5 Practical Indicators of Spiritual Transformation

Spiritual transformation is the goal of our lives as Christ followers - something all healthy church leaders think about for the congregation they lead. I am often asked whether spiritual transformation can be measured. The answer is yes! In fact, there are some practical indicators of spiritual transformation in the life of a believer and corporately as a congregation. These five indicators, or their lack, speak directly to whether spiritual transformation is taking place.

The first indicator is kindness. This is about being friendly, generous, and considerate to others - those we naturally like and those we don't. Kindness is a trait of God and is often translated "loving kindness" in the Old Testament. It is God's posture toward us, and therefor as we become transformed by Him, we grow in our loving kindness toward others. It is an attitude that is reflected in our words and actions toward those around us.

Congregations characterized by kindness indicate a high level of spiritual transformation. They are generally peaceful and friendly and exhibit love for one another. They care about one another and show that care in practical ways. You cannot be kind and ignore the needs that those around you may have. Kindness and grace have much in common. 

The second indicator is forgiveness. Those who are quick to forgive - and willing to forgive even the hard things and hard people exhibit the character of God. This is not a human trait but a divine one. Untransformed people hang on to their grievances and bitterness, while transformed individuals choose to forgive, leave their bitterness and hurt behind and live in God's forgiving grace. 

Forgiveness is not easy and often must be done repeatedly, hence the words of Jesus that we must be willing to forgive many times. In forgiving, we shed our bitterness and choose to live in peace.

How many congregations are characterized by factions, gossip, harsh attitudes, and conflict? These are all indicators of a people in need of God's transformation. Churches can be mean places with mean people! Where forgiveness is the hallmark, however, none of the above are usually present because an attitude of forgiveness rules them out. Every time we forgive, we demonstrate the attitude of God toward us. And we choose His way over our way.

The third indicator is generosity. This is an unselfish attitude toward others characterized by generous attitudes where we think the best, generous actions where we help those in need - or those we simply desire to bless. If a selfish attitude is all about me, a generous spirit desires to bless others. It is an unselfish life. Generous people always want the very best for others.

Congregations marked by generosity are contagious because generosity is contagious. Generosity of spirit, time, encouragement, help and forgiveness. This is something you feel and experience from someone who has it and congregations who live it.

Then there is the indicator of humility. Not thinking too highly of ourselves. In fact, this is one of the most powerful traits of one who has been transformed because they understand that life is not about them. Humility indicates that we focus not primarily on ourselves but on Jesus and others. We don't need to fight for our own way or prove ourselves to others. It is a heart at peace because we have nothing to prove, nothing to lose, and nothing to hide.

Congregations marked by humility have very little conflict, look out for others, and are not pretentious but service oriented. Humble congregations are those that are focused on God, His will, and plans and serve others generously. Even other congregations in the community need help. Pride says life is about us. Humility says we are here to serve.

Finally, there is the mark of patience. Here is something to consider. Impatience is a sign that my needs were not met, that my agenda was not kept, that someone did not live up to my expectations, or that someone's spiritual life is not growing at the pace I want. The common word here is "my" and "I," which is not an indicator of transformation. It focuses on myself and what I want without appreciating others and their situations. Patience is a character trait of God, who is infinitely patient with us on a daily basis.

Congregations marked by patience are generally full of grace and give one another great latitude. They are understanding, kind, and not easily irritated. Oh, and they are patient with their leaders, and their leaders are patient with the congregation. What a joy that would be in many congregations.

Can spiritual transformation be measured? It can be! By the growth of these traits in ourselves and in our congregations. It is hard work, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, it is all about becoming more about Jesus.

TJ Addington is the lead at Addington Consulting. We solve dysfunctional cultures and teams and help you build healthy, scalable organizations of clarity, alignment, and results. If the pain is high, you need Addington Consulting. tjaddington@gmail.com

tjaddington@gmail.com

Taking responsibility for our own spiritual lives

One of the unintended consequences of the amazing array of programs and worship options available to us today in the west is that it is easy for people to assume that all of their spiritual needs will be met by a good church. And, some churches seem to promise this to be the case. And then they wonder why people eventually become dissatisfied with their offerings.

It is a false assumption and a false promise. We can never outsource the responsibility for our spiritual lives to any church, no matter how wonderful. No church will satisfy the thirsting of our souls - only Jesus can. No church will meet all of our spiritual needs - only Jesus can. Ultimately we must take responsibility for our spiritual lives and make the investment in living daily with Jesus. 

In our church we find a community of pilgrims with whom we share the journey of faith. How people negotiate the issues of life without a faith family I don't know. It is God's plan for us. But, it is not a substitute for our own need to grow daily with Jesus. Many complaints about the church are pointed in the wrong direction. The church was never meant to meet all of our spiritual needs. Only Jesus can.

Healthy ministries keep people oriented toward Jesus. They encourage us to live in His presence, stay in His Word and live out the Gospel in every relationship and circumstance of our lives. No one can do that for us. He is the source of our joy, our satisfaction and the object of our worship and lives. 

If we are pastors, we ought not promise what the church cannot deliver. And all of us ought to make the investment in our relationship with Jesus. 

(Posted from Oakdale, MN)

Is your ultimate focus on Scripture or Jesus?

I do not worship Scripture, doctrine or theology. I worship Jesus and there is a big difference! It is easy to substitute the word of God for the person of God even though the word points to the person. The word without Jesus and His transformative work is dead and can lead to little else but legalism. The word understood and Jesus worshiped leads to freedom and life.

In my years of consulting with churches some of the most damaging and dangerous people have been those who knew the Scriptures the best. They could quote Scripture (and used it against other people), knew fine theology (and loved to show it) and often were the most rigid and legalistic people in the congregation. To say nothing of the lack of grace. These individuals worshiped the Scriptures at the expense of worshiping Jesus.

