Are the Heathen Lost? By Dr. D. James Kennedy

October 15, 2014

Are the Heathen Lost?
By Dr. D. James Kennedy

The information on “Are the Heathen Lost?” is from pages 163 – 166 in the 4th edition textbook called Evangelism Explosion by Dr. D. James Kennedy which is part of Evangelism Explosion International’s comprehensive training for personal witness. You can find out more about EE by visiting their website at www.eeinternational.org. All rights reserved including translations. Content used by permission.

…The problem revolves around the question: “Would God send the heathen to hell simply for not believing in a Christ they never heard of?”

The answer to the question stated in this form is no. This is not to say that they will not go to hell, but it is to say that this is not the reason. Too often the person asking the question assumes that the heathen living in primitive lands are innocent. They may be ignorant of Christ, but they are not innocent, for the Bible teaches that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God….There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:23, 10). And “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

They are indeed lost and on their way to eternal perdition, which, or course, is a basic motive for the entire Christian missionary enterprise. The argumentum ad absurdum (argument to absurdity) is applicable here. If everyone who did not hear of Christ went to heaven, then I have a far more effective plan for world evangelization than any heretofore devised. Simply close all the churches, fire all the ministers, burn all the Bibles and all other religious literature, and in a few generations no one will have heard of Christ, and everyone will go to heaven! Obviously, this is absurd.

Instead of moving into the future, the same argument can be used about the past. And if we go back to the day before Christ died, practically no one had heard of Him, and therefore everyone was on his way to heaven. Therefore, Jesus came into the world and succeeded in getting a great many millions of people lost. This, too, is an absurdity. Christ did not come to condemn, but to save those who were already condemned. Men are condemned for only one thing—their sins. To hear of Christ and to reject Him is indeed the most heinous sin a man can commit, but it is, nevertheless, only one of thousands of sins which he has committed.

The fallacy of the argument rests in this: No one is truly ignorant of God or of God’s will for his life. The Scripture declares that God has mercifully revealed Himself to all men in at least one of the following three ways (see accompanying illustration):

All men receive either justice or mercy. If they receive Christ, they receive mercy. If not, they receive justice. Justice means that men get precisely what they deserve in light of what they have done based on what they know. God will be unjust with no one.

1. The light of creation.
God has revealed Himself to all mankind in the light of His creation. The psalmist said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3). The apostle Paul said, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). Thus, we see that the creation of the cosmos bears eloquent testimony to the existence of a Creator, as can be seen by the fact that everywhere, even among the most primitive of tribes, there is found a belief in a god. The only exception to this is in modern times where, by sophisticated and ungodly evolutionary arguments, men have been taught to pervert the truth and their eyes are blinded to the obvious. “They suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

2. The light of conscience.
God has placed within each one of us a moral monitor that continually passes judgment upon the rightness or wrongness of our deeds, words, and thoughts. The apostle Paul describes this thusly: “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel” (Romans 2:15-16).

By repeatedly ignoring the still, small voice of conscience, a man’s heart may be hardened in sin and his conscience seared as with a hot iron, but he is nevertheless guilty for each of these acts of sin that brought him into that condition.

That man has such a conscience and is not altogether devoid of a sense of right and wrong, and thus cannot plead ignorance at the Judgment, is witnessed by two obvious facts:

A. Everywhere, throughout the world, men condemn one another for doing wrong and thus remove any possibility of saying at the Judgment, “I did not know it was wrong.” The apostle Paul speaks eloquently of this: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:1-3).

B. Everywhere, men commit sins under the cover of darkness. They may not be so hardened as to commit cannibalism at lunch, but they steal chickens at night.

3. The light of Christ.
As I said earlier, there is another way in which we can come to the knowledge of God. He has come from where He is to where we are, and He has condescended to give us knowledge of Himself, His purposes, and His will for us. The Christian church has held that God did reveal Himself preeminently in His Son. So now the question is not what either of us thinks; rather, the question is, “What has God said in the Bible and through His Son, Jesus Christ?”

4. Those who seek will find God.
God has obligated himself when anyone responds positively to what little information about God they possess to give them the rest of the information they need for salvation. In Acts 8:26-31, an Ethiopian eunuch sought to know more about God, and God sent Philip to give him the rest of the information needed. In Acts 10:1-6, a Gentile named Cornelius exhibited a heart after God, and God sent Peter to tell him what he needed to know to be saved. Missionaries report many similar instances today.

5. Old Testament people were saved on the same basis as those in the New Testament.
When someone asks how people in the Old Testament were saved without hearing about Christ, we reply that they, too, needed to acknowledge their sin. They recognized their need for a Savior by offering a substitute sacrifice which pointed to a future Messiah. They looked forward in faith to the Savior, while we look back in faith to the same Savior who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and rose from the grave to provide a place in heaven for us.

6. God will not hold accountable those with no capacity to seek him.
People unable to consciously choose Christ, like babies or those born with brain damage, will not be held accountable for not trusting Christ. Revelation 5:9 states that there will be people from every language group in heaven. Certainly many of those will be those who died not having the capacity to believe or reject Christ.

7. God holds Christians responsible to proclaim the Gospel in all the world.
Christ ordains that those who have not heard must hear, and that the Gospel be proclaimed in every land, nation, tribe, and tongue—to every living person. If the church took this mandate seriously, we wouldn’t have to deal with the question of the heathen being lost because they have not heard. Furthermore, as I said earlier, if those who have never heard the Gospel are not lost because they have never heard about Christ, it would be better that we never proclaim the Good News. That’s because when we do proclaim it, there are always some who reject Christ and are lost, so the Gospel really becomes bad news. Hence, we should burn all the Bibles, close all the churches, and bring all of our missionaries home. No, the heathen of the world are lost. You and I have a responsibility to bring them the Good News of Jesus Christ.

How the Health Care Mandate Affects Non-Profit Organizations by Mark Helland, C.P.A.

October 15, 2014

How the Health Care Mandate Affects Non-Profit Organizations
Mark Helland, C.P.A.

Health care reform In previous articles, I have detailed the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA” or “Obama Care” to some, depending entirely on your political persuasion!) and have discussed some of the things that non-profit organizations should be aware of. One very controversial aspect of the ACA is the employer mandate and the associated penalties for non-coverage required of individuals and certain businesses that fail to provide coverage all of which take affect in the 2014 tax year. It was thought by many that these provisions were unconstitutional and that the U.S. Supreme Court would strike them down. However, in June of this year, the Supreme Court upheld all provisions of the ACA, including the penalty and non-coverage provisions. As such, it is time to look ahead to understand and plan for how these provisions could affect your organization and your employee population.

The first thing to understand is that non-profit organizations are NOT exempt from the coverage and penalty provisions of the ACA. Many non-profit organizations have incorrectly assumed that by virtue of their non-profit status they are exempt from the requirement to provide health insurance and the penalties related to the failure to provide health insurance. Unfortunately, this is not case. All non-profit organizations, including churches and ministries are subject to the requirement to provide health insurance. However, it is very important to understand that only relatively large organizations are affected. Large employers with fifty (50) or more employees may be subject to two potential penalties – the “no coverage” penalty and the “unaffordable coverage” penalty. The penalties are sometimes referred to as the “employer mandate” because they effectively require employers to offer coverage or pay a penalty. Following are the rules that non-profit organizations need to start planning for which will begin as of 2014:

1. The “No Coverage” Penalty (also known as “Pay or Play”)

If an employer does not offer full-time employees, and their dependents, an opportunity to enroll in employer provided health insurance coverage and at least one full-time employee enrolls in a federally subsidized health insurance exchange and the employee received government subsidies to pay for exchange coverage, then the employer is subject to this penalty. It is important to understand the “and” part of this equation, because most of the information you read omits the second requirement and simply states that if you have over fifty employees you must provide health insurance. In effect, you could have over fifty employees, not provide coverage and be exempt from the penalty, but only if you have no employees who are covered by a federally subsidized health insurance exchange (which would be unlikely, but possible). The exchanges are available to individuals in which household income is less than 400% of the federal poverty level ($89,400 for a family of four in 2011). So, if all employees of an employer have a household income greater than 400% of the federal poverty level and are covered by an exchange, then these penalties would not apply. In reality, almost every employer will have at least one employee whose household income would potentially qualify them to be in an exchange. The “no coverage” penalty amounts to $2,000 for each of an employer’s full-time employees, however, in calculating the penalty the first thirty (30) employees are excluded. Employers can avoid this penalty completely by offering health coverage to full-time employees, but the “unaffordable coverage” penalty may still apply.

2. The “Unaffordable Coverage” Penalty (also known as “Free Rider”)

Even if an employer offers full-time employees, and their dependents, an opportunity to enroll in employer provided health insurance coverage, a potential for penalties still exists. The coverage offered by the employer must be both “affordable and valuable” to avoid this additional penalty. If at least one full-time employee enrolls in a federally subsidized health insurance exchange and is certified to receive government subsidies because the employer’s coverage is considered either unaffordable or low-value, then the employer is subject to this penalty. The “unaffordable coverage” penalty is $3,000 for each full-time employee who is certified to receive government subsidies and unlike the “no coverage” penalty, this one is not based on all full-time employees. Avoiding this penalty may actually not be that hard to overcome and close coordination with your health insurance agent is a must here.

