I’m new to this preaching thing. Although I’m used to being in front of people prophesying the word, I am new to expository preaching or any kind of prepared teaching of the Bible. From experience, let me tell you, they are two different animals. When you prophesy, it is usually spontaneous, full of emotion, full of symbolism and prophetic language such at “soon, now, times and seasons”. It’s fun! You should ask the Lord to give you a word for someone sometime. However, preaching is still spirit-led, but prepared and somewhat structured. Something that someone might take some time to get used to for those of us who might feel more comfortable sharing our hearts. But here are a few tips for those of you reading who are new to preaching or might be preaching your first sermon in the near future:

-Prepare your outline, then cut 3/4ths of it out. I found my first sermon to be way too much content. I kinda over prepared what I was going to say. In your preparation you will find tons of new information, interesting insights and theological depths that you might be excited about, but your listener may not. Shrink it down….

-Whats the bottom line? Most people are not focused enough to handle a monologue sermon, especially if you’re not the most animated person. Get to the point. What is the practical take away you want people to leave with. Don’t dumb it down, just keep it simple.

-Relax. Breathe and speak to your brothers and sisters in Christ heart to heart as family. The more relaxed you’ll be, the better you’ll be able to communicate best what it is you feel is on God’s heart to share.

-Please, please, please do your research on the text. You might not have to share all the info you found, but be prepare to fill your knowledge base. A well spoken person is a well read person. You will both grow and your people will grow the more understanding and insight you have into the text you will preach from.

-Preach the gospel somewhere in your message. Always point to Christ. You never know who might be listening that is open to receiving an invitation to surrender their life to Jesus. Just because someone is coming to church, doesn’t make them born again.

-People love stories.

-Loose the theological terms and Christianese. If you do use them, do justice to explain what they mean. Not everyone went to seminary or Bible school.

-Use a watch. Honor people’s time.

-Really love the people you’re preaching to. Look into their eyes. Don’t be afraid to show emotion.

I’ve started my new job, so my blogging time has been cut in half. As a result, I’ll still continue to share on my blog, but they will be much more shorter. More like a random thought for the day or update as to whats on my mind lately. Hopefully you can join in the discussion by sharing your comments below. I love to hear comments and I will try to respond to them all.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot of prophetic ministry. Probably because I’ll be sharing in a workshop in a couple weeks (http://www.spirit4mission.com) on New Testament prophetic ministry. I put emphasis on New Testament because I think we must make a distinction between the authority given by God to an Old Testament prophet and the authority a New Testament prophet has. Both have authority in speaking the word of the Lord, but both do not have absolute authority in speaking the word of the Lord. Here is a great article discussing the subject and giving a evaluation of Wayne Grudem’s book The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, published in 1988. (http://www.gfcto.com/articles/theological-issues/grudems-view-of-nt-prophecy)

Many in the prophetic movement have erred on this point. I honor the many prophets in the past who have done hard labor to restore the prophetic office to the church, without them I wouldn’t even be having this discussion, but lets continue on in what we’ve already obtained. How many people have been hurt, abused or manipulated because of “Thus saith the Lord” when God really never said that absolutely? None the less, the New Testament prophet will speak authoritatively on the general content of what the word says. I think I speak for some prophets out there…”give us a break please and don’t stone us because we never claimed to have absolute authority in the first place!”

All we ask is that you listen to both the content of the word, and the fruit. Discernment is in place to guard us from false prophets, not immaturity or a prophet who has mixed his/her opinion when giving a prophecy. (who doesn’t?)

God is recalibrating and redefining prophetic ministry for this hour. Lets uphold truth and integrity when waving the prophetic banner, lets do away with the things that taint the prophetic ministry that cause the Body of Christ to distrust and robs them of the blessing prophets are to the church.

News, Updates, Developments…

Over the past few months we have been in a zone called “vision casting”. My wife and I have been dreaming, praying and discussing what the ministry of About A Burning Fire looks like in the months and years to come. There has been some exciting new developments, including new ministry opportunities and vision that is being ignited within our hearts. We are excited to share the details of what those things are as soon as we can develop further our ministry plan and a list of services that we will begin to extend out to the Body of Christ at large.

