My Spiritual Journey

I’m a pastor’s kid, so my spiritual beginnings were doomed from the start.😉 In truth, I had a great spiritual upbringing. My parents were not the oppressive type, so I had the freedom to think, believe and explore my faith as I grew up. At age 8 I was led by my Sunday School teacher to follow Jesus. It was as genuine as a decision by an 8 year old can be. I was baptized a few years later at age 12. Again, a genuine decision, but it soon became clear that I didn’t totally understand the implications of those decisions.

As I moved into my teen years I gave into some of the cultural and peer pressures that were rampant in the 1980’s. I wasn’t a total rebel. I went to church, I was involved in our youth ministry, but I was living a double life, one person at school, another at church. This carried over into my early years at Anderson University. Living as the good, Church of God pastor’s kid most of the time, but also dipping my toe into the wilder side of college life occasionally. Nothing too extreme, but just enough to keep God at a safe distance.

Late in my college years and continuing into the early years of my marriage to Michelle, I began to draw a little closer to God and wrestle with a sense of calling. To what I didn’t exactly know. I didn’t want to be a pastor, I knew that life and it didn’t appeal to me. So I launched into 10 years of work as a social worker and probation officer. It was during these years that God began to soften my heart and strengthen my convictions about what it meant to actually help people become the people that they wanted to be and, more importantly, that God created them to be.

A key step for both Michelle and I was when we were invited to help launch a new church plant in Noblesville, IN: New Life Community Church. It was exhilarating to be on the leading edge of a brand new work that God was birthing. During these years my faith solidified, became my own and began to point me clearly toward a ministry calling. I was given the opportunity to lead, teach and serve in ways that were preparing me for the years ahead.

At a key time of listening and responding to God I was led to 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. These verses began to crystallize some of my convictions about ministry:

[16] So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! [18] All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [19] that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [20] We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. [21] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I now knew that whatever ministry I would be involved with would be driven by the ministry of reconciliation that God has called His people to carry out across this world. I spent the next 10 years as an Associate Pastor followed by 10 years as a Lead Pastor leading, teaching, calling and challenging the people I served to become ambassadors of reconciliation wherever they lived and worked.

God has been so faithful to me and my family. He has seen us through high and low times of pastoral ministry. He has led me to people and ministries that have expanded my understanding of “Church” and exposed me to the ministry of reconciliation in new and powerful ways.

My life verse is John 3:30 – He must become greater, I must become less. I have experienced this verse happening in me spiritually, emotionally, even physically. I have literally felt the stretching and changing that must happen in me if Jesus is to be seen more than me. A humbling but ultimately satisfying process that I am deeply grateful for.

The Church: A Perspective

Last weekend Michelle and I were in Asheville, NC for a Heart for Lebanon meeting. We extended the weekend and explored the area a little bit. Great weekend away.  Sunday we went to church with Tom & Chris Atema at a new church plant that Tom is doing some coaching with, One Focus Church. For the message they showed a video of Andy Stanley in his Brand: NEW series. As he always does, Andy's message challenged me and reignited some questions and wrestling matches I've had about "church" for many years. 

I've often told people that I question if the "institutional" church is even biblical. I don't think it is. I don't mean that it is sinful or wrong, just not the "church" as Jesus intended. He began an "Ecclesia"...a gathering or congregation of people who follow Him. The word "church" comes from a German word which means a building, structure or gathering PLACE, not people. 

The Old Testament covenant established the "temple model" of worship, sacrifice and relating to God. This model was built around keeping the 600+ laws God gave Moses. The best example would be that all believers (who were men) must be circumcised. When Jesus came He established a NEW covenant that did away with the temple model and fulfilled the requirements of the Law for those who put their faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection. However, in the immediate aftermath of Jesus' resurrection and ascension, Many Jewish Christians attempted to merge the temple model with New Covenant faith and theology. The Apostle Paul preached, wrote and taught against the merging of these two approaches to faith. He knew that faith in Jesus was to bring freedom, whereas the temple model approach brought bondage to the Law.