The word is designed to lead us to a living Lord and the transformation of our lives through the Holy Spirit. It does so only when we engage with Jesus (John 15) and are organically attached to Him. Jesus did not tell us that the Scriptures were the vine and we the branches but that He is the vine and we are the branches. It is as we remain in Him that we find life.

The word is truth about God but it is not God. Furthermore, without the Holy Spirit working in our hearts the word cannot transform our lives but only add to our intellectual knowledge and lead to a dead orthodoxy (if one can call it orthodox without the living Lord).

I love Scripture and read it through almost annually. But I love Jesus more and worship Him. He is my savior, not the Scriptures. He gives me life while the Scriptures help me understand him better and align my life with His. 

Never substitute the word of God for the person of God. The first can lead us to the second but it is the second that gives us life. Together His person and His truth are a powerful combination for life transformation.

(Posted from Havana, Cuba)

Non-defensive living: Nothing to prove, nothing to lose

It is rare to find a truly non defensive individual but where you do you have an easy person to talk to because they have intentionally developed an attitude of nothing to prove, nothing to lose.

If I have nothing to prove, I don't need to be right all the time, I don't need to have all the answers, and I have nothing to be defensive about when I receive a word of criticism or counsel. That does not mean that I must agree with the evaluation being shared but I can evaluate it from a more neutral position because I don't have anything to prove.

Those who have nothing to prove and nothing to lose have open faces that invite conversation and dialogue while those who are defensive have closed faces that say, "don't go there." One invites conversation, the other shuts conversation down - fast.

Defensiveness comes out of two core and unhealthy needs. The need to be right and the need to not lose "face." The need to be right is plain arrogance (none of us are always right) and the need to not lose "face" is simply our pride which is an artificial shell we erect around ourselves to project the image of something we are really not.

Both arrogance and pride are products of our lower nature, are routinely on the list of things God hates (see Proverbs) and are the root of defensive attitudes.

Healthy individuals intentionally cultivate an attitude of nothing to prove, nothing to lose. They are open to criticism or evaluation because they do not feel a need to prove anything and are comfortable enough in their own skin that they are not afraid of losing anything.

It is an attitude of healthy humility that comes out of an inner core of personal confidence, healthy self image and an open spirit. There is no hint of arrogance or pride - thus there is no personal defensiveness.

Think of the people you know well. Which of them respond with openness to suggestions or evaluation? Which of them bristle and shut down the conversation? How do you do in this area?

It is a good mantra to remember: Nothing to prove, nothing to lose.

Spiritual depth and Christian leadership

King Saul, in the Old Testament is a great example of a leader who started well but neglected the practices of a deeply influential leader leading to a terrible finish. In his early years, he looked and acted like a king. He was described as “an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites – a head taller than any of the others” (1 Samuel 9:2). In the early years of his reign he pulled off some impressive victories but early on there were signs that all was not well.

Saul started to believe that his leadership was about him rather than about a stewardship given him by God to us on His behalf. He ignored the prophet Samuel's instructions, and over time his leadership deteriorated, his heart showed the shallowness that it really was (even trying to kill David), until he himself lost his life on the battle field.

While Saul started impressively, it was the lack of depth in his spiritual life, the lack of wisdom in decision making that resulted in his long term decline in leadership effectiveness. He made poor decisions, took on bad advisers, displayed terrible emotional intelligence and undermined his own leadership as a result. Saul operated from a shallow rather than a deep place.

In an interesting comparison between the description on Saul an “an impressive young man,” when the prophet Samuel was instructed by God to go to Bethlehem to anoint one of the sons of Jesse (1 Samuel 16), he arrived and immediately assumed that Eliab must be the one (he looked like kingly material). “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’”(1 Samuel 16: 7). Instead of Eliab and the others, God had chosen the youngest, David, who was out tending sheep at the time which indicated his lowly position as the youngest.

God has an intriguing way of choosing leaders that would not be natural from the world’s point of view. Whether a Deborah during the time of the Judges, Paul, a former persecutor of the church, the disciples, many of whom would not be chosen to change the world, Joseph, a former convict, Moses, a “has been” who came into leadership with a felon record and from leading sheep for forty years, and the list could go on.

What God is looking for is depth of heart, faith, and wisdom that comes from the deep places in the inner self. The difference between Saul and David is startling and central to that difference is the deep inner well of spiritual depth that characterized David. This depth was evident even at an early age when it was he who took on Goliath (age 16 or so) but was deepened during the years between his anointing as King and the death of Saul when he became the leader of Judah and then Israel.

The books of 1 and 2nd Samuel are deeply instructive for those who want to lead well. Clearly David was a highly gifted leader. He engendered great loyalty from those he led, he was strategic in his leadership moves, undaunted by adversity and tenacious in reaching his goals. We know, however, from the Psalms that there was a rare inner depth which came from his relationship and dependence on God. One wonders where David found the time to go this deep spiritually when he was also the CEO of Israel but clearly he did. And the long term effectiveness of David when compared to Saul tells the story of why this matters.

All of T.J. Addington's books including his latest, Deep Influence,  are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 per book discount on orders of ten or more.

a messy world and messy leaders

We often think of our Biblical heroes as people who were born that way. Just the opposite is true. We have always lived in a messy world and our Biblical heroes were no exception.

Take Moses, for example. We know him as the guy who rescued God's  people from slavery, as a deeply humble guy and one who talked to God face to face. I can't compete with that. But what we forget is that he too had a messy background and it took God 80 years to prepare him for his life assignment.

Everyone has issues and so did Moses. Consider this. While he grew up in wealth, splendor and privilege as a member of the Pharaoh's household he knew who he was: an Israelite who should have been a slave rather than royalty. Talk about identity issues!

Those issues came to a head when at 40, Moses took justice into his own hands, killed an Egyptian who was mistreating an Israelite and was forced to run for his life, ending up as a shepherd in another land. In one day he went from privilege and wealth to working as a shepherd with nothing to his name. In addition he now was a felon and a wanted man. Obviously he had an anger management problem.

