Seeking Approval

So many people live their lives seeking the approval of man yet choosing to live their lives with little regard to the commands of God.  Many of these people call themselves Christians - yet what they really mean is that they believe in God and go to church on Sunday (sometimes).


John 5:44 (NIV) says -

44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? 

If we say that we believe in God yet spend our lives without making an effort to obtain His approval and praise - do we really believe at all?  Now don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying that we can be made right with God through our actions, we can only be made right with God by His Grace though faith (not works) Eph. 2:8 - but if we love him we will obey His commands (that's in the bible too - John 14:15).

If there is no outward change in our lives, it begs the question is there an inward change?  I am convinced that the biggest problem is not that people don't believe in God - but that they don't live their lives as if they believe in God.  Most people believe in God but have never thought about the ramifications that an all powerful, all mighty, all loving God has on their DAILY life - let alone their ETERNAL life.

If you believe that God exists - prove it by the way you live your life.  Live your life seeking His approval.

Points of Contact

I have been reading No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke.  It is a great book subtitled "Creating a Come as You Are Culture in the Church" - it is a fantastic book that really makes me think.

Burke tells stories of how Goths, addicts, and people living alternative lifestyles have come to experience the Grace of God through this come as you are culture and mindset.  It is really encouraging to see the power of God at work in the lives of people like this.  I have seen similar stories in our own church.

When it comes to accepting people as they are - loving people in the midst of their sin, I think I do a pretty good job.  I don't expect non-Christians to act like Christians.  I don't mind it (too much) when people swear and talk about their questionable morals and choices.  I even tend to be able to engage them in conversation and make a connection when I get the chance.  My biggest problem is not in offering love and grace, it is in simply making the connection in the first place.

Between working two+ jobs, being a father, a husband, a homeowner, etc. life is full of responsibilities as it is.  How do we get the word to the people that need to hear it.  The answer is quite simple and yet very profound.  Looking at the life of Jesus - He took His ministry to the people that needed to hear it.  To the lost and the sinners - sure He spent some time teaching in the synagogues but He spent more time teaching and healing in the streets.  Amongst the hurting and the lost.  That's the easy part, the profound part comes when we try to mesh the need to do that with the reality of life.

At this point I don't have a good answer, but I recognize the fact that if we want the message of Christ to change and impact the lives of the people that need it the most - we have to be intentional about it.  We have to remove the blinders that we have chosen to put on our own eyes and look around us.  We are surrounded by people in need of a savior.

Who are the people that need to experience the loving forgiveness of Christ the most?  Is it the addict, the prostitute, the poor, the homeless, the two income family living in the upscale part of town, is it the single Mom working two jobs just to make ends meet?  It's all of these.  It is our neighbors, the people across the street, down the street and on the street that need to know Him.  Everyone who doesn't know Him is headed for eternity without Him.  Sometimes it is easy to say - we are going to focus on the poor, the homeless, etc. but in reality, do they need Christ any more or any less than our neighbors that don't know him?

Even as I was writing this post, I was having visions of Taking the gospel to the South Side, to the homeless, to the bars, addicts, etc. but as I was working through this, I realize that that is a trap of Satan - he wants us to ignore the people around us - and focus on certain groups people at the expense of others.  The truth is that each of us are surrounded by people who need to know Christ - we need to pray, diligently every day that our eyes would be open to the hurt, the searching, the need right around us.

For some of us that means going to the places I mentioned - for some of us it means striking up a conversation with the father sitting next to us at our child's soccer game.  Help me Lord to be diligent and to not walk past or ignore the Points of Contact that You have given me in my life.

By the Spirit of the Lord

Often times it is easy for myself, and other church planters to judge our success based on the outward appearance of what is happening at our churches.  I often times say that if I had known then what I know now, I'm not sure I would have agreed to get into church planting.

Originally I had envisioned a rapidly growing church with hundreds of people and hundreds of baptisms within the first five years - I envisioned offering multiple services, a multiple person staff, dozens of different programs and mission opportunities, etc.  As we approach the 5 year mark of that I have been working on Yellowstone Church - we are instead at the dozens mark rather than the hundreds mark.  Rather than a cutting edge high tech facility we have an old bar that we have equipped with a little technology.  Rather than continuing to work as a full time church planter and pastor, I work as a part time pastor and a full time High School Welding Teacher.

So is it a successful church plant - ABSOLUTELY!!! Without the shadow of a doubt.  The dozens of people that come to Yellowstone Church are people that with very few exceptions had absolutely no church affiliation of any sort before becoming involved at Yellowstone Church - several of them are new believers and those that aren't new believers hadn't been involved in any other church for several years.  We have people that are new to Billings and had been having trouble making connections and building relationships - they come to Yellowstone Church and find true relationship and friendship - they are challenged in their faith and their relationship with God grows to new depths.  Above all else - I have been challenged in my own faith and relationship with God.

