse to live in fear, and prepare in wisdom for future events. Hopefully we never have to deal with such an event, but in my short pastoral ministry, this has now happened twice in six years.

Help us, Lord, to live and handle situations like this in a way pleasing unto You!