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18-Nov-2010

Posted by : David

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Apostle Fight

Category : Leadership, church

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Galatians is Honest

In chapter 2 Paul recounts the time he had to rebuke Peter and Barnabus in front of everybody at the church in Antioch.  This episode is important for a number of reasons:

1.  No apostle is greater than the gospel. Christianity does not elevate its human leaders to demi-gods who can make God’s teachings whatever they want to be.  They can not change the gospel without great consequence — just like everyone else.

2.  Just because Peter validated Paul’s gospel (spoke about earlier in chapter 2) that doesn’t mean Paul couldn’t stand up to him when he saw something wrong.

3.  Peter and Barnabus’ sin was not just elitist and racist (it was).  More importantly, it fell short of the gospel.  Paul easily could have yelled at these two and said, “Don’t you know your being a religious bigot?”  Rather, he said, “Your conduct is not in step with the truth of the gospel.” Their separation rejected the fact that God had brought Jews and non-Jews together by his death and resurrection.

4.  “Discipleship” is a convenient excuse to look down on other people. Peter and Barnabus clearly thought they were being better disciples of Jesus because they were MORE committed, not less.  They combined faith in Jesus with Jewish ritual purity.  Now Christians separate themselves and look down on other churches because they are not as “discipled” (read committed)as they are.

5.  Lastly the  content of EVERY rebuke should not say, “you broke a rule!” Rather, every admonition should identify where the gospel has been transgressed and it’s glaring hypocrisy.  (See point 3)

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15-Nov-2010

Posted by : David

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Certain Men Came From MacArthur

Category : Leadership, christian culture, church

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Blame James?

In his letter to the Galatian churches (modern Turkey) Paul recounts how certain men came from James to the church in Antioch and led Peter and Barnabas astray (head leaders of the new Christian movement).  But was James the one to blame?

James was (sort of) the chairman of the elders at Jerusalem.  He wrote the letter that tells us that faith without works is dead.  Under his leadership some men got riled up about non-Jews and their obedience to Jewish rules.  Yet, these “certain men from James” misrepresented the Christian faith in spite of James, not because of him.

Under-Cutting Good

And this is often the case with strong leaders.  Their followers, enamored with their leader’s teaching, end up under-cutting the leader’s good intention.  They think their faith is based on Christ, but really they are not looking to the Bible, but what their teacher says, or what they think their teacher would say.

The Current Epidemic

And this is epidemic in the church today, especially among those who say their care most about the truth of Bible.

I have benefited greatly from the teaching of John MacArthur.  I listened to his radio program in college when I traveled 30 minutes to work.  His book, The Gospel According to Jesus, was very helpful to me.  But whenever I run into people who like MacArthur, I usually want to run the other way.  I have experienced many of them to be narrow, petty, and mean towards people who disagree with them.

But it’s not MacArthur’s fault.  This has been happening for centuries: “Each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:13).  Now men, thinking they follow Jesus, are functionally saying, “I follow MacArthur, I follow Piper, I follow Driscoll, I follow Bell, I follow Stanley, I follow Keller, etc..”

Pay the Price | Be Aware

This is one of the prices of leadership: even the people that love us most can do our teaching the most harm.  But leaders must be aware of this dynamic and, like Paul to the Corinthians, squash the factions that come from our influence.

Because in this world, even when we do good, evil is right there with us.

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03-Nov-2010

Posted by : David

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Planters and Plumbers

Category : Leadership, church

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I Started My Church Like A Plumber Starts A Business

When a plumber goes to work for himself the whole business is built around his expertise.  He might be a great plumber, but he probably won’t be a great at billing, scheduling, payroll, hiring, etc.

His business can be enough for him to make his own living, but there certainly won’t be anything remarkable about the BUSINESS.  He may be a remarkable plumber, but the business will never really become much more than a little organization built around his expertise.

The Hub Of Our Churches

Most guys now, including me, are starting churches around their skill and passion.  Their church thrives on their ability to skillfully do their work.

When people ask us why we are planting a church, we will probably say something about lost people or something, but what we really mean is we want to put our skills to the test to reach people. Nothing is wrong with this because men should seek out an avenue to use their skill, and if they can’t do it in an established church then, by all means, start a new one.

But that leaves lots of pitfalls.  Many of us are discovering that our skill can only get us so far. Some self-employed pastors make it farther than others in their church start, but ultimately the church will plateau.  It’s just a matter of when, not if.

But maybe a guy like me who started a church and organized it around my gifting can find a new way.  Maybe my skill and expertise don’t have to be the hub anymore.  Of course, I don’t think I made my gifting the hub intentionally, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do it.

