Finding Value Through A "Below Your Means" Holiday

We have been in Europe for a week now. And we have done our holidays the way we have always done it in the past - to find value and meaning and draw lessons that will stay with us for an entire lifetime as a family. And to achieve that we often have found the peace to let go of conveniences and comfort, if we must.

The clear example this time round works out like this. Thea lives as a student in Leuven, Belgium. She has a neat little room in a building with 16 such rooms that houses students just like her. This last week that we were to be in Belgium, two rooms on her floor were vacant as her friends were out of town.

We grabbed the opportunity to stay with her, making use of those rooms. Why, we could have stayed comfortably in a nearby hotel or motel or stay even more comfortably in Brussels where my brother and sister-in-law have a nice apartment. But we chose to stay with Thea. The reason is simple: there was no way we would be able to completely identify with her life as a student in Europe unless we really live with her.

And those five days in Leuven, we learnt so much first hand about the way Thea lives. How she has to walk up and down four floors to get to her room. How her bathroom looks like and how she has to cook for herself; where she does her grocery shopping; where she went to school and how her friends looked like and where she takes the train to go anywhere. We were a part of her everyday life. We walked it with her.

And because of those experiences that went into such details into how she lived as a student, we found VALUE in our stay with her that money could never buy. Money could buy us convenience but not character. Money can buy us stuff but not substance. Character and substance often come with some inconveniences and discomforts.

Now we have a bagful of precious memories (and not perishable stuff) to take with us into the future. Years down the line, we would talk about her European days; we would tell those stories to her children, nephews and nieces and we would inspire them that there is more value and happiness in living below your means because it deposits into your soul things that money can never buy.

And we left Leuven so happy yesterday - we saved quite a bit of money!

On The Economic Crisis

• The economic downturn is a great opportunity of Christians for evangelism. For many people, money is their god and their god just got crucified, and shows no signs of resurrection. This is the time to point people to the only real Saviour who did get resurrected.

• Christians respond differently in times of crisis. In the early church, when disease swept the urban centres and everyone fled, Christians remained to help the sick and dying. In the same way, when many are now panicking because of financial crunch, shoring up their own interests, and turning to new hopes that ultimately will also disappoint, Christians should be asking, "How can we sacrifice personally to help people in need?"

• As I explained four Sundays ago in the opening sermon on Unshaken Amidst Uncertainties (Lessons We Can Learn From A Downturn) , we all tend to compare ourselves to our vocational peers (i.e., those who make about as much as we do), and see if we're living as well as them. If not, we are bothered. But studies consistently show the average Singaporean is living above his means, which means that if you choose to live below your means, then you are going to be living a few steps behind your peers. And you will look like a financial retard. And, if you choose to give generously and to save, (both biblical admonitions as well), that is going to put you many more steps behind your peers. Living many steps behind someone is a NOTICEABLE difference. It is not simply going out to eat one less time or not getting that $3.50 dessert at the Food Court; rather, it affects where you live and the kind of car you drive. You should be prepared for this and at peace with it, resolved that living 4-5 steps behind your peers is worth it to stay out of debt and give generously. And be more contented; feel so much more secure in God and stay happier!
  

Our Lives Should Demand An Answer

I hear quite frequently that postmodern people today won't respond to a verbal witness the way people would 30 years ago. They are not as open and comfortable with altar calls either. But, it is said in scripture that we must witness with our lives and "be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us." (1 Peter).

I think that is a great observation, except it overlooks that Jesus' command to us was to GO and be His witness. We were never to wait for unbelievers to come to us to "ask" questions. We were to go to them and proclaim a message that answers a question they may not have known to ask.

What of Peter's admonition to "be ready to give an answer?" He means we are to live in such a way that our lives BEG a question from people that are watching, not that we're just ready to "talk about our faith when people are curious." Our lives were to be so characterized by RADICAL generosity, and they were to display such joy in the midst of suffering, such peace in the midst of uncertainties that people were simply befuddled and had to ask us what was 'wrong' with us.