Key Point:
A key question that I have in all of this, is how would an organization even know or be informed that they have an employee who is covered by a federally subsidized health insurance exchange? It would seem that asking employees this question would be a privacy violation or a prohibited question when interviewing and making hiring decisions. I have not been able to find a definitive answer to this question yet, but I am still researching.

The takeaway from all of this is that if you have over fifty employees and you currently offer health insurance, then you have much less to analyze to be in compliance. However, if you have over fifty employees and do not offer health insurance, your decision is much more complex. An analysis needs to be made to consider how the specter of employer penalties compares to the cost of providing health insurance. Also, in considering your employee population, if your organization provides health insurance that meets all of the requirements, so doing also means that the employees will not be eligible for the government subsidized exchanges. Employers may want to consider whether their employee population would be better served in an exchange with government subsidies or with employer-provided coverage.

Additionally, if your organization is small – i.e. less than twenty five (25) full-time employees, you need to make sure that you are getting good professional advice on the health care credit that is available to make providing coverage more affordable. Here is a hyperlink to my previous article for Tony Cooke Ministries on this topic: Health Care Reform and the Health Insurance Tax Credit by Mark Helland. My next article will focus on the individual penalties that are present in the ACA and how individuals who must provide health insurance for themselves can plan to comply with these provisions.

This article is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is shared with the understanding that neither the author nor Tony Cooke Ministries is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, psychological, medical or other professional services. Laws and regulations are continually changing, and can vary according to location and time. No representation is made that the information herein is applicable for all locations and times. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Health Care Reform and the Health Insurance Tax Credit by Mark Helland

October 15, 2014

Health Care Reform and the Health Insurance Tax Credit
by Mark Helland

Mark Helland, CPA is a partner with the public accounting firm of Elliott, Dozier and Helland, PC which is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mark specializes in audit and tax related issues for church and ministry clients across the United States. For further assistance from Mark on this topic or for assistance on any other tax, accounting or church audit and compliance need, Mark can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 893-1259 or (918) 488-0880.

After months of partisan debate, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” became law nearly two years ago, on March 24, 2010. This act is widely considered to be the most significant piece of medical insurance reform legislation in the past thirty years. Known generally as “health care reform” or “Obama Care” it is also highly complex and controversial, with major implications for the U.S. economy.

There is a lot of misinformation in the public domain as to what exactly is contained within the health reform act, so it is important to understand that the act does not directly provide for a government takeover of health care as seen in Canada or Great Britain. The intent of the act was to expand health insurance coverage to more Americans with the goal being that 95% of Americans will be covered. What makes the act so controversial are the logistics of how this will be accomplished. The provisions of the act will be phased in over nearly ten years so certain components are years away from going into effect while other components are already in effect. Since the provisions of the act go into effect in stages, I believe the easiest way to understand the major provisions of the act is to break them down chronologically. Following are some of the major provisions which will affect churches and ministries in the coming years:

Provisions which took effect in 2010:
More than a dozen features of the act have already taken effect, including:

1. Tax credits are available for small businesses that provide health insurance to employees. Even tax-exempt employers, such as churches or ministries can potentially qualify for these credits as well. A tax-exempt employer claims the refundable credit by filing a Form 990-T with an attached Form 8941 showing the calculation of the claimed credit. The amount of the credit cannot exceed the total amount of income and/or Medicare taxes the employer is required to withhold from employee wages for the year and the employer’s share of Medicare tax on employee wages for the year. This could be a tremendous benefit to churches that qualify.

2. Dependent children are now allowed to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until age twenty-seven.

3. There is now a ban on health insurers setting lifetime maximum benefit limits on medical coverage.

4. Health insurers can no longer set pre-existing conditions limitations for children. However, insurers can still deny coverage altogether for individual coverage for children until 2014.

5. “High-risk insured pools” are to be established which would be open to applicants with medical problems already rejected by insurers.

Provisions taking effect in 2012 through 2013:

1. Effective for the 2012 tax year, employers are required to report the value of health insurance coverage provided to employees on each employee’s annual Form W-2. This reporting is for informational purposes only and does not affect tax liability, as the value of employer provided health insurance coverage continues to be excludible from an employee’s income. The ultimate intent of the W-2 reporting will be to track coverage values for the 40% excise tax on high cost/”Cadillac” medical plans which will begin in 2018. The medical coverage costs subject to this reporting include; medical plans, prescription drug plans, dental and vision plans and employee assistance plans, among others.

2. Tax laws will change in 2013 to help pay for the cost of the health reform act. Taxpayers will see the 7.5% of adjusted gross income floor on itemized deductions for medical expenses rise to 10% and “high-income households” will see their Medicare taxes increase. Individuals who earn more than $200,000 in wages and joint filers who earn more than $250,000 will pay an additional .9% in Medicare taxes. Additionally, a new 3.8% Medicare tax will apply to the unearned or investment income of “high income households”.

Provisions taking effect in 2014:

The year 2014 is the key implementation year for the most significant of the health insurance requirements in the act. The U.S. government will require most Americans to have health insurance in force by 2014. While the constitutionality of this portion on the act is being challenged by multiple states in the court system, at this point in time this is the law of the land. The provisions pertaining to employers are very complex and will require the help of a good health insurance agent to navigate all of the intricacies. As a broad overview, the key components of the health insurance requirement are as follows;

1. Health Insurance Exchanges – By no later than 2014, individual states must establish insurance exchanges through which small businesses/organizations will be able to pool together to buy insurance. If individual states do not comply, a federally operated exchange will be set up. Under the act, the term “small businesses/organizations” means those having no more than one hundred employees. However, beginning in 2017 even large employers may enter the exchanges. Policies offered through the exchanges would be required to cover a range of basic benefits and insurance companies participating in the exchanges may not deny coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition. The purpose of the exchanges is to serve as a health insurance resource for individuals who are in transition between employment and self-employment or for small businesses who would otherwise lack a large enough base of employees to qualify for more favorable group health insurance rates.

2. Employer Mandate – Certain employers will be required to offer health insurance to employees or be subject to a penalty. Employers with more than fifty employees must provide them with qualified health coverage or pay a $2,000 penalty per employee. Those employers with less than fifty employees are not required to provide coverage, but it is important to note that the employees of such organizations would then be required to buy individual policies or be subject to individual penalty.

3. Penalties for Uninsured Americans – Under the act, individual Americans who are not covered by an employer plan and who fail to purchase health insurance are subject to an annual penalty of at least $95 or up to 1% of income, whichever is greater, with a cap of $695 per year.

Finally, in 2018 a 40% excise tax will apply to employers who offer high cost/“Cadillac” plans. The definition of such plans would be those health insurance policies with an annual cost of greater than the threshold amount of $10,200 for an individual plan and $27,500 for family coverage. The logic here is that employees who are provided with such all inclusive coverage tend to use health care services at a much greater rate than others with less generous policies.

Health Insurance Tax Credit:

For churches and ministries, I believe that the most intriguing (and unbelievable) aspect of the health care reform act/”Obama Care” is the tax credit for health insurance. Because churches and ministries are tax-exempt, it would seem that a tax credit would not be possible because there is no income tax paid to be offset by a credit. In other words, most credits are considered to be “non-refundable” credits as they must offset income taxes paid to be of any benefit. However, the health insurance tax credit is considered to be a “refundable” credit which does not have to offset income taxes paid, and even tax-exempt employers such as churches or ministries can potentially qualify for this credit. Amazingly, the health care reform act has provided for non-profit organizations to qualify for the health insurance credit as long as the organization has paid certain levels of employer matching contributions of Medicare tax. Following is a very condensed summary of the basic qualifications to qualify for the health insurance tax credit:

Your church or ministry organization must offer health insurance benefits to employees and must meet certain discrimination tests to ensure that health insurance coverage is not being “selectively” offered.
The organization must pay at least 50% of the cost of this coverage.
Next, there are two complicated calculations to determine the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTE’s) that your organization employs and the “average annual wages” of these employees.

Clearly, large churches and ministries will not qualify for this credit, but smaller churches and ministries need to consider whether or not they may be able to qualify. From our firm’s early assessment of the health care insurance credit, we believe that this credit could be a tremendous benefit to churches that qualify. For example, we recently worked with a mid-sized church that was able to qualify for a $22,000 tax credit for the year ended December 31, 2010. I would provide a strong word of caution though that this is not a DIY (“do it yourself”) project. The rules for this credit are complex and professional advice is an absolute necessity to correctly determine both eligibility for the credit and to accurately calculate the amount of the credit to which your organization may be entitled.

Excerpt from “7 Unchanging Laws for Happiness and Success” by Pastor Doug Bird

October 15, 2014

Excerpt from “7 Unchanging Laws for Happiness and Success”
Pastor Doug Bird

doug bird Doug wandered into a Church in the small town of Marysville in 1979 and that night would forever change his life. That night he met Jesus and the life of a drug dealer that had no real direction took on a whole new direction. Shortly after that Doug was called into the ministry and he began to share Jesus with all his friends and former associates, street witnessing and becoming the youth pastor at the Church where he’d been saved. Read the rest of Doug Bird’s bio.

Happiness and success in life are found in knowing and applying the fundamentals. How many times have we heard that, yet is so true. Whether it’s in business, sports, ministry, or life, happiness and success happens when the fundamentals are emphasized and applied. There are unchanging laws that God has hardwired into his universe. Law’s like the law the seed, the law the ground, the law of harvest and many more, these laws work every time you apply them and they will bring happiness and success in your life.

