He didn’t hesitate. “The leaders of our revival trusted God enough to handoff ministry to us. And there wasn’t much in us to trust. Think about it. A bunch of radicals-turned-disciplers. I bet you can’t find many leaders today who would do that. Today’s Christian leaders are all about control and credit.”

It was a great reminder of just how important it is to be a releaser rather than a controller, a risk taker rather than a fortress builder.

If you want to see a revival, and I do, you have to let go of most of the stuff you’re trying to control. God help us to risk revival.

Just before our day ended he looked off and asked of no one in particular, “When did the church become so mean?”

I said, “We’re not mean, why don’t you come here and give us a chance?”

He laughed uncomfortably, and said, “I might just come and visit you some Sunday, Ed.”

I prayed for him and we shook hands. As I watched him drive away with his cameraman, his question haunted me.

On the drive home that night I turned my radio dial to Christian talk radio. Appalled by the snarling arrogance of the host, I prayed that the man I had met that day wasn’t listening. Whether he knew it or not, his “we’ll show those sinners when this bill gets passed” and “just wait until God deals with these idiots” sent a message to those outside of God’s grace: God’s on our side and He hates you.

The Bible teaches that God is on the side of the righteous and emphasizes that ultimately our side will win. But our victory will not come through favorable voting returns but at the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign on earth.

What the Bible does not teach is that God hates sinners. The New Testament says that the message of the church is the Good News of reconciliation “who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

If God hated sinners—those unreconciled to Him—this verse tells us He would have to start with us. Instead, He loves sinners and sent His Son to die in order to reconcile sinners like us. To us, the reconciled sinners, He has given this ministry of reconciliation, “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and his commit to us the world of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

So how would your non-Christian friends and acquaintances classify you? Do your life and words scream condemnation or do they whisper reconciliation?

This is an excerpt from my book, Reborn to Be Wild: Reviving Our Radical Pursuit of Jesus! It’s all about the Jesus Movement and the lessons we learned.

David C. Cook Publishers

Kind of like Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8!

Something wonderful happened to me the day my firstborn child, Aimee, came into the world. For the first time in my life, I had totally selfless thoughts. Suddenly, I was holding in my arms someone who meant more to me than, well … me. At that moment, I knew that no sacrifice would be too great for this little girl I had just met but instantly cherished. Before I could become too proud of how dear she had become to me, I placed her in the arms of her mother. From the moment Judy began to nurse our baby girl, I knew they were experiencing a bond I would never know and could never experience.

If you’re thinking of the birth of your child and your love for them or your father and mother and their love for you, then you are picturing the role of an authentic spiritual leader—a parent. Paul reminds his readers of the selfless motives of the team he brought to Thessalonica by describing their role. They were parents to their disciples, as gentle as a nurturing mother and as firmly encouraging as a concerned father.

That’s the measure of authentic New Testament leadership.

So who are the people in your life the Lord Jesus is asking you to lead in His name? Remember, it’s not about them following you; it’s about you selflessly leading them to follow Another. His name is Jesus.

“But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

Question: Do you have a story of someone who led you well? I’d love to hear it.

That’s the way it was during the Jesus Movement. No one examined your ecclesiastical portfolio before asking you to serve Christ. Shoot, we didn’t even know what the word “ecclesiastical” meant. We were still trying to admit that we belonged in this thing called the church.

I had been a Christian exactly two weeks; didn’t even know that the Bible had books in it, and couldn’t tell a deacon from a dalmatian. But there it was–a choice to either follow Christ or live for myself.

Wow, Jesus had something for me to do…and it would cost me something to follow. I chose to follow. And forty years later I can tell you that it was a good choice.

Has it hit you yet, that Jesus has something for you to do and it will cost you something to follow Him? When it does, will you?

I was sure God was going to answer our prayer.

• Our leadership team, all abiders in Christ and claiming John 15:6, begged God to rescue our budget with a huge December.
• Following our Lord’s instructions on prayer (Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7-11; Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-5), we prayed specifically and persistently.
• We prayed alone, as couples, as families, in groups, and in community at all of our Christmas leadership events.
• Most of us fasted and prayed multiple times during December.

I was so sure that God would say yes to this prayer because usually He says yes when a request burdens our community in this way.

God Said No

He said no. Emphatically no. It wasn’t that He was testing us some to see if we would trust Him enough to move forward with a more robust budget in 2012 by giving us a partial yes. Our December giving didn’t even come close.

I’m devastated and my faith is shaken.

Like you, I don’t know what to do with no answers to my purest prayers when it seems I did everything right. I started doubting whether I really was abiding, if I was asking unselfishly enough, if maybe I was foolish to be so bold and public in leading our church in this prayer.

