Guilt or Conviction

John 16:7-11 - Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

I can remember times in my life when I sat in church and felt overwhelmed by guilt. No matter how much I prayed, the guilt did not go away. Other times I sensed the Spirit convicting me about some sin and after sincere confession and repentance, the sense of conviction was lifted. I have come to realize there is a significant difference between guilt and conviction.

Since the Bible teaches certain standards, feeling bad about our sin is not a negative thing. But some churches have taken the whole “hell, fire and brimstone” message a bit far. Such churches use guilt to get people to behave a certain way. One problem with guilt-based approaches is that while they often work in the short term, they seldom work in the long term. On the rare occasion that guilt does change behavior over the long term, it robs people of the joy and happiness they should find in their faith. Another problem with guilt-based approaches is that young people with a more post-modern worldview refuse to be motivated by guilt. Therefore, they consider guilt-based churches irrelevant and simply ignore them. This leaves pastors and church leaders in an interesting dilemma. We need to help people learn the biblical principles for godly living, but we need to do it in ways that are based on Holy Spirit conviction instead of the human emotion of guilt. This leads to the third problem with guilt-based approaches: Who benefits from them? Guilt-based approaches are manipulative, often resulting in some benefit for the manipulator. But conviction is more honest and transparent; it leads to the benefit of the person sensing the conviction.

It can be difficult to discern between guilt and conviction because they often both start the same way, with some deficiency in our lives. Guilt reveals the problem, but then makes people feel stupid, unworthy, or full of shame. Guilt makes people feel like they will never recover from their mistake. This causes people to become either depressed or rebellious, neither of which solves the problem. Holy Spirit conviction, on the other hand, reveals the deficiency, but then uses that revelation as motivation for people to change because they really want to. Holy Spirit conviction is healthy and needed for a vibrant spirituality, but guilt is unhealthy and represses vibrant spirituality.

We must remember that guilt is from Satan and produces bad results. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit and produces good results. Guilt leaves us with an understanding that we have committed an offense, but offers no hope of redemption. Guilt fills us with the despair of condemnation.

Conviction, on the other hand, reveals an offense, a wrong or a sin, but also offers a way out of shame and condemnation through forgiveness and freedom in Jesus Christ. Once we have received forgiveness and changed our behavior, then bad feelings give way to joy. When people experience Holy Spirit conviction, instead of mere human guilt, they have an inner desire to do what is right out of the joy of their salvation and not out of fear of punishment from God or the leaders of the church. As Christian leaders, we must never use emotional guilt to manipulate people’s actions. However, it is a sacred honor to encourage people to respond to Holy Spirit conviction and find the forgiveness and joy that results.

Lord, help us respond humbly to genuine conviction from Your Spirit but never accept man-made guilt over things You have already forgiven. Amen.

This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: Daily Devotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E

I Got the Spirit - How About You?

Ephesians 4:1-6 - Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

As a high school student I remember going to pep rallies before the big game on Fridays. We would sit in the gym according to our classes, with freshmen in one section, sophomores in another, juniors in their place and seniors usually in the best section of the gym. The cheerleaders would lead us in various cheers and then the classes would seek to outdo one another in displaying our enthusiasm for the team.

One of the cheers we often chanted went something like “We got the spirit, yes, we do; we got the spirit, how about you?” This would be chanted by one class, and another class would have to respond. Whoever shouted the loudest was considered to have the most school spirit, and therefore won the pep rally.

As an adult looking back on those pep rallies, it occurs to me that we were all cheering for the same team. We were all there to show our support for the team and encourage them to play hard and bring home the trophy. It really did not matter which class was the loudest. But back then it sure seemed important to win the pep banner and show the most school spirit.

I think this “we got the spirit, how about you” attitude sometimes creeps into the church. Some churches follow a more traditional path in worship. Other churches follow a more innovative path. Still others seek to combine elements of both traditional and innovative worship. Like high school students, we tend to hang out with people in our own group and we tend to think our group has a lock on how the Spirit wants us to cheer on the saints in worship. At times it seems that we are acting more like high school students at a pep rally instead of mature leaders in the church of Jesus Christ.