The New Way

And the new way is to make the need of a certain group of people in your area the hub of your church.  Your church should thrive or die on everyone’s ability to meet that need.  And if everyone is involved, and meeting that need better than anyone else, then the results are incredible.

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27-Oct-2010

Posted by : David

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You Can’t Please Everyone

Category : Leadership

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Bill Cosby once quipped, “I don’t know the secret to success, but the secret to failure is to try to please everybody.” One of my blind spots is that I have tried to be bold and beige.  Oops.

Knowing that you can’t please everybody takes guts.  You will incur the wrath of the people who you are not trying to reach.  Here is a big reason:

Everybody has a belief system that they know to be correct and that everyone else should follow. It’s nonsense to think that you are impartial and unbiased.  Thinking impartiality exists is itself a belief system that you think other people should subscribe to.  We are much more committed to our cultural assumptions then we think.

Take for instance Willowcreek Community Church near Chicago.  They challenged the assumption that church was for church people and Sunday services were for worship. They pioneered their time on the weekend to reach people far from God.  They have reached alot of people.  They have made alot of people mad.

There is a church in my town that has grown rapidly because they are decidedly Calvinistic; they don’t pretend they are someone they are not.  They love John MacArthur, John Piper, and dislike seeker churches.  They have challenged the assumption that a church has to be atheological in order to be vibrant. They make a certain group of people happy.  They make a certain group mad.

Who is right?  I’ll leave that for you to decide.  But what is true is that both churches, because of their focus, necessarily exclude others.  Is that okay?  I hope I am learning to be courageous enough to ask, “Who would I like to reach?  If I reach these people who does that exclude? Am I ready to incure their judgment?”

Do something bold, not beige, but, remember to count the cost.

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21-Oct-2010

Posted by : David

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If I Could Go Back

Category : Leadership

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Advice From The Future

I have been in full-time, vocational ministry for almost a decade.  If I could go back 10 years and give one piece of advice to my 22- year-old self here is what I would say:

Never seek the approval of religious people.

A religious person is almost impossible to please.  They are motivated by correctness; being right.  For a religious person, wrongness (as they perceive it) is dangerous.  If love covers a multitude of sins, then fear will look for any transgression.

They feel incredibly righteous when they blindly harm you.  Since you are the problem they must reject you, or belittle you.  You are the bad guy and they are good.  They congratulate themselves on how well they have behaved, all the while they are trying to make you pay for your failure, whether by fighting or withdrawing. They are unmerciful, because mercy is not their concern — purity is — and they think God has tapped them to call fouls as to what is pure and not pure.

They love those who love them, approve of those with whom they agree.  They can not listen, they can only evaluate.  Judgment is on their tongues, planks cover their eyes. Outwardly they are put together, but inwardly they rage. Lost people can stay lost; the found need a better church.

Why Seek This Approval?

Why would I seek the approval of these people?  Because I was one of them.  I wanted to be a Pharisee of Pharisees.  I wanted religious people to see and celebrate my zeal for God, my knowledge of the Bible, my purity, the way God had gifted me.  I wanted to be seen as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

But God, mercifully, showed me grave error.  My righteousness was the problem, my goodness a filthy rag.  Love is now the driving ethic, not purity — because it was love that put a pure man on the cross for the filthy — stained by sin and a damnable goodness.

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27-Sep-2010

Posted by : David

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Fully Realized

Category : Leadership, perseverance

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In the book, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis says it is not the good marriages that best show Christ’s love, but the bad ones.

A husband that has a quarrelsome wife, but bears with her, forgives her, and lays his life down for her is a better picture than a husband who has a wife who is easy to love.  A wife that respects a man who is irresponsible and ego-centric is a better picture of the love of Jesus than living with a man who has earned a good reputation.

He says this because that is exactly the kind of relationship that Jesus is in with us. We are constantly wandering, sinning, turning back to our will and ways.  But he lays his life down, bears with our sin, forgives us, and gently leads us his way.

——————-

Does this also apply to areas outside of marriage?  Does this apply to our jobs that we don’t like?  To ministries that aren’t bearing alot of visible fruit?  To our relationship with our children that grow more distant by the day?

Certainly this is not an excuse for selfish behavior, lazy work, and bad parenting.  But what if the love of God is more fully realized in your tough work environment than your friend’s, who seems to have a Midas touch?

Paul writes that his ministry was a constant death (2 Corinthians 4).  He said that people looked at him and cringed (Romans 8:36).  Others gloated over him when he was in jail and called him unimpressive (Philippians 1).