So here's the rub:  We are still attached to the temple model today. The Roman Catholic Church was largely responsible for bringing Christianity to the Western world and they had merged the temple model with faith in Jesus. So many realities of the institutional church today are aspects of the temple model of faith:  Needing to go to a place to meet with God / The establishment of many written and unwritten rules in order to be a part of the church / A mindset that I have to DO certain things often enough to prove that I actually believe (go to church, give money, don't sin, etc).

Listen to what the Apostle Paul said to the church in Galatia about this issue (read all of Galatians, chapter 5 for a much more detailed account of Paul's teaching on this subject)...  

Galatians 5:6 - For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Paul is saying that the requirements of the Law and the keeping of those rules holds no value anymore to those who follow Jesus!  He says that under the New Covenant that Jesus established, the ONLY THING that matters is "faith expressing itself through love"!  WOW!  No more rule-keeping - No more guilt - No more failure to keep the law - No more of anything except our faith in Jesus expressing itself through our love for God and for other people!! Jesus said that this was the greatest...and only...commandment!  Love God completely and love people authentically (the way you would want to be loved)! In this way, our faith brings freedom...not enslavement to rules! God says through Jesus, "I've got your back, I know you aren't perfect, stop worrying about it and love me as best you can and love others the way you want to be loved"!

So the "institutional church" is largely built on the temple model of a place and the keeping of laws and rules. That is NOT the Ecclesia that Jesus began. That group of people shared their faith, not as a program, but as a natural outflow of the freedom, forgiveness and new life they had experienced. The faith spread person to person and house to house organically. People saw how the early believers loved each other and wanted to be a part of them (Acts 2:42-47). 

So I'm still wrestling with how to lead as a Pastor under this reality. Lord lead me and reform your Ecclesia!

Sunday Mornings

In Psalm 73 a man named Asaph, a worship leader in the Old Testament Temple, said this, "But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold...until I entered the sanctuary of God". So often this is my Sunday morning experience, especially in the last couple of years.  

No matter what my successes or failures have been leading up to Sunday, it seems that when I intentionally come into God's presence with God's people with the motivation to worship Him, my spirit, my demeanor, my attitude often changes. I've always been grateful for this reality. But even more grateful in recent weeks and months.

The last 24 months have easily been the most challenging of my nearly 20 years of pastoral ministry.  Leading necessary change that some did not like (and so they left the church), dealing with and trying to resolve conflicts in marriages and between believers, attacks from the outside by people and by the enemy of our souls. There have been several times I was tempted to quit. Only through the power of God and the encouragement of friends and family have I been sustained.

So during a given week I'm dealing with all of these challenging things and then I come to Saturday night. I'm down, discouraged, I don't even want to think about having to get in front of people and preach, encourage, instruct and lead. Somehow I drag myself out of bed Sunday morning and make my way to the church. Just entering the building doesn't do it (our buildings are not the modern day Temple, if you didn't know). Just praying and studying my message notes doesn't do it. Going through all the pre-service preparation doesn't do it. Then, I walk in as the worship center is filling with people and something begins to change. 

You see, the Bible clearly says in the New Testament that WE are the Temple of God, the Holy Spirit lives in us! God's presence, which used to dwell in the OT Temple, now resides in each follower of Jesus! Listen to these words of the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:  "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple."

God is just as passionate and protective of His Temple now as He was thousands of years ago, but today that Temple is you and me!

So what is it that happens on Sunday morning that always seems to right my spirit and redirect my heart?  God's collective presence increases as all of these "temples" of God gather to worship Him! My soul is literally joined with many others who genuinely want to worship and celebrate our God, the One who lives in us!

So I'm grateful for Sunday morning. No matter what the week has been like, if I come with an open heart and a willing spirit, I will meet with God and His people. 

