Archive for the ‘Pastor’s Blog’ Category

I know immediately your saying “What?”; “Are you saying there should be equality for Homosexual Couples?”  And I would return with this statement.  “As I study the Bible, there is no doubt in the equality of Homosexuality”.

And again you would probably question me, and maybe even a third time.  And my answer would remain the same.  But before you might misunderstand me let me explain by using the only Truth that I know and that is Scripture.

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:  neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And  such were some of you. But  you were washed,  you were sanctified,  you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. “

Now, as you read this scripture you can begin to see the equality of homosexuality, it is just like the other sins listed in this passage.  The thieves or the drunkards are not any higher in the list or any lower in the list, they are all sins that are Hated by God.  This is a point that people often miss, and they assume incorrectly that we Christians hate the person and that is simply not true, or we must indeed hate ourselves.  See, I have made objects an idol, I have been greedy, I have slandered so in that sin I am equal with my depravity or better worded my separation from God.

But follow on in that scripture and now you see the difference and Paul states it very clearly.  All of those things I just stated (this is me paraphrasing Paul) you guys were some of them, but not now because you found Christ.  See, this is the major part that is not understood.  When Christ saves you, you will not want to break His commands.  You will not want to do anything that would violate His standards.  Now, you will…but I pray not by choice!

So, let me leave you with a video that will explain this far better than I have here this morning.  But before I go I must reiterate that I do not support Homosexuality.  Just like I hate stealing and I hate idolatry because they are equal.  But in the model that God has set before me I love the homosexual, I love the liar, I love the thief I just cannot agree with the Sin.  I will let Ravi explain it as he is far more gifted in this area than I.

I pray that this would clear this issue up and if not message me off of the contact page and I will respond and we can discuss further.

God Bless

~ Pastor Tyler

8 Principles for Churches That Want to Grow

When it comes to numbers, churches tend to err in one of two ways: they either discount them as unimportant or they put too much emphasis on them.

The reality is that numbers are important, and though they aren’t the only sign of a healthy church, they are an important measure.

For Mars Hill, numbers are a key measure of our health. For us, it’s all about the numbers, if by “numbers” you mean the number of people getting their sins forgiven, getting their lives changed by Jesus, and going to heaven instead of hell. We’d like that number to go up. We’re all for that.

When numbers are viewed from this perspective, they are a good thing to desire to see grow. This is why I commend pastors who desire to see the church they pastor grow for the right reasons.

In my conversations with pastors around the world, many have questions on church growth. So, I thought I’d share eight principles I’ve learned about church growth.

1. Begin with the end in mind and know how large you want to be.

The following is a rough breakdown of reported (which may not be entirely accurate) church attendance. Admittedly, these numbers are a few years old, but, as a general rule, they do give you a rough idea of church-size barriers.

• Churches with 45 people or fewer = 100,000 churches or 25% of all churches
• Churches with 75 people or fewer = 200,000 churches or 50% of all churches
• Churches with 150 people or fewer = 300,000 churches or 75% of all churches
• Churches with 350 people or fewer = 380,000 churches or 95% of all churches
• Churches with 800 people or fewer = 392,000 churches or 98% of all churches
• Churches with 800 people or more = 8,000 churches or 2% of all churches
• Churches with 2,000 people or more = 870 churches or 0.22% of all churches
• Churches with 3,000 people or more = 425 churches or 0.11% of all churches

Lyle Schaller, considered one of the best church consultants in the world, states in his book, The Very Large Church, that the two most comfortable church sizes are under 45 people and under 150 people, likely making them two of the hardest thresholds to pass through, in addition to the 800 mark.

In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell states that 150 is also the maximum number of people someone can purposefully connect with, which explains why some people do not like bigger churches. It may also explain why John Wesley divided people into groups of about 150, the average hunter-gatherer village is about 150 people, most military units are under 200, and the Hutterites allow their communities to grow no larger than 150.

Understanding group dynamics like this is important in understanding that there are significant challenges that come with each phase of church size, and being aware of where you want your church to grow allows you to begin preparing for those growth phases more effectively.

2. The larger the church, the more different it is from other churches of the same theology and tradition.

As a church grows, while the theology remains the same, the organization complexity doesn’t, often requiring new methods of ministry.

