Mar 2010
Archive

Secret Sauce

One of our staff members at Elevation used to work at Chic-fil-A. He claims to know the secret about how they make the chicken taste so delicious. He shared it with me. Interesting theory. Sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy.

People have asked me quite a few times over the past 4 years something like this:
What is the secret sauce that has helped Elevation to grow rapidly and make a big impact?

Obviously, the secret sauce is Jesus.
But that’s not what they’re asking. They’re looking to learn how Jesus through the Holy Spirit is working through us in a specific, tangible way.

Additionally, it always feels funny to try to explain what you’re doing right when you know there are so many areas where you want to do so much better.

With that said, I do think there’s a secret sauce that you would discover if you spent some time behind the scenes at Elevation Church. It’s something that I’ve seen God bless over and over again- not just in our church, but in churches, businesses, and families all over the world. And it has nothing to do with my preaching or the Sunday morning worship experience.

It’s the humility of the people on our team.

By humility, I don’t mean sheepishness.
When I say I’m inspired by the humility of our team, here’s what I mean:
They submit their pride and preferences to God’s plans and purposes, and deflect the glory to Jesus.

Our creative team has had to completely scratch a finished product that took them hundreds of hours to create because it wasn’t the best thing for the worship experience.

Our ushers have had to respond with kindness to angry parents who dropped F-bombs when they were asked to leave the auditorium with a crying baby so that people could hear the Gospel undistracted.

Our worship leaders have practiced and performed many songs they didn’t personally like with a great attitude and wholehearted effort because it best supported the message.

Our volunteer leaders have accepted hard correction about the way to lead their teams, made the adjustments, and come back the next week, even though they’re not paid to.

In the administrative department- I walked through and saw 7 people in Volunteer Headquarters pounding away on keyboards, entering first time guest data just moments before I wrote this. Very few people have any clue about the hard, tedious work they do. But that’s not why they do it.

And on and on.

Elevation team- thanks for serving up the good stuff with humility every week.

You’re the secret sauce that God uses to make this thing so special.

You are a covering

This post is specifically for leaders. Not just pastors- moms, dads, coaches, teachers, big brothers-if you lead anyone or anything, I’m talking to you.

My 4-year-old Elijah has had a little cough for the last week. Nothing serious at all. But of course, it’s waking him up a lot at night, his throat is starting to hurt, and now he’s not talking as much because his voice is so scratchy.

No parent likes to see their kids in pain- even when it’s a minor thing. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to watch your child suffer through a major illness. If you’ve experienced that, I’m very sorry. I would never want to come across like I’m comparing my son’s cold to a serious health issue. But I want to share something simple God showed me through something as ordinary as a run of the mill, spring cold.

Elijah came up to me on about day 4 of the cold, hugged my leg, and said (in a pretty pitiful tone of voice, incidentally): “Daddy, my throat just keeps hurting and hurting-did you go to throat school?”

(This is a Furtick family inside joke. When my kids complain about being hurt, I ask them where they hurt. If they say it’s their nose, I tell them not to worry, because Daddy went to nose school. Then I might wiggle their nose, maybe rub some lotion on it, blow on it, and otherwise treat the condition until they’re satisfied that it’s better. I also went to ear school, knee school, tummy school-you’d be surprised how thoroughly educated I am.)

So I performed some standard throat school techniques on Elijah, but then decided we should pray together. I mean, not that my throat school skills aren’t effective. It’s just that, I was kind of getting sick of seeing my son being sick. And something about how pitiful his eyes looked pushed me over the edge. So I told him we were going to pray about it. And we didn’t pray one of our typical: “Jesus, help me feel better” prayers. We got downright Pentecostal. I even got out my olive oil and commanded the sickness to leave my son’s body in Jesus’ name. I told Elijah to thank God for his healing, and taught him a scripture to recite when he feels really bad. I’m not sure how much he understood. And I’m not even sure where you line up on how to pray for the sick theologically.

But I know this: while I was praying the most forceful prayer I knew how to pray for my child to feel better, I realized how important it is that I take my position as the covering of my household seriously. The concept of a spiritual covering is a complicated, oft-abused, and somewhat obscure one for a lot of theological traditions, mine included. I’m not even sure I understand all of the implications. I do know this:

If God has made you a leader, He has empowered you to be a sort of spiritual covering for those you lead. Are you covering them with integrity? Prayer? A good example? Words of blessing?

Not just when they’re sick or in trouble-but are you covering their daily decisions? Are you covering them with affirmation? Wisdom?

It’s a humbling thing to realize God has placed you as a protective parameter over someone else. And you have to keep this concept in context, because obviously, each of us has an individual accountability before God, so we can’t internalize the failures of others as our own. And above all, we should never pervert this idea to serve our own purposes or manipulate others.

But you can’t get away from it- God calls those of us who are strong to defend the weak. Those of us in positions of authority are commanded to diligently watch over those who look to us for insight and help.

You are someone’s covering.

Make sure you’ve got them covered well.

Christian Atheist

Pastor Craig Groeschel is a great man of God and a good friend. God has used him to revolutionize my understanding of unity and the Kingdom of God. The team at LifeChurch.tv provides more resources and creates more opportunities for partnership in the Gospel than any church I’ve ever encountered.

A while back, Pastor Craig preached a powerful message series called Practical Atheist. He defined a practical atheist as someone who says he believes in God, but lives as if He doesn’t exist. One of the sermons gripped me so powerfully that I took an entire weekend at Elevation to broadcast the message to all of our campuses. The response was overwhelming.

When Pastor Craig told me that his next book, The Christian Atheist, would be based on this concept, I immediately started imagining the impact it could have on Christians and churches all over the world.