Sarah has begun training as a certified life coach. Sarah already has a supernatural ability to listen, counsel and speak into the lives of women ages 18-35. Her training as a life coach will only equip her further in this, placing valuable tools in her “mentoring toolbox”. In the coming months, we envision a new and exciting young women mentor program that ABF will sponsor.

I have been enjoying a season of growth and leadership development alongside the leadership team of Northside Church in Chicago. Along with preaching opportunities, my main area of growth has been in character and in my personality. We are awakening to the reality a new movement of organic, spirit-filled churches in development in the Chicagoland area. In May we will be hosting a missional conference called Spirit4Mission with some great speakers and workshops. I will be teaching a workshop on the “sending” aspect of prophetic ministry. I’m looking forward to the connections that will be made at this conference. My specific assignment is to come alongside church planters and church leaders to help them get to the next level. ABF will offer a more robust partnership with churches that includes small group leadership training, preaching support and one on one “encouragement boosts” for church planters and leaders.

I am most excited about the launch of a new church planters scholarship fund. We are working on structuring a program that will donate $1000 to church planters that have the desire to plant house churches, organic/simple style churches in the United States. These funds will can be used toward living expenses, ministry needs or outreach events. There will be an application process and will give us the opportunity to build relationships with church planters that don’t necessarily have the support resources to free up their time for the demands of launching a new church.

These are a just a taste of the new exploits we are moving towards. Please pray for us and reach out to us with your support because as anyone knows, we cannot do these things alone. We value those who currently partner with our ministry and look forward to connecting with those whom God sees fit in the future.

The Power of Apology

I watched this story on a latest episode of Kitchen Nightmares and found it profound to describe the power of an apology.

Denise Whiting is the owner of a trendy little restaurant called “Cafe Hon” in Baltimore, Maryland. Those who are local B-more citizens are very familiar with the slang term “hon”. Used in various forms of expressions such as “hey hon!”, “see ya later hon.” and so forth. However, Denise Whiting decided to take the ridiculous leap and trademark the word “hon”. Yes you read it right, TRADEMARK the locals favorite word. This caused a serious battle between one lady and a whole city which caused damage to many professional relationships and loss of serious business to her restaurant.

Interesting enough Denise couldn’t figure out why her restaurant was loosing business. She figured the food was great, the service was excellent and people found the Cafe Hon experience to be fun. In her mind, the trademark fiasco was being blown out of proportion and that she was the real victim. Unfortunately the rest of the city didn’t agree. When asked in a focus group what would restore trust with the community and bring back business to Cafe Hon, many of the B-more residents cited for Whiting to remove the trademark and apologize to the city of Baltimore.

After swallowing a lot of pride, Denise decided that it was time to face the music. She realized, after much convincing, that she, in fact, had offended a whole city by trademarking the staple word everyone loved using. She had also drove away business by sending out threat letters to anyone who attempted to use the word “hon” on clothing, signage or in website advertising. Live, on the local radio station, Denise issued a formal apology to the city of Baltimore and agreed to remove the trademark on a word that truly didn’t belong to her, but instead to the people of Baltimore. She also held a formal press conference to make sure that the news would spread and everyone knew that she was wrong and was determined to make necessary changes.

To see this apology in action was a profound picture to me of the power of apology. How unforgiveness can withhold an ocean of blessing from both the people holding the unforgivness and to those whom the forgiveness is towards. Our stubborn pride is the true culprit in situations like this. In Denise’s case, pride had manifested in its most ugliest form, repelling anyone who attempted to get near her.

Cafe Hon soon returned to business as usual. The city rejoiced over this decision and extended the olive branch of peace to Denise and her restaurant. Of course, reputation and trust needs to be rebuilt within the Baltimore community, but the stigma of resentment no longer holds Denise and her restaurant captive.