Size affects the number of lines of communication, how an organization stacks or does not stack leadership, access to the senior leader and family, etc. Simply put, church size does matter for how a church is run, much like a married couple who some years later find themselves with a dozen children cannot simply organize their life as they did with their first child—everything must change.

For those wanting to learn more about the dynamics of church size, Tim Keller has a helpful paper, and Larry Osborne has a helpful book called Sticky Teams.

3. Change is inevitable.

You either move forward or backward. A living church changes differently than a dying church does, but all churches change.

For a church to grow, it must change. It does not need to change in theology, but it will need to change in methodology. If a church is unwilling to change their methodology to reach and care for more people, then it is guilty of method-idolatry, which is where we confuse unchanging biblical principles with what are supposed to be changing cultural methods.

4. Don’t assign moral judgments to size and change.

People tend to wrongly attach a moral value to church size, which is unholy, unhealthy, and unhelpful. This explains why big churches are accused of being uncaring and small churches are accused of not reaching people or being well led or organized.

I pastored Mars Hill when it was small and saw a lot of people saved by Jesus. And, now that Mars Hill is large, I’m certain we take far better care of our people with far better community than we did when we were small. Many smaller church pastors, especially those who value theology well above ministry philosophy and size, tend to completely overlook or even deny the importance of church size. They will accuse those who care about numbers to be simply pragmatic, as if wanting more people to meet Jesus and grow in grace were a bad thing.

The reality is that Jesus works through churches of all sizes, and if he should see fit to bless a church to grow bigger, that is not a bad thing but a good thing.

5. If you want to grow, you need to prepare for common changes now.

Here are few of the changes you’ll face as you grow:

• You move from managing workers, to leading managers, to leading leaders.
• Focus shifts from a survival-in-the-present mode to a success-in-the-future mode.
• Expectations move from informal to formal (elders, deacons, and members).
• You have to grow from making decisions by general consensus to a handful of people making decisions.
• Communications becomes formal and written rather than informal and oral.
• People’s roles move from general responsibility to specialized responsibility.
• The church moves from being one community to being many communities (e.g. multiple services, community groups, etc.).
• The senior leaders shift their focus from being primarily caregivers to making sure people are being cared for by raising up leaders.
• The senior leader shifts from working in the organization to working on the organization.
• The members move from being connected to the pastor to being connected to other leaders.
• Focus shifts from drawing people through relationship to drawing them through events and dynamic Sunday services.

6. Be humble as a leader to seek the counsel of pastors ahead of you and receive their counsel.

Over the years, I’ve reached out to many godly pastors who oversee larger churches for advice and counsel as Mars Hill has grown. Their friendship, advice, prayer, and service to our church have been much appreciated and priceless. No man is an island, and it’s crucial to seek godly counsel and humbly receive it.

7. Discern between guilt and conviction in seasons of transition.

Developing this discernment is key, as you cannot do what everyone wants you to do and also do exactly what God calls you to do. As the old adage goes, if you try to please everyone, you please no one.

Proverbs 29:25 says that fear of man is a “trap” or a “snare,” depending upon your translation. Fear of man causes us to live for the approval of our tribe and to fear criticism or ostracism from our tribe. Fear of man is a form of idolatry—living to please someone other than Jesus Christ.

Ultimately, when you get to heaven, you’ll give account to Jesus for your decisions and actions as a pastor. Strive to be faithful to Jesus, not to the demands of people.

8. Pray and plan for people to meet Jesus.

As you often get what you pray for, and you need to prepare for it.

Mars Hill has been blessed by God to see a great harvest over the years. Like any large harvest, there is much work to do and it is tiring. As you pray for many people to meet Jesus, also prepare in faithful expectation for the work that will come if Jesus answers your prayer.

The good news is that seeing many people meet Jesus, while demanding work, is the best kind of work there is.

- Pastor Mark Driscoll – Mars Hill Seattle

~ God Bless
Pastor Tyler

Some lead the church. Others lead as the church.

Popular evangelical literature on leadership tends to fall into one of two extremes. The first extreme focuses on those who lead the church positionally (elders and deacons). While this extreme incorporates robust and weighty theology to discuss leadership it fails to engage the full breadth of leadership as it is revealed in Scripture.

The second extreme focuses on leadership from a business or personality model. While this extreme includes more than just church leaders, it fails to argue from a solid theological foundation and thus skews the person and purpose of leadership.

