This chapter is kind of like being a kid in a candy store.  There’s so much here to talk about, how do you pick a few?  But, my goal in doing these daily studies is not to give everything there is to give, but to whet your appetite for more.  To give you a taste and let you take the initiative in extra helpings..  so here we go.

VS 1-6, FACT OR FICTION - Maybe you’ve heard before that what we believe affects how we behave.  I think that’s 100% correct.  If we say we believe that smoking is bad for you, but we do it anyway, then we don’t believe it enough to change our behavior.  If we accept it is cold hard fact, then it alters our actions.  While what we believe about Jesus is God is crucial, the reality of our belief is played out in our actions.  We say we love God… do we actually live like it?  If not, then our belief system is not strong enough to change our action system.  One of the big sticking points is pride.  Our spiritual growth can be hindered if we allow stubborn pride to prevent us from honestly reflecting on our lives and allowing genuine faith to reshape our actions.  A deep faith and belief in who Jesus is and what he has done should radically change the way we interact with each other.

VS 11-16, LEADERSHIP ROLES IN CHURCH - God gave at least five types of leaders to the church.  They exist to complete the member’s growth and to equip them to serve.  We spent some time on these roles in May, but I’ll recap them here.

1. Apostle - One sent to pioneer and establish new works and new leaders
2. Prophet - One who speaks forth God’s word to inspire, correct, and motivate
3. Evangelist - One who shares Christ with outsiders and trains others to do so.
4. Pastor - One who shepherds, guides, and guards God’s people as they serve.
5. Teacher - One who trains God’s people in the truth and teaches others to do so.

It is our desire to see all of these roles in place within our church.  Here are some questions I ask myself based on these roles and this passage:

1. What eternally significant growth occurs in the lives of those I lead?
2. Do our people understand that my role is to equip them to serve?
3. How are our followers serving and ministering?
4. Do our people know that involvement in service is essential to growth?
5. Do our people grow spiritually mature as a result of their ministry involvement?
6. Do our people lifestyles reflect Christ’s character?
7. What percentage of our people’s faith and involvement is easily shaken?
8. Do our people build up one another?

The answers to these questions are a key indicator of success.  Numbers matter because every number represents a person.  There are never “too many” people in church.  But numbers do not in and of themselves represent success in a church.  It is questions such as these that reveal if we are achieving what God designed.

VS 17, CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE - Paul makes a plea here for us to not live like the rest of the world.  What does that mean to you?  Can people look at our lives and honestly discern a difference between those of us with faith in Jesus Christ and those without faith?  What does that look like?

VS 25, TELL IT LIKE IT IS - “let each one speak truth with his neighbor”.  This one’s a killer isn’t it?  We can no longer be honest with each other.  We hint, pull punches, beat around the bush, but seldom are we direct.  This is not an inviation from Paul to be cruel to each other, but to love each other enough (since we are part of the same body) to speak the truth in love.  WHY IS THIS SO HARD?  More churches have been hurt, more friendships damaged than we can imagine simply because we lack the fortitude to speak truth in a timely manner.  My dream is to have a church that gets past this and builds one another up, sometimes through hard love.

YOUR TURN….

The Final Four of the blogging tournament I’m in has begun. This week’s challenge is to blog on the idea of leadership development. This has been a particular challenge for me as you will read below. Leadership is far more challenging than I ever imagined and the effort to train leaders in the church is daunting. However, whether daunting or not, it is a matter that requires thoughtful attention. What I have come to believe about this topic is stated below, but I encourage you to drop by the host blog and read the other responses….and a vote for me would be nice. Click here to read and vote!

OFFICIAL ENTRY!

Leadership – According to trusted experts everything rises and falls on leadership. If that’s true, that elevates the need for leaders within any organization to a very high level of importance.

However, I believe leadership identification is a larger challenge than training. Training leaders who aren’t leaders only causes frustration. Identification is much harder than it would appear to be. I believe ther are two significant hurdles to proper leadership identification:

1. A Desire to Work and Succeed – Most people attracted to a church plant want to see it become “successful”. It is new and fresh. The possibilities are enormous. There is a willingness for many to put their hand to the plow and do whatever needs to be done. The challenge is that many put their hands to plows that should be held by someone else.
2. Few “True” Leaders – Peter Drucker in “Effective Executive” laments that we seem to be getting to the point where we are searching for a “universal genius” and universal geniuses have always been in scarce supply. According to Drucker, “we will therefore have to staff our organizations with people who at best excel in one ability. And then they are more than likely to lack any but the most modest endowment in the others.”

