Archive for Commitment
On Commitment (Part 7)
All of our talk of commitment with respect to 2 Pillars is coming close to a climax. This past Sunday we handed out our Launch Team Covenant. This is a document that we’re asking folks to take home, read over, pray over, fill out, and bring back with them this next Sunday. This Sunday, thus, will be the initial forming of our Launch Team.
If you’ve been tracking with us but missed this past Sunday, please download the Launch Team Covenant, read it, pray over it, fill it out, and bring it back with you this Sunday. If you have any questions about it, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
On Commitment (Part 6)
Some quotes on commitment:
“If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?”
-Harvey Fierstein
“Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved.”
-Bill Gates
“The fear of making permanent commitments can change the mutual love of husband and wife into two loves of self – two loves existing side by side, until they end in separation.”
-Pope John Paul II
“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.”
-Job 5:8-9
On Commitment (Part 5)
As we continue to talk about commitment and as I continue to have conversations with people about committing to being a part of 2 Pillars Church, I am learning that there are several obstacles that keep people from committing. For the large part, these can be rolled up into three categories: fear of commitment, comfort, and scared/inadequate/unconfident.
Fear of Commitment
One of the biggest obstacles to commitment I have run up against is people that are simply afraid of commitment. Part of this stems from a society that has largely relaxed on calling people to commit to anything. Our culture tells us to always be looking for the best option for us – the best products at the best prices. The result is that loyalty has become thing of the past. Another result is that there are a lot of churches in town that won’t call you to commit to anything because of the fear of scaring you away because commitment isn’t really all that attractional.
Another fear with respect to commitment is simply not knowing what you are being asked to commit to. When we hear the word “commitment” all sorts of legalistic and binding thoughts come to our minds. We think there is going to be a calendar issued and that we’re going to have to be at every single thing on the calendar in order to be committed. The thing is, we’re not calling people to a calendar. We’re calling people to a community. Communities are messy. Things come up. People take vacations. People take trips. People need a break from people once in a while. We get that. Committing to being a part of a community means that all of that is okay because community isn’t always nice and tight and scheduled. Community doesn’t simply consist of a Sunday morning and a Wednesday night.
Being committed to a community means being committed to a family. The thing about families is that they exist even when they are not together. Although I love spending time with my wife and daughters, I have a job and so sometimes I’m not home. We’re still a family when I’m not home. Now, that doesn’t absolve me from my responsibilities of being a present husband and father – quite the contrary. Being intimately involved in a family drives me to want to be more a part of my family as I invest my life in them and they in mine. As I grow in my relationship with them, trust grows deep. Love and acceptance and true caring takes shape. That’s what happens in a committed family – a committed community.
Another fear associated with commitment is related to this idea of being intimately involved. Some people are afraid of commitment because they are afraid of being open and exposed and real about their life, their struggles, their doubts, and their sin.
The ironic thing about a fear of commitment is that deep, deep down, we all want the benefits of being committed. We all want to be known intimately. We all want a sense of belonging and purpose in the world. We all want to feel loved and accepted – even though we struggle. Even though we doubt. Even though we still screw up and sin. We all want people we can trust in our lives and we all want people to be able to trust us. All of this happens in a committed community as we do life together and as we grow in the gospel with one another.
So event though we fear commitment, we all long for it. We all need it.
Comfort
A second obstacle I’ve encountered as I’ve called people to commit is their comfort. Let me preface this by saying that as a church planter, my job is not to steal Christians from other churches. We’re really not trying to reach the reached for 2 Pillars. We’re trying to reach the unreached for Christ. At the same time, it takes a group of solid believers to surround a vision and get the thing off the ground. For that reason, I tell people that my job is to cast the vision and to trust the Spirit to do his job. So part of what this ends up looking like is calling solid believers out of existing churches to surround the vision and march forward into battle with us.