This morning, I was reading Zechariah chapter 4 and was struck by the Lord's message to Zerubbabel in verse 6

Zechariah 4:6 (NIV)

6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.   

Zerubbabel didn't have all the royal trappings and fame that his ancestors David and Solomon had had - but God chose him to lead the rebuilding of the temple through the power of the Holy Spirit.

That is my prayer for my life and for Yellowstone Church - that even though we may not have the most money, the flashiest facilities, the best programs, or event he best pastor - that we would continue growing and leading people to new depths in their relationship with Christ - not because of anything we have done but through the Power of the Holy Spirit.

I love our church (the people - not the building - although the building is pretty cool too) and I love the people that our church is ministering to.  We will be the best church that we can be - not through money, nor by flashy worship, but by the Spirit of the Lord Almighty.

Ministering in a Me-First Culture

We live in a time and place where the pervasive culture and attitude is a Me-First attitude.  A "if it feels Good, do it" culture - a "that may be true for You, but not necessarily for me" culture.  How can we effectively reach these people for Christ?

We can't do it with the same old methods of doing church.  What worked for us, probably won't work for them and what worked for our parents definitely won't work.  "The average person knows a lot of what the average Christian is against and very little about what the average Christian is for." (John Burke, No Perfect People Allowed)

Jesus came to seek and save the Lost - not the found.  Jesus came to do life with the prostitutes, the homeless, the hurting, the outcasts of society, and the tax collectors (funny how tax collectors fit into that same group) not the Christian businessmen.

How did Jesus minister to these people - by offering Love, Acceptance, Relationship and Respect regardless of the person's background and baggage.  It seems to me that this is how we as Christians should live out our lives and our call to fulfill the Great Commission.

The problem with living out our lives like this is that it takes us outside of our comfort zone.  By nature, what is most comfortable is to surround ourselves with people that are just like us.  People that look like us, act like us, and have the same type of problems that we have.  People with similar religious and spiritual experiences and upbringings.  The problem that this causes is that for most Christ-Followers, our friends and the people that we surround ourselves with are not the people that need Christ.  We'd like to be able to share Christ with people that really need him, but it would be so much easier if they would just clean up their lives and act right first.

Why do we expect people that aren't Christians to act like Christians act?  And even if we understand that and are relatively accepting of these people that need Christ, how do we begin to develop relationships with people that are so different than we are?  How do we meet these people?  How do we interact with these people?  How do we love and accept the person without loving or accepting some of their lifestyles and choices?  These are the questions that we must ask ourselves if we truly want to minister to the unchurched people of our generation.  People like this are all around us - we pass them and interact with them everyday.

Parental Pain

Raising children can be tough.

It no secret that the people we love the most are the people that have the most potential for causing us hurt and pain.  This is especially true when we see our children choose to live their lives outside of God's perfect plan for their lives.  It should be some comfort to us that God understands Parental Pain.

When Adam and Eve chose to walk away from God - that brought God pain.

God, speaking of His beloved, chosen people in Isaiah 1:2-3 says:

“The children I raised and cared for

have rebelled against me.

        Even an ox knows its owner,…

            but Israel doesn’t know its master.

My people don’t recognize my care for them.”

Obviously this was a source of pain for God.  Just as it is when our own children go astray.  So how do we handle that?  The only answer is to turn to the giver of comfort and peace.  We need UNWAVERING PRAYER, UNENDING PATIENCE, and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for our children.  Never give up. It is never too late.

No matter how far they may run or drift - nobody is beyond the reach of God's love.

Parenting Prodigals - Part 2

I have been fascinated by the concept that no parent is perfect, neither is any child perfect.  If we break this down to it's most basic level, I wonder if it would be safe to say that the first Parent/Child relationship would be that of God and Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Here was the Perfect Parent in a Perfect Environment - God says' "You are naked, go have lots of babies" and yet Adam - who was as close to the Perfect Son as was ever possible - still found a way to mess it up.

Why then do we as parents, who are far from perfect ourselves, beat ourselves up when our children fail or fall short of our expectations?  Our environment is just as far from perfect as we are.

Nobody ever dreams of having messed up kids, and yet messed up kids are a reality of life.  When we experience messed up kids - we need to love them, be patient with them, and pray for them.  All the while trusting our Perfect Father and His perfect wisdom and love.

Parenting Prodigals

As Parents, God has given us tremendous responsibility and privilege in raising our sons and daughters.  Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, our children go astray.  


When that happens, what do we do?  Find out this Sunday at Yellowstone Church.