Putting people in wrong positions is bad for both the individual and for the church. And simple availablity or willingness to help does not indicate leadership. We have struggled through this question for a couple of years. I have no magic bullets and more questions than answers. I can say that God will bring the gifts that we need into the church. Spiritual gifts are key, so I would counsel, based on our own struggle, to start with identification through gift assessment first. Then pray for wisdom and discernment.

In our last installment on this topic, we established how critically important the family is for every man. That in the end, his family is his legacy above all else. It would seem that our obligations as men are so high that we will never live up to them.

C. S. Lewis, as always, said it clearly:

It is painful, being a man, to have to assert the privilege, or the burden, which Christianity lays upon my own sex. I am crush­ingly aware of how inadequate most of us are, on our actual and historical individualities, to fill the place prepared for us.

Oh, how right he is. Left to ourselves we are totally inadequate. But “the place prepared for us” is still there, and it must be occupied. As Christian men, we must throw ourselves at the feet of the King of Kings, and beg His wisdom, insight, grace, and blessing. Still, the mantle must be worn. When a man refuses it, everybody is the loser for it.

Whatever our frustration-a culture that bites us, wives who won’t follow us, kids who won’t cooperate with us-we do not have the option of just tossing up our hands and walking away. God-honoring men don’t quit. God-honoring men don’t abdicate, or try to hide in the baggage from God’s anointing, like the pitiful king-designated Saul.

God-honoring men stay at it. And stay. And stay. And stay. Growing and improving. Taking the hits and pushing on down the field. Moving in one direction over the long haul. Many times it’s two steps forward, one back. But it’s still movement; it’s keeping on keeping on.

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Yesterday we presented a clear and compelling case for the authority of a man in relation to his wife. Maybe one of the reasons that this has become a frightening concept for most women (and plenty of men) is because of how authority gets abused. But the sort of authority that God is mandating here looks much different than the type most of us are accustomed to. Once again, we’ll let Stu Weber lead us in this discussion…….

There is no room in biblical headship for self-inflated big shots. Still, God’s Word makes it undeniably clear that “the man” is the head of his home. The man is held responsible for the leadership of his marriage and home! The two words that describe his role most basically are “husband” and “head.” These two words are good words—benevolent words—intended to provide our homes with leadership, authority, order, and direction. Rightly understood, they are Camelot-inducing words. If you’ll allow me, I’ll borrow a couple of definitions from my earlier book, Tender Warrior, to nail these terms down.

HUSBAND. The noun form of the word means “manager.” A hus­band is a steward. He is a caretaker and caregiver. He is the man held responsible. In its verb form the word means “to direct, to manage.” Those are strong terms that imply effective and responsible leadership.

HEAD. “Head” means director. It means chief. As in headmaster. Principal. Foremost. “Head” equals leadership and authority, as in the head of the class, head of the military, head of the company, head of the church, head of the home, or head man. Head means head.

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Today, we continue on the theme of authority and what that means for a man in relation to his family. Most of us don’t like the concept of authority anymore. We don’t like to follow it, nor, interestingly enough, do most men want to exercise it. It’s just too much work. And in that cultural landscape, we have seen a myth grow into a near “fact-like” status. It is the myth of mutual submission, which really sounds pleasing to the ear and totally reasonable. But it’s really a crock. Here’s how Stu Weber describes it:

“Mutual submission” is not only an oxymoron, it is an impossibility. It exists neither in theory, nor in practice, nor in Scripture.

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We left off last week with a potentially searing question to the heart of every man in relation to his kingdom:

So how is your kingdom? How is the king in you doing? How’s it at your house, in your little realm? What kind of leader are you? Is there a sweet aroma of contentment? Or is your home characterized by the sour taste of bitterness? Are the “citizens” secure? Is there peace? Is there laughter in the hallways? Is everyone glad to know the king is in his castle? Or would they, frankly, prefer a revolt? Is your home a little taste of heaven, or is it hell on earth?

The answer to this question will indicate the type of leadership (or lack thereof) you have exercised in your home. This comes down to a question of authority and authority seems to be a real sticking point in today’s culture. This is how Stu Weber addresses this question of authority:

Authority is the bottom line of the universe. It is the inevitable first question. Who’s in charge here?! It is the first answer. Rebellion against it started the first war—on a cosmic scale—just as it has started every war since, whether global or local, physical or spiritual, marital or personal. Authority is the one element which, given our self-oriented depravity, chaffs us all. But we will never escape it. And it is particularly incumbent upon Christians to learn to live with it.