I came up with strategies to explain away the no. Some of that I’m sure was to protect the “reputation” of God, but a lot of it was simply to try to make sense of it myself.

And then, my grandson Zachy taught me a lesson on prayer.

Jesus rejoiced in the childlike faith of His disciples. Their excited reports of what God had done for them after their first missionary journey, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (Luke 10:17), elicits this response from the Master:

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21).

Zachy

Zachy was spending the night with us for the first time in his almost three years on earth Friday night. He had moved from a world of a lot of no’s (too many if his parents were to consult Judy and me!) to a world of yes’s. He got just about everything he wanted that night. Okay, I admit it. He got everything he wanted that night.

But then, when it came time to go to bed, his little heart broke. He cried and cried, saying only, “Mommy, Daddy, Sammy” over and over again. Finally, after an hour of comforting him and stroking his little back, he fell asleep with the whispered whimper, “Mommy, Daddy, Sammy.”

The next morning when mommy and daddy and brother Sammy came to pick him up, he ran into their arms and immediately asked them for something he couldn’t have.

They told him no. He protested. And then he asked again.

Children don’t care as much about yes’s as they do about relationship. They protest and throw fits when daddy says no, but what they most fear is being away from daddy…and mommy…and Sammy.

What a child wants most is the secure love of a parent and the familiar surroundings of the community of the family.

But they never stop asking!

The Measure of Faith

There’s my lesson. We tend to measure faith by adult behavior. God measures faith by childlike behavior.

I’m still begging my Father for more money to do the things we want to do for His Kingdom in 2012, but I’m not going to try to fine tune my prayers.

He’s given me what my redeemed heart longs for most: His unfailing love and strength, and a community of faith where I feel safe.

Just like Zachy, what we really want is the presence of our Father rather than His yes.

Question: When God says no to your prayers, do you tend toward more adult behavior of explanation or the childlike behavior of running to His arms and protesting His no?

As a SoCaler, I spend a lot of time on the freeways. Sometimes I listen to Christian radio. Sometimes it truly blesses me. Other times it just ticks me off.

Like yesterday when this radio preacher was screaming and shaming his congregation and anyone tuning in about their lack of commitment in just about every area of the Christian life. What bothered me most as he bellowed his way from one shaming truth to the next, was that he acted like he didn’t struggle with this stuff. He, unlike the peons and maybe-not-authentic-believers he vilified and mortified, had his religious “stuff” together.

Right. Sure. Wanna-bet?

My first thought when I hear these performance-driven sermons is, “I wonder what this guy’s hiding?”

I’ve Got a Secret!

Because he is; count on it.

Most of the teaching in the church is framed around the notion that the button-down, loafered-up, “I-got-it-all-together-and-never-have-any-doubts” Christian actually exists somewhere.

Read your Bible. The only One who fits that description wore sandals, had long hair, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Paul was the “chief of sinners”; Peter denied Christ, and Mark ran from the garden naked like some frightened little puppy.

They all let the Lord down mightily; but the Lord used them mightily.

That’s called grace. I prefer grace to arrogance any day.

You know what I mean, you may even use “camping” jargon:

• He’s not in our camp–meaning he doesn’t agree with your interpretation of Scripture, your theology, or your practice of the Christian life.
• They’re a part of that camp–meaning that they just don’t fit into your group.
• What camp are you in? This is a question that determines if someone is on your side.

120 Seconds

I’m too busy and I’m too tired of Christian “campers” to write anything substantive or maybe even profound, so I’m giving myself two minutes, 120 seconds, to say what is on my heart.

I was wrong when I insisted that those who disagreed with me or didn’t follow Christ in the same style I did were outside of my camp.

You’re wrong if you’re doing that now.

Can we disagree? Should we disagree?

Absolutely!

But should we divide into camps?

Absolutely not!

The next time you’re tempted to divide Christians between “us” and “them,” read Mark 9:38-50.

I’d say more, bit my time is up. So I’ll just close with Jesus’ words:

“For He who is not against us is on our side” (Mark 9:40).

I’m sure you would protest and wonder what the leaders were thinking. What kind of a leader sends an untrained soldier into war who doesn’t even know the basics of soldiering?

Capture that feeling in your heart and you would know how our Heavenly Father feels when church leaders send Christian soldiers into the battle for souls against the fierce forces of evil totally unprepared and untrained. They don’t know how to read their Bible, share the Good News, walk in the Spirit, or even how to recover when they fail.

But the Lord Jesus never meant for it to be this way. If church leaders would just read their marching orders in Matthew 28:18-20 they would know that their first priority is to make disciples—maturing followers of Christ who are battle-ready for the spiritual war that’s been raging since Satan deceived the woman and the man let it happen in the Garden.