I would guess that for the forty years he worked as a shepherd (he didn't even have his own flock but looked after the flock of his father in law) he felt like he was a has been. He had blown his chance, God would never use him for anything and he was consigned to a forgotten existence and a wasted life. 

If you doubt that, think of Moses' conversation with God at the burning bush. Finally God was calling him to something and Moses kept pushing back. Why? He felt unqualified, lacked the confidence to say yes, and gave all manner of excuses with a final comment, "O Lord, please send someone else." Of course, God never calls us to do anything that we can do by ourselves but only in His power but it took quite a while for God to convince Moses of that.

Of course God had different ideas. God is never in a hurry and he is always up to something. During those year from 40 to 80, while Moses felt he was stuck on a shelf, God was developing a relationship with Moses that would sustain him through the next 40 years in the wilderness leading a people tough to lead.

Four lessons emerge from Moses past. First, God can redeem any past for His divine purposes. Even our pasts! Second, while we may think we have been put on a shelf, God is always up to something, preparing us for what He has for us. Third, God never calls us to do anything we can do by ourselves. Why should He? His work is a divine work that requires divine power. Fourth, God uses regular people to do His divine work in the power of His Holy Spirit. 

Moses had a past with a lot of issues, just like we do. Yet he used Moses just as He desires to use us. 

Spiritual Transformation

The goal of Jesus for our lives is to take the unique us that he created, with our gifting and wiring and through our relationship with Jesus and the residence of the Holy Spirit in our lives create a better us – the kind of us that we would have been before creation became undone and sin entered the world.

This is the process of stripping our lives of those things that don’t reflect the image of God and putting on those things that do. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

The process of putting off those things that are unhealthy and putting on those things that are like Jesus is not an easy process. The times where we see the most progress in this transformation are during tough times when the real us is exposed in all its reality (sometimes ugliness) and we are forced to press into Christ in a deeper, more authentic way because we have nowhere else to turn. That is why we call Life Undone an unlikely gift.

In the process, God forges the us that we were designed and created to be. The us that will have the impact on our world that God wants us to have. The us that is increasingly transformed into the image of Jesus – remember we were originally created in the image of God – so God through Jesus is recreating us in His image. It happens most powerfully in the hard times of life.

My first experience with life undone caused me to enter into a study of God’s grace that continues to this day. I moved from being performance oriented in my relationship with God to learning how to live in his gracious grace. That transformation changed my relationship both with God and with others.

I also learned that not all problems are solved this side of eternity and that God may choose not to answer my prayers the way I wanted Him to because He had greater purposes for what He wanted me to learn and places He wanted me to grow. I learned to trust Him in the face of injustice and pain that I could not solve. This was a painful lesson but one that has given me a deeper perspective on God’s purposes in our lives.

In my significant illnesses I learned firsthand that God can do the miraculous, and that I am the recipient of his undeserved grace by choosing to spare my life. That has changed the way I look at every day – as an undeserved gift to be used for Him. I live on borrowed time. In my Thailand experience, staring death in the face, being awake on the ventilator I learned that I can experience the peace of God and trust Him no matter what the outcome. He was all I had and He was enough.

These are deeply transforming experiences that only come from deep pain and hard times. These transformative experiences are not merely intellectual but they penetrate the deepest part of our lives which is why they change us. No sermon or book can match the power of transformative experiences forged in pain!

One of the byproducts of deep pain is that it brings to the surface other issues that are unresolved in our lives, lurking below the surface which we have been able to ignore, until our pain in another area brings it to the surface.

Early in my ministry, after experiencing great pain I went to see a counselor about issues that had no direction connection to the situation I faced but which the pain brought to the surface. It is always a blessing when unresolved areas of life come to our attention because it is as we deal with those that we become the me God wants us to be. Never ignore what pain reveals.

As I look back on times when life has come undone, times that were excruciatingly hard and painful in the process, I realize that all the major growth and transformative experiences of my life came in those times and their aftermath. Painful as they were how can I be anything but grateful to God for the opportunity to experience transformation that never would have happened without them? And in the process I have participated in the “fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10).

If you have experienced great pain in your life, as life is redone, as it comes back together for you, pay close attention to the transformation that has taken place in your life. Places where God has made Himself better known to you, lessons you have learned. Pay attention and think about them because these are precisely the transformative experiences he wants for you so that you becomes a better you as God’s character and purposes become a greater part of your life.

Whether or not you journal, I would encourage you to put down on paper the lessons you have learned and the places where you have experienced transformation. Remember, these are the most significant opportunities for you to experience the spiritual transformation God wants for each of us. So, the more you pay attention to what God is doing in your heart, and cooperate with that work He is doing, the more you gain from having been in the heat of His forge.

Five temptations leaders face

Leadership positions are a mixed blessing. For those wired to lead it is a joy to be in one's sweet spot. However, leadership brings with it a set of very real temptations that trip up CEO's, pastors, presidents and ministry leaders. Given these temptations, the first priority of every leader ought to be health: emotional, relational, spiritual, leadership and skill health. In the absence of that kind of care, there is a high likelihood that a leader will suffer one or more of the following temptations.

Isolation
Leaders find themselves in a difficult place. They higher one rises in leadership responsibility the more isolated it feels. Good leaders, while collegial and approachable are not "one of the boys," or "one of the girls." They must push the missional agenda with those they lead and while the culture may well be collegial, they are still the leader and their focus on the missional along with decisions they must make will not always leave them popular.

Leaders who are promoted from within their organization quickly realize that the relationships they had with their peers have changed. It must if one is going to lead well.

Isolation, however, is a trap because we were not made to live in isolation. Isolation breeds loneliness and loneliness breeds unhealthy habits and addictions in a desire to fill that hole of loneliness. Leaders must face that temptation squarely and intentionally foster deep, meaningful relationships with peers at their level and friendships outside their organization. Isolation is dangerous so there needs to be a strategy to counter it.

