Learning about Leadership

Lately I’ve been on this leadership kick. It’s been a lot of fun learning more about this topic and trying to apply it. God has really been teaching me much and he’s been doing it through some great resources. I’ve been so excited about these resources and things I’m learning that I thought I better share it with someone! So here it is, if you are a leader (and all of us are at some level) then I encourage you to check these out:

Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast: He only posts one a month but as a friend of mine described them, they are “pure gold”.

Follow Tony Morgan on twitter: @tonymorganlive or his wesite: http://tonymorganlive.com 

Tony posts a lot of really short articles and blogs with great leadership advice. Often his main ideas are short and concise bullet points. They are easy to understand and solid. He has a short book called “The Leisure Suit” that I highly recommend.

Catalyst Podcast – Sometimes I fast forward to the interviews, but I’ve really enjoyed listening to great leaders and forward thinkers talk about what they have done. Not all of the things they do will work for you, but let their though process and strategic poise rub off.

Ravi Zacharias Podcasts: Let My People Think and Just Thinking Not leadership podcasts but great stuff on apologetics and I’ve found that his solid logic and reasoning skills are actually really important for leaders, so let the way he thinks rub off on you.

Well that’s pretty much it for now. What resources have you found helpful in the things you are learning?

Doorstep Conversations

     Today a couple of missionaries from the Watchtower Society stopped by my house. We talked for a bit on my doorstep, but mostly, I found myself in a similar situation as past doorstep conversations. I felt unprepared to talk with them about my faith in relation to theirs. I wished that I could remember some of the details of past research, and articulate my biggest concerns. However, I know that even if I had remembered all kinds of documented quotations and logical arguments, we probably would have just gone back and forth with me explaining my perspective on Scripture and they theirs. Also, if neither of us are Greek scholars (I certainly am not) our conversation about John 1:1 or correct translations of Scriptures would basically boil down to, “the scholars I know of say this” and, “the scholars I know of say this”.

     To make a long story short, I dug up some information I had filed away, and came up with 3 questions I feel would need to be answered in order to have a meaningful discussion with people of the Watchtower Society. I’m hoping to have this handy in the future and invite any Jehovah’s Witnesses to engage in a discussion on these topics. The answers to these questions will probably require some research and so I plan to include my email address and trade my "hand-out" for theirs, inviting them to contact me with the answers. Maybe then, we could meet and have discussion about them.

     Below are my 3 questions. Maybe they will be helpful for you too, when you have these doorstep conversations. Feel free to comment and let me know what other information has been helpful for you in answering for your faith. If you are a member of the Watchtower Society, these questions I have are real. Although, I suspect to know what the answers may be, I do not have the resources to answer all of them credibly for myself, and would like to know your thoughts:

     One last thing before I post my questions. In order to be fair I figured I should know the answers to the questions if they were asked of me. Therefore, the answer to question number 2 can be found here & here concerning the ESV Bible, which is what I have been reading lately.

Below are three big concerns I have about the Watchtower Organization. They are listed in what I feel are order of importance (if #1 is not reconciled I will have more trouble with # 2 and so on.)

1. I feel that the Watchtower organization is untrustworthy because I’ve heard of some sketchy prophesies it has made (see post script). Is it true that the Watchtower organization has said these things?

2. Because of differences in the NWT and the Bible translations I read and have been taught from, I have a hard time putting trust in the NWT. Who are the people that have worked on the NWT? Are they credible? What are their credentials?

           

3. I have trouble understanding how the Watchtower’s view of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are consistent with how God is revealed in Scripture. For example: assuming the correct translation of John 1:1 says that Jesus is “a god” how does that reconcile with Scriptures such as Isaiah 44:6? Even though it is a hard doctrine and a paradox, I believe that in the whole of Scripture God has revealed Himself to be one God existing in three persons (i.e. One God: Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiahh 44:6 - Jesus is God: John 1:1, Philippians 2:6, I John 5:20 - the Holy Spirit is God: Acts 5:3-4, Hebrews 3:7-11)

Post Script:

1897 "Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874," Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 4, page 621.

1899 "...the ‘battle of the great day of God Almighty' (Revelation 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced." The Time Is at Hand, page 101 (1908 edition).

1916 "The Bible chronology herein presented shows that the six great 1000 year days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th Day, the 1000 years of Christ's Reign, began in 1873." The Time Is at Hand, page ii, (forward).

1918 "Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, to the condition of human perfection." Millions Now Living Will Never Die, page 89.

1968 "True, there have been those in times past who predicted an ‘end to the world', even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened. The ‘end' did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?.. Missing from such people were God's truths and evidence that he was using and guiding them." Awake, 10/8/68.