Both extremes fall short of how Scripture speaks of leadership. Both extremes, when they become the primary lens for defining and implementing leadership, have severe adverse effects on the local church.

“Both extremes create deformed church leaders and churches.”

When the first extreme is held, leadership becomes purely a role within the church structure and thus has little to no impact in the culture and community in which the church exists. This view limits leadership within the church to those who have a “pastoral” gifting or who can serve the programs of the church. Little to no attention is paid to those who lead outside of the organization of the church, and the leadership pool within the church shrinks significantly.

The second extreme attracts those who lead outside of the church structure, yet it fails to equip and empower them to lead as biblically faithful Christians within their spheres of influence. Because, at best, the theological depth of this extreme stops at prooftexting, and those who fall into this extreme lead their churches to address surface issues within their people and their community while never seeing deep and total heart transformation. The gospel fails to be central and powerful, while leadership axioms are given the same weight as Scripture.

Both extremes create deformed church leaders and churches.

Best Method

To avoid the extremes, one needs to have a Biblically accurate definition of leadership. Doing so allows a leader to faithfully leverage the benefits of the literature and practices of either extreme while guarding against their dangers.

Positional Leadership

Scripture speaks of leadership as both positional and as influential. Positional leadership is perhaps the most common way church leaders understand leadership (the first extreme). Acts 20, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, Hebrews 12, and 1 Peter 5 outline how positional leadership should be understood. Positional leadership is for some. It is a role that God has ordained and calls particular people to. Those given positional leadership within God’s kingdom and over his people are men and women whose character is that of Christ’s (1 Tim. 3), whose behavior reflects their identity (2 Cor. 5:14–17), who have the necessary skills and abilities to lead the church on God’s mission (Eph. 3:10, 4:11; Titus 1), and who have been called by God—thus empowered by his Spirit—to do so (Acts 20; 2 Cor. 5:14–21; Heb. 13:17). The positional roles of leadership within the church are deacon (for men and women) and elder (for men only). These persons should lead in a way that reflects how God has led his people through history: through his Word, by the power of his Spirit, and as selfless servants.

Influential Leadership

A second way in which leadership is described in Scripture is that of influence (the second extreme). Similar to those who lead from a position, those who lead through influence are called by God to himself and participate in his mission to reconcile all things to himself (2 Cor. 5:17–18; 1 Peter 2:9). These leaders are empowered by the Spirit and equipped by those in positional leadership (Eph. 4:11–16) to be ministers of reconciliation in whatever sphere of life they operate.

The consistent elements are calling and character, with some overlapping competencies. What differs is the role within the body and immediate context. Some are called to lead the church. Others are called to lead as the church.

God Calls Leaders

The mission of God is to glorify himself through the reconciliation of humanity—of every tribe, tongue, and nation (Rev. 5:9)—and creation (Col. 1:20) to a right relationship with him (2 Cor. 5:14–21) through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:9–10). Christ then is the hope of the world. The church is simultaneously a goal and a means of the mission as God’s reconciled people given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18–20). If Christ is the hope of the world, the church is the instrument by which that hope is made manifest (Eph. 3:10).

Therefore, a Christian leader is . . .

A person called by God, given and pursing the character of Christ, so as to influence people towards living in relation to God, others, and the world as God intends.

A Christian leader is first called by God—called out of darkness and sin and into life as a new creation given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:14–21). A Christian leader is then given and pursuing the character of Christ (2 Peter 1:1–11). A Christian leader is to influence through the authority of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of fulfilling the mission of God (Eph. 4:11–16; 1 Peter 2:9).

Many Means, One Glory

Whether you are leading the church as an elder or deacon or leading the church in your home, workplace, or sphere of influence, the charge is the same: through the gospel, seek the reconciliation of all things to God the Father. The exact means of leading towards reconciliation may differ, but the goal does not. Similarly, the roles and competencies may differ but the calling and character of Christian leader leading the church or as the church does not.

If this is your foundation for understanding leadership, then you can avoid the extremes that are pervasive among evangelicals today. Go then and faithfully lead to the glory of God!

~ Jeremy Pace

~ God Bless – PT

Topic: The Bible

Author:  John Piper

~ God Bless

Pastor Tyler