A Brand New Heart

He is Pleased with Integrity

2010-02-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is from the February 17th edition of the Summitview Announcements (sign up here)...

This morning I read 1 Chronicles 29, the last chapter in that book. David's reign is coming to an end and he is handing Israel over to his son Solomon and also the responsibility to build the temple. David had been passionate about building a temple for God. Previous chapters tell us of the materials he has stored up for building the temple and that God's Spirit showed him the plans for the temple. But even though it was David's dream, God told him that he would not build it. It would instead be Solomon who would have the honor of building the temple.

Even so, David did not respond to this with bitterness. God had shown David over and over that His ways are right and David had not forgotten this. David publicly demonstrates his great love for God one last time in this final chapter of this book by giving even more of his wealth to be used in the temple. Back in chapter 22, we read how David allocated about 3,750 tons of gold and about 37,500 tons of silver for the temple! Here in chapter 29 he gives another 110 tons of gold and 260 tons of silver from his personal treasury.

The people of Israel respond to this example of their king by coming forward as families and giving 190 tons of gold and 375 tons of silver themselves (along with other precious metals and stones). Was this all just a show? Were they pressured into this by David? No. Verse 9 says this:

1 Chronicles 29:9 (NIV) The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD. David the king also rejoiced greatly.

David then praises God with a magnificent prayer, and in the middle of that prayer, he says this:

1 Chronicles 29:17 (NIV) I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.

God sees our hearts as we give and as we act. We can give God a spectacular gift or do a wonderful good deed, but if the purpose is to win favor by our actions (the favor of either of God or of men), the action becomes empty and meaningless. But when we give and our hearts are set on pleasing God, even the smallest of gestures is greatly valued by God (see the story of the poor widow in Luke 21:1-4 and about our attitude when giving in 2 Corinthians 9:7).

On this same morning God had me thinking about how God is "pleased with integrity," he gave my son James this verse to think about:

Galatians 5:6 (NIV) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

May all our actions be motivated by faith and integrity. May what is seen on the outside be a true reflection of what we are like on the inside.

The Right Choice Revealed

2010-02-05T12:01:00.001-07:00

There's been a lot of buzz about the iPad. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people are disappointed. I'm in the "love it" camp. It turned out to be everything I hoped it would be (maybe with the exception of the missing camera for iChat or Skype) and the price came in way below what I had expected.

I watched a live blog of the introduction and I got more and more excited about the iPad as the presentation went on. When I saw the $499 base price I was ready to order. I justified it as an expensive birthday present. Had the Apple web store been ready to go at that moment, I would have had one on order. But they are not available for purchase yet (I think they still need to get their FCC regulatory approvals), so all I could do was sign up for the e-mail that would tell me when I could order.

Slightly disappointed, I moved on to other things that day, one of which was watching Pastor Mark Driscoll discuss his recent trip to Haiti with Pastor James MacDonald to assess the damage in Haiti, specifically to churches there.

I was moved as I had been in previous days as I watched news coverage of the disaster, but I was moved in a new way as Driscoll described in vivid detail the growing problems and the troubles that were coming, both for the country as a whole and specifically for churches.

Images of a man pulling his brother from the rubble of a collapsed church. A girl in a tent with open wounds on her face. A man who was caring for his boys after losing his house and his wife in the earthquake.

I began to see how the church (as Driscoll communicated) was going to be key in the recovery of this nation and how it would also be an opportunity for these churches to share the gospel with thousands as they ministered to them. But the churches are rubble, the pastors are dead, and the congregations are scattered. Who is going to help these churches? The aid organizations are (rightly) focused on food, water, and medical attention. Who would help the church? Only the church.

Then it struck me. I'm part of the church. As these people lie suffering with their city and their lives in ruins, I was ready to drop $500 without a bit of hesitation on glass and metal that would let me surf the web on my couch. If I had $500 to drop on a toy, could I not give more to help these people? Instead of a toy, my money could be used for things that would make a lasting difference in someone's life. And possibly, that money would lead to a conversation that could make an eternal difference in someone's life.