Feeding a dark side
As noted above, feeding a dark side is often the result of isolation. Long hours, loneliness, constant travel, lack of genuine friendships all leave one vulnerable to unhealthy addictions: pornography, affairs, gambling, drugs, alcohol or other risky behaviors. The unconscious justification is "I need an outlet to my hectic leadership responsibilities."

Isolation and dark sides go together. Wise leaders have a deliberate strategy for avoiding isolation and the development of healthy habits that minimize the need to feed the dark side - which is simply a way to fill some emotional, spiritual or relational hole.

Running on empty
Many leaders have bought the lie that in order for them to lead well they need to be constantly on the move, running from one important meeting to another, one city or country to another. One cannot run a sprint twenty hours a day, day after day, and not pay the price.

God did not design us to run on empty. It can feel good - after all I am so important that I have this incredibly busy schedule - my input is needed all over the place: balderdash! Busyness may feed our self importance but it is not a necessity of leadership. Wise leaders set a livable pace, building in relational time, think time, rest time, and they say no to tons of good things in order to say yes to the most important things. Run on empty long enough and your leadership will be compromised

Taking short cuts
It is amazing how many leaders run aground on the shoals of ethical issues. After all, I work so hard, I give so much of myself to the organization, I am owed something too! Above all, leaders must model the highest ethical behavior and go the extra mile to avoid any appearance of ethical short cuts.

Arrogance
Arrogance is both the end result of the first four temptations and feeds them further. Arrogance is an attitude that the rules don't belong to me, I am the one with the needed wisdom, as the leader, I am different, and this ministry or company revolves around me.

Many leaders fall to this temptation. In the end it severely compromises their ability to lead because those around them will not give themselves to an arrogant leader - if they have other options.

Leadership is a high calling and for those who lead well a most satisfying job. But we will only be good leaders to the extent that we are healthy leaders. Healthy leaders live lives of significant discipline with a great deal of self knowledge because leadership 101 is avoiding the five temptations that will unravel my leadership!

Never forget

Every December 4 through January 14 since 2007 I daily read the blog www.reachtj.blogspot.com as a remembrance to the hope we have in Jesus and the grace that he extends so freely to us. The blog is the account of my 42 day hospital stay from which I never should have survived - but God gave my family hope and He extended to me  the grace of an extension of life for which I am eternally grateful. 

The battle between life and death started on December 4 when I entered the hospital unable to breath. They quickly determined that I was in congestive heart failure and had massive pneumonia and a huge pleural effusion (a collection of fluid in the wall of the lung-like having a liter of pop stuck inside your lung wall). What they would not know for a week was that it was MRSA  or Methicyllin resistant staphylococcus aureas- a "super bug" pneumonia. This would lead to septic shock, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a failed mitral valve in my heart, high fevers that required ice cooling jackets, the shutting down of some of my organs, heartbeats of 220 or higher without the ability to shock my heart back into rhythm - all this while I was in a coma and on a ventilator. On a number of occasions the doctors gathered the family to prepare them for my imminent death.

Amazingly God gave my wife, Mary Ann, hope two days into this ordeal. Two days later was the day that I told her I believed I was going to die. It was the day that they would put me on a ventilator from which I should not have woken up alive. It was the day that I could barely breath as I felt I was drowning in my own fluids. But two days before that day as she sat by me bed she asked Jesus, "How should I pray?" And God replied in an audible voice (to her), "It will be very close, but T.J. will live." A voice of hope when there was no human hope. A voice of hope that she clung to during the next weeks of a life and death struggle. When the doctors gently told the family there was no hope she stood on the hope God had given her. She was a rock of faith as were my sons Jon and Chip who walked through the dark days with her and became men in the process. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the love and perseverance of Mary Ann, Jon and Chip!

Our family experienced amazing grace during and after those days. Our prayer partners came to pray and love on the family. Friends gathered around and sheltered them in their love. And time and again, God gave His grace when it was needed. One night as my youngest sister was standing by my bed angry with God tired and discouraged, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Immediately she knew that it was going to be OK whether I lived or I died. She turned to see who was there but there was no one. She knew she had been touched by God or an angelic being. On another day, a nurse came in tears to Mary Ann and said through tears, "I was just in T.J.'s room and God gave me a vision of him alive and well!"

People often ask me what I remember from my coma. Only one thing. I knew that my lungs were ruined but that God had a set of perfectly healthy lungs for me. That was the Spirit's encouragement to me when I was deeply sick and unable to process what was going on. Another blessing!

Most of all we were blessed through the thousands who prayed for God to do something miraculous and extraordinary. It is the faith and prayers of thousands around the world whom God answered in His sovereignty in choosing to heal my broken heart, clear my lungs, defeat MRSA, septic shock, cool the fevers until the day I walked out of the hospital on January 14, a product of His grace.

God gives us hope in all situations and His grace is with us always. Think back to the situations you have been in where He has shown you His hope and His grace and never forget. Never forget! It is His grace that sustains us day to day, it is His hope that walks with us through the dark nights of the soul that we all experience. Someone asked me, "How do you remember?" One of the ways I remember is to read the blog put up for me daily from December 4 to January 14. It is a month of remembrance for me.  I will follow that practice until I see Jesus face to face and can thank Him in person. 

I am a walking billboard of God's hope and grace. So are you. Never forget. Always live in thanks for His hope and grace. 

http://www.reachtj.blogspot.com/

Personal reflection is only as good as the mirror one uses

Have you ever looked into a distorted mirror and seen a distorted image? Mirrors are great when they are well made. In the same way, our own personal reflection is only as good as the mirror that we choose to use in doing so.

Many people use those who are their greatest fans as their mirrors for personal reflection. It is convenient and exceedingly comfortable as these individuals will invariably tell us what we desire to hear. And what we want to hear are positive reflections.