"But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold...until I entered the sanctuary of God". (Psalm 73:2; 17)

The Title of My Blog

Less is More

Over the last 20 years or so I've consistently said that my life verse is John 3:30 - He must become greater, I must become less. - I still find myself wrestling with what this verse means to me and why I resonate with it.  Here's some random thoughts:

• My name is John, the gospel is John, hmmm, interesting 😇
• When i was in elementary school my favorite time of the day was 3:30 because that's what time we got out of school each day!
• I'm not good at memorization and this is a short verse
• These words were spoken by...wait for it...a guy named "John" (the Baptist)
• Maybe I want people to think I'm both very spiritual and very humble (even if sometimes I'm neither)

More often than not, if pressed to give an answer to why I hold this as my life verse, I say something like this: "Because I know myself pretty well. I like for people to like me. I like getting positive attention. It just so happens that as a pastor, someone hands me a microphone once per week or so and for some reason people come, sit and listen. So I know that I could start thinking that this life, this world, my ministry, all of it revolves around me. But here's the thing, I know it doesn't. I know that everything revolves around the life, ministry and person of Jesus. I want my life, ministry, relationships and world to revolve around Him too. My default, human tendency is to make all of this about me. So I must intentionally and consistently make Jesus greater and me less as best I can."

Somehow God works out a human equation that says this:  "If you will love me with all that you are (make Him greater) and love others the way you would want to be loved (make myself less), I will make more of your life than you could possibly imagine!"

So in that heavenly equation:  Less is More 

So there you go. The title of my blog. 

January Teaching Series!

Beginning Sunday, January 8 @ 10:30 a.m.

One of Town Center Church's values says this: We value safe, healthy, authentic relationships. 

Anyone who has navigated family relationships, friendships, work relationships or church relationships knows this value is easier said than lived.

Jesus called us to engage our culture and world as He did. Whether we are doing it successfully or not, we can take steps forward and get better at producing safe, healthy and authentic relationships in our lives.

Join us beginning January 8 as we dig into several aspects of engaging others in safe, healthy and authentic ways. These are the RULES OF ENGAGEMENT.

Jan 8 - Engaging Others with Grace & Truth
Jan 15 - Boundaries: Where I End and Others Begin
Jan 22 - Social Media: Virtual -vs- Authentic
Jan 29 - A Healing Community

Join us each Sunday at 10:30 and learn to engage others well!

Christmas Teaching Series!

Beginning Sunday, December 4 @ 10:30 a.m.

Children love Christmas! It's easy to see why! Presents, family, great food, time off school. But there is another reason children love Christmas...it has some mystery and wonder about it. Lighted trees, decorated and shining! Houses and yards shimmering with the season! How does Santa Claus get down that chimney? Do reindeer really fly? Where did this stocking full of candy and fun come from? How did those presents get under the tree?

Above all else, children are reminded of the reason and purpose of the Christmas celebration. There's even more mysterry and wonder in this! A baby born in a manger. People seeing stars and hearing angels sing about this new-born baby. People traveling from afar to see this coming King. They can relate to a baby. They feel wonder, excitement and anticipation that this baby may have some impact on their lives.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. [9] An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. [10] But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ* the Lord. [12] This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”[13] Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,[14] “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:8-14)

All of this produces emotions and reactions that make Christmas through the eyes of a child something very special indeed!

Christmas is one of those times we long to be a child again. We know this isn't literally possible, but it is possible to see Christmas through their eyes! WE INVITE YOU TO DO JUST THAT THIS CHRISTMAS! Experience wonder, fun, hope and joy!

Merry Christmas from Town Center Church!

November Teaching Series!

Beginning Sunday, November 6 @ 10:30a

Jesus spoke these challenging and even ominous words in Matthew 7:13-14...

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Here is the reality:  We all must choose which gate, which road, which path we will walk through this life.  Hopefully we choose one that leads to eternal life!

But that choice is not a one time, one moment choice.

We choose our way each day with every small choice we make.  For example, will we choose...

Purpose or Comfort?
Trust or Control?
Commitment or Regret?
Important or Urgent?

Which of these would you choose?

Join us for this important series as we look at just a few of the choices we can make that lead to LIFE!

Jesus said that He came so that we could have life in all of its fullness!

Finish this sentence:  I choose...