Traditional pastors may think that innovative pastors have watered down the Bible and abandoned biblical principles. Innovative pastors sometimes feel traditional pastors have quenched the Spirit and are riding a dead horse into the ground. Often pastors are caught somewhere in the middle and afraid to share their ideas about these matters with anyone because they are not sure how those ideas will be received. Such pastors tend to drift back and forth between one group or another never really fitting in completely.

Perhaps we should stop acting like self-centered teens trying to prove we have the most spirit and instead focus on serving the Lord in the way that He leads us to. While some traditional pastors may have indeed quenched the Spirit, there are others who are deeply in love with Jesus and serve Him with passion, but through traditional ways. Likewise, some innovative pastors have taken far too many liberties with the Bible in their efforts to be contextual. But many others have searched the scriptures and many things they are doing are often ancient practices of the church re-packaged for a more modern audience. Since we are all on the same team, we should rejoice when someone discovers a way to engage a group of people and lead them in genuine worship, even if it looks different than how we lead our own group.

It takes all types of churches to reach the many different types of people in our society. Together, as a team, we can join God in His work and reach all those whom He is calling to Himself.

Lord, help all Bible believing Christians find unity in our mutual faith together instead of being in competition with one another. Amen.

This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: Daily Devotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E

Church Planting Essentials - Guest Post by Logan Loveday

Church Planting is full of ups and downs. For those church planters that do not own their own facilities they can easily relate to the struggle that comes from being constantly mobile. While renting a space can be both inexpensive and greatly rewarding, the portable church model always comes with its surprises.

There is never a dull moment in this type of church planting. I have experienced the struggle of the portable church many times. Whether it is a double-booking issue, worship team issue, supply issue, or technology issue, there will always be surprises. In the early stages of planting, a service can rarely go according to plan or without some problems. The computers will crash and the sound system won’t work. Someone will be late or forget that they are on set-up duty. The coffee and refreshment supplies will run out and someone will forget to restock them. The portable church vehicle or trailer will be missing items and yes, someone will have to go back and get them. No matter the situation the unexpected will happen when planting a church with the portable model.

From my own personal experiences in church planting, I have come up with 7 principles to remember when planting through a portable church model.

1. Stay calm; God is in control. Yes, someone forgot the keys or there is no one around to open the space. Yes, the space was overbooked. No matter how big or small the problem, even though it may at first seem to ruin the entire service or set-up, God is still in control. There is a reason for the problem. Breathe, discover the problem and devise a quick and efficient plan on how to remedy the situation. This may be an opportunity God wants to use to teach you how to be a more mature and effective leader. Remember, people are always watching.

  2. Prepare ahead of time. Call ahead. Plan who will do what, when, where, and why. Make sure everyone knows their job for the service or set-up. Make sure you have everything you need ahead of time. Please don’t wait to go check the coffee supplies or buy batteries that morning. Make a list or an action plan to help the team remember what need to be done.

 3. Expect the unexpected. It never fails. No matter how much planning and preparation goes into the service and set-up, something will go wrong. Someone will forget something important or a certain technology piece will go missing from last week’s tear-down. (Yes, the one that projects the words for worship and PowerPoint.) Every detail can be planned out for the service and something will go wrong, but that is not an excuse to wing it. Remember, at the core of what we are doing we are trying to connect people with Jesus. We must do everything we can to make sure nothing hinders that from happening.

  4. Have a back-up plan. So you planned it all out. The team knows what they need to do. But, you arrive and nothing goes according to plan. While many would want to crawl up in the corner and cry, as the pastor or leader you cannot do that. You must adapt to the situation and have a plan-B. When your team is planning the service make sure you add in fail-safes. Bring extra equipment, have extra helpers, buy extra supplies. You must acknowledge that things can go wrong and you need to be ready. Even if the back-up-plan is not perfect, you need to be ready when a problem arises and people come to you or the other leadership for help.

  5.  Recruit volunteers. Do not do it alone. This cannot be stressed enough. In ministry you cannot be an island in and of yourself. In church planting, it is very hard if not impossible to set up the entire service by yourself. Learn to delegate the responsibility. Lead and teach people the set-up process and then let them do it. If they mess-up then you can re-teach it to them if needed. A great way to ensure success in the portable church model is to recruit multiple set-up teams. These teams do not have to be large; just enough to prepare everything for the service. Teach these teams what all needs to be accomplished for a service to happen. Put the teams on either weekly or monthly rotating schedules. This not only helps you and the other leaders, but it allows the others to get involved in the church planting process.