A natural law is simply an unchanging law, that is, it works every time. The laws of mathematics work every time. The laws of physics work every time—as long as the right conditions are met. As an example, think about the law of gravity for a moment. Gravity is a natural law that works every time. You can stand on a rooftop and declare that you don’t believe in gravity and then jump off to prove your point. Guess what? You’re not going to hover there in mid-air, somehow levitating your body against the pull of gravity. Neither are you going to sprout wings and fly blissfully away. That’s not going to happen. The law of gravity says that what goes up must inevitably come down. So, if you jump off that roof, you’re going down! Why? It’s because the law of gravity works every time, whether you believe in it or not. It’s an unchanging law.

Another example of a natural law that works every time is the law of nature itself. We might call it the law of life and death. Everything that is born will also die. We must realize that one day every human, every plant, every living thing will one day die. There’s no escaping this law. “As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower; then the wind blows on it, and it is gone—no one sees it again” (Psalms 103:15-16 TEV).

Then there are the supernatural laws of God. These are principles at work in the Universe that are beyond the bounds of science as we know it. Natural laws are open to investigation and can be discovered by the exercise of reason.

Supernatural laws are also open to investigation, but can only be discovered by the exercise of faith. We discover natural laws through science. We discover supernatural laws through revelation. Nevertheless, like natural laws, supernatural laws work every time, provided the right conditions are met.

Ignorance of God’s unchanging laws does not nullify those laws. What is true in the natural is also true in the spiritual. If you break a law, you suffer the consequences. If you apply the law, you reap the benefits.

The number one law of the Kingdom of God is the law of the seed. Let me emphasize that point: seeds “always” produce after their own kind. That’s one of the unchanging laws of God. You might say you don’t believe it, but your unbelief won’t change the outcomes. We always reap according to the seeds we sow. Why? Because God said so. It’s an absolute truth and law of nature that God has established.

If I understand the law of the seed, I understand that everything in my life, that everything I do in my life is a seed—my thoughts, my words, my actions—everything is a seed. What kind of harvest do I want in life? Do I want a good harvest or a bad harvest? It all depends on the type of seed I sow. A seed always produces after its own kind.

Points to Remember:

The #1 Law of the Kingdom of God is the Law of the Seed.
The Law of the Seed is simply that everything produces after its own kind.
We plant seeds by our thoughts, words, and actions.
What we sow determines what will grow.
Sometimes we need to pray for a crop failure–it’s called repentance.

If we look at the teaching of Jesus in the Parable of the Sower, we find that there are four types of ground upon which the seed falls. Each one of these types of ground corresponds to an attitude on our part towards the seed. The law of the ground is the law of four attitudes for how we receive the seed.

The Bible says that if I confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, then I shall be saved (Rom. 10:9). Now, that Bible promise is a seed, and if I’ll receive that seed with a right heart, a right attitude, a right spirit; if I receive that seed with a no-turn-around commitment, then that seed will bring forth salvation. That seed doesn’t care that I was a burnt out drug addict. That seed doesn’t care that I was a hothead. That seed doesn’t care if I had a checkered past, even a criminal past. The seed doesn’t come up to us and ask for our resume or our references. No, the seed doesn’t care who you are, the seed doesn’t care what you have done, the seed doesn’t care about your skin color, your level of education, or what job you work. The seed doesn’t care whether you are rich ground or poor ground, church ground or non-church ground, Catholic ground or Presbyterian ground. The seed is just a seed—and it does what it is called to do, to bring forth eternal life.

But there is the law of the ground. The type of ground that the seed is planted in determines how well that seed will grow. The type of ground will determine whether or not that seed will bring forth according to the potential that is in it. According to the Parable of the Sower, there are four possible types of ground for the seed. There are four attitudes, four mentalities, four heart conditions that determine whether or not the seed will produce.

Points to Remember:

How you receive determines how you will grow and produce in life.
Your attitude is what determines what kind of ground you are.
The seed promises success and happiness, but it can’t grow if it’s not planted in your heart.
We have a choice on what kind of ground (attitude) we will be.

Click here to order your copy of “7 Unchanging Laws for Happiness and Success.”

Eight Ways to Guarantee Failure with Your Helps People by Marvin Yoder

October 15, 2014

Eight Ways to Guarantee Failure with Your Helps People
Marvin Yoder

Marvin Yoder Marvin and his wife, Leah, are the founding pastors of LifePointe Church in Mattoon, Illinois. Marvin is a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center and is also enrolled in the MDiv Program at Oral Roberts University. Marvin has a rich ministerial background, having pastored several churches, working in Christian education, and traveling extensively as an itinerant minister. Prior to starting the church in Mattoon, Marvin was heavily involved in staff at Rhema, serving as an instructor, Dean, and as an Associate Pastor. Marvin has authored several books and study guides, including Movin’ On Up and The Traveling Minister’s Handbook. Marvin and Leah have three children, Christina Anne, Nichole Joy, and Audrey Danielle.

My Dad is 85 years old and still gets early up every morning between five and six o’clock to help milk cows. He has done that as long as I can remember. As kids growing up, we helped Dad with the chores every morning and evening.

I remember one morning I decided to sleep in. Some other kids had talked about that and I wondered how that would be. That morning I did not go out to the barn to chore at five o’clock like normal. I stayed in bed and thought, “This is great! Wow, this feels good!”

Wrong! (Did I ever get the surprise of my life!)

It wasn’t long before my Dad came upstairs and trained me that getting up at the right time was essential and definitely not optional! (By the way, I never did that again!)

Ministry is like farming. In both, someone has to see the big picture and provide leadership to obtain the desired results. Both require someone to be able to recruit and keep good people to help with clear expectations and guidelines given to them.

Some very anointed ministers are hard to work for. It’s not because they are intentionally mean or obnoxious to their staff or volunteers. It’s mostly because of neglect or because they fail to do certain things that enables their helps people to do their best.

In the Gospels Jesus both demonstrated and gave instructions that helping, growing, developing, and training others is necessary. Take a look at Jesus’ statement, “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.”1 No one helping another can go beyond the capabilities or willingness of the leader they are serving. If the leaders don’t do certain things, the people helping them cannot and will not perform at a productive level.

Listed below are eight areas that some leaders and ministers neglect which will contribute to their staff and volunteer people failing to effectively help in their church or ministry.

1. Don’t lead by example.

All a leader has to do is tell their helps people what they should do even if it’s not what he does, right? A leader shouldn’t have to serve, but serving is expected of helps people, right?

No, that’s wrong because it’s unscriptural.

Jesus Himself demonstrated that the greatest would have to be servants in the kingdom of God.2 John Maxwell states that “we teach what we know and reproduce what we are.”3 St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”4 So, if leaders want better service from their staff or volunteers, they should increase their own level of service and let their example trickle down to influence their helps people.

2. Don’t give helps people any job descriptions.

Shouldn’t leaders just watch their helps people to see if they are doing their job wrong? If they have a job description, wouldn’t they know what to do, and even do it better than the leader can?

Wrong again. This is like letting a blind man drive a car.

Jesus gave the twelve disciples and then seventy more a clear job description of what they were supposed to do before He sent them out in teams of two.5 The apostle Paul gave Timothy clear job descriptions for elders, deacons, and bishops.6 When a person has a clear picture in their mind of what they are to do, it improves their chances of doing it well. Often one of the first things a leader or minister should do is to clarify job descriptions when staff members or volunteers drift from what they are supposed to be doing for them.

3. Don’t establish a criteria or guidelines for choosing the right helps people.

Shouldn’t a leader use anyone who is willing, no matter what their abilities may or may not be for their staff or volunteer positions? If there’s a problem caused by one of the willing volunteers who really doesn’t have the necessary abilities to do the job, shouldn’t a leader just tell people that God loves everyone the same and He will fix all of the problems?

Wrong way to do it. Great prescription for failure!

Some churches use whoever shows up in whatever area they want to do something. However, by doing so, a leader or minister may be inviting trouble into their own organization. Notice that Moses chose men with certain characteristics to help him lead Israel to the Promised Land, i.e. competent, God fearing, and hating covetousness.7 Also, the Apostles in the First Church at Jerusalem chose men who had good reputations, full of the Holy Spirit and had wisdom to be deacons.8 Wayne Cordeiro said, “Don’t wait for volunteers to somehow magically appear uniformed and ready for duty. Challenge men and women you think would fit.”9 Thus it would seem that it is the leader’s responsibility to define certain guidelines for choosing the people for the various positions within their church or ministry.

4. Allow helps people to put their own agendas and programs in place.

God is no respecter of persons—shouldn’t the helps people have as much to say about how to run the church or ministry as the leaders do? After all, since they have the same Holy Spirit as the leader does, wouldn’t they always know what to do?

Wrong again. Perfect recipe for chaos!

In every organization someone has to be the leader. In churches and ministries, part of a leader’s job is to use the wisdom and knowledge God has given him to set agendas (or define the vision) and outline programs within their ministries. Don Shula said, “"A river without banks is a large puddle."10 There is no direction or progress in the organization without defining the way to go. This does not mean that leaders are not receptive to ideas and suggestions from their helps people for new programs but they should all fit within the framework of the agenda set by the leader.