The book releases next Tuesday. Although Pastor Craig didn’t ask me to do this, I really felt I needed to take a day on my blog and help get the word out. Of course, I strongly encourage you to order a copy for you and your peeps. But I’d also recommend that you take this opportunity to expose as many people as possible to the challenge in creative ways. Here are a couple ideas.

-Show one or more of the messages from the series, Practical Atheist, in your church. Because of the incredible generosity of the LifeChurch.tv team, you’ll be able to download and show the messages free of charge. This is a tremendous blessing.
This link should take you right to the series: http://open.lifechurch.tv/series/3475
The sermon we used specifically was Week 2. They’re all fantastic.

-Buy a couple dozen, or a couple hundred books for key people in your church. Use it as small group curriculum. Give it as a gift to new Christians (would be especially helpful as Easter approaches.)

You know I don’t use this blog to advertise or promote stuff very often. But I believe when God has anointed a man and a message, we should all get behind it in any way we can. I really believe in Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv, and the truth in this book. Now go buy a bunch of copies.

Swagger Jackers

I don’t know where I originally heard the term swagger jacker. I don’t think it’s technically a theological designation. But I want to sanctify it for a minute and bring it over into a ministry context.

Have you ever faced any swagger jackers in your attempt to do God’s will?
I’m identifying a swagger jacker as anyone who tries to back you down from doing what you know God has told you to do. There are plenty of swagger jackers exposed in the pages of the Bible. They make a lot of noise. They inflict a lot of pain. But they simply can’t stop the purposes of God-if God’s servants stay focused on God’s will.

The swagger jackers laughed at Noah for building a boat to prepare for a flood before anyone had ever seen rain. They weren’t laughing on day 40 of the storm.
Joseph’s swagger jacker brothers threw him in a pit. But they couldn’t keep him from rising to a position of prominence in the palace-and ultimately saving their lives despite themselves.
Nehemiah faced swagger jackers like Sanballat. They insisted he halt the work of the Lord and come down off the wall. He stayed on the wall and finished the work.

And so on. You see the point.

I’ve seen too many men and women of God stripped of their courage by swagger jacking critics, haters, and generally negative or mediocre people.

Keep building your boat.
Stay faithful in the prison.
Remain on the wall.

Don’t concede your confidence in Christ. No one can take away your swagger if your swagger is rooted in Jesus-powered by grace-activated by faith.

Make the rules

I read a post by Seth Godin in 2005 about how smart companies make new rules. It was all about redefining markets and challenging the status quo.
I never forgot it.

It got me thinking about different approaches to the Christian life:
you can either keep the rules, break the rules, or make the rules.

Most people associate Christianity with keeping the rules. Don’t murder or commit adultery; do serve & give to the poor-etc.
Of course, God’s laws are perfect, and His principles should be honored.
But Christianity is so much more than a set of rules to keep.
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law. We live by grace, through faith.
When you try to be a rule keeping kind of Christian, you always come up short, and will probably eventually burn out. You’ll also miss the essence of the Gospel.

Some people opt to reject God’s Word altogether and break the rules.
We’ve all seen people who profess to be Christians drift off into rebellious, sinful, destructive behavior. Sometimes they even justify their loose living by claiming that they’re expressing their freedom in Christ. Of course, this is nonsense. How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Carnality is the worst form of bondage-and the furthest thing from freedom.

I believe Jesus came to make the rules. New rules. To upgrade our paradigms and renovate our hearts in His image. Jesus redefined religion. And those who follow Him should be a part of creating and exemplifying this new standard to the world.

Some people keep the rules.
Others end up breaking themselves against the rules.
True followers of Jesus make the rules-set the standard, and change the world.

If you’re in a spiritual funk today, you might want to…

-Pray out loud.
-Write your prayer out.
-Read your Bible out loud. Start here.
-Apologize to someone. Even if it’s not primarily your fault.
-Talk to someone you trust. If you don’t have someone, hire a professional.
-Rest.
-Exercise.
-Start eating better.
-Drive around listening to a sermon.
-Turn up some worship music really loud. Shut the door. Sing along.
-Go back and do the thing you know you were supposed to do.
-Get organized.
-Repent.
-Encourage somebody who would never expect it.
-Get back in church. Serve somewhere.
-Quit complaining.
-Go on a date with your wife.
-Tell somebody thank you.
-Give some money away.
-Call on the name of Jesus.
-Remember how far He’s brought you.
-Realize that He’ll never ever leave you.

Just a few ideas to get you started.

You can take it from here-


More & Better

Ephesians 3:20 is one of my all time favorite verses:
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine-

That’s a hot one right there. An astonishing promise. God can do so much more than what you’re expecting. His performance isn’t limited to the confines of your imagination. The implications of this statement are hard to believe-but simple to understand. It’s a straightforward fact:
The wildest dreams you can conceive don’t even compare to the endless power of God.

I must have quoted that verse hundreds of times. And every time I do, I kind of interpret it this way:
God wants to give me more of whatever I’m asking for.
If I ask for a certain level of provision, He can exceed what I need and give me even more provision.
If I ask for favor with a certain person, He can give me even more favor than I asked for with that person.

But I’ve learned that sometimes God doesn’t bless you with more of the thing you asked for.

Instead, He blesses you with something completely different. He rewards you with a different kind of currency. He switches the category altogether. Sometimes the way God exceeds our expectations isn’t by giving us more of what we think we need-He gives us something that He knows we need even more. Instead of repairing the thing that’s broken, He gives you brand new equipment.

In other words, sometimes the immeasurably more takes on a completely different form.

Instead of giving you the promotion at work, He gives you more opportunity to spend time with your family.
Instead of sending you a boyfriend, He sends you more opportunity to serve Him in your season of singleness.

Sometimes God gives you more of the same.
Sometimes He gives you something even better than that.

Be confident that whatever He gives you is the best option available.