Category Archives: Faith

Being the Church

July 31, 2011 By in Church, Courage, Great Commission, Kingdom of God Leave a comment

This short video brought tears to my eyes over my longing for authentic church to take root throughout our communities.

Some of us are beginning to find it, but it’s very very rare in an age when church is little more than a set of programs, performances, ministry teams, leadership structure, buildings, budgets and Sunday services centered around the vision and abilities of some gifted man.

As you watch, listen with your heart to what the Lord may want to say to you. All over the world, He is birthing in more and more people a longing to once again be the church. It takes courage and there are birth pangs, but trust me, it’s worth it!

By Kelly and Niki Tshibaka.

Abusive Church Leaders (Part 4) – Civil and Criminal Law

May 30, 2011 By in Abuse, Abusive Pastor, Church, Courage, Judgment, Pastor, Predatory Leaders, State 27 Comments
Abusive Church Leaders (Part 4) – Civil and Criminal Law

So you’ve tried to follow the procedure of 1 Tim. 5, as discussed in Part 3 of this series, by investigating and exposing church leaders who abused their positions of power and trust.

But what if you were rebuffed?

Or what if – despite public reprimand, confession and repentance – you reasonably fear that they may continue preying on others or the church is not providing restitution for the harm you’ve been bearing? Scripturally, do you have additional options?

More specifically, is it ever proper to seek help from the courts and secular authorities to deal with pastoral sexual abuse or churches which allowed it to happen? After all, doesn’t 1 Cor. 6 say we should not sue another brother?

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Abusive Church Leaders (Part 2) – How Should We React?

May 28, 2011 By in Abuse, Abusive Pastor, Christ Chapel, Church, Courage, Judgment, Pastor, Predatory Leaders, Sin 15 Comments

How should we react to an unrepentant pastor who’s used his position of trust and power to prey on women – often after turning to him for spiritual counsel and support during vulnerable times in their lives?

All the theory in the world is great. But one thing I’ve learned from experience is this: Those who want to help these women find justice and closure, and protect others, need an unflinching resolve to stand toe to toe against these predators.

Typically, a predatory pastor is not accustomed to being questioned or challenged by anyone. He often will try to deflect accountability either through intimidation or a charm offensive – or both! These men are master manipulators, and it takes a God-given strength of will to stand firm, force answers, stop the abuse, and expose their evil as a warning to others.

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Abusive Church Leaders (Part 1) – My Personal Angst

May 23, 2011 By in Abuse, Abusive Pastor, Christ Chapel, Church, Confession, Healing, Judgment, New Covenant Fellowship, Pastor, Predatory Leaders, Repentance, Sin, Woundedness 14 Comments

Much to my dismay, God keeps bringing people to my door who have been abused by a pastor or other trusted church leader.

Over the last year, I’ve taken on three cases against abusive pastors. Two involve significant embezzlement and fraud by pastors in different churches. A third involves extensive sexual abuse and misconduct by around half a dozen men on the pastoral and ministerial staff at Christ Chapel Assembly of God in Woodbridge, Virginia.

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A Warrior’s Heart

May 2, 2011 By in Courage, Gratitude, Virtue Leave a comment

I thank God for the young men and women who defend our nation, and who have dedicated themselves to the discipline and skills needed to plan and carry out dangerous missions like yesterday’s assault on Bin Laden deep in the heart of Pakistan.

May we never forget that it is God who creates the warrior’s heart: To protect the innocent and put virtue above self, and to thrill at hard things.

‘Though they often remain nameless and anonymous, may they ever be honored by a grateful nation.

“When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.” Proverbs 11:10

The Storm

April 28, 2011 By in Grace, Judgment, Mercy, Prophetic, Tyranny 2 Comments

The Storm

There is something in the prophetic personality that loves the thunder, the lightning and the storm.

I get a kick out of standing outside and watching the dark, billowing clouds roll in. We feel God’s majesty in turmoil, and know that He often uproots before He establishes.