Maybe the frustration you are experiencing is the frustration of a farmer that is breaking up hard soil so when the seed is planted later there will be an abundant harvest.  And maybe the work of Christ is fully realized in your daily dying, not your constant success.

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09-Sep-2010

Posted by : David

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How Can Pastors Respond When People Leave the Church They Lead?

Category : Leadership, church

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The Break Up Process from David Paul Dorr on Vimeo.

For the blog post on this subject click here

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02-Sep-2010

Posted by : David

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The Art of Work

Category : Leadership

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paintingRecently I have been reading a couple books on how people are redefining work that has helped me tremendously as pastor.  Their main thesis is this:

Approach work like an artist.

Essentially this means that work should be approached with a sense of freedom, creativity, and mastery.

Freedom

Pastors generally enjoy a great deal of freedom in their schedule.  But for many of us this can lead to a great deal of confusion.  Having too many options can lead to paralysis.

But an artist approaches freedom, not as something to indulge, but as a way to feed the creative process.   They have the end in mind.  A painter is not always painting, a writer not always writing, but they always have their canvas or manuscript in mind in everything they do.

Creativity

What is creativity?  It is first a way of seeing; then uniquely delivering the content of what you see.  It is a pastoral priority to be aware.  We have to be aware of God and aware of the people in your context.  This is not a task — it is a lifestyle, a way of being.  Creativity requires open eyes and open ears — that is what an artist knows.

Mastery

The artist is obsessed with mastery.  The can never have the perfect manuscript, the perfect canvas, the perfect song.  But they are driven to get as close as possible.  The pastor will never have the perfect sermon, or perfect obedience from their people.  In their work, second only to Christ, mastery is their ambition.  “How can I be more clear, more fervent?”  “How can I connect better?” “How can I spur this body of people on towards love and good deeds?”

For too long I have not thought of pastors fundamentally as creators.  But pastors are artists;  artists with God’s word, and their magnum opus is their people.

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16-Aug-2010

Posted by : David

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Projection

Category : Leadership

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Do you remember the old slide projectors? They basically have light that shines through a negative, that gets focused by a lens that projects onto a screen.

If you lead an organization or want to lead an organization you must not only be the lens. Because people will want to you to focus their picture of what the organization should look like. They have the light (their motivation) and the negative (their picture of what the organization should be), but the leader has to bring their picture into focus. But if you don’t bring their picture of the organization into focus, then great trouble ensues.

This has been happening in the church from the beginning. Many “insiders” in the new churches wanted people to believe in Jesus and also follow Jewish customs. But the Apostles went to great pains to squash this. Following Jesus didn’t mean trusting Christ and being Jewish. Following Jesus was trusting Christ, period.

Leaders are marked by God to give “the negative,” and the body of believers, with the leaders, act as the lens so the picture of God’s mission for the local church can be clearly seen. And the leaders must protect the local church from anyone changing “the negative.” If “the picture of what should be” is up for grabs then chaos and confusion reign.

This is not to say that changes can’t be made; if the picture is always blurry then the negative might be out of focus.  But if there is sharp focus at times, but not other times, then the processes and people needs to be refocused.  And a clear presentation from the local church is absolutely essential; because the two most precious things in all the world are at stake: the glory of God and eternal joy of humanity.

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11-Aug-2010

Posted by : David

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Why Men Stay Pastors

Category : Leadership, church

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Yesterday I wrote (somewhat cynically) about why men become pastors. Alot of us become pastors for less than holy reasons. But the main question pastors need to ask is, “Why should I stay a pastor?”

When you start dating someone usually you don’t say, “I really like her because of what I can be for her.” No, we usually like the qualities about the other person that directly benefit us.

But when you get married you are making a commitment to do what is best for your spouse, for the rest of your life. You are not making a commitment to “the marriage,” you are making a commitment to do good to the other person, “as long as you both shall live.”

This must be the approach of the pastor as well. Maybe we got into ministry because of what it could be for us. Eventually, though, we need to make a commitment to ministry because of what it is — a commitment to the good of the congregation no matter what.

Pastoring a local church is like a marriage. We aren’t joined with perfect people — and they don’t have a perfect pastor — but when we are committed to each other a great beauty unfolds.

Does this not reflect Jesus commitment to his bride? Jesus’ commitment to his church was costly.  Giving eternal life to all those who trust in Him required Jesus to lay down his own interests and to take up ours.  And Jesus still suffers today for the good of the world; now through his followers.  And Jesus is calling to his leaders to forsake cohabitation with the church — commitment as long as the church meets their needs — and move on to covenant — a commitment to do what is best for the church “as long as you both shall live.”

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