Seasons

Psalm 1 says the following about a person who is blessed by God:

“He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

One of the most meaningful things to me, from this verse, is that the tree goes through fruitless seasons. As I read this I can remember many times when I have felt absolutely useless. I remember one time in particular, when I really felt like I had no visible way to accomplish the dreams that I felt God had put into me. It was truly a very miserable time. This verse was something that I clung to. It helped me to hang on and trust that God was working. It helped me to embrace the season of waiting, even as miserable as it was. Not that I came to enjoy it or anything or anything like that, but I came to endure, and eventually God did bring new seasons. 

Even since this particular season that I’ve described, I have continued to go through others like it. I anticipate that there will be many more to come. But, the good news is that seasons are okay! We don’t have to add to our misery by getting down on ourselves for not bearing fruit in a time like this. It’s the way things go for trees, and when we trust God we too will go through them. Another interesting thing about this verse is that is says, “In all that he does, he prospers.” Wait, what about the season when he doesn’t bear fruit? How does he prosper then? Apparently, there is a way.

When I graduated from college one of my professors let each of his students pick one of his paintings as a gift. I chose one called, “The Pruned Vine”. And as you may have guessed it depicts a vine that has been pruned. It looks dead, cold, twisted, and dead. I like this painting because it reminds me that there are season to life. Just like the vine we go through fruitless times in order to make us more fruitful when the time for harvest comes. 

Even in the times of waiting we can prosper. We can choose to endure well, lean into the Lord and let the roots of the lessons that he is teaching us, grow deep. The next season will come. When we find ourselves being unfruitful, it may be that the Lord is pruning us. Let’s embrace these seasons as such, and when the correct season comes we will bear fruit. 

New Life

In 2 Corinthians 5:22 we read that, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Our God is a God of redemption, and a God of new beginnings. He is always at his work and He is working in us! 

We just celebrated Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to earth as a man in order to reconcile us to God. He did this through his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. The Bible tells us that just as Christ lives, we too can live in newness of life. 

Romans 6:4, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” 

If we have given our lives over to Christ and made him the Lord of our life, then our old selves along with all our sin and wickedness have been nailed to the cross with Christ and we have been made new. This new life is worked out in us as we grow more and more to be like Christ. 

As we look forward to this New Year, remember that if you are in Christ you are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. We look forward to the opportunities we will have to grow in Christ likeness and we thank God for every day that we have to follow him and come to know him more. 

What is God planning to do in you, and through you this year?

Heart Deep

2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us, that by God’s power, we have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” and through His promises, we can “become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire”. The chapter goes on to say that because of these things we are to, “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Sometimes when I think about this passage of scripture and the way that God desires to produce His character in me, I get caught thinking that it simply means changing my outward behavior. While it is true that God does want to change us on the outside, he also wants to change us much deeper than that.  

Jesus certainly is interested in much deeper things that outward actions. In Matthew 5:21-22 He says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” He says a similar thing about the sin of adultery, “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Our human minds often think only on the surface level. Anger isn’t murder, and lust isn’t adultery – or is it? We tend to draw the line of sin at the physical actions, but Jesus draws it in the heart. He sees all, and he draws the line there. I think it is very interesting how much Christ is interested in what is going on inside of us rather than only considering what is going on outside of us. 

I had a great conversation with my dad recently. He told me that he was concerned about a situation involving some young people that felt it was ok to go to parties where their would be under-age drinking, as long as they didn’t drink any alcohol. This decision got them into some trouble (traffic accident) but since they weren’t the one’s drinking alcohol, they felt that it was ok to be a part of this party atmosphere. My dad and I talked about how there may be a deeper problem than drunkenness. There may be a problem with the heart. We realized that if someone goes to such a party with the same rebellious attitude as the person who attends the party to get drunk, then maybe the two actions aren’t that different after all.

Well, we might find this whole thought to be distressing, because we know that we are utterly sinful from birth. Even when we try to do right things it is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Our hearts are so often full of sinful motivations. The Bible says that there is no one righteous, “no, not one” (Romans 3:10). However, we can praise God that not only does he call us to holiness on a deep, heart level, but he actually works in us to accomplish this. We can’t do it on our own; we need to allow God to work in us from the inside out. It’s not just a behavioral change that we need; it’s a change of heart. 

So, when we look back at the passage in 1st Peter and see the things that God wants to accomplish in us: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love; we know that it isn’t just the appearance of these things that he desires us to have. Rather He wants them to run deep. He works them in us so we not only act them out, but we think them too. We live them in public and in private, even down the privacy of our own hearts. Thanks be to God that he doesn’t let us stay in our wretched state, or allow us to be only skin deep!