Many Christians give faithfully to their church, but how many of us give in such a radical way that people have to come ask us what is 'wrong' with us?

Christians often know the right answers to give in suffering, but how many demonstrate such RADICAL joy in the midst of pain people have to ask us if we're crazy?

This was the case with Paul and Silas in Acts 16. It was when the Philippian jailor saw their interminable joy after being beaten, and their wild generosity (in that they would rather stay and witness to him than take their freedom), that he asked the question, trembling, "What must I do to be saved?" We rarely get questions of that nature, I think, because we don't live with the inexplicable hope with which Paul and Silas lived.

This is what I mean when I say that even in a lifestyle witness our very lives should demand an answer from those who don't know Jesus. We should be seeking to preach the message by the radical way in which we live.

Encouragement: Recreating Others Through WORDS

I can't tell you how many times this year I was getting a little discouraged and either someone on my staff team or friends or my family, who had no idea I was discouraged, spoke words of faith into my soul. Maybe it was a compliment about how God was using me, or maybe some grace they saw in my life, or maybe just something about the goodness and faithfulness of God.

That's what encouragement literally is: break apart the word and it means “to speak strength/courage into someone’s life.”

I believe it is one of the most overlooked of spiritual gifts. I love being around people with it! They seem to know when and how to call out the grace in my life.

It is one of the things I most love about my personal mentors. In fact, the thing that my most cherished mentors had in common was that they routinely spoke strength, not just criticism, into me. I get teary eyed thinking about how often these men told me they believed in me.

It is easy, you see, for us to "assume the strengths" in others and to "notice the weakness." We can even write off our pointing out their faults as being "helpful" to them, or not pointing out their strengths as an attempt to guard their pride. Bull. Such an attitude shows little to no awareness of the human condition, or how God works. I believe we should reverse that. We should assume others' weaknesses and notice their strengths.

One of my favorite theologians on this was Martin Luther. Luther said that God's way was to redefine reality with WORDS. God looked into chaos and spoke the hopeful, power-infusing words of creation. He looked into the chaos of our sin and declared us righteous in His Son. By speaking those words (coupled with our belief in them), He reconstituted our reality. You see, if He had declared us lost He would have spoken truth, but He spoke an even greater truth by recreating us with His words.

As one article I read noted,

In other words, others might tell me I am a failure, an idiot, a clown, evil, incompetent, vicious, dangerous, pathetic etc., and these words are not just descriptive: they have a certain power to make me these things, in the eyes of others and even in my own eyes, as self-doubt creeps in and the Devil whispers in my ear. But the greatness of Luther’s Protestantism lies in this: God’s speaks louder, and his word is more powerful. You may call me a liar, and you speak truth, for I have lied; but if God declares me righteous, then my lies and your insult are not the final word, nor the most powerful word. I have peace in my soul because God’s word is real reality. That’s why I need to read the Bible every day, to hear the word preached each week, to come to God in prayer, and to hear words of grace from other brothers and sisters as I seek to speak the same to them. Only as God speaks his word to me, and as I hear that word in faith, is my reality transformed and do the insults of others, of my own sinful nature, and of the evil one himself, cease to constitute my reality. The words of my enemies, external and internal, might be powerful for a moment, like a firework exploding against the night sky; but the Word of the Lord is stronger, brighter, and lasts forever.

Of course we can abuse that. We are not to declare wicked things good. What we are to do is recognize God's potential work in someone's life and help them believe it.

Celebrate often the goodness of God you see in another person's life. Fan the flames of His grace at work in them. Recognize the potential of what God wants to do in someone and affirm it. See the crown God has placed above their head and help them believe their way into it.

This season of staff appraisal, I had opportunity to bless and build every one of my staff with such encouragement and it has so blessed my life and added so much value to my ministry.

