“Decisionism” ~ What’s That?

Have you ever attended an evangelistic crusade type event (http://www.tillhecomes.org/crusade-evangelism-effective) where at the end of the message the speaker has people raise their hands or come down front if they want to engage in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? The “sinner’s prayer” has been a popular conversion plan with many religious groups. The only problem is . .  . can you find that approach in your Bible? Have you ever made that decision?

Have you ever been in a church when a person comes forward at the “altar call” and wants to be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Sure enough, they come up out of the water cleansed and ready to start a new life with Christ. Is that it? They are now a disciple of Christ or did they just get wet? Have you ever made that decision?   

"Decisionism" (you have decided to accept Jesus) rather than "Dicipleship" (you are a lifelong learner who becomes more like Him). I believe what we have done in many movements for too long is to get “decisions.” The Bible never addresses or commands us to do this but instead exhorts us to make disciples. “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. … There is trust in God, but no following of Christ.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=37331

The negative evidence of “decisionism” is rampant. Why do you think there is not much difference between a “Christian” and “NonChristian” when it comes to one’s lifestyle and the choices that are made? http://ezinearticles.com/?Christian-VS-Non-Christian---Whats-the-Difference?&id=3905340  Why are so many people going right out the back doors of our churches after they make a “decision” for Jesus? One of the reasons might be that we aren’t making disciples. How are we doing as disciples? Are we lifelong learners, or like most, have we arrived at a point where not anyone (including the Holy Spirit) can teach us much about anything? 

“One more point: focusing youth events, retreats, and programs on persuading people to make a decision disarms the Gospel, distorts numbers, and diminishes the significance of discipleship.” - The King Jesus Gospel by Scott McKnight

The Bible never speaks about getting decisions. So let’s start making more disciples, who in turn disciple others. That’s called being a discipler. If this happens exponentially, Christ will be able to change the world again through His Bride, the church. Hey, Easter Sunday would be a gr eat day to adopt the Biblical command and lifestyle of Making Disciples!

Finishing Last?

You pull into a parking lot and there sits a Cadillac Escalade taking up two parking places. Entitlement. Have you ever noticed it’s not the inexpensive $2,000 cars that take up two places, but the owners of expensive vehicles? People who don’t return phone calls: some college presidents, some college professors, and mega church pastors. I take that back - most all pastors, authors, and publishers. Entitlement. Have you ever noticed that it is most often the prestigious people that don’t respond and not the average person? Then there are even people in our churches who give money to the church and expect the right to vote. Entitlement - whoever controls the purse has the power.  

 

In Walter Isaacson’s Biography of Steve Jobs http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Isaacson/e/B000APFLB8 he says, "At the root of the reality distortion was Jobs's belief that the rules didn't apply to him." Rebelliousness and willfulness were ingrained in his character. He had the sense that he was special, a chosen one, an enlightened one." I can relate to that. I was slighted once when a church where I spoke at put me up in a lower class motel. How dare they! Entitlement. 

 

William Bennett asks the question, “Does today’s worship of self oppose virtue?” I saw the glorification of the self-ethic on an Oprah show. There was a guy on the show who was a molester of children. The audience was pummeling him. He then recited the mantra of the time: “I am who I am. This is authentically me.” Very few people knew how to criticize that because the notion has been almost canonized. One of the worst speeches in literature is, “To thine own self be true.” Charles Manson once said, “I was true to my feelings.” 

One of the most powerful, prestigious, and wealthiest person on this earth was Jesus Christ. His view of entitlement was to wash the feet of his disciples (become a slave). He said He came to be a servant of all. He said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. “We are entitled to finish last.” Seems like we all need to get in shape to do that. It might take some different training regiments for all of us. See you in the training room!

Pain Helps Us Jump Into God’s Lap

This is the first time I have written my blog since March of 2011. As most of you know, I underwent three surgeries 

in 2011. I also discovered that I have major cervical and lumbar spinal issues, which will someday need major surgery. I just got the OK today from my hand doctor to get back to normal activities, so I have decided to write once again.

I wake up, most days now, with pain. However, God created the human body to  withstand and adapt to tremendous amounts of pain. It is a resilient piece of work, fearfully and wonderfully made. http://christiananswers.net/q-aiia/god-pain.html

I am studying the Torah, this year, and I happened to read, the other day, that Abraham circumcised himself when he was 99 years old. Do not dwell too long on that image. And he did it with what we would surely view as crude tools. Ouch! (Sarah says, "Abraham, what are you doing in there?") Yet this painful procedure brought the Jewish people into covenant with God.
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4714-covenant

Today the action of circumcision takes place on our hearts. Is this as painful for you as the act of circumcision would have been in the physical form?  Has the pain created from the surgery God is performing on your heart causing you to draw closer to the Father or become more distant?

Julian of Norwich, an English mystic (1343-1413), actually prayed that God would wound her soul. At 30, she was on her death-bed when God revealed Himself to her. The pain she suffered brought her closer to God for the rest of her life, which would have never happened without this near-death experience.
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/julian.htm

My personal pain has forced me to sit more often in Abba Father’s lap. It is amazing what comfort and encouragement that can bring. Let’s not work on getting rid of the pain in our lives, but use it to motivate us to climb into our Father’s lap where we can be taught and comforted. We can learn a lot from that vantage point!

Relaunching

My blog will relaunch in February! I recently got clearance from my hand doctor to resume normal activities (like typing). I am looking forward to continuing on this journey with you!

MTS

Until Further Notice!