King David knew the dangers of syncophants who simply told him what he wanted to hear. In the Psalms he does deep personal reflection in prayer and in the Word. What he finds is often not what he wants to see (Psalm 51) but to his credit he responds to the image he sees of himself as measured against the image of God.

If we neglect our mirrors and they become smudged and dusty, they cannot reflect back a sharp image and that is what happens when we neglect the world for any period of time. Our reflection is best when we use it regularly and keep it clean.

David also learned the value of those who would reflect back his behaviors in the person of Nathan who told him a story of injustice that struck David to the core when he understood he was that man. The value of people around us who can gently but honestly tell us the truth is huge in our spiritual growth.

In prayer we experience time exposure to God who will invariably speak back to our spirit. In the Word we have the sword that cuts to the marrow of our lives and in trusted friends we have others who can speak truth to us. These are mirrors we can trust. Many other mirrors will fail us and tell us what we want to see but not necessarily what we need to see.

The redeemer and maximizer of our biographies

Our biographies are a muddle of complicated issues: Family memories; success and failure; joy and sorrow; regrets and wishes for what could have been; illness that changed us; economies that bit us; relationships good and bad; choices we cannot retract and others that we are thankful for and the list could go on. Each of us has those parts of our biography that we are deeply thankful for and each that we wish were different. We, however, cannot change what has been!

Enter God! He does not change what has been but He is the only One who can and does use every aspect of our biography for His purposes. He redeems not only our heart but He can redeem our past and actually use for His purposes what we wish had never happened - or had been different.

I think of Chuck Colson, for instance, who I am sure wished that his biography had read differently prior to encountering Jesus in a life changing way. God not only took what had been bad and redeemed it but he maximized that biography through Prison Fellowship - doing through Colson what never would have been possible without his past. How many lives were touched because Jesus redeemed Colson's biography?

When I suffered deep depression after a particularly hard season in my early life, I could never have imagined that God would not only redeem the depression - as I was able to minister to others in a similar situation - but would use the circumstances of my pain to influence my ministry from that time forward and open doors I never thought imaginable. He graciously redeemed my pain and used all of my biography for His purposes. 

This is the amazing thing about God! He can take what was bad and use it for what is good. He can take years that we thought were lost and redeem them for good. He can take a sinful past and use it in a redeemed future. There is nothing in our biographies that He cannot redeem and use in some way for His purposes even if it is simply to demonstrate the power of God to utterly and completely change lives. He is the only one who will not waste any of our biographies and use them for His divine purposes. That ought to make us deeply grateful people.

The one thing that can change everything in ministry impact

We are always looking for ways to change the equation in local church ministry. While there are many things we can do to increase our impact there are a handful of things that the New Testament tells us are essential to do. 

One of them can change everything: helping God's people reclaim their God given call and potential in ministry: To develop, empower and release people to use their skills and gifts to advance His kingdom in their circles of influence.

The heart of our call as church leaders is to see all of God's people join Him in meaningful ministry. "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:11-12)." It is my conviction and I believe the New Testament teaching and example that our congregations will have impact for the Gospel to the extent that God's people are using their gifts and skills on His behalf.

Here are several ways to help make this a reality in the local church.

First, we need to create an expectation in line with Ephesians 2:10 that we were created by God for specific works and He wants us to join Him in His work to "destroy the devils work" (1 John 3:8) on our planet and bring the hope and restoration of the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17) that changes lives in God's power. None of God's people are exempt from that expectation and call.

Second, we need to reclaim the priesthood of all believers as the theology behind the expectation. One of the dysfunctions of the church is professional ministry where we hire staff to do the work of ministry and ask for people to assist. How would life look different if we understood that we are all called, all given specific gifts by the Holy Spirit and all of us God's staff! Practice follows a proper understanding of theology and this is a theology that needs to be understood by God's people.

Third, it is powerful to tell stories of how God is using regular people in significant but ordinary ways to share the Good News, be agents of compassion and help, infuse their workplaces and neighborhoods with His love and live out the good works Jesus created us for. Stories make the theology practical and doable. They encourage others that God can use them in significant ways by simply living out God's call on their lives.

Fourth, we need to make it practical in our teaching and preaching. God changes the world by ordinary people doing ordinary things in the power of God's Spirit in their circles of influence. We need to communicate this theology that God can and does use ordinary people to accomplish His work: "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)."

Fifth we must redefine ministry. Ministry is not simply what happens in the church but it is living out God's call in each of our unique places and circles of influence. For some, most of their ministry will be outside of the church. Keeping it inside the church is the reason we have so little impact in our communities.

Finally we need to tell God's meta story of a world undone which God intents to make whole again through His death and resurrection and his return with a new heavens and new earth. In the meantime we are His agents of heaven to bring the hope and truth and love of Jesus to all places where we intersect. It is the fulfillment of the Lord's prayer, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10)." We are His agents to bring bits of heaven to earth as we live out our followership faithfully.

Our passion ought to be to see all of God's people find fulfillment in their lives and work as they become His ambassadors in ordinary places, in ordinary ways with results that are extraordinary because the Holy Spirit has infused our efforts with His power.

The real test of the depth of our faith

Here is an interesting question to ponder. What is the real test of the depth of our faith? One could answer the number of years we have walked with Christ. Or, the depth of our theology. Perhaps the ministries we have been involved in. Our work for Jesus.

I don't think it is any of those and I don't think it is dependent on how long we have been Christ followers.

The real test of the depth of our faith is when we face a situation or adversity where all of our own resources have been exhausted and we choose to trust God for the outcome no matter what it is. That is the point at which our true depth is tested and revealed. Not in the good times but in the very tough times.

It is in those times when we must grapple with the question of whether God is sovereign over our lives and if yes, if He is also good, no matter what the outcome. It is in those times when we must choose His hope over our despair and trust over disillusionment or bitterness. I have watched young believers respond with amazing faith and old believers with bitterness toward God. When adversity comes, the true depth of our faith is revealed - without exception.