Do you do this with your children? Your leaders? Your friends? Your spouse?

The Four Levels Leadership

It was one of the best Leaders' Retreats in the last couple of years. About 40 of us left M-Suites in JB with a strong resonance about growing a leadership mindset and rising on new sigma curves for the growing of our faith and vision for the future. It was, for me, a very fulfilling closing to a three month journey in seeking the LORD for 2009 and beyond.

Leaders live in the future. And my mind has since moved beyond the six leadership paradigms to crafting another new paradigm for leadership: The Four Levels of Leadership.

The concept of the "the 4 levels of leadership" is an important one if you are leading any growing organization. The basic gist, per Ram Charan, in his very insightful work, LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS, is that people who led an organization at one level are often unprepared to lead at the next level... as the organization grows, their job changes, and what made them good at one level may not be sufficient to make them excel at the next. For example, take a superb salesman... He is winsome, great with customers, and a good time manager. If the salesman is promoted to manage other salesman, however, those things that made him a good salesman don't ensure he will make a good manager of other salesmen.

In a small business, or church, the 4 basic levels are: managing self; managing others; manager of managers; and enterprise manager.

Some people will discover they have found their niche where they are, and are content not to climb the leadership pipeline (i.e., they are content to remain an expert salesman: that is ok, and they can excel at that--better to do what you're good at than pretend to be something else). Others will have the needed competency or want to develop the needed skills necessary to lead at the next level.

Each leader must be self-aware his personal capacity and competencies and it is the discerning task of the leaders over them to see who has what it takes to go up to the next level of leadership. Part of that discernment will include awareness of gift mixed, skills and most importantly depth of character and calling.

Hence begins a new journey for me in leading leaders.

A Fruitful Pastor Or A Fruitful Church?

"By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit." John 15:8

Jesus' concern then, and now, was that his disciples be fruitful, not just they stand amazed at his fruitfulness. It appears to me that in the “church growth circles” in which I run there are two kinds of churches - the kind where the church is an audience gathered to share in the personal fruitfulness of the Pastor, and the kind where members are equipped to be fruitful themselves. In the former, the PASTOR wins people to Christ each Sunday from the platform; his speaking is a strong manifestation of the Spirit, and he creates a buzz of excitement that draws people like crazy. He is the “hero” of the church.

In the latter kind, the CHURCH MEMBERS are equipped to see the power of God in and through their lives as they see God's kingdom brought into where they live and work and study. They, not just the pastor, are the “heroes” of the church.

I definitely want that latter kind. Jesus didn’t simply gather observers. Jesus called and trained leaders. He REPLICATED Himself in them. He made disciples.

Furthermore, Jesus wants us to transform the community and the city, not just grow the church audience. Since the community and city lives outside the walls of the church, training up leaders and members to take Jesus to them is the most effective way to really transform the community and city. 39 of the 40 miracles in the book of Acts happened OUTSIDE of the church.

Don't get me wrong, I do want to preach the Word with such anointing that people come Sunday by Sunday to encounter God. I want to be like Solomon, whom another world leader came to hear preach because she had heard about the power of his words. That is a crucial part of the strategy, but it is only PART of the strategy.

I don't want a church that grows with people simply observing and riding on the coattails of, my fruitfulness. That is more like a spiritual circus than a genuine church.

God called me to lead a church, not put on a show. At the end of the day, I will answer to God not for the size of my crowd, but for what I did to make fruitful disciples out of them.

Anything less cannot be called an "Acts" church. The story of the church did not stop in Acts 2 with 5000 being saved under Peter's preaching. It progressed into Acts 6-8, where the members went everywhere into the community and world preaching the word.

Agape, don't be satisfied to simply sit and be awed by the fruitfulness of your leaders. Jesus has more for you. Let Him make you fruitful yourself! And to grow in your personal fruitfulness, make it a point to attend the Evangelism Explosion seminar as part of the OneEOne process this season. Be fruitful!