5. Never check up or demand accountability of helps people.

Regular communication with the helps ministry is to be avoided at all costs . . . right? Shouldn’t a leader expect his staff and volunteers know what they want done by osmosis or a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit? As Christians, surely they will always do the right things, won’t they?

Wrong. Sounds like a great way to be surprised!

In the parable of the unjust steward, when the master found his steward was stealing from him, he fired him. Jesus went on to say that those who are faithful in little will be faithful in much, and those who are faithful in what belongs to another can be entrusted with their own.11 But the question is, how does a leader know if their staff is faithful in the little details or in the things of the ministry unless they check up on them and hold them accountable? It is like one minister said, “With people you get what you inspect; not what you expect.” Leaders should do their best to believe the best in their people, but also use wisdom in putting accountability systems in place.

6. Don’t offer any training or education for helps people.

If staff and volunteers have been in a ministry or church for any length of time, they ought to know how things are done without a leader having to tell them, and if the Lord wants them to know anything else He will tell them. Isn’t that right?

No, that idea is wrong, too.

Continual or repeated training is necessary in working with people. Generally, people intend to do well, but they either forget, or use their own ideas, or simply don’t understand the importance of doing their tasks the right way. The poet Henry Van Dyke stated, “There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.”12 Thus, leaders and ministers have the opportunity to take people who are often not self-starters, and encourage them with things like training opportunities, getting more education, or getting fresh ideas from others who do similar things. As the leaders help their staff and volunteers, the organization will reap the benefit of having better people.

7. Give no opportunities for helps people to think on their own.

After all, it’s the leader’s organization, isn’t it? Helps people need to learn that the leader is in charge and it’s “his way or the highway”. . . right? Since God put the leader in charge, doesn’t that mean the leader always gets to say how it is?

Wrong idea about how ministry works in the kingdom of God.

In the children’s movie entitled “The Aristocats” there is a scene where two dogs are lying by a haystack, and one says to the other, “A motorcycle is coming.” The other dog responds by saying, “I’m the leader! I’ll decide what it is.” He listens a little bit and then turns to the first dog and says, “A motorcycle is coming.” Unfortunately, some leaders and ministers are like that when it comes to accepting ideas from their staff or volunteers. If it’s not their idea, they aren’t interested.

Wise leaders open up a whole new vista of possibilities by setting up specific times or systems in which their people are encouraged to give their input into areas of the organization. Laurie Beth Jones said, “Leaders who teach and then train their people to think unusually—to think ‘outside the box’—will have a pool of talent to draw from when times get hard.”13

8. Never give credit or praise to staff or volunteers.

A leader should never talk about how good their staff or volunteers are, and especially not commend their helps people from the pulpit. Leaders should not give credit or share the rewards of the ministry with them . . . right? Certainly, if any honor would be given, it should be to the leader, and not to the helps people . . . right?

Wrong. Sounds like a great way for as leader to end up doing it all himself!

Coach Bear Bryant said, “There’s always just three things I say: ‘If anything goes bad. I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, they did it.’ That’s all it takes to get people to win.”14 People will gravitate to where they are praised. Someone once said, “Even a dog goes where he is appreciated.” Most people are starved for praise, and when a leader does give credit or praise to his helps people, it creates loyalty to the leader and helps to motivate the people to continue doing a great job!

Summary . . .
Several years ago, President George H.W. Bush was being interviewed by news reporter Sam Donaldson while running for re-election. It was well known that Donaldson did not care for President Bush, and in the interview Donaldson fired three or four vicious accusations at President Bush about his presidency. President Bush’s response was memorable…with a pointed finger for emphasis, he replied firmly, “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” and then went on to defend his presidency and was able to finish the interview successfully.

Sometimes leaders and ministers have to be courageous and take the first step of change by confronting the existing ideologies and practices within their churches and ministries and say, “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” Then take another bold step and identify what to do next that will help achieve the desired results.

How to Not be a Gutter Ball by Virgil Stokes

October 15, 2014

How to Not be a Gutter Ball
Virgil Stokes

Virgil Stokes is a Pastor and Teacher, serving churches since 1980 in Oklahoma, New York, and Arizona. He and his wife, Judy, pioneered Faith Christian Fellowship of Tucson in 2004. Prior to entering ministry Virgil worked as a Registered Nurse in the field of mental health and addictions treatment. A recovering addict himself, Virgil has written and spoken extensively on Christian recovery. He is the author of several books, and is the founder of Faith Ministry Training Institute, a training program empowering local pastors to equip ministers in their own churches. Pastor Virgil is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Rhema Bible Training Center. His passion is getting people out of the pews and into the harvest.

Gutter Ball "Lord, keep me straight. Don’t let me get off!" I prayed that simple prayer again this week as I have many times over the years. Whenever I hear another story about a preacher who gets off the path and falls into some kind of mess, I pray for him and all those who have been damaged by his dereliction. Then I pray for myself.

People get in all kinds of messes. One guy got arrested because of a drug habit hidden for years under a veneer of ministerial perfection. Another fellow turned away from the message of faith and headed off into Old Testament legalism. Catastrophic, life-controlling sin brings reproach to the Kingdom and to the Message we all love. Doctrinal goofiness leads precious people down paths of fruitlessness and bondage.

One is no better, or worse, than the other. I don’t ever want to be in the position of explaining to the Lord why I got so far off the track that I damaged the ones He entrusted to me. "Lord, keep me straight. Don’t let me get off!"

Life is a lot like Kiddie Bowling. You are more likely to stay on the lane and hit some pins if you put bumpers in the gutters – something to bounce you back toward the middle of the road when you get off. Some good gutter bumpers for preachers are:

Daily personal prayer and bible study. The primary goal is always to be a good Christian, not a successful preacher. If you find yourself only praying about your message and your ministry, you are headed for the gutter. Keep the horse and the cart in the right order. Matt 10:38-39
Keep a good perspective on your own importance. None of us is essential to the Kingdom, nor are we unique. God got along fine before you showed up, and if you bail on Him He will raise up another one to do your job. Similarly, you are wonderful, but the troubles you face are common to man. Seek help from others who have been there. When you find yourself unable to take a day off because the church will die without you, or you hear yourself saying, "NOBODY understands my dilemma." You are almost a gutter ball. 1 Cor 4:7 /1 Co 10:13
Be careful about preaching stuff you haven’t heard someone else preach. You are not the sole prophet of the last days receiving special insights straight from Heaven. 2000 years of honest godly people have gone before you. Be careful about "fresh revelation." That little puff of pride that goes with saying, "The Lord showed me…" is the last yellow light flashing before you hit the gutter. 2 Peter 1:20 / Matt 18:16
Allow elders in the faith to speak into your life. That means have someone or some group of people who you respect, and allow them to help you maintain your walk and your ministry. Be accountable. You are a sheep. You need a shepherd. If your title has become part of your name in your own mind, and you are making major decisions without seeking wise counsel, you may
already be in the gutter. 1 Peter 5:5-6 / Prov 11:14

Somebody Said: All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it. —John Locke

Scripture Reading: Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail; take good counsel and watch them succeed. (Proverbs 15:22 MSG)

I’m fairly certain none of us sets out to drive our life and ministry into the ditch. The problem is we allow our priorities to become skewed, sacrificing the important on the altar of expediency and pride. We all do it from time to time. The better our system of gutter bumpers, the quicker we get knocked back into the middle of the lane. One more time: "Lord, keep me straight. Don’t let me get off!"

God is Good, but is He Nice? By Rev. Walker Schurz

October 15, 2014

God is Good, but is He Nice?
By Rev. Walker Schurz

Walker and Haley Schurz have lived and ministered in Southern Africa since 1994. After graduating from Oral Roberts University they attended Rhema Bible Training Center and graduated in 1991.

Their ministry, Africa Outreach, is strategically based in Lusaka, Zambia and extends to many of the surrounding nations such as South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique. God has blessed them with a great ministry team to reach the estimated 90% of pastors in Southern Africa who have not had any formal Bible training. In addition to their ministry through Africa Outreach, Walker and Haley pastor Miracle Life Family Church in Lusaka, Zambia.

I’ve had the privilege of being with Walker and Haley twice in Lusaka and seeing their great work. God’s hand is upon them and their work. Please take a moment to learn more about their ministry at www.africaoutreach.org.

As we walk through our Christian life, hopefully we will see more and more of God and who He is. Moses desired to see God and now we can see God’s fullness in the light of His son Jesus. We may miss out on experiencing a part of God’s nature if an aspect of Him remains clouded to us through ignorance. Unfortunately, some Christians do not realize that God is the one who heals us, provides for us and leads us by His Spirit. It is a wonderful day when the eyes of our understanding become a bit more enlightened so that we know Him better.

I recently heard a minister on a CD recount a conversation that she had with a friend. Her friend mentioned an elderly man that reminded her of Jesus because he was “so nice.” The minister replied that in reading the gospels, “nice” was not a word she associated with Jesus.

I thought I would turn off the CD as my internal heresy meter was beeping wildly – surely God is nice. I then accepted her challenge to read the gospels, looking for the conversations Jesus had with people. I then identified each conversation as “nice” or “not-so-nice.” I was amazed at the strong language Jesus used towards both hard-hearted Pharisees and disciples whom he called his friends.