In an ancient day, when calamity was about to come on the people of Judah, God's man Habakkuk said this:

"Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food, 
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls, 
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights"
Habakkuk 3:17-19

Habakkuk passed the test. Will we and do we? Life is very complicated and inevitably we come to those junctures and seasons where we have exhausted our own resources. Then life becomes amazingly simple: do we trust Him with the simple Child like faith that Jesus spoke of - and in the end - that is the deepest faith.

Our culture and Kingdom culture

Here is an interesting question to ask yourself. What parts of the culture in which you live  would God celebrate? He was, after all, the originator of differing cultures and languages back at the Tower of Babel. Many things in our cultures are good and healthy. 

Take the emphasis on family and friendships in many cultures. The long meals - lasting hours - in some where the gift of food and drink and fellowship come together. Or, the respect for the elderly (those of us over fifty say wise) in other cultures. Or weddings that last three days with great celebrations. There are many wonderful and unique cultural differences that bring color and richness to all of us. It is one of the reasons I love my job which takes me to many different cultures and the wonderful friends I meet there. I learn so much from other cultures as I travel, interact and minister.

There is a second question though that is equally important. What are the parts of the culture in which I live that God would not celebrate. It is an important question because we are often rather blind to the deficiencies in our cultures (we are part of it) and while we may easily spot deficiencies in the cultures of others we are blind to our own.

My home culture suffers from some deep deficiencies: the thinking that materialism and success is a guarantee from God. Chasing after things instead of pursuing Jesus closely. A can do attitude (good) which often leaves dependence of Jesus out of the equation (bad). A morality based on personal preferences rather than on righteousness and which pervades the church as much as it does our society.

The reason these two questions are important is that as Christians we actually live in two different cultures simultaneously. Our home culture and God's Kingdom culture and they are not the same. In entering His Kingdom we take on a set of Kingdom cultural practices that supersede our earthly home culture and which unite all Christians from all cultures across our globe. That is why Christians from many cultures can be together and feel a great unity and oneness.

Those who travel oversees in ministry often come home with a new set of eyes as they see their own culture from the outside for the first time. What God desires is that we so immerse ourselves in Him and His culture through His word and His people that we are able to distinguish what is His culture is compared to our own - and when they clash, to choose Kingdom practices over our home cultural practices. 

All of life is influenced by culture. Think about your own culture in light of His Kingdom culture and be discerning as to those elements that call us to adopt His culture over our own. We are, after all citizens of heaven first and aliens and strangers in this world (1 and 2 Peter).

Pseudo or real spiritual transformation

Someone comes to Christ and we celebrate! As we should - Scripture says that parties occur in heaven when a new individual steps into the kingdom. Of course, this new believer comes with all the habits, behaviors and thinking of the newer nature and we desire to help them start to the journey toward spiritual maturity. At this point we face two choices and the choice we make will have a direct impact on the spiritual transformation or lack of it of this new believer.

Choice one is to quickly help this new believer understand what is acceptable and unacceptable as a Christ follower. What this generally includes are the grey areas of the Christian life where our brand of "Christianity" has made decisions about what is acceptable or not. I call this life or behavior modification. It is not based on an internal heart change but by the behavioral expectations of the group. The key component here is that we take personal responsibility to help them understand what is acceptable - or not.

The key problem is that behavior modification in itself has nothing to do with spiritual transformation and in fact may become a substitute for the transformation of the Holy Spirit in one's life. In fact, behavior modification can be nothing less than a legalistic way of looking at following Jesus: I do so by this set of rules.

Choice two is to quickly get this new believer into fellowship with other Christ followers, a good church where Jesus is proclaimed, and to encourage them to start reading God's word and applying it to their lives as they see application. Coupled with an active prayer life and the example and encouragement of other Christ followers who rather than playing the role of the Holy Spirit (this is what you need to do) encourage the new believer to see what God has to say on issues of life and make application from His convictions. 

In this case, there is also behavior change but not because it is what others suggest but because it is what God desires. It comes from the inside (the conviction of the Holy Spirit and a desire to follow Him) rather than the outside (what others believe they should do).

We often overestimate our responsibility with new believers and underestimate the Holy Spirit's ability to speak to them, convict them, encourage them, and transform their hearts. We can convince someone to transform their behavior but only the Holy Spirit can transform their hearts leading to authentic inside out change. 

When our focus with new believers is on behavior modification to fit our Christian group or even our own personal convictions we engage in a pseudo transformation. It may look good on the outside but it does not emanate from the Holy Spirit's work but rather from our own. It is no different than the pseudo transformation of the Pharisees.

When we focus on helping people embrace a followership of Jesus, based on what the Holy Spirit teaches and convicts them of, we are engaging in real transformation from the inside out. As we model that kind of lifestyle for them, we become an encouragement for them to follow. When we point them continually to the Scriptures and a life of prayer we point them to the One who is the source of their lives and the authority of their lives.

The first is all about us and the second is all about Him.

There is always more: don't settle

Is this all there is? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Realizing that life is different than you expected and maybe you are on the other side of fifty? Perhaps life as we dreamt it would be and life as we know it to be brings a certain dissapointment and restlessness of the soul. Is this all there is?


Jesus says NO! There is always more: don't settle. He says, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10)." He wants us to have a life that is fully lived, fully realized, fully filled up and full of Him. He is the giver, the source and the goal of the "more" that we long for.


As long as we have life, there are six areas of life where we can always experience more. 


Dreams to pursue. Who is the giver of our deepest longings if not God? I knew as a young child that I would write but it took over fifty years to get the first book out and now there are four and several on the way. He is the giver of dreams so don't settle. Our world is made better every day by those who pursue God given dreams.


Relationships to develop. God gave us the capacity for close, meaningful relationships but they take time and nurturing to grow and flourish. Relationships with fellow pilgrims are what bring some of the greatest richness to life. Each one changes us in some way. That is why the loss of a friend through death is so traumatic. We are enriched when we invest in those relationships.