What gets in the way often times, is people’s comforts in those established churches. Preferences for an established children’s ministry. The desire for a comfortable youth group. A preferred worship “style.” A group of friends that you’ve done life with for years and that you’re afraid you will lose if you transition to a different church (which, by the way, may be an indicator that your community isn’t built on commitment at all, but rather convenience).
A final comfort is one of anonymity. In a big, comfortable church with a menu of all of the fixin’s, you can be anonomous. You can slip in, catch a good sermon, slip out, and get on with your life. No one is up in your face. No one is asking you about your sin. There are no expectations. You take what you want. You give what you want and nothing more. That’s comfortable.
The problem is that as I read the New Testament, no where do I see that as Christians we’re called to a life of comfort. No where do I see that it is about us: our comforts, our preferences, our needs, our consumption. After Steven gets stoned in Acts 7, I don’t see all of the Christians huddle together in a safe building and start up a sweet ministry for their kids, and get a rockin’ worship band, or simply build affinity. I see them spread out throughout the region preaching boldly the same gospel that got their best friend killed. That’s not comfortable.
To those that are comfortable, I offer this challenge: when you think about your life five, ten, maybe twenty years down the road and you look back over those years and ask – did I do everything I could for the kingdom? Was I really apart of gospel transformation in my city? Did I really see and participate in seeing the gospel reach the unreached? What’s going to be your answer? Will you be able say, “By the grace of God I did all that I could to see the gospel go forth?” Or will you look back and say, “Well, I went to church for twenty years.”? For those with kids: don’t let them be your excuse. Let this be an opportunity to model to them that the Christian life is more than comfortable huddle – it is a mission. Show them that friendships with other believers their age can exist and expand beyond the four walls of a particular building as they lock arms with others for the advancement of the gospel.
Scared/Inadequate/Unconfident
The final fear is that of being scared, feeling inadequate to be a part of something like this, or feeling unconfident in your spiritual maturity. To all three of those, let me say – you should be. I am. Church planting is the storming of the gates of hell. If that doesn’t scare you or make you feel inadequate or unconfident then there is something wrong with you. I’ve never done this before. Chances are you’ve never done this before. We’re in uncharted waters and Satan has drawn a target on our backs. That’s cause for fear. We have an enemy. His name is Satan and he loves to scare us. He loves to whisper inadequacies in our ear. He loves to play off of our lack of confidence and tell us that we’re not mature enough to storm his gates.
Planting a church is scary. We are inadequate. That’s the point. At the same time, Jesus speaks these words over us: “Behold I am with you always.” “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.”
If we’re setting out on a mission that we can accomplish on our own strength, then it probably isn’t that great of a mission. But that’s not what we’re setting out on. The mission we’re setting out on is doomed for failure unless the Holy Spirit shows up and quite frankly, I don’t want to be a part of a mission that doesn’t require his presence and power.
No one is fearless enough, no one is adequate enough, and no one is mature enough – save for the empowering presence of the Spirit and his gospel.
Conclusion
Obstacles abound when it comes to committing to really being a part of something that matters. Some of those are born out of fear, others are our own making, and still others are the whisperings of our enemy who loves to see us paralyzed by our fears, comforts, and feelings of inadequacy.
Commitment is a big thing. This is why we’re dedicating every Sunday morning in the month of May to the topic. Each week we are systematically stepping through what exactly we are calling people to commit to and what that looks like. At the end of May we will covenant together around these commitments as we charge forward to storm the gates of hell and plant this church in downtown Lincoln.
My prayer is that you would join us. That you would prayerfully lean and depend on Christ and overcome your fears. That you would jettison your comforts and stop listening to the whispers in your ear that hold you back.
On Commitment (Part 4)
Commitment is a word that brings up all sorts of thoughts, baggage, and preconceived notions. At our final Whiteboard Session (two Sundays ago now) we began to talk about commitment. I asked everyone to list the things that they are committed to. Someone said parenting, someone said work, one mentioned marriage, a wise-guy said student loans. There are lots of things that we are committed to in life. Ironically, no one said God. No one said Jesus. And no one said the Church.
