Clarifying Clarification

Please allow me to take a moment to clarify my last clarification.

My last blog was an attempt to say, "Please don't think that I am a staunch advocate of my own views." I also have great respect for the insights and views of other Christians and Christian leaders. There are people who are reading my blogs, specifically "Amnesty Box" and are thinking that I am an advocate of a strict militant style of leadership for every ministry of The Salvation Army.

Amnesty Box is something that I truly believe in and it has its place as a prophetic voice. However, there is much more to my views than the two dimensions of my writing that may paint me as some kind of voice for Salvationists who believe in strict militant leadership.

I believe there is a place for those who need to be led strongly.

I also believe that God speaks through patience and tenderness of which some leaders in The Army must present to be effective for some people.

For instance, the poorest of the poor are also among some of the most verbally and physically abused. Do we really want to go into their neighborhoods barking out orders? Personally, I think they could use a little tenderness.

So, again, thank you everyone for your encouragement and support of my philosophies and teaching. And another thank you for your Christ-like patience with those whose views you may disagree with, including my own.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Keeping It In Context

Well, just in case you happen to come across Stephen Court's blog, "Amnesty Box vs. The Salvationist Mind for the 21st Century" on ARMYBARMY and see that one of my articles has become a source of inspiration, know this:

Context means everything.

I'm not sure how people will take my words when I write them, but those who know me best know that I am constantly learning and developing.

I believe The Salvation Army needs to stand and not be so flaky when it comes to serving the world. There is way too much compromise in the ranks and in our purpose. It’s very difficult to move forward when you don’t know which direction is forward.

I want it to be clear that The Salvation Army is the vehicle of which I choose to serve Christ and I am always looking for the most effective way to serve Him for the Kingdom.

Church growth and personal recognition are not any less divisive than rigidity and irrelevance in Christian expression and ministry.

I don’t know that a dogmatic stance, which moves us to see the opinions of others as an opportunity to judge them as if they have no other dimensions, is justifiable Christian behavior.

We must constantly understand that sometimes God is represented by the prophet who stands on the side of God with a warning of judgment to the people; sometimes He is represented by the priest who stands on the side of the people pleading to God for mercy; still sometimes He is represented by the king who makes a decision based on God's will.

In all of these roles, God is often represented by a human being in the form of a Christian leader. God's leaders are sent to represent the role God calls that leader to be for each individual or congregation.

As Doctor Rick Lints, Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary so adequately stated, “There are some who are standing and need to fall on their knees and pray for mercy, while there are others who are kneeling who need to stand up and trust that God has given it to them.” God's representatives are often used to help His flock know whether they are to stand or kneel when their pride or self-pity blind them to the direct message from God.

Every message or philosophy deserves to be heard for what it is--an attempt at finding and revealing the truth. I believe that no matter how wrong one person sees the views of another, we must always remember that those who are brave enough to voice their views and are within biblical parameters of doing so, are also those who care enough to speak.

Let’s not discourage vocal expression, as each expresser is a child of God who seeks to find and share Christ with deep conviction and sincerity.

Thank you to everyone who encourages me and stands beside me as a REVOLUTIONARY and wants what is best for The Salvation Army and, most importantly, The Kindgom of God.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Why?

There is a time in every person's life when we just have to ask, "WHY?" Why are we? Why do we? Why have we? Why did we? Why will we?

I was walking around a Supercuts today, which used to be a bank. The old drive thru tellers are still there, but I could tell they were from the 80's.

Ella walked around the old machine where people would drive up and put their money or whatever in a big plastic tube, which was then sucked up into a vacuum. For her, it meant nothing.

For me, it was a mark, a step, a yesterday. Sometimes I get really tired of yesterdays and all I want to do is see right now. Life seems to be nothing but memory making moments. I can’t quite get to the next minute and then suddenly I’m past it.

Sometimes I just want to scream out, “STOP! Let me look at you for a moment." I want a chance to stare life in the face. I want to stare at it just like staring closely at a leaf and noticing all its specks and lines. When do we get to just take some time to look at life and enjoy the beauty of it?

"Why?" may be the wrong question. Maybe there is no question.
Who knows? Hey! Maybe "Who Knows?" is the question.

Forever wondering,
Johnny

The Gainey Sweat Shop

Ella has called an attorney and is demanding better working conditions.