Someone is always in charge. It goes without saying. It’s axiomatic. We can try to deny it all we want to, but—someone is always in charge. It’s the way God made this world, because it reflects the reality of His world. And when Satan tried to snatch a little authority for himself, he ended up on the ash heap of the universe.

Someone is always in charge. I don’t remember when I first realized that. But I’m sure it was early in life. Every infant soon learns that someone is charge. It was reinforced at home. It was reinforced again at school. There was no doubt that first day of kindergarten who was in charge. Our teacher, Mrs. Taylor! It was the same at recess; during the lunch hour; on the school bus; and, yes, even in the tree fort in the back yard. Someone is always in charge. It is true on the football team…in the marching band…in the fraternity ­house…and in the corporate board room. It is true everywhere.

Questions to ponder? Do you ever find yourself resenting authority? How does it affect you when you do? Do you resent anyone who doesn’t respect your authority? Do you agree that authority is necessary? If so, why?

Dennis Foley, a highly decorated career soldier tells an interesting story about authority that is both humorous and informative:

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Today we continue on our journey of understanding manhood and it’s role as husband / provider / leader. These are critical roles as the family unit us disintegrating all around us. When men do not live out this function of their manhood, their masculinity, they set in motion a ripple effect that can carry forward for years, even generations. Men, we must get a grip on this. Stu Weber describes this as the King pillar in a man’s heart…that servant-leader that God hardwired into our DNA. Let’s join Stu again:

REMEMBER CAMELOT?

Pristine. Pure rivers. Gentle breezes. Stable homes. Safe pathways winding between serene hamlets. Children at play. Happy citizens. The poets called it, “The kingdom of summer.” It was a kingdom at peace.

The king made it happen. Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther, High King of Britain, delivered to his people their paradise. His courage and cunning as a warrior drove the raiding Saxon hordes into the sea. His skills as a negotiator united the petty regional kings, ended the constant bloodshed, and-for the first time since the Legions marched-brought the old Roman colony of Britannia under a single glorious banner. His leadership seemed nearly divine. It was a little bit of life “on earth as it is in heaven.”

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For those of you who may have come to the blog yesterday looking for this installment on manhood, I apologize. Yesterday’s schedule didn’t allow me get this posted. But this morning, I will begin looking at the familial role of a man. Once again, I will lean on material from Stu Weber’s “The Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart” with additional comments and/or questions.

According to Weber’s book, there are four distinct roles that all men are designed to live out. This is how he describes it:

Every man is commissioned by his Creator….

• To Provide - as a Servant-King
• To Protect - as a Tender Warrior
• To Teach - as a Wise Mentor
• To Connect - as a Faithful Friend

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Today I will conclude my thoughts on manhood and God. Tomorrow we will take on a different angle of manhood (man as husband/provider), but make sure that you are fully grasping this aspect first. I have virtually no building skills, I typically supply the muscle and grunt work. I move stuff around for those who can build. But while I lack those skills, I understand how critically important the foundational work is to any structure. Get that part wrong, and it’s all in jeopardy. As you read today’s entry, go back and review the others about manhood and God….make sure you are establishing a good foundational structure for building authentic masculinity in your life.

One of the elements that is missing far too often among Christian men is a deep, daily walk with Jesus Christ. Mark Alderton (who serves as pastor of Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Bloomington, Minn.) recently described it to men attending a conference this way:

“It is a carryover from the fall that we, as guys, don’t necessarily always want to pursue God ourselves and lead in that way,” he said. “It is very common in a marriage for the wife who is enthusiastic about devotional life and she is consistent in it and wants to bring the man to church.”

Preaching from John 15:4-5, Alderton admonished attendees to abide in Christ, unpacking the concept of “abiding” and encouraging men to answer three fundamental questions:

• What does it mean to abide in Christ?
• Why do we need to abide in Christ?
• How do we abide in Christ?

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Men have been relegated to some­ thing less than masculine. As C.S. Lewis stated so powerfully in The Abolition of Man, modernists “castrate, and bid the geldings be fruitful.”It is impossible.

It is a tragedy. And our culture is in trouble. When men are not men, a civilization falls. When men let their masculinity drift with the winds of culture, everyone loses. When a culture is castrated, it dies. Compare that reality to these words found in scripture:

Be strong…and show yourself a man…Keep the charge of the LORD your God

David, 1 Kings 2:2-3

Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act likemen, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Paul, 1 Cor. 16:13

When was the last time you heard something like that spoken as positive encouragement?

Play the man! The words call to the surface something that all of us as Christian men need to think about carefully.

Manhood. It has been out of vogue too long.

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