A few days later I joined with others in my church and we collected over $3,000 for Churches Helping Churches, the organization MacDonald and Driscoll put together to help Haitian churches. Others were moved to give money that would just go to buy coffee, or pizza, or a CD (things with fleeing benefit, like my iPad) and together we were able to make a difference in the lives of people who desperately need help.

I don't want this to turn into a post about how all material things are bad. Down the road, I may end up with an iPad (maybe a refurbished one, or a 2nd generation one...with the camera), and I've certainly bought my share of coffee, pizzas, and CDs. But at that moment in time, I had an opportunity, a choice to make. I pray that God will continue to give me that kind of clarity in similar moments down the road, so that I might use the resources given to me by Him in such a way that I am always pleasing Him first.

Lies, Lies, Lies

2010-02-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

This is from the February 3rd edition of the Summitview Announcements...

I've heard a number of stories recently of struggles in our church that have been termed "spiritual battles." Many times such battles have a link to physical events or circumstances. We just have to look at the life of Job to see a clear example of that. Once God gave Satan permission to test Job, lives were lost, money was lost, and Job's health was affected.

But let's not give the devil more than his due. I would put forth that 99% of his battles against God's people today come not in the form of 'physical' attacks, but rather in the form of lies. In John 8:44 Jesus says of the devil, "When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." The one cataclysmic event that set all of human history on the course that we're on, a world full of selfishness, sin, and suffering, was brought on by Satan's lies. The lie is Satan's greatest weapon and he uses circumstances in our lives as opportunities to whisper those lies to us even if they were not initiated by him.

The event: Job loss or financial hardship. The lie: God does not provide.
The event: Loss of health or of a loved on. The lie: God does not have the best for me.
The event: Victim of physical or verbal abuse or attack. The lie: I have no value (even in the eyes of God).

The list goes on and on and the lies are many. If we believe these lies and they take root in our lives (as with Eve then Adam), the results are devastating. One lie believed opens us up to many more pouring in and soon our whole view of ourselves, the world around us, and even God is shaped by lies.

So how do we combat this kind of attack? Here are a few ideas...

Get a regular dose of truth by reading the word daily ("Ah yes," you say, "the usual trite Christian answer." But have you tried it? Scripture was Jesus' first response when Satan tried to deceive Him in the desert).
Be tied to the Source of Truth through daily prayer ("Another trite answer." But have you tried it?).
Listen to the counsel of Christian friends. Share your struggles with them. This is really important if the lies are starting to overwhelm you.
Shut off the source of lies (areas of sin in your life, messages in popular culture, input from people who are themselves ruled by lies, etc.).
As we talked about this past Sunday, believe and obey what you know to be true about God and He will give you even greater discernment of what is true and what is not.

Satan's 'secret' weapon is powerful, but you and I can stand up to it. God has given us everything we need to combat these lies with truth. Satan may whisper lies in our ear, but the Holy Spirit is with us always to speak truth as an antidote. And the best news is that when all is said and done, only the truth will prevail.

- Doug

P.S. How many of you that grew up in the 80's like I did read the title and finished it off with "Yeah!" thanks to the Thompson Twins? "Lies, Lies, Lies, Yeah! There gonna' get you..." Okay, I'll stop now.

Snow Shovelling, Wall Building, and Discipleship

2009-12-23T10:52:00.001-07:00

On this winter morning two days before Christmas we had 6 or 7 inches of snow that had to be removed from our sidewalk and driveway. It would have taken a considerable amount of time and effort for me to get the job done myself, but when I got my three boys out there with me, the four of us tackled the whole thing in about 15 minutes!

I've been reading through Nehemiah over the last few days. Nehemiah had a burden for the city of Jerusalem which lay in ruins. Some Jews had returned from exile back to the city, but its walls had crumbled down and its gates had been burned. Nehemiah's burden led him to ask (at great personal risk) his master, King Artaxerxes, if he could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. Through God's sovereign plan, the king allowed this and even provided supplies.

But how can one man rebuild a city wall? He can't. He returned to Jerusalem and made his case to the leaders there. They also probably had the desire to see the city rebuilt and when this vision was put before them, they responded.