Small Group Agenda Info and Birth of a new group update

For the next 23 weeks, we will not be posting the Small Group Agendas.

Reason:

We will be using the Rob Bell NOOMA videos and using a basic format for accompishing the Welcome, Word, Worship, and Witness based on the Videos and the book that accompanies the video.

However, I would like to share that a New Small Group/Interest Group has begun at DHQ during the lunch hour in the break room. The group met today and there were 8 in attendance. One of those eight was with us via Skype. Thanks for being there in voice Kristy.

The Interest Group meets to discuss the Velvet Elvis book written by Rob Bell. It was great. I had a wonderful time as I'm sure we all did.

Have a great day everyone.

Forever learning,
Johnny

How was your day?

Today was a beautiful day.

The skies were blue.

My children are healthy.

My marriage is happy.

I have a headache.

My dog is aggravating.

My grandparents are dead.

My Dad has a liver disease.

Today was a beautiful day.

The coffee was wonderful. (Tim Hortons from Jeff. Thanks Jeff.)

I've put on three pounds in two weeks.

I'm losing my hair.

I love being a Salvation Army Officer.

Some people are mean.

Some people give me energy.

My wife is so pretty.

Today was a beautiful day.

Good and not so good, God is always good.

Today was a beautiful day.

How was your day?

No Dogs Allowed!

Is it just me or is there an immense amount of spiritual gluttony among Christians.

Tonight I was privy to a wonderful conversation with friends at my dining room table and in that conversation some wonderful points were brought before us.

The conversation caused me to think more about this situation of spiritual gluttony.

The root of the problem appears to be grounded in selfishness. There appears to be a sense that Christianity is a calling to go to church, rather than be the church. Over and over I hear this phrase, “We need to be fed!” There is no more a sickening phrase on the planet. But, that’s just my opinion. If it’s not yours, please allow me to be loved by you anyway.

Jesus calls us to feed sheep. It appears that everybody thinks they are all sheep. My question is, “If everyone is a sheep, who does the feeding?” I don’t think God intended for one or two to be shepherds and the rest of the millions of Christians on earth to be "Get-fed-only" sheep. Again, this is my opinion. Please continue to love me.

Eternal sheep have a habit of taking up so much time and energy from the shepherds that shepherds never have time to look for lost sheep.

I think we need to be intellectually fed by the Word of God and spiritually fed by the Spirit of God and physically fed by the servants of God, but then it’s time to do some feeding ourselves.

No sheep eats all day, every day, with no concern for becoming a shepherd.
That is what shepherds do. Shepherds train sheep to be shepherds. Not all shepherds are shepherds of a lot of sheep. Some shepherds merely feed their family and maybe a friend. Some shepherds don’t have the capacity to feed, but they help those who do.

Wouldn’t a sheep that only eats be a glutton of a lamb?

I like sheep and I don’t think they’re as stupid as most preachers try to portray them to be. I believe that any animal that can convince its master that it only exists to eat and is never responsible to feed is pretty darn smart.

In fact, I think these sheep are not sheep at all…they are dogs. They show up, eat, sleep, get a few pats on the head and wait for the next feeding.

Let’s all be sheep that become shepherds and shepherds who don’t allow dogs to pose as sheep.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Cell Group Agenda for the week of Febuary 5, 2006

Welcome
Have everyone come in, place their food or drinks on the table, get something to snack on and join each other in a comfortable room to talk.

Give everyone an opportunity to tell when he or she feels the most safe.

Tip: Some may try to spiritualize this question and give obvious answers, such as all the time, because God is with me. Ask them to be more specific and speak of a specific place or when they’re with a specific person.

After everyone has a chance to share, talk with Jesus and tell Him how grateful we are for safety in our lives.

Word
Play the Rob Bell’s Nooma DVD #001 “Rain.”

After the DVD is played have your group break up into small groups of three or four. Give each person a list of the questions from Rob Bell's study guide, which accompanies the DVD.

In each breakout group ask the questions from the book that accompanies the DVD starting on page 2 and ending (this week) on page 8:

After everyone gets a chance to answer the question on page 8, have the people in your breakout group take turns reading the list of Scriptures found on page 10 of Bell’s Nooma DVD book.