Church Isn’t a Building
We live in a culture and a time that sees church as something that we should fit-into our already crazy busy life. It’s a periphery thing that hangs out there and if we’re able to fit that into the equation of life, then we’re a good person. AND if we’re able to mix in a small/home/life group, then we’re doubly awesome. We ask questions like, “Which church do you go to?” or “Where is your church?” Inherent in these questions is an underlying philosophy that says that church is a building that you go to or a service that you attend.
But church isn’t a building or a service that you “go to.” It’s a people. It’s an identity. It should be central to who we are as Christians. Rather than a periphery thing that we try to fit into our already packed-out life, church (as an identity) should be at the center – with everything else branching out of that. Note that this does not mean that all of your life should be spent “at the church.” Quite the contrary.
Rather than ask the question, “Which church to you go to?” we should ask, “Which church are you a part of.” Church is a body. The answer to “Where is your church?” should be “all over this city” (or at least as widely spread as the zip codes of those involved). People are not “at church” or “not at church” we “are the church.”
Church Isn’t a Grocery Store
If we slip into thinking of church as a building or a service, the danger is that we also slip into treating the church like a grocery store. When my wife and I buy groceries, we shop for the best products at the best prices in order to get the most bang for our buck and optimize our budget. We treat the church like a grocery store when sermons and worship music become bacon and eggs and programs and events become milk and cereal. We treat the church like a grocery store when we shop for the best items – where we can get the most bang for our buck and optimize our budget which is made up of the currency of time, effort, finances, and convenience.
Church Isn’t a Phone App
We live in a consumeristic culture that tells us we need the best phone with the best apps that will save us time, money, and energy simultaneous with making our life easier. The problem is that we often approach church with this same consumeristic attitude – looking for a church to “go to” on Sundays with a few extras that “fit into our already packed-out life.” One that doesn’t cost us too much money or energy and one that makes us feel good about ourselves.
But the church isn’t an iPhone app. It won’t save you time, money, energy, or make your life easier. Quite the opposite, in fact. Being a part of a church – really “being the church” will cost you time, money, and energy. It won’t make your life feel easier – it should make it more complicated because the church is a body. Being a part of the body means being a part of other people’s lives. And other people have problems – just like you. So take all of your problems and combine them with others’ and you can see that things complicate really quickly. But that’s the point.
Christ Loved the Church and Gave Himself up for Her
Galatians 6:2 tells us that we are to bear one another’s burdens. Bearing one another’s burdens does not come without a cost. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Taking up your cross requires laying down your life. Denying yourself. Not because Jesus demands it in order to be in right-standing before him, but rather because that’s exactly what he did for us. He laid down his life. Ephesians 5:25 reminds us that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Acts 20:28 reminds us that he “bought His church with His own blood.”
If we are Christ’s followers, we too will love the church that he gave himself up for. Jesus is all in. He’s fully and radically committed to the church. Are you?
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(picture via: motivatedphotos.com)
On Commitment (Part 3)
This past Sunday morning we began to embark on talking about what it looks like to commit to being a part of 2 Pillars Church. As a part of the message, I shared the Top 10 Reasons 2 Pillars Church Might Not be the Right Church for you. Here is the list:
- You’re not committed to radically following after Jesus.
- You want to avoid the influence of culture.
- You think that church is a safe haven for the building up of believers.
- You can’t agree with us theologically.
- You think that leadership is based on age, experience, or putting in your time.
- You are interested in outreach “events” and “programs.”
- You’re looking for the best preaching you can find so that you can be the most effectively “fed.”
- You don’t like messiness.
- You get tired of hearing about the gospel.
- You’re looking for a church to “go to.”
If any of the above are true for you, 2 Pillars might not be the right church for you. As you look to commit to being a part of a church, what do you look for?