This all leads to Nehemiah 3 which is an encouraging account of how different family groups took responsibility to rebuild individual sections of the wall. Some were lazy and did not do their share (Nehemiah 3:5) but others who might not be expected to help pitched in anyway (Nehemiah 3:12).

As our church ends this year, there is a conviction among many that we have dropped the ball when it comes to discipleship. Many of us (myself very much included) have done good things, but at the expense of better things. And so, as we head into 2010 we are repenting of our lack of full obedience to Matthew 28:19-20 and are evaluating all we do to get the focus back on building disciples of Christ.

But this is a big job. Perry and I can't do it ourselves. Even adding in the help of every house church and small group leader won't be enough. Everyone in Summitview needs to find a part of the wall to work on. Maybe it's helping with men's events or monthly men's meetings. Maybe it's leading a Bible or book study. Maybe it's just meeting with your buddy every week or two over coffee and cracking open your Bibles and talking about what you are learning.

Rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem is an extreme example of a huge job that only gets done if each man does his part. On a much smaller scale, a job like the clearing of snow from the front of my house is something one man could do, but it becomes much more manageable and happens more quickly when the work is divided. If we share in this work of discipleship, we will also share in the fruit and satisfaction of knowing we are doing what God wants us to be doing. As that happens we may, come next Christmas, look back at 2010 and remember one of the most important and rewarding years of our lives.

Additional Resources

Building the Church or Making Disciples? - This is the first in a series of blog posts by Mitch Majeski (pastor at Summitview in Fort Collins) on this subject. Be sure to check out the rest of the series.
The Trellis and the Vine - About making a paradigm shift away from building structures and toward building disciples.
No Man Left Behind - As we've talked about over the past few weeks at Summitview, we feel a particular burden for the men in our church. This book has been helpful in rethinking what "men's ministry" means.

Summitview Men's Ministry Survey Results

2009-12-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share some of the results from the Men's Ministry Survey we handed out last Sunday after the message. First of all, thank you for your participation. We had 79 men and 70 women take the survey.

There is a lot to process and pray through after looking at these results. Some of what was communicated was expected while some was not. At the bottom of the post is a summary of the men's "Yes/No/Maybe" answers and a (very unscientific) attempt to tally the needs outlined in the comments. From this information, I make the following observations:

I knew there was a desire for men's ministry, but the response was almost unanimous. With the exception of a single no vote and one sheet without an answer, every man wanted to be involved in some way with men's ministry.
Not surprisingly, there are a variety of ways that men want to see this happen in their own lives. Unfortunately, we will not be able to fulfill every need listed, but we can work on providing more options. Social events, a monthly meeting, and one-on-one discipleship were the most desired by men.
The results clearly say one thing: Men are lonely. The desire for more social events is one clue, but the comments were very revealing. Not only did many men say that they do not have significant, deep relationships with other men, but the women in the church (both married and single) saw this clearly as well. When asked, a man will almost never say he feels lonely, but the truth of the matter is most men are. Providing more opportunities for more relationships is greatly desired, but we must be careful! We have to provide opportunities for more meaningful relationships. Relationship alone does not build disciples and create change. Relationship alone is fun and easy, relationship that produces change is hard work and time consuming. We have to be ready for that.
And on that note, there is a clear desire for depth of relationship and growth but also a clear concern about how much commitment that will require. Discipleship will require sacrifice! But for men with families, their most important disciples are at home, so we have to be sensitive to that as well. Striking that balance will be challenging. I hope we are able to provide a number of opportunities so that men can pick and choose and don't feel obligated to be at everything. But striking this balance is not just the church's job. Each man who is pressed for time must evaluate his own life and priorities. Are we really talking about giving up family time, or is it really sleep time, or TV time, or XBOX time, or internet time? This may be the toughest challenge we face in implementing new things.
Finally, men, look at the women's comments. If we want to know how we need to change, we should probably ask the women first. They do want us to have strong relationships (they see that many of us are lonely and discouraged), but they see other great needs as well. Men, the women want you, need you, to lead. They need all of us to lead in the church (and that means a lot of things, including serving more in the church). Husbands, your wives are desperately waiting for you to lead in the home, both in your marriage and in your parenting. I sensed a lot of wives that feel they get no direction or help in the home. You may want to sit down with your wife and have an honest discussion (actually, why don't you just sit and listen without saying a word or getting defensive). Single men, don't think this does not apply to you. Single women were just as strong in this. Men, the women in our church don't define our manliness by our cars, houses, or how far we can throw a football. They define it by how serious we are about pursuing God, leading in our families, and leading spiritually in our churches and workplaces.