   6. Make sure you have set-up lists and instructions. Set up for success; not failure. Even though you may have taught the set-up teams perfectly, someone will forget something or someone will forget how to do something else. Make check-lists for the night before that helps the teams know exactly what needs to be loaded up or put in the trailer. Also include detailed instructions for set-up of various signs, booths, tables, and equipment.

   7. Rejoice always. Rejoice when set-up is perfect and when it is not. Make a special comment during the service or after, recognizing God’s plan and power in each set-up and service.  Thank Him for making it possible to worship whether set-up went perfectly or even if there were problems. Acknowledge team members and their hard work even if set-up had issues. Thank all the team members for their hard work and willingness to serve. 

This post was originally posted at Logan Loveday's blog, which can be found at:
http://pastorlogan.blogspot.com/

Which God Can Help Us?

2 Kings 1:3 - But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?

King Ahaziah had been injured in an accident and was afraid he would die. Instead of seeking help from God, he sent a messenger to a foreign land to inquire of their false god if he would recover from his injury. Elijah, the prophet of God, met the messenger on the journey and asked, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?”

Time and again throughout the history of God’s people, God had proven Himself to them. God had worked miracles on their behalf. It was inconceivable to Elijah, in light of all that God had done for His people, that they would seek advice from a false god. Yet, that is what King Ahaziah did.

As we think about our own lives, we have also witnessed God’s power time and again. How many times have we had some close call in our lives and knew someone must have been watching out for us? How many times have we prayed in a time of crisis and God came through for us? God has been there for us in both big and small ways our entire lives. It is inconceivable that we would seek help from any other source but God. Yet, like King Ahaziah of old, we often do that very thing. We call psychic hotlines. We read fortune cookies. We watch shows on television in which pop-psychologists give us the latest fad in human thinking, even if it goes completely against God’s Word. We dabble in New Age philosophies and Eastern religions seeking truth. We ask friends who do not know the Lord for advice instead of seeking it from the Bible or from trustworthy pastors.

In the biblical story, King Ahaziah died because he sought help from the wrong source. It may sound cruel for God not to help him in his situation, but remember, King Ahaziah did not ask God for help. He asked a false god for help and received exactly the kind of help that false god could provide: nothing. Essentially, God decided to give King Ahaziah what he asked for, and it did not end well. As we consider our own relationship with God, why do we think God will help us when we have called upon everyone but Him in our distress? What if God let all the false hope and bad advice we sought come to fruition in our lives? It would be a disaster.

Thankfully, our God is a God of grace who often helps us even when we do not deserve it. But I do think from time to time He withholds His help while we seek all those other deadends. He wants us to see that those deadends lead nowhere, so that when we finally come back to Him, we will be more faithful than we were before. If we tarry too long in turning back to Him, all we have left is the false hope, false comfort, and false help this world offers. It only leads to disaster. Let’s commit ourselves to turning back to the true God of the universe today and serve Him with all of our hearts.

Lord, remind us to seek help from You in times of need instead of looking to the false hope this world offers. Amen.

This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: Daily Devotions from Ordinary Experienceshttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E. Filled with stories of how God spoke in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E

I Don’t Mean to be Rude But . . . .

Colossians 3:17 - And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

I confess I was eavesdropping on a conversation that a group of teenagers were having. No, I am not a stalker. But I realized a long time ago that I could learn a lot about what young people are thinking if I stand a few feet away and just listen.

This particular conversation was between some girls. They did not appear to be getting along very well. The conversation became tense. One of the girls said “I’m not trying to be rude but . . .” and then went on to say some things that were extremely rude. Her tone of voice, her body language, and the words she used, were all very rude. She knew she was being rude. Saying, “I’m not trying to be rude...” was merely a ploy for her to be able to say whatever mean thing she wanted while pretending to be nice.

