Category Archives: Ministry

Discipleship, Faith in Action, Film & Theology, Heroes, Leadership, Ministry, Politics, Resources

My Great Change

1 Comment

Monday night I headed over to downtown Ft. Worth for a screening of the newest film from Walden Media, Amazing Grace.

The film tells the story of William WIlberforce.

Wilberforce was a member of British parliment near the end of the 18th century and early part of the 19th century. In 1784, a “great change” occured in his life. He became a Christian.

This “great change” influenced the way he lived and lit a new fire in his belly. Wilberforce set out to abolish slavery in all of the British Empire. It became his all consuming passion. He dedicated the rest of his life to this end. Friends were lost and enemies were made but he never gave up. For 34 years, he continued to push for an end to the “horrors of the slave trade.”

Three days before he passed away, Parliment passed the Slavery Abolition Act, freeing all slaves within the Brish empire.

One man. One Faith. One Pursuit. Millions of lives changed.

While watching the film I was struck by the thought that one person can make a lasting difference in the world. I used to believe that as a kid but somewhere along the way that belief turned into merely a pipe dream.

My least favorite sentances in the world are:

“It’s always been this way.” and “We’ve never done it that way.”

Those are the two biggest lies that cripple young dreams and vibrant life. Well, I’m not buying it anymore.

Yesterday I read Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce by John Piper. It was a great little read. It is under 80 pages so you could read it in about an hour. It again drove the point home to me: One person can make a difference.

The movie was very good and I am hoping to promote it with my teens and their families. The film opens on February 23. You can go to the film’s website to see where it will be playing in your area.

Ministry

Big Props

We hosted the A&M Aggies for Christ this weekend at our church. These college students drove up from College Station late on Friday night and then worked their tails off on Saturday. They built a sound booth in the back of our auidtorium, dug fence posts for the playground, and worked on the flowerbeds around the building. It was cold and rainy but you would have never known it.

These students never complained. They didn’t argue or fuss. They just worked hard, had great attitudes and served with a smile.

Some of them even headed out to an inner-city church in downtown to help them get ready for services today.

My students really loved hanging out with them and getting to know them. They were able to see and connect with college students that are living out the faith on the campus of Texas A&M. It was a great weekend.

Big props to the Aggies for Christ. You all are welcome here anytime. Come back soon!

D'oh!, Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry

Everything Matters

While preparing for my (tentatively titled) “Gospel According to Starbucks” series, I’ve been reading Joeseph Michelli’s wonderful book, The Starbucks Experience. In the second chapter Michelli writes that part of Starbucks success lies in “the amazing ability of partners (employees) to zero in on the minute details that matter greatly to customers.” That has been the case in almost every Starbucks I’ve visited. The floors have been clean, the shelves have been stocked and kept in order, and the stores seem to be running on all cylinders.

Regardless of what others say small details matter just as much as everything else. That’s why my jaw dropped when I saw this picture on Seth Godin’s blog yesterday.

I don’t know who should feel worse, THe PeoPLE who designed ThE Ad or the people who approved it. Plus, although lawyering is a real word it comes across as a little too Napoleon Dynamite when coupled with the capitalization problem and bragging about being 16th in the nation with said skills.

Get the small things right and the rest will fall in place. To whom much has been given much will be expected.

Ministry, Sabbath, Unchained from my Desk

My Day Off

2 Comments

While my friend Zac likes to believe that ministers only work on Sundays, my week can fill up at a moment’s notice and very quickly get out of hand. That’s why I love my Tuesdays.

Most ministers will choose one of two days for their day off: Mondays or Fridays. Usually senior ministers choose Mondays and youth ministers chose Fridays. This is understandable. Most youth ministers want to rest going into the weekend which is often times filled with lock-ins, serice projects, evening devotionals, and all manner of things that tend to go later than planned. Fridays can seem like the calm before the storm. It’s best to rest before tahn play catch up afterward. Senior ministers often take some breathing room on Mondays because “it’s the longest possible time before more church.”

I take off on Tuesdays. I like coming in on Mondays to evaluate the weekend and to make plans for the coming week. Fridays are out of the question because some much of my ministry to students happens on Fridays. Tuesdays are perfect!

So, what do I do on my days off? Whatever I want! (I’m kidding)

Sadly that isn’t quite true. I usually do a couple of things that just need to get done. Today I spent some time with my financial planner changing some things around in my IRA. It doesn’t get more fun than that, huh? Fortunately today, that was the most boring thing I did.