Who do you need to extend forgiveness to? Is there someone you need to apologize to and restore relationship with? Don’t let pride or unforgiveness hold back the waves of blessing that God wants to pour out to you.

John the Baptist was a great man of God. He was considered by Jesus to be the “greatest born among women.” (I think that’s a pretty high honor don’t you think!) He was also considered to be the last prophet of God under the Old Testament covenant of God, yet is mentioned as part of the New Testament. He said of himself that he was a “voice in the wilderness crying out “prepare the way of the Lord”. A prophets job has not changed. Prophets are to cry out and their message is always one of “prepare the way of the Lord”. They often are forerunners and see things way far ahead than anyone else might see them. The prophets greatest strength can be their greatest source of frustration, anxiety and irritation. Since they see far in advance, they can often get frustrated with the present and the “here and now”. When others don’t seem to see what they see, it can be tempting for prophets to lose hope and thus become heart sick.

Ultimately, one of the greatest prophets that ever lived ended up in prison. Mind you he wasn’t imprisoned for a crime, he was imprisoned unjustly. Here was a man of God, speaking out against unrighteousness and was ordered to be arrested, thrown in prison and set for execution. Jesus, the Lamb of God, Messiah, had just appeared on the scene. The one who would heal the blind, raise up the lame and set prisoners free had seemingly forgotten someone. Here is what Jesus tells some of John’s disciples when questioned in a moment of deep discouragement…

“John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who is not offended of me.” (Luke 7:18-23)

What Jesus was trying to do here was to help John to get his focus on what he wasn’t doing to what he was doing. Sometimes prophets can put too much attention on the future and what God WANTS to do, yet miss what he actually IS doing right here and now in the moment. In John’s case, he might have been wondering if Jesus was going to fulfill the rest of the Isaiah 53 prophecy by declaring freedom to the prisoners. Yet, Jesus doesn’t always do what we want, when we want. We must be patient and make sure our prophetic focus is on what the Spirit is saying and doing now in peoples lives. Keep your heart pure by remembering how good God is, what he’s done in the past and how if he did it before, he can do it again. Don’t let the enemy steal your hope, your joy and peace with which come your ability to hear God and receive revelation.

The Isolated Pastor: Pastors In Isolation

I was on the phone with pastor Fred. “Rusty I have to cancel our meeting today because I need to take care of an important issue.” “Oh really,” I stated over the phone, “what are you up to, is there anything I can do to help?” “Well, don’t tell anyone, but between you and me I need to go to the emergency room.” “What!” I exclaimed, “Pastor Fred what is going on! Please tell me.” “Well, I’ve been having some chest pains and I think I need to get it checked out, please don’t tell anyone I don’t want them to worry about me.” “I won’t pastor, but who is taking you to the emergency room?” “No one,” he told me.

Just recounting this story makes me sad inside. I took pastor Fred to the emergency room that day and sat in the waiting room, waiting for him until he came out. The good news is that pastor Fred checked out ok. He was simply under a lot of stress and needed to watch his diet and make sure he was exercising. But the surprising factor to me was that this pastor didn’t have anyone to confide in, no one to take him to the emergency room and didn’t want anyone else to know about what he was going through. This, I’m sure of it, is the same story for many pastors all over the world.

A recent survey said that 70% of ministers report they do not have one close friend to whom they can confide. Many pastors end up leaving the ministry because of feeling all alone. Many have a vision, but the congregation does not. Other times a pastor that has been in ministry a long time can lose his passion or vision relating to his calling over time.

Maybe you are a pastor reading this, I would like to encourage you with a few words. God has not called pastors do be isolated, alone or by themselves. God never designed the church to be under one man leadership, but instead led by a plurality of leaders. This is a healthy pattern of leadership shown to us in the scriptures. Having other brothers who you can confide in, pray with and take counsel from can defeat those feelings of isolation and loneliness in ministry. You might be in a position where you cannot make drastic changes to church government at this time, but I encourage you to find trustworthy, anointed leaders in your congregation and begin to spend time with them for your own sake. Remember to get rest, recreation and fun outside of spiritual matters and church related issues. Pastors are people too! God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your ministry and life.