This is why we begin every year at Church of the Open Door reminding ourselves of our commitment to the Great Commission—to make disciples of all nations. The day Church of the Open Door forgets this, is the day we become irrelevant to the work of God on earth.

“Invisible kingdoms are at war for the hearts and lives of every human being who walks the face of the earth.” Erwin McManus

“I just want to know what God wants me to do,” the man said to me.

His eyes filled with rage at my answer: “No you don’t!”

“What do you mean?” he protested. “I do too; I want to know God’s will!”

As we sat across the table in my office, I reminded him that he had asked me to help him determine God’s will in his finances three times before, over a period of about six years. Each time I brought him to the same conclusion from God’s Word: “God’s will is clear—give to His work. You cannot look past His clear teaching that connects all of His financial promises to your faith in Him. You must trust Him enough to give before you can expect His guidance and blessing concerning your money situation.”

But here we were, going around the same block, considering his same questions, and reviewing God’s same answer.

Don’t Ask If You’re Not Willing

It’s dangerous to ask God for directions unless you are willing to follow them! When the wicked idolaters who had fled to Moab and Edom as the Babylonians poured into Jerusalem returned to try to wrest power from the puppet king, they asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them. When Jeremiah told them that the Lord wanted them to stay in Jerusalem, stop their idolatry, and submit to the Babylonians, they accused him of lying, took him prisoner, and forced him to flee to Egypt with them where they worshiped their “Goddess of Heaven.” (Jeremiah 41-44)

The Father tires of those who are simply curious about his will or come to him only in a crisis to see if he offers a pleasant option for deliverance. This is the state of so many Christians. In the merry-go-round of their lives, they just repeat the same mistakes and live under the same pathology year after year. They sometimes ask God what to do, especially when these pathologies cost or hurt them. Then, they decide once again not to do what God says and to return to their idols of career, materialism, and recreation.

How sad, but the Lord wants better for His children…for you!

When He directs, follow. I believe that too many refusals just cause the Father to know that we are not really serious about doing His will. So He stops speaking, as He did to the unbelieving generations of Israel and Judah.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

This is the second half of a piece I read to the church on Easter of 2011: the raw truth about Church of the Open Door.

We’re Here to Tell You

We’re here to encourage you by telling you over and over again that the life you’ve been living is not the life Jesus wants you to have. To help you believe that you are worth far more than what the voices of this world tell you you’re worth.

We’re here to tell you that life is more than the weekly lineup of reality shows, the vacations you go on, the restaurants you eat in, the fine wine you drink, the golf courses you play on or the sports teams you follow.

We’re here to tell you that your worth is not limited or even defined by the car you drive, the home you live in, your fitness factor, your significant career, your education in a prestigious university, your political party, or your status in some sick codependent performance-based religious tradition.

We’re here to tell you that you do not need to medicate the pain of life with booze, drugs, exercise, materialism, portfolios, education, career, control, or even theology.

What We Know!

We know that we live in a world where few people keep their promises or remain faithful to anything or anyone. We want to introduce you to Jesus, who does keep His promises and will remain faithful. And we beg Him to strengthen us so that we can become the exception to your experience by keeping our promises to Him, you, and one another.

We know that you need a new vision for your life. We know from God’s Word and from personal experience with Christ that you do not have to hang onto this hurtful world with the death grip of someone who isn’t aware of a better option.

We know that you may feel like the better options are for others.

Donald Miller, in one of my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz, tells the story of a group of hostages taken by terrorists in a remote corner of the world and held there in a dark room for over a year. When the Navy Seals got to the building, opened the door and announced, “You’re rescued; you’re free. Come out into the light!” Not one of the hostages, huddled in a mass on the floor, moved a muscle. They had been in the dark for so long they didn’t believe in the light anymore. Or, like most of those who live outside the grace and mercy of God, didn’t think it was for them. So one of the seals took off his gear, got down on the floor, wrapped himself around the nearest hostage, held onto them tightly, whispering over and over and over, “It’s all right. You have been rescued. You’re safe. You’re free. You can walk out into the light.”

What We Want To Do

That’s what we want to do. We want to take off all of our religious gear, announce to you the love, forgiveness, and power that can be yours in Christ Jesus, put our arms around you, and say to you over and over again, and for the rest of your life here on earth, “It’s all right. You’re safe here. If you trust in Jesus He will give you life and you will become a child of the Living God with power from on high. From that moment and for the rest of your life, you are not destined to live like this. You are destined for the light. When you believe in Him, He rescues you; He sets you free.”

We want to take you by the hand and walk with you toward the light of resurrection life in Christ Jesus.