So what next?

Listen.

The Thursday after the 22 Days I was walking my kids to class and one of their teachers grabbed me in a semi-panic. “We need 50 volunteers for next Friday’s School Fair. Do you think your church could help?”

“Yes.”

I got in the car on the way to the office and reality started to hit me…how in the world am I going to get 50 people at our church to volunteer on a Friday night that we already have a lock-in planned at a school that none of their kids go to? There’s no way this is going to happen.

So last Sunday at the start of the sermon, I just asked our church.

First, I got an email from a dear lady in our church that read thusly…

I am excited about WHBC’s opportunity to serve at the elementary school. Here we are praying for the direction in what God wants us to do (22 days of prayer) … and the door is wide open to step in and start serving a school in our community.

As of 8.30 this morning…we only need 8 more people.

A Spontaneous Beautiful Day.

Over the next week, we’re going to be gathering responses from folks to see what God revealed to them during the 22 days.

Servant Leadership is the model but that is not all of the story. Another aspect of leadership we need to wrestle with is our gifting. How has God wired you? What talents are at your disposal? And you can’t say none because that’s a lie. Everyone has something to bring, something to give. Everyone. That’s the essence of the story of Jesus – from the woman at the well, tax collectors, zealots, and prostitutes – no matter who you are or what you’ve done, you have value and you’re needed in the Body of Christ.

How do you figure out your gift? There are some surveys out there but nothing beats experience. Just start trying stuff. You’ll discover a few things during that process. You’ll figure out what you’re not good at, you’ll figure out what you love but maybe need some training, you’ll find out things you never knew. So overall it’s a win-win-win all the way around.

Tomorrow: Matching that gift with passion

Like we said yesterday, Jesus’ style of leadership starts with followership…serving. Hence the term ‘servant leadership.’

The best example of servant leadership in scripture is in John 13. Jesus washes the disciples feet. Couple of things pop in the story concerning servant leadership.

1. Jesus had all authority in heaven…and chose to wash feet with that authority. Any authority or leadership in the Body must/should force us to serve first and foremost.

2. Servant leadership is about pointing people to Jesus and his mission/purpose, not giving them necessarily what they want. Peter’s interaction with Jesus shows us this in spades. He first tells Jesus no, you can’t wash me. Jesus corrects him – if I don’t wash you, you’re not going to be a part of what I’m doing. Then Peter goes the other direction of all in. Jesus agains tells him – that’s not what you need either.

This one is huge and people get confused on this point. Jesus isn’t here to serve us what we want or what we think we need. He’s here to serve us in terms of what God wants and what He needs. What that means on a practical level is at times hearing “No” from God and others.

It’s also freeing to understand that from a ‘leader’s’ point of view. My goal then as a pastor is not to be a Customer Service Rep to the congregation, at their beck and call, giving them what they want. My goal is to be the chief listener to the Spirit, being and doing what He wants for us all. Not everyone that shows up at church has this as their goal…and that’s okay. But it sets up opportunities for us to say to each – “No. What about this instead? Could Jesus want this instead?”

As followers of Jesus, we’re here to serve Him, His mission, and His purpose. Not ours.

More tomorrow.

2 minutes @ 2pm for 22 days

This week – leadership. When we talk about leadership, we really mean followership. We want to be able to say the same words as Paul – follow me as I follow Christ. So any leadership starts first with following Jesus. No exceptions.

So we start with questions – how am I following Jesus? At work? At home? At school? Are there places in my world I don’t follow Jesus in? What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does a growing follower of Jesus look like? If I wanted to start following Jesus, what steps would I take? Where do I start? How do I continue?

There is a small group of us wrestling with these questions. We don’t have hard pressed answers right now. We’re still wrestling with some concepts but this week, I’ll unpack some of what we’ve discovered as you do the same here.

For today – leadership starts with following. The first question is – who are you following? If it’s not Jesus, then who or what? Why not Jesus? What do you think following Jesus looks like for you?

The elephant in the room…
I don’t know of too many pastors that like speaking about money. (At least good ones.) I used to cringe at the thought of talking about money from up front. I mean, what’s the point? God doesn’t need your money or mine.

Yet, there is more written about money in Scripture than any other topic. It’s not even close how much money is talked about in the Bible. So if God owns the cattle of a thousand hills, why the focus? It didn’t hit me until recently – it’s not about God that God tells us to give our money. It’s about us. God tells us to give our money away so we don’t become greedy and idolaters. It’s the biggest competitor for the worship of Jesus.

I used to apologize and let people off the hook in giving to the church. I used to feel real awkward in asking for money for the church. Until I became a part of church that sought out to bless people. When we started to adopt schools and invest in foreign missionaries that are blessing their communities, when we started giving away food and money to people below the poverty line – a light bulb went off. There is no better place to give your money than to a church that is doing these kinds of things. Even if you don’t follow Jesus.

The good news for Western Hills is we already have a foundation in this kind of thinking. Our community Easter egg hunt, our mission work, the Topeka Food Pantry, we take an offering every time we do communion and give all that money away to people who need it. I know other places where helping like this takes an act of congress, a huge reluctance. Not true here.

But we have limits, and there are times we have to say ‘no.’ It’s a ‘no’ because of man-hours and money. I’m learning very quickly my limits in terms of time. I’m 4 weeks out on appointments for the most part. That’s ridiculous, honestly. The money issue is not necessarily our weekly giving but rather our debt. It’s $6,000 a month we send to the bank instead of spending on ministry.

The good news – we’ve only got $106,000 left on the debt. The bad news – we’ve got $106,000 on the debt. I’m praying that God removes that debt over the next month.

In the meantime…we keep plowing forward. Next week: leadership.