If you are not a pastor, but a friend to one I would encourage you to become a supporter of your pastor. Cheer him on in his preaching. Write him a note or send a card telling him how he has impacted your life…and don’t forget to put a twenty dollar bill in there either! Instead of your pastor always checking up on you, why don’t you check up on your pastor? Pray with him, ask him about his family. Make sure that you pray for your leaders on a regular basis.

If you are a pastor, elder or church leader who could use some prayer, conversation or someone to bounce ideas off of, I would love to give you my ear and offer up words of encouragement and fresh insight. Sometimes all you need is a word from God that will propel you forward to continue. One word from God can totally revamp and change your life forever as it has mine. Contact us by phone, Skype or Facebook.

Celebrity Faith, Whitney Houston, Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin

Over the weekend some of us tuned into the funeral service of one of music’s greatest modern icons, Whitney Houston. I remember Whitney Houston for her amazing singing voice. Who could forget those awkward stages of growing up in the 80′s and 90′s? Our junior high dances would include songs like “How Will I Know”, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and the famous “I Will Always Love You.” Somehow Whitney and her music made it all fun, smooth and entertaining. But, according to the news media this past weekend, there seemed to be a side of Whitney Houston that most of us never saw, her faith.

In contrast, we’ve had several athletes in the news recently expressing a boldness of witness to their faith in Jesus Christ, even going beyond the profession of faith in God. We see them praying, preaching and giving glory to God for their talents and achievements. Guys like the infamous Tebow and more recently basketball star, Jeremy Lin.

I have to admit in my opinion there is something ummm…say shallow, about celebrities professing their faith. I kind of classify them in the same category of politicians who share their faith. Being in the public eye is no easy thing. Lots of things get lost when you become a celebrity. Privacy is lost, you can’t walk around like a normal person anymore because people recognize you and not to mention your life is put under a media microscope. So why anyone would WANT to become a celebrity is a mystery. I suppose the fame, money and attention outweighs the importance of family, close knit relationships and simple living.

The reality of celebrity status is that there is no way for us in the public to truly evaluate the genuineness of a megastar’s walk with Christ. Similar to listening to a politician make promise after promise in order to gain a popular vote. There is no way to know if that politician really means what he or she says. We can just evaluate the track record and see what the person has done over time. I don’t doubt the sincerity of anyone who professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. After all, who am I to judge what is really inside a person’s heart. However, we can, and are called to, judge a tree by its fruit. A celebrity who professes to be a follower of Jesus should simply, sincerely, act like one. That’s all we ask. I think that’s all anyone asks. The world is looking for Christians to own up to being hopeless, broken sinners who have found abundant life in giving up success in exchange for the person who defines success..Jesus. The world doesn’t care about your profession of Christ, I believe they genuinely want to see a REAL follower. Someone who tries to live just like the only one in this world worth living for.

What are your thoughts on celebrities who express their faith? Are you inspired? Do you question their sincerity? I welcome your comments below.

Church Impossible

If your church was failing, struggling or dead would you reach out for help?

Maybe your church is exploding with growth. Maybe your church is successful in winning souls to Christ, discipling them, raising them up and sending them out to plant new churches in unreached areas. Maybe the power and presence of God is charging the atmosphere of your meetings to the extent that revival is about to break out into the streets. Maybe you’re all good….

For the rest, 80% of American churches are either struggling or dying according to Ed Stezer, professor of research and missional ministry at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Check out this little chart I put together to give us a visual of the reality of church growth in America:

My wife and I watch a tv show on the Food Network called Restaurant Impossible. Top notch chef, Robert Irvine, takes on the almost impossible challenge of turning a failing restaurant into a fresh start, revitalized operation within 2 days and with a budget of only 10,000 dollars. These restaurants are in deep trouble. Usually upon arrival he uncovers problem after problem ranging from poor service, dirty, dingy appearances to horrible food and poor management skills. The thing that amazes me the most is what he is able to accomplish with a Restaurant owner who is humble enough to recognize his dream is failing and desperately needs help otherwise he or she will be shutting its doors and putting a “closed” sign up for good.