Peter alone was told:

"Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." (Matt. 16:23)

"Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." (Matt 26:34)

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matt. 26:40)

Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him. "You don’t have much faith," Jesus said. "Why did you doubt me?” (Matt. 14:31)

Why did Jesus say all of these things to Peter? Because in each situation it was the absolute truth. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus was full of grace and truth. Jesus never hurled insults at people and later had to go back and apologize, like we have to do on occasion. Every word He spoke to someone was not only the truth, but motivated from a heart of love. Truly, whom the Father loves, he corrects.

God loves us enough to tell us the truth. Many times, the quickest path to change is to face reality. Jesus was and is today a living defining moment. He deals with our motives and the matters of our heart so that anything that is holding us back from His best can be dealt with in the light.

After seeing Jesus in this reality, I became aware of how many times I avoided truth that might hurt or make me squeamish. I only wanted God to say things that would make me feel warm and well, . . “nice” on the inside. I had missed out on such an important part of God’s nature. By ignoring and discounting the facts about some of my shortcomings, I was insuring that they followed me into my future.

God needs to bring truth into our lives because we suffer from the terrible human condition of perspective. Without outside assistance, I only see things from my point of view. God tells us that every way of a man is right in his own eyes (Prov. 21:2). Because our eyes don’t always give us a true picture of reality, we need to hang around God to get His completely accurate perspective. Anyone who has raised a teenage son can concur with the expression, “we don’t smell our own stink.”

As I began to accept this part of God’s nature, truth and light came my way more than ever before. I heard truth spoken to me from a variety of sources: my wife, kids, employees, church members and friends. Some of these reality checks were not very sugar coated. My knee-jerk reaction was to hit back or deflect. Upon further review, I realized, so much was true.

Then and only then did I see the Holy Spirit begin to work in my heart to bring true and lasting change. It is now so thrilling to see areas of neglect and fear become strong and functional by God’s grace. As a leader, I desire to grow as my development will be multiplied through the lives of others. I invite you to see this wonderful aspect of God’s character and enjoy the life change that will come your way.

Grace for Effectual Ministry by Guy Duininck

October 15, 2014

Grace for Effectual Ministry – Locating, Cultivating, and Using Your Spiritual Giftings
Special Endowments for Special Tasks
By Guy Duininck

Guy Duininck earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethel College and attended Rhema Bible Training Center. Since 1981, Guy has traveled throughout the world teaching in local churches, Bible Schools and Ministers’ Conferences. With a strong emphasis on developing skilled spiritual leaders, strong local churches, and mature believers, Guy has significantly aided the Body of Christ in the places he travels. Guy has written five books, recorded six albums of his own music, and produced a number of audio teachings. The following article is an excerpt from Guy’s book, Grace for Effectual Ministry. You can obtain this book and learn more about Guy’s ministry by visiting his web-site at www.masterstouchministries.com. You can also find Guy on his Facebook page: Master’s Touch Ministries.

Grace Effectual Ministry The specific task God assigns each believer determines the specific variety of ministry grace He endows them with. This truth is beautifully expressed by the Amplified Bible’s rendering of Paul’ words,

“According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed upon me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation…”
I Corinthians 3:10 Amp

I don’t know if the men who drafted the Amplified Bible were aware of the significant revelation about ministry grace they brought out in their rendering of I Corinthians 3:10. In any case, their amplification of the word “grace” is very accurate. They referred to grace as a “special endowment for [a] task.”

God had assigned Paul a specific task. To enable him to fulfill that task, God specially endowed him. Paul’s task was to lay spiritual foundations as a wise masterbuilder. The special endowment which enabled him to fulfill that task was the ministry grace God bestowed upon him.

Financial Endowments

Financial endowments are sometimes made by wealthy individuals. The general purpose of any endowment is to enable others to pursue and accomplish the special interest of the one who made the endowment. Endowments are not random gifts or spur of the moment investments, but are well thought out financial plans. By making financial endowments, endowers seek to ensure that interests they hold dear will be pursued by others, sometimes even after their death.

The person who makes an endowment chooses someone to manage his endowment. The chosen manager will oversee the endowment and administer it at the time and in the manner specified by the endower. No matter what other needs are present or how tempted the manager may be to use the endowment in another way, it can only be used as specified by the endower.

If a wealthy man had a strong interest in Spanish students becoming marine biologists, he could make a financial endowment to a particular university specifying that every year a full scholarship be granted to the most qualified Spanish student studying in that field. The university, as manager of the endowment, would be responsible to administer the appropriate amount of money each year to a student who met the criteria.

Another individual might make an endowment to a charitable organization that cares for the poor, specifying that $5,000 be given each year to a single mother who was raising a physically handicapped child. The charitable organization, as manager of the endowment, would be responsible to administer that money each year to a single mother who met the pre-determined criteria.

Old Testament Endowments

In the Old Testament, God enabled men to accomplish the special tasks He assigned by endowing them with special abilities. For example, when He wanted a tabernacle built, He called Bezaleel and Aholiab and filled them with “the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” [Ex. 31:2, 6]. He “put wisdom” in these men’s hearts so they “knew how to work all manner of work” [Ex. 35:35]. By the means of special endowments these men knew “how to work all manner of work” and made everything the Lord commanded [Ex. 36:1-39:31]. Specially endowed men also participated in the building of Solomon’s temple. When Solomon requested skilled and cunning men from Huram, he sent him those men and said,

“And now I have sent a cunning man, endued [endowed] with un- derstanding…skilful to work in gold…silver…brass…iron…stone…timber…fine linen…graving…”
II Chronicles 2:13-14

Near the beginning of his reign, Solomon requested for himself and received from God a substantial endowment of wisdom to rule Israel. Realizing that he was not qualified to perform the leadership task God had assigned him, he had asked for wisdom, saying,

“And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in…Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people.”
I Kings 4:7-9

Although Solomon had been chosen by God to lead the nation of Israel, he felt like a child who didn’t know how to go out or come in. Because he felt inadequate, he asked God to grant him wisdom; the ability he needed for the work God called him to. God answered Solomon with these words,

“Because thou hast asked this thing…for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart…”
I Kings 3:11-12

God gave Solomon a “wise and understanding heart.” By that special endowment of wisdom, he was able to serve as king and fulfilled the work God had called him to.

New Testament Grace Endowments

Immediately prior to His final ascent into heaven, Jesus commissioned the church to continue His ministry. He told His disciples,

“All power is given unto me…Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature…as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you…”
Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; John 20:21

Jesus not only commissioned the church to continue His ministry. He also endowed the church with the full measure of His ministry ability so that she could fulfill the great task given to her. Notice these words about that divine endowing,

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he…gave gifts unto men…”
Ephesians 4:7-8

Because of His deep love for the human race, Jesus supernaturally endowed the church, ensuring that the work He began would continue and succeed after He was gone. Some in the church were endowed with apostolic grace-gifts. Some were endowed with pastoral grace-gifts. Some were endowed with teaching grace-gifts. Others were endowed with healing grace-gifts, exhortation grace-gifts, giving grace-gifts, teaching grace-gifts, practical service grace-gifts, and administrative grace-gifts.

Peter’s words as rendered by the Amplified Bible offer us wonderful insight into New Testament grace endowments. He wrote,

“As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God’s many-sided grace…”
I Peter 4:10 Amp

Every believer has received a “gracious divine endowment.” These divine endowments enable believers to accomplish things they could not accomplish by their own means. Without grace endowments, no believer — not even the strongest, wisest, richest, smartest, and most personally developed — would have the means to accomplish the ministry they are called to. Grace endowments make effective ministry possible!
In the context of teaching the Corinthian church about ministry, Paul wrote,

“Now there are distinctive varieties and distributions of endowments [extraordinary powers distinguishing certain Christians, due to the power of Divine grace operating in their souls by the Holy Spirit.”
I Corinthians 12:4 Amp

The Amplified Bible’s rendering of I Corinthians 12:4 expresses the doctrine of grace for effectual ministry in a profound way. It reveals that Christians are different from one another because of the “distinctive varieties and distributions of endowments” given to them. It reveals that every Christian possesses a unique “extra-ordinary power” for service “due to the power of Divine grace” operating in them.

Paul’s and Peter’s Grace Endowments

Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia about his and Peter’s unique commissions and unique grace endowments. His words highlight the significant relationship between the task God assigns each believer and the grace endowment which enables them to accomplish that task. He wrote,

“…the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) And when James, Cephas, and John…perceived the grace that was given unto me…”
Galatians 2:7-9

The apostle Peter was commissioned by God to go to the circumcision. Therefore, God “wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision.” God assigned Peter the task of ministering to the Jews and, therefore, endowed him with the ability to minister to the Jews. Peter’s commission and his endowment were harmonious.

The apostle Paul was commissioned by God to go to the Gentiles. Therefore, God “was mighty in [him] toward the Gentiles.” God assigned Paul the task of ministering to the Gentiles and, therefore, endowed him with the ability to minister to the Gentiles. Paul’s commission and his endowment were harmonious.

Supernatural Sufficiency for Service

Paul referred to his supernatural endowment for service in his second letter to the Corinthians when he wrote,

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers…”
II Corinthians 3:5-6

Paul and his partners did not consider themselves to be sufficient of themselves for their ministries. The word “sufficient” comes from the Greek hikanos and means, “enough, or sufficient in ability.” The word “of” comes from the Greek ek and denotes the point of origin of something. According to Paul, there was nothing that originated within himself or within any of his ministry associates that made them sufficient for their ministry assignments.