I think we feel His mercy more deeply, but also differently. Because our personalities are especially attuned to His power and redemptive judgment, we more fully appreciate His grace.

That’s why we embrace the oppressed and battle tyrants, while relishing the storm.

~ Jim Wright

Understanding the Seven Motivational Gifts

January 2, 2011 By in Church, Community, Faith, Fellowship, Gifts, Grace, Leadership, Mercy, Prophetic, Virtue 1 Comment

This PowerPoint presentation looks at the seven gifts listed in Romans 12, and the motivations and ways that different people use those differing gifts. More significantly, what is the resulting fruit when your church allows those seven gifts to be fully expressed in its structure, ministries, leadership, meetings and day-to-day fellowship?

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A Tale of Two Ministries

December 27, 2010 By in Church, Faith, Gifts, Jail, Ministry Leave a comment

In nature, there’s a word for a place with inflow but no outflow: It’s called a swamp. God’s people are not called to be dead, stagnant swamps, but to offer living water: Cool, fresh, flowing and life giving.

Unfortunately, too many church gatherings are about inflow and not outflow. Churches today are focused on meetings and programs where people receive ministry, rather than places where we can minister one to another — as Scripture commands — according to our differing gifts. Getting people out of the familiar, traditional swamp of going to church to receive ministry, rather than the Biblical mandate to be the church where everyone ministers, is very daunting!

This dichotomy is amply illustrated by two ministries I’m involved with in the local jail. One is a highly structured, thirteen week program that provides intense teaching and scripted study materials to about thirty men who live together in a low-security, faith-based dorm. In that program, some of the strongest pulpit ministries in the county come to teach and minister to the men. With two meetings each weekday, they receive the best preaching and teaching imaginable. It’s like “podium church” on steroids.

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The Church in the New Testament: Its Form, Function and Purpose

October 31, 2010 By in Church, Community, Elder, Faith, Fellowship, Gifts, Great Commission, House Church, Institutional Church, Kingdom of God, Leadership, Ministry, Organic Church, Pastor 2 Comments

Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! In this PowerPoint presentation, all that you think of as “church” is about to be challenged so God can woo us back to being, once more, the multi-faceted, wonderful, exciting Body of Christ.

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My Prayer

September 26, 2010 By in Abusive Pastor, Church, Fakes, Leadership, Prayer, Repentance 1 Comment

How long, Lord, will you continue to tolerate those leaders among us who bring shame on your name and prey on your people?

How long, Lord, will you tolerate those who enable such predators, thus allowing even more harm to your precious children?

For your name’s sake, bring righteousness and judgment.

Purify your Church, Lord, of those building their kingdoms and manipulating your people to advance self interests, rather than Your Kingdom.

Joy and Gratitude

July 10, 2010 By in Faith, Love, Mercy

Marianne

Today I marry a woman whom I love more deeply than I ever thought possible.

The possibility of spending my life with someone who can love and receive love seemed impossible. But the Lord shows mercy to those who trust Him, by turning evil to good and creating beauty from ashes.

To love someone who in turn is able to truly love and truly be loved is a wonderful gift.

My joy and my gratitude are unbounded.

Helping or Enabling?

June 21, 2010 By in Grace, Love, Mentor, Mercy, Ministry, Sin 14 Comments

It’s hard cut lose a man you’ve been ministering to and let him ultimately bear the full consequences of the mess he’s made of his

life – not to hurt him, but to let him finally hit bottom.

I am friends with and minister to men and women who most people, and many churches, shun (except for arms-length “programs”, if even that). Pick a vice – any vice – and I’ve likely come beside and embraced those in bondage to it: former drug addicts, narc dealers, sex offenders, embezzlers, thieves, gender benders, Satanic ritual abusers and even murderers.

Because I’ve been willing to see past the sin and accept the common humanity we all share – not as one who is perfect but as a someone willing to walk with them as we sort out our individual imperfections together under God’s mercy and grace – some of these folk are now following the Lord.

I love such people, because daily I see how God creates beauty out of their ashes.