Though this particular incident involved teens, I have heard similar things among adults. Far too often starting a sentence with “I’m not trying to be rude but . . .” is just a thinly disguised way of being rude. Such rudeness, thinly disguised as politeness, fools no one and does not accomplish anything positive.

The world may treat one another that way, but Christians should aspire to higher standards. Christians should aspire to treat each other with dignity and respect as brothers and sisters in the family of God. If we do not mean to be rude, then we should not be rude. If we realize we are being rude, we should stop mid-sentence and apologize. We cannot continue to be rude thinking that we are fooling others into believing that we are polite. No one is fooled.

As Christians, everything we say and do should honor Christ. Rudeness does not honor to the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, especially rudeness poorly disguised as niceness.

Lord, help us to treat people the way You would treat them. Amen.

This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: DailyDevotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E

The Dude on the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.

Because our culture is shifting from a Judeo-Christian tradition, fewer people understand what it means to be a Christian than ever before. To illustrate how far our culture has shifted, a friend of mine related what happened to him recently in a jewelry store. He had gone into the store to buy a cross necklace for his daughter. She wanted to wear it as a way to display her faith, and he wanted to support her in that effort. Instead of just buying her a cheap necklace, he thought he would go a nicer store and buy one that would be special to his daughter. As he looked through the various options, he did not find what he was looking for. He asked the store clerk if they had any other cross necklaces to choose from.

The young man said, "Yeah, we have some in this other case over here, but I don’t know if you’d want them or not; they have some dude on them." When my friend looked at the other case, the “dude” on the cross was Jesus and the crosses were actually crucifixes. Though my friend was not interested in buying a crucifix, he was stunned that the young man had no idea who the “dude” on the cross was.

Though our society has always had people who do not follow Christ, few would have failed to recognize a crucifix as being Christ on the cross. But this young man had no idea that the person on the cross was Christ. He did not realize the unparalleled sacrifice Jesus had made on his behalf. He was missing a critical piece of information that could change his life forever.

Though we can pretend that young man was just ignorant of the truth, the reality is that he represents a growing number of young adults who do not know who the “dude on the cross” is. The good news is that young people are interested in finding out. They are very open to sitting down with a friend or relative and having a genuine conversation about who Jesus is and what part He might play in their lives. Though they may not be quite ready to commit their lives to following Christ, they are increasingly curious about who He is. Are we ready to tell them who the “dude on the cross” is?

Lord, help us share the story of the cross with those around us, especially with the next generation. Amen.

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This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: DailyDevotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E

Living in a State of Peace

Most mornings I take a long walk to start my day. I walk for both physical and spiritual reasons. It keeps me in shape and I pray about things while I walk. One of my favorite places to walk is around the town reservoir near my home. Though we live in a fairly densely populated region, the reservoir is surrounded by woods and it is common for me to see various types of wildlife. But the other day I got a real shock when a bear crossed the path in front of me. He came right out of the woods fifteen feet in front of me, stopped in the middle of the path and looked me in the eye, apparently decided I was not appetizing enough for breakfast, and then he got into the water and swam across the reservoir.

In the brief time that he looked at me, I did wonder if I was about to die. As I quickly breathed the prayer, “Lord, I’m coming home,” the moment passed and I realized he was not going to charge me. As he swam away, I was relieved and happy that I would live to see another day. You may find my little encounter with the bear a bit humorous, but at the moment in which it happened, it was not funny at all. It could have easily ended quite differently.

As I have reflected on my experience for a couple of weeks, it occurs to me that this is one reason why we must live in such a way that we are always ready to meet Jesus. We cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that we are young and death is a long way off. Even a walk in the woods near our home is potentially life threatening. We can either huddle in the basement hiding from the world, or we can live in such a way that we are always at peace with God. Living in a state of peace with God begins with knowing Christ as our Savior. It continues by spending time each day with Him, reading His Word, sharing our struggles with Him through prayer, confessing any sins we may have committed and committing ourselves to follow His guidance in our daily lives. Living in such a way that we are at peace with God brings blessings in this life, as well as in the life to come.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett is a church planter in New England. He is a happy husband, proud father, giggling grandfather, thankful cancer survivor, and the author of numerous books aimed at helping small churches become healthier and individual Christians grow in their faith. You can find his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-TerryDorsett