People to love. Being Jesus to others through our love, help, assistance, encouragement, and kindness brings joy to the heart and richness of life. We find life as we give it away in a Jesus sense. Life is not found in what we get as much as in what we give. There is no shortage of people to love and to be Jesus to. In fact there are now 7 billion to choose from so enrich your life daily by being Jesus to someone.


Growth in Jesus to experience. He is the source and goal of the "more" we long for. Learning to live in His presence, focusing on allowing Him to transform us, letting His Word marinate in our minds and walking in His Spirit is an ongoing, never ending process of growth. It costs nothing and is the most rewarding life giving and soul satisfying thing we could do.


Things to learn. Who created us with the capacity to learn and to grow if not our Creator? Those billions of neurons in our brain were designed by a creative God for His creative people. As part of the Image He endowed us with, He created us to create and to learn and to stretch our minds because the more we do, the more we appreciate the One who gave the gift. It is never too late to learn and grow.


Creation to enjoy. Why are we drawn to the shore, or to mountains, or to the streams to fly fish? Why are we awed by the sky on a clear dark night? Why does the sea fascinate us? Why is my 16 month old grandchild smitten by the funny looking creatures he sees at the zoo looking back at him? He made all this for us and as we consider it and play in it we experience the Creator in a new way. And, His majesty is greater than the sum of it. 


There is always more so don't settle. And in the end, the MORE with Him in His presence will be so much more that it will take a new and heavenly body to experience it - replacing this present one that starts of fail us. Don't settle!

Spiritual Transformation and God's Meta story

There is a missing element in the conversation regarding spiritual transformation in many evangelical circles. There is rightly a conversation taking place about the need to move from behavior modification where people modify behaviors to fit into their evangelical sub-culture (whatever it is) to true inner life transformation.

In the first case life change is at the behavioral level. In the second case it is from the inside out: Hearts that understand and live in grace, minds that seek to think like Jesus, lives that are brought in line with God’s priorities and relationships that reflect the love of Jesus. For too long the church has settled for behavior modification instead of inner transformation. This is a very important conversation.

There is, however, a second part of the transformation process that needs equal attention. It involves the purpose of transformation. Here is something to think about: when our focus on transformation is only personal and about us it is a selfish and incomplete transformation that diminishes God’s ultimate purpose for our lives.

Now I fully understand that heart transformation is the entrance into God’s kingdom and family and where we experience the forgiveness of sin and a new standing in God’s sight. This is the message of John 3:16. What this does not address is the purpose of that transformation: we are reconciled to God in Christ (giving us all the blessings of life in Jesus for eternity) in order to join God in His work of reconciliation in our world (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

Many of God’s people do not understand God’s Meta story! Our involvement in His Meta story is what brings our lives its greatest meaning!

That Meta story started in the garden where God created the world as He meant it to be: a creation at peace with itself and men and women in perfect relationship with God. That perfection was ruined by sin bringing with it the dehumanization of those made in His image. Into our world came sin, separation from God, relational disconnect, disease, death, sorrow, selfishness, war, injustice, fear, and all the results of sin.

From the moment of the fall, however, God put into place a divine rescue operation (Genesis 3:15) which culminated in the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the inauguration of His Kingdom. His intent was and is to bring redemption to a broken world, redeeming what was made bad with the culmination coming at His return.

That redemption starts with hearts that are transformed but He then calls His people to join Him in His work of bringing His Kingdom to earth (Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven – Matthew 6:10). 

This includes feeding the hungry, caring for the marginalized, bringing justice where there is injustice (Isaiah 55, Micah 6:8), caring for the orphan and widow and alien (Deuteronomy), bringing His Kingdom values to all the places we inhabit and the people we know (Sermon on the Mount) to name just a few examples. 

This is the outcome of our heart transformation: nothing less than the transformation of our communities, neighborhoods and workplaces as God uses us to bring His love, truth, values, practices and relationships to every corner of our lives.

Ephesians 2:8-10 sum this up very well. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The regeneration of our hearts is a complete gift from God. But, don’t miss that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works – joining God in bringing His love, truth, values, practices and relationships to every corner of our lives. This is no individual pietistic vision but a vision of God’s family intentionally impacting everything and everyone around them. It is the gospel touching everything. It is transformation of hearts that results in transformation of our communities as we live out the life of Jesus.

The Meta story is about God’s plan to redeem what sin destroyed. We are redeemed to join Him in that redemption story.

Reading Scripture for the first time

It is amazing to me how much the “enlightenment” and the rise of “rational thinking” has impacted our reading of Scripture. What we call the enlightenment coming out of the dark ages had many advantages, allowing scientists, for instance to test their theories and come to grips with the real workings of our cosmos.

But it had other consequences as well. In a rational world, God does not break in and do the unexpected – yet any reading of the Bible shows that He indeed does. The rational world would believe that God operates according to a set of predictable rules. Yet how predictable is a God who comes to earth in the form of a baby, lives in squalid Nazareth and dies on a cross to pay for our sin of rebellion against Him? What sense does that make? It is so irrational that many refuse to believe. And a virgin birth on top of it!

Read Scripture to a child and they get it. They believe it. They devour it. They are mesmerized by the stories of an unpredictable God who is at once tame, fierce, predictable, unpredictable, doing the miraculous and surprising people at every turn. They have not yet been tainted by rational thinking that seeks to tame the untamable Aslan. 

Then listen to many messages from the “grown ups” including many pastors which turn the unpredictable into the predictable and find ways to deny the very power of God to break in and do what we don’t expect him to do. We tame God with our theology and make him fit our rationale box. Especially we tame the Holy Spirit because He is scary in his unpredictability so defining what He can and cannot do is paramount: especially if you want Him to fit your theological system.