With the staggering statistics of churches we have been exposed to over the past decade, it is no secret that many churches in America are simply either stagnant, in decline or failing. The parallels to Restaurant Impossible and churches is brilliant. Often times pastors and church leaders are blinded to see the reality of a failing church right before there eyes until it is too late. This is a result of either stubbornness, overly optimistic attitude or a sense of hopelessness or prevailing discouragement. Some churches point blank refuse to adopt change.

Sometimes it is helpful to have an outside ministry bring a perspective to help struggling churches. A prophetic voice or apostolic team can be a saving grace to inject life, help with planning and administer constructive energy to help build and strengthen the local church’s mission. Its good to have access to a person like Robert Irvine, who can see potential issues that could be blocking the life flow of a church or plainly speaking, causing its demise. Robert doesn’t accomplish this alone. He usually brings in his design team to help transform the restaurant into a whole new, fresh looking, and productive operation.

If you’re a pastor reading this, my question to you is if your church was struggling, would you reach out for help? Could you take the time to begin to build the necessary relationships with the Robert Irvines and ministries that would be a refreshment to you and your congregation?

Our hearts desire is to see struggling churches come alive with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Many churches do not tap into the insight and anointing that comes along with the grace and gift of the prophetic ministry. I’m not talking about weird prophecies or emotional hype. I’m referring to true insight and foresight that can literally transform a failing church by the grace of God for those who are open to it. Consider contacting us if you are in need of encouragement, prayer or simply would like to pour out your concerns to an outside ear that can offer a word of encouragement to you or your congregation. One word from God can change your life forever. It has with me, it can happen for you.

Bishop Eddie Long, Ralph Messer Another “What D. Heck” Moment…

I’ll admin, the Holy Spirit has asked me to do some seemingly weird things before. I have no doubt in my mind that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So, one should expect that at some point, God will ask you to do things that go beyond logic or that might even go beyond our natural reason. After all we serve a supernatural God, so the supernatural should be an everyday experience in the life of a Christian. However, what happened at New Birth Church in Atlanta this past week was neither supernatural nor logical.

For the 16 people in the world that have not seen the video you can view it here. In it, you will see a Denver minister (I hesitate to even call him that, much less a “rabbi”. According to several news stories I’ve read he has admitted to not being a formally ordained rabbi.) named Ralph Messer walking through a supposed Hebrew king coronation ceremony in which he demonstrates the “crowning of the king” using Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth. The video gets most ridiculous when they proceed to lift up Eddie Long (accused sex offender, embezzlement of church money and who’s wife has threatened him with divorce because of his shenanigans) on a chair and parade him around the stage announcing him as king. Don’t take my word, look at the video for yourself.

Now, I have heard sermons being taken out of context before. Preachers have been accused of heresy in the past because of one line or two taken out of a sermon they preached. Good intentions or not, this so called demonstration was at best bad judgement, at worst a mockery to the Jewish people and Christians alike. There is enough footage in the video to see for ourselves that this ceremony was not taken out of context, but an actual acting out of what Eddie Long and some other pastors believe about themselves all along. Eddie Long just had the audacity and boldness to say and do it.

In his letter warning the church of false teachers Jude writes:

“These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” (Jude 1:16)

Now before you accuse me of being a faultfinder, let me clarify. I do not include pointing out false teaching and heresy in the same category as faultfinding. Scripture clearly commands us to point out false teachers, expose them and their teaching. (See my latest post on “Why doctrine matters“) We shouldn’t tolerate false teaching, ignore people like this nor sweep these issues under the rug. We have done this for far too long and its time we begin to defend the faith and put an end to this behavior that is harming the reputation of the church and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. As if we didn’t have enough obstacles to our preaching…

The truth is that silliness like this goes unchecked because of the forum its being brought in. As Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine wisely stated in his recent article on the subject, we must begin to guard our pulpits. Teaching in the church is a great responsibility, especially since it is being done in a public forum. Churches like Long’s have no apparent accountability to stop heresy from going forth from the pulpit. The large, mega church context makes it even more difficult for a member of the church to either ask questions about the teaching or put a stop to it all together should it become off based. Its even more of a sham when the churches own elders and leaders allow these people to have the floor.