Paul did not say, however, that he and his partners were insufficient for their tasks. He said, rather, “but our sufficiency is of God.” Here the word “sufficiency” comes from the Greek hikanotes and means, “the ability or competency to accomplish a thing.” Paul’s sufficiency was “of God.” In other words, God the Source endowed Paul and his partners with a divine competency to accomplish their ministry assignments.

The Amplified Bible renders Paul’s words this way,

“…but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.”
II Corinthians 3:5

In verse six, Paul said that God made he and his ministry partners “able ministers.” The word “able” comes from the Greek hikanoo which means, “to equip one with adequate powers to perform duties.” Paul and his ministry associates were endowed by God with adequate powers and the necessary sufficiency to perform their ministry duties!

Paul confirmed that he was endowed with supernatural ability in his first letter to Timothy when he wrote,

“And I thank Christ Jesus our lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry…”
I Timothy 1:12

Paul said that the Lord had “enabled” him. The word “enabled” comes from the Greek endunamoo which literally means, “inward dunamis.” To be enabled means, “to be inwardly endued with the power to accomplish whatever is willed.” The Lord Jesus not only put Paul into the ministry; He also put dunamis into Paul so that he could accomplish his ministry.

A few years ago, I was speaking with the pastor of a church where I was ministering. During our conversation, he asked for my advice concerning a problem in his church. I got quiet and listened to my heart to see if the Holy Spirit had anything special to say. Before I could think, I heard myself ask this pastor, “Are you sure you are called by God to be a pastor?” He thought for a moment and answered in the affirmative. Then I asked him, “Are you sure you are called by God to pastor this church?” Again, he answered in the affirmative. Then I told him, “It is not possible that you are truly called to pastor this church and don’t know what to do.” He looked at me in a kind of surprised way and said, “You know, you are right. I actually do know what to do. I was just a little unsure of myself.”

When God calls any believer to any assignment, He endows them with the supernatural sufficiency and the adequate power to accomplish that assignment. God will never give a believer an assignment that supersedes the divine sufficiency He has granted. No believer, then, should ever suppose that he is under-endowed for his task!

Timothy’s Grace Endowment

Paul exhorted Timothy to pay attention to his special inward min- istry endowment with these words,

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.”
I Timothy 4:14

Timothy’s gift [charisma] was not a special anointing that came upon him unexpectedly or an occasional manifestation of the Spirit. His gift was a resident inward endowment of God-ability that had been imparted to him during a sacred time of prayer, prophecy, and laying on of hands. This gift was “given” to Timothy. “Given” comes from the Greek didomi which means, “to give over or to commit to someone’s care something to be administered.” According to Paul, Timothy could either neglect his resident inward endowment or he could cultivate and use it.

Weymouth translates I Timothy 4:14 this way,

“Do not be careless about the gifts with which you are endowed.” I Timothy 4:14

The Amplified Bible renders Paul’s words to Timothy this way,

“Do not neglect the gift which is in you, that special inward endowment, which was directly imparted to you by the Holy Spirit…”
I Timothy 4:14 Amp

According to the Amplified Bible, Timothy’s grace-gift was a “special inward endowment” directly imparted to him by the Holy Spirit.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul exhorted him with these words,

“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.”
II Timothy 1:6

Again, Paul reminded Timothy of his indwelling charisma, or grace-gift, and exhorted him to pay attention to it. Evidently, Timothy’s resident gift did not stir him up. Rather, Timothy was to stir up his resident gift.

In some cases, as with Paul and Timothy, God can impart or enhance a grace-gift through the laying on of hands.

I remember a meeting I attended in 1981 before I started to travel in my teaching ministry. Kenneth E. Hagin was teaching in that meeting, but he also took time to lay hands on those who were going into full time ministry. I went forward in that service and he laid his hands on me. While driving home after that meeting I said to myself, almost without conscious thought, “I am ready to teach now.” I believe that a grace to teach was either imparted to me at that time or that a teaching grace I already possessed was actuated or enhanced.

In a meeting I conducted several years ago something similar happened. A young musician in the church where I was ministering approached me after my teaching and asked me to lay hands on him to enhance his music ministry. Initially I hesitated, but then felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so. When I laid hands on him, I felt something go into him and watched as he fell to the floor. I knew that something special had transpired. A year later this young man reported to me that his ministry had changed significantly, that his song writing had been greatly enhanced, and that he and his wife had won an award as amateur Christian musicians.

More recently, I felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to lay hands on a teaching elder in a local church. I sensed that God wanted to add something to that person in terms of teaching ability. I followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, laid hands on that person, and ministered a brief word of knowledge to them. Several months later the pastor of the church remarked to me that the person I had ministered to was noticeably more effective in their teaching.

Grace endowments continue to be measured out by the Lord Jesus right up to this present day. For every need in the world and for every purpose of God a vessel is called, saved, placed in the body of Christ, and endowed with a unique ministry grace. By the means of supernatural grace endowments, chosen vessels accomplish the unique tasks God assigns them in His kingdom.

God’s Plan for You: A Future and a Hope by Pastor Tim Gilligan

October 15, 2014

God’s Plan for You: A Future and a Hope
Pastor Tim Gilligan

Solomon was about to assume the throne of his father David, and he knew he needed help. So when the Lord appeared to Solomon one night and asked him what he desired most, the young man asked for only one thing: divine wisdom to help him lead the nation of Israel. Pleased with Solomon’s answer, God granted his request. In fact, Solomon went on to become the wisest man who ever lived!

Solomon discovered a crucial key to understanding the ways of God during his unparalleled pursuit of wisdom. Let’s focus on that key as we seek ways to walk in the fullness of God’s plan for our lives. It is found in Ecclesiastes 3:1:

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

· A time to be born and a time to die.

· A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted.

· A time to break down and a time to build up.

· A time to weep and a time to laugh.

· A time to mourn and a time to dance.

· A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones.

· A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

· A time to gain and a time to lose.

· A time to keep and a time to throw away.

· A time to tear and a time to sew.

· A time to keep silence and a time to speak.

· A time to love and a time to hate.

· A time of war and a time of peace.

The principle is simple but profound: As we pass through life on this earth, we’re going to pass through seasons. Solomon’s list of seasons is obviously a partial one; however, we can see that he included a number of negative things. There is good reason for that. As long as we live in this natural realm, we will all have to deal with circumstances that we’re not real thrilled about. Solomon gives us the key for dealing with the negative effects ― we must seek to understand the times and seasons of our lives.

We may as well face it ― while we’re on the earth, we will have challenges. Jesus confirmed this in John 16:33. I once listened to a Christian song that talked about the devil not bothering us anymore. I had to listen carefully to make sure it wasn’t talking about dying and going home to be with the Lord, because that’s the only way the devil won’t bother us any longer! We have an enemy who absolutely hates our guts! We remind the devil of God. God has “wired” us with gifts, callings, and anointings that reside within us. The enemy sees the God-potential in us, and he hates it with a passion. Therefore, he is always looking for ways to steal, kill, and destroy everything good in our lives. However, you can’t blame the devil for everything bad that happens to you. The truth is, we sometimes experience problems because none of us have a perfect walk with God, and we forget that we don’t get sand spurs when we stay on the sidewalk. In other words, we take a wrong turn that creates a mess! It’s important to identify the times we’ve made the mess and immediately look for a way to get back on the road according to God’s direction for our lives.

Whatever the source of our problems, it is so important that we grasp the principle that Solomon discovered: Our lives are lived in seasons. I’d like to share with you six points to remember about seasons. How we relate and deal with these seasons will determine the quality of our lives.

1. Don’t get stuck in a season.

Whatever happened to you in the past, no matter how unfortunate it was, you need to leave it in the past, or it will create all kinds of problems in your future.

2. Don’t miss a season.

Another definition for the Hebrew word moed, which is translated “season” in Genesis 1:14, is an appointment or a fixed time. As I was pondering the definition of “season,” the Lord ministered this principle strongly to my heart: Since a season is an appointment, you have to be cautious regarding “disappointments.” If you experience a disappointment and you don’t handle it right, it can cause you to miss your divine appointment. If that happens, you have to make sure you get “reappointed” to the season you missed and the divine assignment you were to fulfill.

3. Never fail to reap a harvest from every season.

You should always gain something of benefit from anything you go through. You should come out of every situation with greater faith, greater trust, and a greater heart of gratitude. You need to come out with lessons learned and an added measure of wisdom gained from experience. As one minister put it, even an old, blind pig will find an acorn now and then if he works at it! Make sure you don’t come out of a season with just any kind of harvest; it has to be the right harvest. As you determine to gain something good from each season, you will go from faith to faith, as the apostle Paul talks about in Romans 1:17.

4. Enjoy what you can in every season.

Some seasons are much easier to enjoy than others, but you should always look for ways to enjoy every season of life that you go through. There is something to enjoy in every season, no matter how unpleasant it seems to be!

5. Don’t grow weary of doing good in the midst of a season.

God’s command in Galatians 6:9 tells us that if you don’t lose heart, if you don’t cave in, if you don’t give up and quit ― then you will reap a harvest of blessing. You have to continue to do the right thing, and you can’t grow weary in doing it. Weariness gives you the temptation to quit at a time when pressing on toward the next season matters the most. You have to apply some energy to moving obstacles that stand in your way, and you have to release your faith by speaking and acting on what you believe.