Don't Go Ahead Of God.

Unfortunately, Abraham and Sarah did just that. Remember the story of when God promised them that they would bear a son, even though they were already past retirement age? This took place before God changed their names: from Sarai to Sarah and Abram to Abraham. The story goes something like this:

God said to Abram, "Abram, you're going to have a child, you and Sarai."
Abram looked at his reflection in the lake, and said, "No way!"
He looked over at past-her-prime Sarai doing the wash and said, "For sure, no way!"
And even Sarai later agreed saying, "Yes, there's absolutely no way."

So instead of trusting God to fulfill His dream of a son through their union, they took matters into their own hands.

"Sarai said to Abram, 'Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid...' And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai" (Genesis 16:2).

Hagar gave birth to a child named Ishmael: the Middle East and the world are still struggling because of that shortcut today.

On the tracks on a mountain climb were stuck little signs that say, "Stay on the path. Take no shortcuts, it causes erosion." We should hang those signs in every one of our homes, "Stay on the path. Take no shortcuts, it causes erosion."

The Lord says, "Please don't take shortcuts. Don't take matters into your own hands. I am asking you to be faithful and to scrub your hearts. Stay faithful in whatever I give you to do, even though it might seem like it takes a long time."

Be careful to not listen to voices that encourage you to take shortcuts. Don't take matters into your own hands.

Keep your eyes on the Promiser.

Focus your attention not on the promise but the Promiser.

Remember, God is faithful to bring about the promise: He just asks us to be faithful in the process.

As the story continues, Abraham and Sarah finally had a son and named him Isaac. Abraham thought he'd purified his motives enough for God to fulfill his dream. The truth was, however, once the promise arrived Abraham's heart shifted from the Promiser and became fixed on the promise. God knew more refining was needed. Abraham's flesh had mingled with the gold and silver. God was about to shatter the promise again in order to show Abraham and the world that the only true way to follow God is: from the heart, through faith, in total dependence.

So God said to Abraham, "Take your son up to the top of the mountain and sacrifice him."

The Bible says Abraham took Isaac up the mountain with wood, a knife and a shattered dream in his heart.

This is it. The dream is over, Abraham must have thought.

He put his son on a makeshift altar, raised up his hand, and took one last glance at the son that he'd set his heart on, the son God had promised him, the fulfillment of his dreams. Suddenly, unnoticeable to anyone but God, something happened. Between the time the knife was held motionless to the moment of that forward thrust, something had to have broken in Abraham's heart. His heart had to break away from the one he loved more than anything and as soon as it did he was able to start the downward motion. He became convinced that it truly was all about God's dream and obedience to Him, and not about fulfilling his own dream in his own way. At that moment, the knife plunged down. As soon as his heart turned to the point that he thought, Isaac is Yours, not mine, right then, what happened? An angel came and stopped his hand.

Do you know why?

In essence, God was saying. "Abraham, I don't want Isaac. I wanted your heart. As soon as your heart returned to Me, that was all I needed to see. I had to go inside the dream of your heart and shatter that dream. Why? So your heart would be restored from the promise to the Promiser. Now, my beloved, I can give you the promise back."

Do you see that? That's why we have to take our hands off of the promise and stay faithful in the process, lest we compromise and cut corners. We must get our eyes back on the Promiser. Do you know why? Some miracles happen over a period of time.

There are miracles that don't happen instantly. They require time. Within the process of doing the miracle God often must scrub our heart: to make sure our motives are pure and to insure that we honour the process. Our focus must remain on the Promiser, not the promise.

Yesterday, I came away from a meeting where I felt a frustration I had not felt in a long, long time. And I couldn’t put my finger to why I felt that way. Its only this morning that I understood the reason for my frustration – the process was being ignored. There was a call for the promises to be fulfilled without respecting the processes.

With God, it is wisdom to start small and dig deep while we thing big!