So what are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel that churches today care more about entertaining their audiences than instructing them in the truth? How do you feel we should respond to public mishaps like Eddie Long and others who receive such wide spread negative media? How can we help pastors and leaders to hold to sound teaching and not associate with false teachers that seem to be running rampant in American Christianity? Share your comments below in our comment section.

The Dangers of Preaching Cheap Grace

“Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. ‘All for sin could not atone.’ Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin….”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I just got back from a Christian concert on Thursday night. Needless to say there were many interesting aspects of the concert that I could blog about, but being the type of person who just can’t sit back and enjoy something without anyalizing the deeper meaning, I eventually found myself being stirred up by a particular band that had both great music and a great message. I don’t want to name the band to prevent us from getting off topic, but the lead singer spent quite a bit of time preaching a “come as you are” message to the thousand plus teenagers in attendance. Now mind you, he is not a theologian, nor did he use any text of Scripture to make his point. He simply labored the point…”the decisions you make do not amount to who you are”. I didn’t know whether to cheer or to speak up, to be happy that teenagers were being welcome to acceptance by God or to be angry that the message was left open ended. (“you’re decisions or how you live doesn’t matter to God, just stay screwed up like you are.”) I began to realize that this was an issue of defining what the grace of God is. In a culture which dares not put any obligation on followers of Jesus and talk of sin, discipleship and responsibility is considered “intolerant,” I think we need to be clear what true grace is and what true grace is not. Here are some thoughts on the subject:

1. True grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and lust.
Titus 2:11 was a bible verse I learned early on in my Christian walk and memorized. It explains that the grace of God has appeared to all men, teaching us to say no to ungodliness and worldly lust. God’s grace toward us should spur us on to live more righteous before him. I always compare it to being rescued from drowning. If I was brought back to life through CPR, I would be endebted to that person for bringing me back to life. So should we want to live for Christ, because he breathed the breath of life and restored to us our relationship with God.

2. True grace is not a license to live however way you want.

Rom. 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

The grace of God is not a license to sin. I know this is a no brainer for some, but it seems like when grace is preached we tend to only emphasize the free gift part of grace. We have to remember to teach people that living in the grace of God also includes reckoning ourselves dead to sin and turning away from those things that hinder our relationship with God. A dead person has no choice and a person that is dead to sin has no response to it either.

3. Cheap grace enables Christians to continue to live unchanged, unholy and ignorant to the reality of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
When we preach grace without any obligation toward repentance, conviction or holiness we don’t help those to whom we preach. Christ didn’t just die so that we would continue on in our sins and being slaves to sin. No, Christ and the power of the Resurrection has friend us from death and the power of sin over us. We must begin to preach the message of grace that tells us that since Christ has given us such a precious free gift, it will cost us nothing but our life. We should expect that professing Christians be different in lifestyle from those who are not. Not because of a “works” based system of religion, but because of a outward manifestation of what’s happened to a new heart.

4. True grace empowers the believer to live a new life in Christ.
Lastly, true grace is considered a gift of empowerment. Empowerment to a person who was once dead in their sins toward God, but now has been made alive through Christ Jesus. Grace enables us to get rid of the “checklist” of good works, trying to earn our favor with God. True grace empowers us with unmerited favor, favor we did not deserve or earn, but that has been bestowed upon us by a loving God. This gives us favor, access and privilege beyond what we comprehend.

When you think about the effects of grace it really is mind blowing. And it should be! God’s gift of righteousness now found in us through Christ Jesus is a profound life changer. Those that have truly encountered grace in your face, will look different, smell different and act different from those that haven’t. What are your thoughts? Comment below….