6. Monitor your seasons.

It is your responsibility to monitor your seasons and make sure anything that is carried over to the next season is positive. Don’t allow yourself to carry past garbage, bad attitudes, hurts, offenses, sinful habits, and so forth, into the next season of your life. You have to stay alert and spiritually awake at all times, working hard while trusting God to order your steps. Don’t just walk through life without making any effort to understand the times and seasons of your life. Be very purposeful in how you live. Ask yourself, Where am I right now? What is in my life that is not part of God’s plan for me? If you identify things in your life that shouldn’t be there, don’t let those negative things define your life ― assign them to a season. Then refuse to let that season go on forever. Start looking for the exit door and get out of there in a hustle!

Our steps are to be ordered by the Lord, so we can’t just roll down any old path we want to, or accept everything that comes our way. We can’t just say, “This is my lot in life, and that’s just the way things will be.” We have to make the decision, “This is not my lot in life. I am not a loser. I am not limited!”

You have much to do with the duration of the seasons you go through. You can extend a good season or help to possibly shorten a bad one. You can wander in the wilderness for forty years if you want, doing your own thing, or you can cooperate with the Lord and maybe turn it into a ten-day trip.

Refuse to grow weary or stay disappointed. Do the right thing with energy. Determine never to leave a season empty-handed. Work hard. Trust God. Obey God. And whenever something negative comes your way, label it with a mental sign that declares, “This is just a season! I’m moving on to my future and hope in God!

Tim Gilligan is the founder and Senior Pastor of Meadowbrook Church, which is located in Ocala, Florida and was established in 1989.

Tim is known for teaching and illustrating the uncompromised truth of God’s promises, which are the keys to victory in every area of life, and has authored four books — Playing for Keeps, Your Word and Your Work, Seasons, and Transitions.

By using practical methods to communicate the Good News, Meadowbrook Church continues to grow with a current weekly attendance of nearly 4,000 members.

The Life of Faith television broadcast was first launched in 1998 and airs locally. Live broadcasts and archives of Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services are accessible via the internet at www.mbcocala.com.

Tim serves as the Regional Director for AFCM (Association of Faith Churches and Ministers).

Tim and his wife Alicia have five children and reside in Ocala.

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo—Get a Vision! by Marvin Yoder

October 15, 2014

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo—Get a Vision!
by Marvin Yoder

Marvin and his wife, Leah, are the founding pastors of LifePointe Church in Mattoon, Illinois. Marvin is a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center and is also enrolled in the MDiv Program at Oral Roberts University. Marvin has a rich ministerial background, having pastored several churches, working in Christian education, and traveling extensively as an itinerant minister. Prior to starting the church in Mattoon, Marvin was heavily involved in staff at Rhema, serving as an instructor, Dean, and as an Associate Pastor. Marvin has authored several books and study guides, including Movin’ On Up and The Traveling Minister’s Handbook. Marvin and Leah have three children, Christina Anne, Nichole Joy, and Audrey Danielle.

Blind Magoo One of my favorite comedy movies was Mr. Magoo. Mr. Quincy Magoo is an eccentric millionaire with very bad eyesight who refuses to use eyeglasses and therefore always gets into trouble. During a museum robbery he accidentally gets a priceless gem called the Star of Kuristan, and begins to trace the way for the arch-criminals whose idea was to steal the gem, while two federal agents lead the manhunt for Mr. Magoo himself.1

The problem in trying to relate this movie to real life is that it’s delusional . . . people with bad vision just don’t come out on top in life like Mr. Magoo did. It’s absolutely essential that a person has good eyesight, and just as importantly, that they have a good vision of their future.

What is vision? Books abound on the subject but here are two ideas on what vision is: [1] seeing what others do not see [2] having a plan of where you want to go. Chuck Swindoll said, “When I think of vision, I have in mind the ability to see above and beyond the majority.” 2 I also think of what George Barna said, “Vision is a picture held in your mind’s eye of the way things could or should be in the days ahead.” 3

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) tells us “Where there is no vision, the people perish . . .” Other translations make it clear that this is referring to a person or people who see something because of having received some kind of communication from God, i.e. “revelation” (NKJV), “guidance” (CEV), “prophetic vision” (ESV). This helps us to conclude that God did not intend for us to have a vision of our future apart from His guidance, revelation, or prophetic insight.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 tells us to write the vision so that we know where we are going. Why? Because the vision will not all happen right away (it will tarry or delay in its coming). Writing down the vision helps us to stay in faith about what God has spoken to us to do.

If you ask people what they want to do in life, many have no answer. When you ask people what their purpose is in life, most cannot tell you. This seems true of Christians as much as it is of those who are not. Most people do not have a one year plan in mind, let alone have it written down. Because of operating this way they have no anchor, and drift along in life on whatever streams of circumstances that they find themselves in.

Many people don’t realize that God has a plan for their life, ministry or church—they’re just trying to survive. Others don’t feel like they can follow God’s plan. Some don’t realize the value of having a vision. Others simply don’t care enough to develop a vision for their life, ministry, and church. Consequently, many individuals, ministers, or churches are not able to step into the future God had planned for them.

As we look at the necessity of having a vision, let me mention five misconceptions that people have:

Having a vision is all you need to be successful. Seldom is having one thing all you need to be successful. It’s like looking at an iceberg . . . there’s a whole lot more to a person’s success than what you can readily see. Usually, the visible part of what a person does to have success is a small part of all they really do. So, having a vision is necessary and vital, but realize it is only one of many ingredients you need to be successful.
Having a vision means I don’t have to do things other people have to do. Having a vision is no substitute for things like financial management, people skills, Biblical knowledge, or just plain hard work. Some people look at having a vision as being a spiritual experience that eliminates the need for anything else. These type of people should remember the words of Vance Havner, “The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.”4 We should realize that having a vision often positions a person for the next thing they need to do.
Having vision makes you a competent leader. A competent leader will have a vision, but his level of competency is determined by a number of things, especially how he can influence others with the vision he has. A competent leader is able to influence other people to go with him on the same journey to accomplish the desired task. Remember “he who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.” (John C. Maxwell)5
Having vision will solve all your problems. In the world of medicine, no one medication will take care of all the things that people have wrong in their body. It’s that way with the rest of the world—there is no cure-all for every problem you encounter. Actually, while implementing a vision, you may encounter problems you didn’t have before!
Having vision will automatically cause you to reach new levels in life and ministry. However, in actuality nothing is automatic in life. Having vision will set you up for the next thing you have to do, whether it’s to pray accurately, raise funds, connect with the right people, be at the right place at the right time, or simply what to do next.

The above-mentioned misconceptions are simply that…wrong ideas people have about what vision will do for them. Having pointed out these misconceptions, let me now say that without a vision of what you plan to do, you probably won’t be very successful, be a competent leader, solve all your problems, or reach new levels of life and ministry.

It is a proven fact that people with a vision that they have written out accomplish more than people who do not. Having no vision is like being in a boat with no motor or anchor—simply drifting along with no specific direction in mind. Peter Marshall once said, “Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for – because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.” 6 So, we should realize that having a vision will help you focus on the specific direction you want or need to go.

I can think of five reasons why having a vision on an individual level, a minister level, and a church level is absolutely essential:

