The PBA Blog

What happens when we fail to grow up the next generation of leaders in our churches?

1. Young people aren’t allowed to fulfill their God given calling.

2. Young people get bored with our church and search for meaning elsewhere.

3. The average age of the leaders (and people) in our church grows older.

4.  Our church growth is limited to the existing leadership capacity.

5. As the numbers of leaders shrink, the size of our church shrinks.

6. Eventually, our church loses the capacity to lead and finally dies.

(We welcome back guest blogger Lynwood Wells.)

This is the week we reflect upon the depth 0f Jesus’ passion and love for us. More than at any other time we feel His divinity resonate with our humanity. As we read familiar Scriptures, we identify with Jesus’ followers as they fall asleep, betray, deny, flee, despair, and generally fail to “get it”. We imagine what it was like for them to watch their king, their savior, be arrested, whipped, humiliated, stripped naked, crowned with thorns, and hammered to a wooden cross.

It is a week our souls find a strange comfort in God’s intentional confusion and chaos. We know the story from this side of the cross so well. The “Messiah King” is killed by the Romans when the Jews thought He was supposed to be conquering them. Instead of taking the throne, He was nailed to a tree, and forever cursed by it, or so it was thought.

In so doing, Jesus demonstrated that the higher ways of God way are not their way or ours. He knew that by dying, the Jews could not only be saved from the perceived tyranny of any military power, but from a far worse tyranny, that of sin and evil. Jesus chose the path of suffering and death so that they—and we—could be free forever from the punishment of separation due because of the evil in our hearts. He took our place on the cross. If we are able to “get” this truth, then suffering and death are no threat to us, whether at the hands of a Roman soldier, or in the hand of a just God. We don’t need to fear death because of what Jesus did.

Through Jesus’ willingness to suffer, no matter what we are going through, however tough or terrorizing, we know one thing is sure: Jesus understands. He has endured far worse, for our sake. When we are tempted to look up out of the dark holes we find ourselves in, to search the heavens and call out to God—we may wonder, “Where is God and why won’t he rescue me?”

Consider for a moment that Jesus doesn’t gaze down at you from some great throne in Heaven. No. He is right there with you, around you and beneath you, waiting for you to let go and fall back into his arms. Jesus has experienced the limits of life’s deepest hurt and suffering and He is able to meet you where you are.

There is no depth of despair to which we can ever descend that is lower than Jesus went when he died under the weight of a worldful of evil. He drew close to us, and then drew us close in Him. That’s God’s plan, plain and simple. No matter how low we have fallen, or how broken we may have become, if we are find ourselves drawn closer into Jesus during this week of passion, we will ascend with Him on Easter day.

On the grace journey with you, Lynwood

Last night we had our annual PBA Vision Night. I was really blessed by all of the young leaders who took part in the program. If these are the next leaders in our churches, we are going to be alright. The theme of the night was Life on Life which is our association’s theme for 2012. The focus was on pouring our lives into the lives of young people. I used the analogy of a cup. (I basically stole the idea from Andy Stanley www.northpoint.org but using actual cups was my idea.)

What Andy says is that it is not our responsibility to fill someone else’s cup, but rather to empty our cup. So, you don’t have to know everything, or have experienced everything in order to pour into someone’s life. This is such a powerful concept. Many people never try coaching, mentoring, discipling etc., because they don’t think they have what it takes. But all of us have something to offer – our personal experiences and the wisdom that comes from walking with God – that young people desperately need.

As I have been visiting around in our churches I have observed something. Those churches that are vibrant and growing are using young people in their leadership. They are intentionally developing young people to serve and to lead. Those churches that are in decline tend to have very few young people, and they aren’t really engaging the young people they have in any significant way to develop them as emerging leaders.

What is your church doing to develop young leaders? What are you doing personally? Who’s life are you emptying your cup into? WHat are your thoughts? Ideas?

(This blog post was submitted by Lynwood Wells, pastor of Hilton Baptist Church, Newport News)

The older I get, I never cease to marvel how life is a never ending swing between the highest highs and the lowest lows. Like the pendulum movements of an old grandfather clock, the passing of time is marked by a rhythm that we do not control.  Seasons pass, sunsets give way to night, and stars lose their beauty to the dawn of the next day.