Again, thanks for your participation. We've got an adventure ahead. We need to evaluate everything we do (personally and as a church) and decide how what we do promotes discipleship. Some things need to be slightly adjusted while others need to be completely set aside. But the result could be absolutely revolutionary!

Summary of Yes/Maybe/No Answers – Men only
	Y	N	M	No answer	% Yes
Would you want to be involved in men's ministry?	77	1	0	1	97.47
...social events (sports, BBQ, retreats)	66	2	8	3	83.54
...a monthly meeting?	45	2	31	1	56.96
...short term (6-10 week) book/Bible study?	41	4	32	2	51.9
...an ongoing weekly book/Bible study?	27	6	44	2	34.18
...an ongoing weekly accountability group?	39	8	29	3	49.37
...one-on-one discipleship?	45	3	29	2	56.96

Summary of Comments – This is VERY unscientific and the answers are open to interpretation, plus there is a lot of overlap, but this is my tally of the issues brought up in the comments

Men
Relationship/Fellowship	35
Discipleship/Mentoring	21
Lead in Home	14
Strong Pursuit of God	12
Accountability	11
Purpose/Definition of Manhood	10
Unity	9
Bible Study	6
Lead in Church	6
Evangelism/Outreach	5
Character	3
Prayer	3
Consistent Personal Study	3
Fly Fishing Ministry :-)	1

Women
Relationship/Fellowship	28
Lead in Church	25
Lead in Home	24
Strong Pursuit of God	20
Discipleship/Mentoring	19
Evangelism/Outreach	11
Bible Study	7
Accountability	7
Purpose/Definition of Manhood	4
Unity	4
Character	2
Prayer	1
Consistent Personal Study	0
Fly Fishing Ministry	0

Christian = Disciple

2009-12-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's always amazing how God uses a number of avenues to communicate. The most recent example I've seen is the burden for discipleship that God has placed on the hearts of a number of people I know, seemingly all at once. In our church, some discussions with our leaders about what our focus needs to be in the coming months narrowed in on this subject. At the same time we were starting to see this need for our own church, we started hearing from fellow leaders at our local sister churches that God was speaking the same thing to them.

What this specifically means for all of us remains to be seen, but it seems clear that the focus of Summitview Community Church of Greeley (and, apparently, Fort Collins and Loveland) for the coming months (and probably years) will be discipleship.

Now discipleship should certainly be the priority of every church all the time, we all know that, but practically, it seems our energy as a church seems to drift toward maintaining structure and systems and it becomes easy to lose focus on discipleship.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, discipleship is hard work. It requires an investment of time and energy. It is not just the passing on of knowledge, but it also requires the pursuit of relationship. Relationship requires openness and vulnerability and leaves us open to the possibility of being hurt.

Another problem is that discipleship cannot be 'forced'. One has to desire discipleship for it to occur. This means being willing to learn, open to input, and humble. If the members members of a church do not desire discipleship enough to pursue it, perhaps that church has not exalted Christ enough to create that desire. That's a sobering thought.

But no matter how hard the work is, or how far we feel we are from being successful in it, we must pursue discipleship. First because Jesus commanded it (Matthew 28:18-20). Second (and I think we lose sight of this) because being a Christian is synonymous with being a disciple (Acts 11:26). We really don't have a choice but to make discipleship our first priority.

It seems the leaders I know have a real burden to make disciples. And even though I know that it will mean hard work, I also know it is some of the most rewarding work God has given us (as evidenced by the deep relationships I have with the men who took the time to disciple me). I don't know what 2010 is going to bring in terms of change as we pursue this, but I do know that I'm looking forward to it!