I don’t check out on my days off. I usually eat out for lunch and spend a good deal of time reading or doing some sort of personal development. Today I did both. I continued reading in The Forgotten Ways and I spent some time listening to some great teaching on some podcasts that I’ve been saving. Today was a good day.

Onther thing I like to do on Tuesdays is walk the bookstores and dip my toes into some of my hobbies. Today my hobby of choice was Photoshop. I love design and I really want to get a better handle on Photoshop so that I don’t have to rely on other companies to create and design posters, t-shirts and banners for my ministry. I loke doing stuff “in house.” With that in mind I’m hoping to roll out a new blog for my youth ministry this summer. My desire is that it will be highly functional and “really, really good looking.” So today I worked on creating a web logo. I used my last name for the image and I think it turned out pretty cool. It is pretty basic but I learned a ton about how things like gradiant overlays work. I have thankfully moved beyond “Drop Shadow!” Hopefully, I’ll be able to use what I learned today to churn out a cool looking design that my teenagers will be proud of. What do you think of the Felker logo? felkerlogosm.jpg

Tomorrow it’s back to the grindstone but today is my day off.

Discipleship, Ethos, Faith in Action, Leadership, Ministry, Religion, Theology

Great Reminder From a Great Man

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will. But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travellers at midnight.”

-Dr. Martin Juthur King, Jr.

Books, Church Planting, Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry, Popular Culture, Religion, Review

Beginings

2 Comments

..all God’s people carry within themselves the same potencies that energized the early Christian movement… Apostolic Genius (the primal missional potencies of the gospel and of God’s people) lies dormant in you, me, and every local church that seeks to follow jesus faithfully in any time. We have quite simply forgotten how to access and trigger it. This book is written to help us identify its constituent elements and to help us (re)activate it so that we might once again truly be a truly transformative Jesus movement in the West.

The first book I decided to tackle in 2007 is The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. Although it looks like a regular book it is dense and thick and that makes me all excited inside.

In the introduction Hirsch asks the $64,000 Question:

How did the early church grow from being a relatively small movement to the “most significant religious force in the Roman Empire in (just) two centuries?”

Hirsch explains that by most estimates the early church had grown to about 25,000 people at the close of the first century. Two hundred years later, conservative estimates put the church at 20 million strong. That is incredible growth. Hirsch throws a wrench in your answering of that question by reminding you that this growth happened in spite of the follow:

  • Christianity was an illegal religion at this time
  • No church buildings like we know them
  • The cannon was being put together during this period
  • No institutional or professional forms of leadership
  • No seeker-sensitive, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, commentaries, etc.
  • It was actually hard to join a church

Ok, can you answer the question? How did they do it? 25 thousand to 20 million in 200 years?

Before you answer Hirsch adds this:

But before the example of the early Christian movement can be dismissed as a freak of history, there is another, even more astounding manifestation of Apostolic Genius, that unique and explosive power inherent in all of God’s people, in our own time- namely, the underground church in China.

When Mao took power 1949 the Chinese church was estimated at 2 million. Mao set out to wipe China clean of all religion focusing explicitly on Christianity. Those in senior leadership were executed, church property was nationalized, missionaries and foreign ministers were deported out of China, and public meetings were banned by threat of imprisonment and death. This still occurs even today.

When foreign missionaries were finally able to return in the early eighties they expected to find a severely diminished church. The found that the church in China had grown to 60 million.

Hirsch says that by looking at the growth of the early church and the Chinese church we find that elements such as “the strange mixture of the passionate love of God, prayer, incarnational practice, appropriate modes of leadership, relevant organization and structures, and the conditions that allow these to catalyze” allow something remarkable to take place.

I am very much looking forward to reading this book. If the inrtoduction is any indication than I am in for a wild ride through these pages. One can only hope.

TheForgottenWays.org
Discreet and Dynamic: Why, with no apparent resources, Chinese churches thrive.

Advent, Christmas, Ministry, Stories

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas everyone! Since Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday it is a working day for me. I am leading worship this morning and then I am in charge of our Christmas Eve service tonight. I am extremley excited about the candlelight service this evening. I am focusing on the action of the shepherds on that first Christmas night. Maybe I’ll even throw in a clip of Linus explaining the true meaning of Christmas. Who knows?

We head out to Memphis/Corith, MS tomorrow. I wish all of you a safe and merry Christmas.

