Back to School

This week is back to school for the Mason kids. At supper time our children were sharing with each other insights and things to make sure that each other were prepared to enter into a new grade this coming school year. Each was saying to their younger sibling that it was going to be challenging. In their own way they were saying that it was going to be a time of stretching and learning and to not approach it haphazardly. It got me thinking about our Christian growth.

Hebrews 5:12 says “THEREFORE LET us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ . . . You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basics things a beginner must learn about Scripture . . . So let us stop going over the basic of Christianity and become mature in our understanding. (Heb 5:12, 6:1-2 Amp & NTL) WOW!

Spiritual maturity is always dictated by our willingness to sacrifice our own desires for the desires of others for Kingdom of God. So how does that play out in our lives? I believe we find it in three areas of our lives: Talent, Time, and Treasure.

• Let’s look at Talent - Are you leveraging your talents in ways that causes the Kingdom of God to advance? (I Peter 4:10)
• How about Time - Are you giving more time to God’s Work and His purposes than 3 years ago? (Eph 5:15-16; Psalms 39:4-5)
• Treasure - Are you tithing? Or is this something that you are still fighting against? If you are tithing, when are you going to go on to giving offerings as well? (Matthew 6:19-21)

How long have you been a Christ follower? Question: Are you still in elementary school? It is time to move beyond the elementary teaching

Incrementalism

Incremental thinking, incremental planning, incremental prayers - they are all the kiss of death. During our staff study time and discussion this week, we dug into the dangers of incrementalism.

If NewPointe drinks the deadly hemlock called incrementalism, the staff will feel under challenged, bored, and have no enthusiasm. Yet, if our church drinks the drink of “God can do anything”, but we as a staff drink hemlock called incrementalism, we will experience a sense of being overwhelmed, stressed out, and full of fear. So we asked ourselves, “What is the key for this not to happen?” The answer - we have to learn to run with God. How?

Keep short accounts with God. Don’t drink the hemlock of incrementalism in your relationship with Him. Don’t take 3 months to deal with something in your life that God wants you to deal with today. You have to develop a quick and firm YES to God. The question needs to be asked, “What are you still fighting with God over?” That’s incrementalism, and it’s very dangerous.

Keep short accounts with others. Who is it that you need to forgive? Who is it that you need to submit to? Who is it that you need to ask for forgiveness? How is your relationship? God tells us if our relationships with others aren’t right, we aren’t right with him. When we take way too long to make things right, we fall prey to incrementalism.

Incrementalism will kill us - as a Church, as a Staff, and as Leaders. We can’t afford incrementalism in any part of our lives.

What’s Wrong?

This past weekend was the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament. It was being held just up the road from us at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. It used to be called The World Series of Golf and is noted as one of Tiger Woods’s favorite tournaments. No wonder. He has won there 7 times since turning pro in 1996.

People said that going there is what Tiger needed to straighten out his game. It’s by invitation only, which means only selected golfers get to play, so that means there is no cut. In 44 previous rounds at Firestone, Tiger never shot worse than 72. He has won 7 times and never finished worse than a tie for 5th. But this past weekend, he shot 74 the first round, 72 the second round, 75 the third round, and ended up shooting a 79 for the final round. He finished next to last in the field.

While listening to a sports talk show, the commentator said that Tiger would not be the golfer he could be until he gets his house in order. I thought – you’ve got to be kidding me! Here are sports guys saying that if you are not right on the inside, it’s going to affect what you do. They went on to say that if your personal life is not settled and in order, the stress and pressure from it will keep you from performing at your highest level.

If there is guilt or hurt in your life that you have not dealt with, bet on it – it is affecting your leading. Guilt comes from the pain or hurt that we have inflicted on others. Hurt is the violation or pain that we have received from others.

And so it is with Tiger. He still thinks about his golf swing, but not because he needs to practice more. Basically he is living in denial, and it is wreaking havoc on him. He needs to realize that it’s not that his golf game is messed up, but that he is.

Sports writers are saying that Tiger is an average golfer today . . . best clutch putter . . . misses putts at 4 feet. It’s like he is Samson; he’s lost it. And if that’s true, Samson had to come clean. Tiger’s life has come unraveled, so when does it turn around? When all the mess is cleaned up. And the only way out of it will take humility.

Making right the things I did wrong; that is dealing with my guilt. Forgiving those who have hurt me; that is dealing with my hurt. It takes humility to do both of these. We have to do this as leaders, too, or we will find out as Tiger has, that what we were good at has now suffered greatly. It is not so much that our game is out of whack, but that our life is.

So if you feel or sense your leadership is not as strong as it once was, check out your guilt and hurt level.

Summer Slump

Do you want to know why God hates sin so much? It’s because sin robs and destroys us of our God-given potential – everything that God has for you and me. You’ll even see this with people who don’t claim to know God personally through the person of Jesus Christ. 

Tiger Woods, sitting on 14 majors, was supposed to make huge steps toward breaking Jack Nicklaus’s 18 major titles as a professional golfer: he would play again this year at the Masters where he always plays well; he’d compete at Pebble Beach for the US Open where he previously set a record 15-stroke victory in a major; and he’d go to St. Andrews, a course that fits Tiger’s game well, for the British Open.

But, Tiger didn’t win at any of those majors this year. At times, people were talking about the possibility of him winning 25 majors; now people are not even sure he will pass Jack at 18. This year, Tiger changed his golf balls, changed his putter for the first time, and doesn’t even have a coach. Wow!

I would say that Tiger can really relate to Proverbs 13:15 (Amplified version), “... the way of the transgressor is hard [like the barren, dry soil or the impassable swamp].”

What looked like a sure thing for Tiger will be at best, a big struggle. Sin is a hard way to go. It robs you of everything you really want. Let’s all remember that, the next time we are tempted.