Wisdom Math

Wisdom can seem like a slippery concept. We tend to picture it as some mystical, almost mythical, quality which originates in the ether and is then bestowed on certain fortunate individuals.

Turns out nothing could be farther from the truth. Wisdom is almost a mathematical concept. Boiled down to its essence, wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge to life. Period.

It is the ability to take the information and experience you have and use it in your life situation. It is taking what you know and passing it through the filter of common sense to come up with the best possible course of action.

Which means there are two elements to wisdom.

One is common sense. We’ve all known people who had tons of knowledge but lacked the ability to apply that knowledge to anything remotely practical. They can describe in great detail how an internal-combustion engine works, but need help to put gasoline in their car.

For some people, common sense is God-endowed and supernatural. They are the people to whom God has given the spiritual gift of wisdom. But for most people, wisdom is simply developed from making (and watching others make) decisions, observing the results, and using that to guide future decisions

But whether wisdom is natural or supernatural, the base for wisdom is always knowledge. And to be more specific, relevant knowledge. A person can possess a wealth of information in one area, and show great wisdom there, but lack knowledge in other areas and be unable to exercise any wisdom in that sphere. A person who has excellent knowledge and wisdom in the woods may well get themselves into immense trouble trying to get from Point A to Point B in New York City, while the most street-smart person in Brooklyn could easily die of starvation in an Oregon forest.

That’s why Special Forces spends a ton of time filling a soldier’s head with information prior to sending them into a new area. The knowledge will allow the wise soldier to succeed. Without the knowledge, failure is the most likely result, no matter how well the soldier has done in other environments.

It’s also a big reason we urge leaders in our church to learn as much as they can about churches that are larger than ours, about leadership techniques, and about the ever-changing community in which we live. To make wise decisions for a growing church in an exploding community requires a significant amount of knowledge most people don’t possess.

Solomon urged his readers “Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Advice that still rings true thousands of years later.

Pastor Steve's Quick Guide to Choosing a Worship Service Time

With the move to three services, I'm sure many are trying to decide which service to attend. So, to help you out, here's Pastor Steve's Quick Guide to Choosing a Service:

Profile of a Nine O’Clock Ninja:

I love mornings. On Sundays I like to sleep in until 7 or 8, then get to church to worship and learn and laugh. Then I can either serve in the 10:45 service or head straight home to do whatever I want with the rest of my Sabbath. Makes for one potentially long, relaxing day.

Profile of a Twelve-Thirty Titan:

Are you serious? Can I really sleep as late as I want, read my newspaper or check Facebook, take my time getting ready, have a late breakfast/early lunch/real-live-brunch, and still get to church on time? And there's a full kid's ministry and everything? Cool! And if I want to serve and worship the same week, I still don’t have to be at church until like 10:30? How awesome is that? Plus I’m still home in time for important stuff like my afternoon nap/NASCAR race.

Profile of a Ten-Forty-Five Fanatic:

Ten forty-five is such a great time to bring a friend or co-worker to church! I can pick them up or meet them in the lobby, help them get coffee and a donut, and sit with them during the service. Then afterward, we can go out to lunch and talk about what they thought of church and what their next step toward God might be.

I hope this quick guide was useful for you in picking which service you’ll be attending most frequently starting February 26^th. And I hope you're excited to move forward with us as we help even more people connect with God, with others, and with the person God created them to be.

Powerful Perfume

I was doing some editing on my upcoming e-book and came across something I wrote years ago that really speaks to what I'm dealing with today. (And in case you're curious, it will be in the e-book Transform(180). 180 daily readings filled with encouragement, challenges and humor, designed to reignite your passion for God and revolutionize your spiritual journey. Hopefully I can have the complete e-book available on Amazon sometime in October.)

Powerful Perfume

Focus Text: Mark 14:1-6

Key Verse: "It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor." (5)

Comments:
You know, that argument sounds good. Wouldn’t it be better to use the money to help poor people? Let’s face it, dumping something expensive on someone’s head is awfully close to a waste of money even if that someone happens to be the Son of God.

Well, it may sound logical, but it’s wrong and for a couple of reasons.

First, it misses the point concerning where money comes from. God’s still not poor. And don’t forget that when financial challenges arise, it’s normally a case of Him working to raise our faith level more than us trying to raise our finances.

And second, the question misses the idea of importance. We spend hours arguing over nickels in church budgets. We fund things because we’ve always done it. We raise allotments because a group spent all we gave them last year. We cut amounts if giving drops.

And we miss out on doing God’s work, not because He’s not willing to finance it, but because we’re not willing to ask the important question first. “What does God want us to do?”

See, if God wants it done, He’ll provide for it. But we’re not willing to take the time to even ask Him. It might ruffle a few feathers or force us to live by faith instead of by comfortable tradition.

But if God says to pour out some perfume, pour it out. Because the real bottom line isn’t in finances.
It’s in obedience.

Prayer:
[Father, help us to always let Your will guide our spending. And help me to trust You to do whatever You ask.]

Letters from a Birmingham Jail

While I hate to admit it, I’ve never read Martin Luther King, Jr’s, “Letter from a Birmingham jail." Until today.

Seemed appropriate, considering the holiday and all. So I finally read it.

And it is magnificent. Great arguments, brimming with both academic excellence, emotional pull, and above all, Biblical foundation, as one minister (King) responds to a public letter from a group of clergymen opposing King's efforts in Birmingham, efforts that landed him in jail.

I’ve pulled out a few of my favorite excerpts and reproduced them below. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you then go ahead and read the whole thing. It’s rather long, as he admits, but well worth the reading.

...

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns: and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom far beyond my own hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

...

I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

...

When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; … then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

...

A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

...

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God.

...

I'll close with Dr. King's long but powerful assessment of the Church. That last short paragraph certainly looks prophetic almost 48 years later


There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent–and often even vocal–sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

A Social Network Christmas

Blogging Mad

I know better than to blog mad. But today, I’m making an exception.

I pastor a church filled with military personnel. Every week we pray corporately for literally dozens of men and women from our church who are deployed, and I personally pray for them daily. They are noble individuals, carrying out their orders with dignity.

Too bad I can’t say the same for the government they represent or the Church in America which is turning a blind eye.

This morning I opened the daily e-version of The New York Times. The lead story? With New Violence, More Christians Are Fleeing Iraq.

Believe it or not, it’s a new story, at least “new” in the history of the Church. Christians have lived in relative safety in Iraq for hundreds of years. Until the US invaded Iraq. Now a second consecutive president is choosing to ignore something that is just short of religious genocide. In a country we occupy.

And it’s not the only place. It’s even worse in the other nation where our military are risking their lives. Afghanistan is poised to execute a Christian for, well, being a Christian.

The New York Times has noticed--at least in Iraq--and is speaking up. When will our government?

And when will the Church in America start screaming so loud the government is forced to hear us?

Too Light

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. (Isaiah Isaiah 49:6 (ESV)

Too light a thing.

How often do we attempt things for God that are "too light"?

How often do we discount things as impossible that are, in reality, just about right?

Is it possible one reason the world doesn't believe is that we spend all our time on things that are too light? Things that don't let them see just how awesome our God is?

And what's "heavy" enough? Try taking salvation to the entire world. Try the "end of the earth." Try not settling for reaching a small percentage of our community. Try reaching everyone. Try not just impacting Ft Bragg. Try impacting every military base.

Try something that's too big for us but just right for God.

[Father, help me to not settle for "too light" things.]