I am blessed, because I serve a God who, above all, creates. He takes destruction – what has become void and without form, in the words of Genesis 1 – and brings wonder and life and order. . .

. . . and He delights most of all, I’ve found, in redeeming lives that many think are beyond hope.

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Heaven

June 14, 2010 By in Faith, Flying, Joy Leave a comment

There’s nothing like flying along at 10,000 feet with my fiancé — in and out of white bellowing clouds with quilted green earth below and majestic blue sky above — while listening to Norah Jones in our headsets and enjoying the three dimensional wonder of God’s creation.

That’s where I find heaven on — or should I say above? — earth!

The Gospel vs. Religion

May 24, 2010 By in Faith, Grace, Love, Peace 1 Comment

Tim Keller, an author (The Reason for God, Counterfeit Gods and Prodigal God) whom I have come to deeply respect (and who also happened to attended Westminster Theological Seminary — although I don’t recall that we knew each other), developed this list comparing the Gospel to Religion.

It’s a good focus for prayerful meditation as we each come before the Throne of Grace and let the Lord change our perspective. Only by letting Him change our perspective — the way we think and believe and react — can we be transformed into the men and women He lovingly calls us to be.

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Scientific Faith

May 19, 2010 By in Absolutes, Atheism, Creation, Faith, Science, Worldview 3 Comments

Whether or not you believe in the “Big Bang”, it is worth noting that it requires belief in an initial “singularity” of zero volume with infinite density and infinite energy. The dictates of the Big Bang theory, therefore, mandate faith in nothing which nonetheless contained everything.

Contemplation

Why is belief in something so impossible under current scientific laws acceptable, but belief in a God who is eternal and transcendent not acceptable to the neo-atheists – many of whom seemingly accept the Big Bang uncritically?

Such neo-atheists must rely on faith, having chosen to believe that:

No one plus nothing times blind chance = everything.

That requires more faith, it seems to me, than belief in an eternal God who created the universe.

Given the leap of faith required to accept the Big Bang theory, there is raging debate in the scientific world on whether our universe instead is simply the newest incarnation (or possibly an extension) of an eternal “multi-verse”. Some neo-atheists are now jumping on that bandwagon, as though it allows them to avoid the need for faith.

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Authentic Church

May 3, 2010 By in Church, Faith, Fellowship, Gifts 1 Comment

“So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight… Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other… This goes for all the churches — no exceptions.” The Message, 1 Cor. 14:28-33.

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Freedom

April 28, 2010 By in America, Bondage, Faith, Liberty, Self Government, State Leave a comment

In return for a little less freedom, civil government ever seeks to solve problems we should be solving on our own through individual responsibility, family support, personal charity or voluntary associations. As we’ve continued to trade liberty for government “solutions” (which never in reality actually solve much, but often make things worse), little by little we’ve become increasingly enslaved.

Every American should watch this cartoon from 1948 and heed its warning about Utopian promises to fix all of our problems. It is more relevant today than ever before.

May we once again find the courage, and the common sense, to stand tall as free men and free women.

For a related bog, take a look at The Growing Idolatry of Civil Government.

Transparent

April 17, 2010 By in Confession, Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, Jail, Prayer, Repentance 1 Comment

My spiritual DNA — the way God put me together — makes me instinctively encourage others to give away what God has given them. Sharing God’s blessings is a key component to spiritual growth, I’ve found.

I often teach and minister in a faith-based dorm at the local jail. Rather than me “leading” this Friday, however, I took a seat among them and let the men bless each other by sharing what God is showing them and doing in their lives.

Some rose to sing songs they wrote to the Lord, some read and commented on short passages of scripture that had become alive to them, while others gave testimony to how God is now healing and making them whole men.

One brother read a poem he wrote about dealing with the issues of his heart and finding healing through confession, repentance and forgiveness. I’ve seen tremendous peace and maturity emerge over the last couple of months as he’s been totally transparent with the Lord — even though it’s sometimes hard and painful to expose those secret and hidden places to Him.

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