[I do not feel that it would be an ethically correct decision to list the questions from Rob Bell’s book. These videos are incredible and well worth you purchasing for your group.
I purchased the DVDs, which came with the study book, for $12.99 per DVD at Family Christian Book Store.]

After reading the verses of Scripture, have everyone join together in one room for worship.

Tip: When individual breakout groups are finished have them go into the room where everyone will be together for worship. Don’t wait for everyone to be done. This will help everyone to respect each other’s time and keep from giving too much time for those who are finished to engage in unrelated topics.

Worship
Play a CD of peaceful, worship conducive music with no words.
While the music plays take a few minutes to sit in silence and have each person picture a moment in his or her mind that he or she wishes could have been avoided.

After 5 minutes have the group pray that God will show them how He was able to draw closer to them because of that scary time. Then ask God to give them the wisdom to see how God was using the moment to get closer to him or her.
Witness
Your act of taking your experience of being with Jesus tonight will be to share your excitement for what you’re learning with someone who is not a part of your group. Then invite them to come next week, when we will watch the same video again and go through the Scriptures and questions in the remainder of Rob Bell’s study guide.

Retro-New and Different

Every morning I drive for about an hour and fifteen minutes before I finally arrive at my destination of the office. And during that time I chat with Jesus about life. Sometimes we talk about family, tragedies, fun stuff, sad stuff. Sometimes I just try to listen to Him speak.

This morning He spoke through the silence and taught me something wonderful. I have been working so hard on affecting change in the part of God’s Kingdom that He has called me to and this morning I realized something wonderful.

Change is not about something new and different. Change is about retro-new and different.

As I pondered on the frustration of how to get people to see that change is necessary for effective Christian ministry, I realized that the threat is usually a fear that we will be leaving the place where God has put us. But I learned that change is really about bringing us back to the right place.

Change is the equivalent of the ref blowing his whistle during a football game when the ball has gone out of bounds. Change in ministry is the equivalent of the ref blowing the whistle because the whole team has begun to play out of bounds.

There are times, moments, decades, eras, when ministry has gone so far out of bounds that God calls a leader to blow the whistle and get people back on the playing field.

That is when leaders have to listen to God, share that vision, and inspire the team to get back on the field. The tough part is getting the players to see that they have moved away from where God wants the team to be. These are the moments when the players actually believe they are still on the field and everyone else has gone home because they don't care about the game or the team anymore.

However there is a strange and wonderful difference between football fields and ministry fields. With football the field never moves. With ministry, if we don't keep our eyes open, the field will slip right out from under us and some will never even notice it's gone.

One day the team looks up and asks, “Where is everybody? Don’t they care about the game?" The fact is God has moved the field to a whole new place where the spectators have new faces, wear different clothes, speak a different language, and may not even sit in the bleachers.

Change is what a leader does when he says to the team, It’s time to get back on the field. There is an entire world of people who need to see and be a part of the game, but they can't see us play anymore, because we have completely left the field or the field has left us."

Change is about getting the team back on the field.

Ministry Is Not Messy!

How do I balance Johnny the person with Captain Gainey the Corps Officer/Pastor?

I am learning more and more that being a leader of God's flock is synonymous with self-ostracizing. The lessons I’ve learned after three and a half years of pastoring have taught me why so many church leaders end up bitter and alone, questioning their calling, and pampering a low self-image.

I don’t agree that ministry is messy. That may sound catchy, but the truth of the matter is that Satan’s intervention in ministry is messy, not ministry. Ministry is an extension of the love of Jesus Christ. How can that be anything but beautiful?

In Marshall Shelley’s book, ‘WELL-INTENTIONED Dragons’, Shelley says, “A pastor’s authority requires two ingredients: God’s appointment and call, and the body’s respect for his leadership. Losing either side of the equation spells an end to effective ministry.” pgs115-116

Shelly also says, “Every pastor walks that delicate line between steering and being steered by the congregation. As they weigh the criticisms, most ministers occasionally wonder, Am I being followed or chased?” pg. 115

This is a serious dilemma in the church, because too often God’s flock forgets the role of the shepherd, which is to lead. Too many sheep believe that they are supposed to train the shepherd to listen to sheep, rather than assist the shepherd in listening to God.

I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before.

Forever learning,
Johnny