Peace,
Micheal

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”
(Luke 2:8-20 TNIV)

Book Review, Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry, Resources

The Emotionally Helthy Church Begins With… (Pt 2)

The Emotionally Helthy Church Begins With… Me.

More from The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero:

Our churches are in trouble, says Scazzero. They are filled with people who are

  • unsure how to biblically integrate anger, sadness, and other emotions
  • defensive, incapable of revealing their weaknesses
  • threatened by or intolerant of different viewpoints
  • zealous about ministering at church but blind to their spouses’ loneliness at home
  • so involved in “serving” that they fail to take care of themselves
  • prone to withdraw from conflict rather than resolve it

In Chapter 4 Scazzero provides the reader with a spiritual/emotional maturity inventory questionaire. The inventory is broken into 2 parts. Part A includes questions that help the reader work through general formation and discipleship issues. Part B looks at the emotional componants of discipleship and is broken into sub-sections (For section titles see chapter breakdown below).

While I scored fairly well on each componant, I was able to see gaping holes where a higher maturity level will help me become a better disciple of Christ and a more healthy leader in the church. I do not want to become just another statistic of a burnt out minister who takes those around me down as I flame out. I don’t want my peers to experience this either. We are the body of Christ. Let’s change the statistics.

The rest of the book is brokendown into chapters that corespond with the 6 emotional componants of discipleship from Part B of the Spiritual/Emotional Maturity Inventory:

  • Look Beneath the Surface
  • Break the Power of the Past
  • Live in Brokenness and Vulnerability
  • Accept the Gift of Limits
  • Embrace Grieving and Loss
  • Make Incarnation Your Model for Loving Well
Book Review, Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry

The Emotionally Health Church Pt 1

Something is desperately wrong with most churches today. Many sincere followers of Christ who are passionate for God and his work are unaware of the crucial link between emotional health and spiritual maturity. They present themselves as spiritually mature but are stuck at a level of immaturity that current models of discipleship have not addressed. Discipleship that really transforms a church must integrate emotional health with spiritual maturity. The Emotionally Healthy Church, winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, offers a strategy for discipleship that accomplishes healthy living and actually changes lives.

Scazzero argues that it is impossible for someone to be emotionally immature and be spiritually mature. One must become competent in both the interior world (what goes on inside of us) and the exterior world (people and experiences that go on around us).

To do this we mustn’t place the spiritual dimensions of our lives over and above the other aspects of our lives that are just as critical to our being. Throughout history we have separated our spiritual lives from our physical, social, intellectual, and emotional lives. Scazzero argues that this view come more from Plato than from Christ Jesus.

We have separated the spiritual for so long that we in the church are perfectly okay with:

  • Someone who is a dynamic, gifted speaker in the pulpit and an unloving spouse and father at home
  • A church leader or elder and be “unteachable, insecure, and defensive”
  • Competent in scripture and still be full of anger or lost in depression
  • A minister who says yes to any and everyone but no to your family
  • Cooperative on the surface and Passive-aggressive on your delivery

Sadly we find these things acceptable in church. As Scazzero puts it, when someone is dealing with something this serious we often just “pray and hope for the best.”

“To truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength requires that we know not only god but also our interior- the nature of our own heart, soul, and mind. Understanding that world of feelings, thoughts, desire, and hopes with all its richness and complexity is hard work. It also takes time- lots of it.” (55)

Church of Christ, Ministry, The Word, Theology

Adventures in The Christian Calendar

As a good member of a Resoration brotherhood, I have never celebrated the Chistian year. The reason always given to me for this fact was becuse we don’t see Peter or Paul or Barnabus or John celebrating the Christian year in the New Testament. It wasn’t until a few years ago that it occured to me that a good half of first century New Testament Christians (the Jewish half including the men I mentioned above) were busy celebrating the Jewish calendar. Imagine that.

This year I intend to celebrate the Christian calendar which begin this Sunday.

To assist me on this journey I will be reading through Robert Webber’s Ancient-Future Time. I already read through A-FT back in 2004 but I am now working through the text at a Berean pace so as to fully understand each of the cycles that I will experience throughout the year.

I will also be using the daily readings found in the lectionary Book of Common Worship: Daily Prayer to guide me each day.

I am extremely excited about having my daily devotional walk me through the entire year in a new yet well worn path. I look forward to blogging my way through this experience.

Anyone out there want to join me? Drop me an email at

kickingatthedarkness (at) gmail (dot) com