"Due to Mike’s two carpal tunnel release surgeries, he is temporarily not writing his blog until his hands are more in a recovered state. Thanks for your patience."

Why Are We All A Little Crazy?

I am sure most of us by now have heard the popular definition of “insanity.” People are insane when they expect different results while doing things the same way as before. In other words, if I want different results, while not changing my means, methods, policies, etc., I am insane.

We could use this axiom in any facet of life. For example, if I continue with the same Christian disciplines (Bible reading, praying, fasting, church attendance, small group attendance, accountability partner) in my life, and I haven’t grown much spiritually, but now all of sudden I expect different results with no changes to my Christian lifestyle, I am in fact “crazy.”

How many people do we know that do the same things day in and day out and aren’t growing spiritually, but today somehow miraculously they will take off without making any changes?

Another example, a church, let's say, that hasn’t grown over the past five years. This church continues with the same methodology that has contributed to its lack of growth over the past five years -- same leaders, same music, same small groups, same building, same outreach -- how can we expect growth to happen by not changing the way we did “business as usual?” We must be “insane.”

Maybe we could generate a new saying to replace the one we have always heard, “We've always done it this way”, or, "We tried that in the past and it didn’t work, so why try it again?”. The new saying could be, "We won’t change a bit, but our outcomes surely will.”

On a scale of 1-10, how crazy are you? If you are like me, insanity seems to fill certain parts of your life and not others. How can a person become more sane in the future? What in our lives should we change so that we can look more like Jesus? What in our churches should we change so that God might once again be able to work among us?

There is one thing for certain we cannot do if we are going to be on track to overcome acedia. We simply cannot keep doing the same things in our lives and expect different results.

I challenge you this month to take a look at your life and the life of your church. What is one thing you can change and maybe God will grant you some more positive results?

THE GLOBAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

I have read both Good to Great and How the Mighty Have Fallen, by Jim Collins (on the web at jimcollins.com), who was yet another great speaker at the Summit who addressed specifically The Five Stages of Decline in any organization. This can happen to any organization, including individual churches. All of these stages are self-inflicted. As Collins states on his website, “Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.” He sounds like a preacher!

Stage 1 is “Hubris born of success”

Hubris has been defined as, “excessive pride that brings the hero down.” Outrageous arrogance develops, and neglects all that is important.

The antithesis of this Stage 1 of decline is: it is not about them as leaders, and they never ever give up. They are Level Five leaders, cut from a different cloth. The signature quality that separated Level Five leaders from Level Four was humility.

That humility, a very special type -- burning, passionate ambition to do whatever it takes, no matter what, starts to evaporate in Stage 1 of decline, according to Collins.

Have you or your church become too proud from success in ministry?

Stage 2 “Undisciplined Pursuit of More”

The organization starts to think, “We are really good, therefore we can do more.” Not humble, overreaching, going too far, breaking David Packard’s law (Find Packard at www8.hp.com/us/en/company-information/executive-team/packard.html.) which states, “No company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.” That's a founder of Hewlett/Packard speaking.

The antithesis of this Stage 2 of decline is: do we have all the seats filled with fantastic people? If not, we cannot move forward. We need the right people on the bus, then we can figure out where to drive the bus.

Have you or your church ever gotten greedy over a good thing?

Stage 3 “Denial of Risk and Peril”

A company starts to deny the signs of things that are not right. They keep moving in the wrong direction. On the outside you really look great, which makes it easy to deny. Are we a team on the way up or a team on the way down?

In the book Love and War, it addresses how POWs survived the torture in prison camps and were eventually freed. How did a prisoner survive, not knowing the end of the story? Admiral Stockdale (Find him on the web at admiralstockdale.com/.) is a POW in this story, and his secret of survival -- now called the “Stockdale Principle” -- was: never ever waver in the belief that you will get out. The prisoners who did not make it out were the "optimists," who thought, "We will be out by Christmas," but Christmas came and went, and they died of broken hearts. Never confuse faith and fact.

Have you or your church never confronted the elephant in the room?

Stage 4 “Grasping for Salvation”

The game is up. The risk you denied throws you over the edge and you are falling. The company went looking for a silver bullet that never was fired -- the revolutionary breakthrough that will save them. They even go outside the company looking for a savior.

Greatness is never a single event. It is a process. An organization needs to get back to the “flywheel principle” to overcome this stage. Turn upon turn, push upon push, disciplined and intentional -- that is how you climb out of this Stage 4 of decline. It does not happen any other way.

Have you or your church looked for a quick fix, or new hire to get you out of trouble?

Stage 5 “Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death”

This is the stage in which we give up. We have squandered everything away and the game is over.

Why are companies still standing? Why are they still strong all through the struggles? Because they had a reason to endure, so they thought. But if we measure success by money we will always lose. The question we should ask ourselves is, “What would be lost if we disappeared?”

You have to have core values that will not be compromised. Do not forget: the signature of mediocrity is inconsistency. To survive and be revived one must preserve the core values, and set big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs). This will in turn stimulate progress.

Have you or your church ever faced the inevitable situation of "Change or die"?

These are some principles to consider as we look at our own lives and the lives of our churches.

I encourage you to purchase Jim Collins' books (starting with Built to Last, which he co-authored with a fellow Stanford faculty member), and read further if this sparked interest in you. These stages of decline are all about apathy. Collins' books will help give you some answers as to how you might turn you or your church around before you fall. They are great principles, and, ironically, just like all great principles, I believe you can find a Biblical basis for each one of them.