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

The Tools of Worship

Sometimes, we feel like that dentist when we worship. We all have different worship tools that we have been trained to use, find comfortable or prefer more than others. These tools could be a number of different things ranging from a certain song choice or musical style to specific postures in worship, or even the order of a worship service. We get to be very comfortable and very good at using certain tools and if we are given a different set of tools we can feel frustrated just like that dentist would. However, if the tools we are given really are biblical and really are effective responses of worship (unlike the screw drivers, a calculator and WD-40 would be for a teeth cleaning) then we can learn to use these tools and benefit from them. 

There are a handful of Hebrew and Greek words that have to do with worship. One such Greek word is, proskuneo, which means to prostrate one’s self, or kiss towards, in order to pay homage and reverence. Proskuneo is the word translated as “worship” in Revelation 4:10 which says, “the twenty-four elders will fall downbefore Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who livesforever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne…” Therefore, an example of this might be when we sing songs full of adoration. In this instance we could say that we are worshiping with an attitude of proskuneo and during these times it would be fitting to bow down in reverence. 

A Hebrew word, yadah, is translated as the English word “praise” in Psalm 67:3 which says, “Let the peoples praise You, OGod; Let all the peoples praise You”. This same word is translated as “give thanks” in such places as Psalm 9:1 which says, “I will givethanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.” The definition of yadah has to do with throwing or casting, thanksgiving, laud and praise. Worshiping in an attitude of yadahmight be conducive to praising God with loud instruments and boisterous singing.

One last Hebrew word we will look at is abad. It is translated into the English word “worship” in such places as, Exodus 3:12 where God says to Moses, “when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain." The definition of abad has to do with working and laboring as servants. Our whole lives are to be service to God and we are to honor him with our work. This means that even church workdays are an act of worship. In fact, some people seem to be wired in such a way that they experience worshipful moments more often during a church workday than they might during a candlelight service!

Biblical worship has room for many different expressions. Each generation and culture seems to find its own unique expressions ofproskuneo, yadah, and abad. No matter what style of expression, let’s understand that biblical worship is deeper than music and broader than style. It is an everyday lifestyle! Though awkward at first, we can learn to appreciate each other’s preferences and worship together in love and unity. The body of Christ is so diverse, and that is a beautiful thing. 

Let’s make room in our toolboxes for more tools!

Why We Sing

I often find it a little bit odd that we get together and sing at the beginning of our worship services. Besides church, there aren’t a lot of other situations where people gather to sing, especially to sing to God. I mean, if an unbeliever comes to church, do they feel awkward that we are having a sing-a-long to express ourselves to someone we can’t see? Even though we know that our God is real and present among us, do we sometimes feel this awkwardness? We all know that singing in worship is a very Biblical idea. There is even an entire book of the Bible full of songs that were sung for worship. But, I still wonder: why do we sing?

I remember leading worship for a youth group once. I could tell that the students weren’t really joining in, so I stopped and asked them to think about why we sing. One girl spoke up and said, “because, it’s a cooler way to pray”. I think she might be on to something. 

What is singing anyway? Well, singing is just putting words in rhythm, and adding pitch. We put words in rhythm by elongating the vowels. Elongated vowels are often used in everyday language when we want to emphasize a point. A mother might call her son in an uneventful way, “Johnny it’s time for dinner”. But if Johnny is late and his mother is irritated she emphasizes it: “Joooohneeeee!” Elongated vowels were used. We use this tool whenever we are emphasizing a point. 

When we add pitch it becomes music. The melody that pitches create help to express emotions. For example, it could be triumphant, eerie or sweet. We don’t really use pitch in our everyday language very much (our lives aren’t a musical). But we do realize it’s importance, and we use it to mark special occasions or to express feelings that are beyond words. This is where music can be somewhat mysterious. Often, we listen to certain music when we feel a certain way, because it accompanies our emotions. Sometimes music can even cause us to feel a certain emotion. Furthermore, music can be used to help us remember things because pitches tend to stick in our heads. On top of all this, music is just pleasant to listen to.

No doubt, there are many more reasons to use music in worship; but I think the girl in that youth group had a good point. Singing is a wonderful way to communicate with God. We serve such an awesome God and his praises are certainly worthy of elongating vowels for emphasis, and adding pitch for beauty and emotion. When we sing prayers our words are being emphasized and our emotions accompanied by music. When we sing truth about God the same thing happens, and the truths we sing stick in our heads. As we gather to communicate with God as a congregation, it is fitting that we use music and singing to help us express our emotion and emphasize truth. I’m glad that we have this tool called singing to express our worship to God. I’m looking forward to singing with all of you this coming Sunday!

“Music induces an attitude of worship. It elicits from deep within a person the sense of awe and mystery that accompanies a meeting with God.” – Robert Webber, Worship Old & New

Monday, January 31, 2011

WHY WE SING