God is not tamable. He is so far beyond our grasp and our understanding. If the edge of the known cosmos is 13 billion light-years away, he is infinitely further from that in our understanding of Him. What is amazing is that he still knows when a sparrow dies, Still intervenes in the lives of all who call Him Lord.

Still He surprises us daily with His grace. Demons are still cast out in His name, people healed miraculously in His name, lives changed dramatically in His name, the forces of evil in the universe pushed back in His name. Yet He acts according to His sovereign purposes and will surprising us with his timing and His wisdom which is beyond our understanding.

If we could reclaim the ability to read Scripture through the eyes of a child, unencumbered with our finely tuned theological systems (yes they have their place but they can also limit us) we might be surprised at the God we find. He would be more personal, more difficult to pin down, more powerful, more unpredictable in His intervention in human affairs and we would be more ready to see His surprises in our lives.

Some theologians will push back and say, "but we have 2,000 years of biblical interpretation since Jesus that needs to be kept in mind when we read the text." I agree that we have many insights from those who have gone before us. I also believe that we are often held hostage by the theological grids that we have been taught that keep us from seeing God in his full Glory. No theological system is perfect and many have significant deficiencies. What happened at taking Scripture at face value? 

Try reading the Bible as if you were reading it for the first time.  

Game changing attitudes

I often encourage ministries that I consult with to look for the game changers that bring major ministry breakthroughs rather than a tweak to the system. We are constantly on the lookout for those in our ministry. What we often don't think about are the game changers we can initiate ourselves - in our attitudes - which can change the whole equation of our lives and impact the people around us. These game changing attitudes come right out of our relationship with God, the work of the Holy Spirit and us.


The game changer of living in God's sovereignty.
All of us face challenges that bring anxiety, uncertainty, and sometimes fear. The reason that they are so threatening to us is that unlike other circumstances, there is nothing we can do about these ones. They are beyond our control and therefor our ability to sway their outcome.


Unless....we choose to live with the dynamic truth that as His children, God is sovereign over all the events of our lives and He can be trusted to meet our needs, intervene on our behalf and be present in the midst of our circumstances. Read Romans 8 for confirmation on this. Those who choose to live in the reality of God's sovereignty over our lives and circumstances experience great peace because they have chosen to leave in God's hands what belongs in God's hands.


The game changer of choosing to live with joy.
One of the fruits of the Spirit, Joy is a powerful antidote to all of the pessimistic talk we encounter, the complaints that so many have and the tendency to look at life from a human rather than a divine perspective. 


As one of the signature traits of the Holy Spirit, joy is accessible to all of God's people in spite of their circumstances. It is rooted in the sovereignty and goodness of God who promises to meet our needs and to be present in all of our circumstances. Joy comes from faith in our God. The harder it is for us to choose joy over sadness, the greater its impact on our hearts for we have chosen the route of faith and trust rather than that of doubt and discouragement.


The game changer of choosing to live with kindness.
Another one of the Spirit's signature traits and one that touches every relationship that we encounter on a daily basis. We live in a harsh world where people dismiss others easily, treat them according to their mood, speak words that diminish and wound and perhaps worst of all, use people rather than love people.


When we choose to live with an attitude of kindness we produce all sorts of ripples because we are bringing God's love and kindness into each interaction. It changes everything. Kind people are purveyors of God's love and grace and magnets to those who come into contact with them, craving the acceptance inherent in kindness.


All of the fruit of the Spirit are game changing attitudes: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, goodness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). Each one changes our outlook on life in a major way and impacts how we interact with every individual during our day. They are truly game changers that we can choose in the power of the Holy Spirit to appropriate and live out every day in every situation. They don't tweak anything. They change everything.

Self Knowledge and leadership

Few skills are as critical for a leader as that of accurate self-knowledge. I stress the word accurate because all of us have a view of ourselves but that view is not always accurate. When it is not accurate we often get in the way of ourselves.


What does self knowledge entail? First it means that we know what our strengths are. Each of us has two to three strengths where we shine and everything else is a weakness. If we can identify our strengths we have also by default identified our weaknesses (everything else). Humility is knowing how God designed us and giving him the credit. And, understanding how badly we need others to compensate for our weaknesses.


Second, self knowledge means that we understand the shadow side of our strengths. Every strength has a shadow side. Three of my five strengths identified by Strenghfinders are strategic, maximizer and achiever. They are a powerful combination. However, their shadow side can include a lack of patience and irritation when others don't move as quickly as I would want them to, or "get it" when the answer seems so simple.


Understanding our shadow side allows us to manage it. We cannot change how we are wired but we can manage our attitudes and behaviors so that our shadow side does not impede our leadership by negatively impacting those around us.


This goes to the third area of self knowledge - understanding how we are perceived by others and how our wiring impacts them. One of the ways that leaders get themselves into trouble is when they don't understand how others perceive them. They may think that they are decisive, for instance but others read them as arrogant. They may want a harmonious relationship with everyone but it is read as lacking clarity because different things are said to different people in order to please them.


The gap between our perception of ourselves and others perception of us is what we need to be aware of. Often we can learn something from testing where both the strengths and shadow side are identified which can give us clues to how others might see us. Feedback from others whom we trust is also a critical factor which means that we must be open and non-defensive about that feedback. The smaller the gap between our perception of ourselves and others perceptions of us, the better we can lead.


The fourth area of self knowledge is understanding our vulnerabilities to sin and when they are most likely to show up. We are vulnerable in different ways and different circumstances and a keen awareness of those ways and circumstances allows us to put in place safeguards to keep us from the "roaring lion that seeks to destroy us." 


Self knowledge requires introspection and a desire to understand ourselves fully. Some won't go there because it makes us uncomfortable. Henry Nouwen said that the reason many of us don't like silence is that it is in that place we see the scaffolding of our lives the most clearly - and there are parts of that scaffolding that we don't like. Yet, the path to health is understanding our dishealth as much as our strengths. 


For leaders, self knowledge is a high priority. It impacts themselves and those they lead.