We feel frustrated in our walk with God when we are continually forced to swerve around what seem to be never ending roadblocks and detours. We experience breakthroughs and breakouts and glorious times where our joy seems unfathomable.  Then in the very next moment run into a wall that does not give way. We feel as though God has forsaken us – or, worse, that we somehow misinterpreted His will. One way or another, our joy is depleted, our passion runs dry, and we settle for motions rather than movement in our walk with God.

However, we have a choice. We always have a choice. Either we can trust the Spirit’s leading, or we can insist on going our own way. But I continue to learn only one choice leads to life. The other marks a gradual descent toward spiritual death, for no one can refuse God’s will and prosper.

That is the challenge of faith. Not to surrender to the circumstances of good or bad, but to reach through the darkness and latch ourselves firmly onto the providence of God. Or if we miss that opportunity, simply free fall into the ocean of His grace.

Only through trials and failures do we discover deeper intimacy with God than we’ve known before. There is a sweetness, even in falling, when we look back and realize our God has never failed to catch us, or allowed us to broken, but for the greater purpose of conforming us to His will.

Whatever struggle you are facing, heartache unhealed, or dream unfulfilled — consider for a moment a visual reminder of the “this too shall pass” principle. Reflect on it when going through difficult seasons and challenging times. Make a fist and look at your knuckles. You see peaks and valleys. Such is the nature of life: peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys. You may be in a valley now, but go a little further and you’ll be on top of a peak once again.

Then raise your fist to eye level, between you and the horizon beyond.  And do the same with your other hand. Now realize now you are simply putting up your dukes and fighting the good fight of faith. Keep your eyes on the prize and never give in, never give up! The final bell has not rung and the match has not yet been called. With every ounce of your strength and last fighting breath, press on, fight on and the victory will be won!

On the grace journey together with you, Lynwood Wells

I was in a couple of discussions recently with church leaders that really dealt with hidden fears. In one discussion, the youth pastor of one of our larger churches was commenting on how they always invite smaller churches to their big events because they want to be a blessing to other churches. The conversation shifted to the fact that a lot of leaders of smaller youth groups are afraid to take their kids to participate with larger youth groups for fear that they will lose kids to those bigger groups.

In the other conversation several pastors were talking about the fact that they never take all of the vacation time they are allowed. It became clear in the conversation that fear also drives this decision at times. Pastors fear being away for a couple of weeks, because something may happen when they are gone. And so they burn themselves out by rarely taking a much needed break.

I have heard other pastors say they are afraid to bring a good speaker into their church because the congregation may compare the pastor to this other guy.

These fears are real, and sometimes justified. I’ve heard of big church youth groups growing by attracting youth from other churches. Though this is rarely the case. And many times congregations subject their pastor’s to unreasonable expectations.

I believe all of these kinds of fears are symptoms of our weak faith. We need to remind ourselves that it is God’s church. It’s OK if things don’t always go the way we want them to. If we are focused on his will and fulfilling his vision for our church he will provide.

If you are a lay person, here is what you can do:

Support your church’s youth ministry. Don’t shop around for a better one!

Protect your pastor by insisting he takes his vacation time. Offer to step up to cover something (hospital visits, etc.) while he is gone.

If he brings in a good speaker say to your pastor “Thanks for bringing him in, we loved him, but we love you more!”

Hey, check out my new blog post about “Ministry in Hard Times”. Just click on “Thoughts from Chuck” over on the left side of this page.

Pastor:

Have you always wanted to have a blog, but never got around to setting one up? Here is your chance. This blog is for any of our pastors who wants to post. Let’s keep it positive and informative (not a place for rants and complaints). You can repost that wonderful article that you spent so much time composing for your church’s newsletter, a thought or illustration from a sermon, a review of a book, a repost from another blog, or whatever you think would be of interest to others.

The best blogposts are kept to a few paragraphs, contain links to references made in the post, and cause others to think. So, get creative and start submitting posts. Just send them in the form of a word document to me and I will post them for you.

Chuck

PS: While you are at it, check out my personal blog www.chuckharrison.net.

Starting in January you will be able to read stories, lessons and much more from pastors across the association–right here. So stay tuned, and check back with us next year!