Pathways Church Blog

Each week, we are being challenged to Conspire against the consumerism of Christmas that our culture has created. This past week, we collected reading glasses for Moses Thomas to take back to Zimbabwe. This week our challenge takes a different form – education. Bringing Moses in to talk about Christmas in Zimbabwe should bring perspective for all of us. Opening our eyes to the plight of others is crucial if we are going to pursue God’s heart and not our culture’s.

This week, our challenge is simple. I want to encourage you to visit the website for Voice of the Martyrs. It is an organization that is dedicated to assisting those who are being persecuted for their faith around the world. Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned 14 years in Communist Romania for his faith in Christ. His wife, Sabina, was imprisoned for three years. I first heard him speak at a chapel service at Hope International University, while I was in school. It was the first step for me to having my eyes opened to what is happening in other parts of the world.

Search through the website. Click on the “Newsroom” and “Restricted Nations” tabs at the top of the page. Begin (or continue) your education.

I hope that you enjoyed the “Great Pastor-Swap of 2009″ last week. I heard from many of you that Clay’s message on “Extreme Forgiveness” cut to the heart. My prayer is that God continues to work in your life as you journey toward forgiveness. Because it is a journey. I have heard it said that forgiveness is a one time decision, and if you can pull that off, my hat’s off to you. For most of us it is a process of letting go of hurt and anger and a wounded heart. Our God is big enough…

This weekend, we enter into conflict. What does it mean for us to lead and have integrity in the midst of conflict?

I have loved the Leadership series we have walked through this past month – “Leadership in the Balance”. The idea has been that in order to be “influencer’s” we must live out of the balance of the characteristics God displays toward us. For instance, balancing justice and grace. Leaning toward either of those in an extreme steps outside of God’s demonstrated character toward us.

There are ways, however, that leaders need to be extreme. Over the next four weeks, we are going to cover “Extreme’s in Leadership.” This week, we’ll be taking a look at the extreme we have been called to in the area of integrity. We are not asked to balance integrity, we are called to an extreme.

A lot of crazy things have been done in the name of religion. In fact, there is a movement right now, headed by people like Christopher Hitchens, author of “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” who are calling for an end to religion. His book is, as his publisher attests, an atheist manifesto. While it would be easy to set Hitchens up as a straw man, perhaps the church should step back and examine his perspective. The truth is…a lot of crazy things have been done in the name of religion.

Why is that? The reasons are plethora. Perhaps, with our eyes set on heaven, people have believed that the ends truly justifies the means. Power plays. Manipulation. Cult Followings.

The bottom line is this, religion or any teaching or leadership that is not grounded in the way of Jesus will ultimately be tainted and ruined by our own selfish ways. This is why our leadership, according to Scripture, calls for “Influence balanced by Wisdom”. I hope to see you this weekend as we dive in to this issue.

Our leadership comes directly out of our understanding of God’s character. You may or may not believe that, but I hold to that as a core belief in my life – as I understand God’s character to be, so will I lead. I do that imperfectly, not only in practice, but also in my understanding of God’s character. Often times, our view of God is incredibly imbalanced. Becoming too focused on “Grace” creates a loose, or at worst, a non-existant pursuit of holiness. Becoming too focused on his judgment creates a fear-based religion. As we talked about on Sunday, you cannot have a God of love without having a God of anger. It is impossible to love something without having anger. Why? Let me make this easy – imagine someone punching your child. I hope that stirred anger, it does for me. Why? Because I love my kids. If I did not love them, I would not care about how people treated them.

God balances love and anger perfectly. I do not. Somehow, we have to hold these seemingly opposing characteristics of God in balance. As we do, we learn to lead in the same manner.

Leading out of God’s character will dramatically effect your performance at your job. It will change how you relate to your spouse and children. It will influence your time spent with friends and neighbors. It will guide us as leaders within the Pathways community.

Join us over the next six weeks as we discuss “Leadership in the Balance”.

….. you finish the sentence.  God Is   ___________ .

If you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, then you’ve got to remember those Saturday morning cartoons by Schoolhouse Rock. My personal favorite was, “I’m Only a Bill”. However, the chorus that has stuck with me over years was from the song, “Conjunction Junction.” It explained the significance of so many little words in the English language. Isn’t it amazing the power these connecting words have within a sentence? Have you ever thought about it?

“And” can dance forever.
“Or” gives choice.
“Nor” gives none.
“But” puts the brakes on the sentence that was about to make your day.
“If” places conditions on love whispered.
“Yet.” That three letter word that endures all and yearns for hope.

This week, in Habakkuk 3, our “Bargaining Prophet” comes to the end of his questions. When we get to the end, we are supposed to find the answers. You can’t watch a movie or read a book without getting to the answers eventually. But Habakkuk does not find answers; instead he finds “Yet.”

If you missed Ryan’s message on Sunday, he talked about how you can effectively get behind the vision of the church.  Here is a link to some practical "how-to’s" on how to do that.

How many pastors can pull off talking about taking Jesus into brothels, having a beer with a non-believer at a bar, and riding mountain bikes with a guy who thinks that Jesus kicks a$$? If you were here last weekend, you met him – my friend Ryan Russell. He’ll be back again this weekend to challenge us to “GO” and take Jesus places that confront our own desire for comfort. If you missed the message, pick it up on our podcast and buckle your seatbelt as you prepare for this weekend.