Vision will help you not be controlled by opinions, obstacles, opposition, or opportunities. This is the challenge that every individual and organization faces—to be who God called them to be and do, regardless of what others think or say. Here I want to be clear about something—I am not advocating that disregarding opinions of others to focus on the vision does away with the need for accountability and submission, and dialogue with others we hold in high esteem is not necessary. Needs arise, and crises come to everyone, but having a vision will guide us through the maze. Everyone has to make choices because of what confronts them; however, every situation should be evaluated in the light of what God has shown for us to be and do. In the midst of many voices and opinions, your vision will point you in the right direction.
Vision will strengthen you in your journey. A person with a vision will be empowered to do what others cannot do! Having a picture within or on paper of a desired future will fuel a person’s determination and energize them to keep going when others are ready to quit. People who gaze steadfastly at their God-given vision will also experience a God-given strength to accomplish the assignment. Often there is lots of excitement when a vision is received. However, often there is a significant period of time between the receiving and fulfillment of the vision, and strength is needed every step of the way. The Israelites spent forty years journeying to the Promised Land. It was many years between the time David was anointed to be king of Israel to the time he actually was the king. Paul said in Acts 26:19, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Paul’s Christian journey was not easy nor comfortable, but Paul declared that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13, NKJV). How was he strengthened in Christ? In part by the visionary, revelational words God spoke to him on the Damascus Road that guided him the rest of his life!
Vision will help you do the right things along the way. Every journey is made up of many steps, and every great venture has many tasks. Too often Christians are waiting on God to do something, when in fact, God is waiting for them to identify the next step so they can arrive at the right place and do the right things. So the challenge everyone faces is to know you’re taking the right steps or doing the right thing at the right time in the middle of the journey. One uncorrected step taken in the wrong direction will lead you away from your goal rather than to it. In the middle of the journey, it is easy to lose sight of the intended goal. Each step in the journey is important and necessary. A student must face each test so that he will graduate. A sculptor must make many taps in the right places with the hammer and chisel to bring forth a statue. A writer has to type the right words in order to write a book. A carpenter nails many boards together in the right way to build a house. A farmer plows each furrow properly so the seed can be sown because he wants a harvest. Aubrey Malphurs stated that vision paints “a portrait of what God intends for the ministry to accomplish so all can see it.” 7 A successful journey requires a constant and continued looking at the vision to ensure that at any given point they are on the correct route leading to the desired destination.
Vision will help you recognize your destination. Someone once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, anywhere will do.” Recognizing your destination is not difficult when a person has repeatedly seen it in their mind’s eye before they actually get there. Reaching your desired destination is no accident. One does not become a doctor, attorney, chemist, or national politician without a plan. People who achieve great things in ministry do so because they have the desired result in mind long before they get there. They have received communication from God, written an action plan, identified steps in the desired direction, and ended up where God had spoken to them to go. Abraham did not end up at his destination by accident. Moses did not wake up one day at the edge of the Promised Land and wonder how they got there. David’s victory over Goliath was not a fluke—he had taken previous steps in fighting a bear and a lion. Jesus did not appear on earth two thousand years ago because He accidently fell off His seat in heaven and landed on planet Earth. He knew where He came from, why He was here, and where His destination was. God had a vision before the foundations of the world existed to redeem mankind through the shed blood of Christ on Calvary. Jesus never faltered one step, and never lost focus of His desired destination—to be seated at the right hand of God the Father, ever interceding for us!
Vision will enable you to please the Lord. Perhaps this is one of the least considered factors in determining what to do with our lives and ministries. All too often ministers and ministries are simply trying to survive the day, stay on the map another year, and pray that Jesus would come quickly. Yet Jesus, in depicting how the kingdom of God would work, told of the nobleman who instructed his servants, “Occupy until I come.” (Luke 19:12-13, KJV). Other translations say “trade” (RV), “do business” (NKJV), or “engage” (ESV). In other words, these servants were to follow the instructions of their master to accomplish specific tasks to reach a desired result. Notice the instructions the nobleman gave to them provided vision for them. In the end each one of them clearly knew whether they had reached the desired goal or not, and consequently, pleased their master. We should all desire to hear the words the nobleman spoke when he returned to his servants, “Well done!” (Luke 19:17, NKJV).

We should all go through this earthly journey with one ultimate goal—to reach a place called heaven. God help us not to lose sight of our future in heaven and just focus on earthly enjoyment or fleshly desires. George Barna stated that “the essence of vision for you, as a Christian, is radical obedience to God’s special calling upon your life.” 8 Having a vision—revelation, prophetic insight, guidance from God—is absolutely essential so that we can see what others cannot yet see, and make plans for a future we have not yet experienced.

VISION RESOURCE LIST

BOOKS:

Visioneering, by Andy Stanley, Multnomah Publishers

Developing Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century, by Aubrey Malphurs, Baker Books

The Power of Vision, by George Barna, Regal Books

Timing is Everything, by Denis Waitley, Thomas Nelson

Reaching Your Dreams, by Tommy Barnett, Charisma House

Turning Vision Into Action, by George Barna, Regal Books

Faith Goals, by Dave Williams, Decapolis Publishing

Ministry Momentum, by Wayne Schmidt, Wesleyan Publishing House

How To Reach Your Life Goals, by Peter J. Daniels, Honor Books

Your Road Map For Success, by John C. Maxwell, Thomas Nelson

CD SERIES:

The Incredible Power of Vision, by Joe McGee

1 Mr. Magoo movie review, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Magoo_
2 Chuck Swindoll, http://christian-quotes.ochristian.com/Vision-Quotes/
3 George Barna, The Power Of Vision (Ventura: Regal Books, 1992) 29
4 Vance Havner, http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/thematic_quotes/vision_quotes.html
5 John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993) 1
6 Peter Marshall, http://christian-quotes.ochristian.com/Vision-Quotes/
7 Aubrey Malphurs, Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999) 22
8 George Barna, Turning Vision Into Action (Ventura: Regal Books, 1996) 49

God’s Heart for the World by Pastor Mark Brazee

October 15, 2014

God’s Heart for the World
Pastor Mark Brazee

Mark Brazee For more than 30 years, Pastors Mark and Janet Brazee have traveled throughout the world sharing the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Together they’ve shared the powerful truths of faith and healing in more than 50 nations.

Today Mark and Janet pastor World Outreach Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they base their ongoing outreach to the world. The Brazees still travel as the Lord leads, and they are raising up a congregation who share their passion to reach Tulsa and the world.

The couple has also founded DOMATA School of Ministry and DOMATA Advanced School of Ministry, a Bible training school for ministers, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

God's heart for the world Missions is the heart of God for God so loved the world—the entire world. As a minister and as a believer, we have one great commission—go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Building a ministry is fine, but that is not our calling. Building large churches, beautiful buildings, retirement centers and television ministries are all good things to do. But all this falls down the priority list after first of all going into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature. Whether we are called as a frontier evangelist or a local family church pastor, our calling is first of all to missions.

Missions is such an important vision in the heart of God that it is almost a tangible thing—it can be taught, but it is better caught. I have been consumed with world missions since January 1975, when I had the privilege of spending a week at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, under the influence of Pastor John Osteen. When he walked on this earth, he carried the world in his heart. It was so tangible in his church that without even hearing messages specifically on missions, I caught it.

Now after 31 years of ministry, I can look back and see many things I learned the easy way and lots more I learned the hard way. My wife, Janet, and I have traveled the nations for 20 years and now pastor a church with a wonderful congregation also consumed with missions. In fact, we still travel to the nations on a regular basis. But now we’re able to look from the aspect of the “goer” and also the “sender,” and I see things I wish I had known much earlier in ministry.

As an itinerant minister in America and abroad, one of my greatest suggestions for others in the same type of ministry is to connect tightly with a local church that believes in you, believes with you, and believes for you. Being on the field with a church family “holding the ropes” is something we now experience when we go and something we provide for others as they launch out. In the book of Acts the apostles knew to return to their own company when they ran into trouble. A company is not just a group of ministers, it is a group that believes in each other and will pray “instantly and earnestly” in each other’s behalf.

Let me tell you about one missionary. He launched out from his home church with his family to live in another nation, but after a period of time returned home defeated and discouraged. The missionary slipped into a service on a Sunday morning but heard no mention of missions and no prayers for those laboring in the nations. The church was enjoying the presence of God and the Word of God and was busy fulfilling their local vision. After the service the missionary talked with the pastor and respectfully said, “Now I know why we floundered and eventually failed on the mission field. We went into a dark place to pull others out, and no one held the ropes.”

That’s why in our church every time a person, family or group leaves for a nation or goes on a short term trip we call them up during a Sunday morning service to pray for them. Afterward the congregation comes from all directions to throw money at their feet to help them go. But it doesn’t stop there, as we have prayer groups who consistently “hold the ropes” for them while they are gone. It makes all the difference in the world—literally. When my wife and I travel within the U.S. or internationally, we also have our church family behind us. This prayer support is the difference between night and day.

On the other side of things, as a pastor it is a challenge—and a mandate—to keep a vision for the world in the local church. The path of least resistance is to be self centered and focus through life with tunnel vision. Yet, our job is to touch the world, not just our city or our community.

Pastor John Osteen once said to me, “You’ll never touch the world without a power base.” So as a pastor, my job is to lead, feed and seed. To lead doesn’t mean to coach from the sidelines, but to lead by going somewhere first. Our churches will end up being a carbon copy of us because “such as I have, give I thee.” If we want our churches to pray, we need to be pray-ers. If we want our churches to worship, we must be worshippers. If we want our congregations to go into all the world, we must go there first. In other words, what we are they will become.

To feed doesn’t just mean to write a sermon for each Sunday service; it means to feed, watch over and protect. Then to seed means to plant vision in the people. Yet to do that, we can’t simply sit down and brainstorm, we must spend time in the presence of God and catch from heaven the vision God has for our church. One thing we can know for sure: If a vision comes from God, it will be very strong on missions. As one great missionary statesman said, “the mission of the church is missions.” And the light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home.

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo – Get a Vision (Part 2) by Marvin Yoder

October 15, 2014

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo – Get a Vision (Part 2)
by Marvin Yoder

Read Part 1 of this article.

Get a vision As a kid, I wanted to be a lot of things. For a while I wanted to be a cowboy. Then, I wanted to be an FBI agent until I found out the requirements for being an agent, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to be a baseball player, and then I wanted to be a mechanic and work on cars. My ideas of what I wanted to do kept changing as I grew up because of what I heard about these things. Hearing about something is exciting. It creates a desire within you to do or be what you’re hearing about.

I wanted to be somebody…do something…and go somewhere in life. But I found out that wanting to do something isn’t enough. Nothing is automatic in this life. I had to make some decisions. I had to wake up and go do the right things that would cause me to end up being or doing what I wanted to do.

Going through life is not like it’s portrayed in the movies. The comedy movie, Mr. Magoo, depicts Quincy Magoo as having very bad eyesight and consequently getting into a lot of trouble but he finally comes out on top and everything is great. However, in real life, you cannot act like blind Mr. Magoo and expect to come out on top! The truth is, living like that will keep you from reaching your goals and living the life that God has for you. Fulfilling your purpose in life involves understanding the need for a vision and then taking steps to implement that vision into your life and your church or ministry.

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) states that “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” The word “vision” in other translations is “revelation (NKJV), “guidance” (CEV), or “prophetic insight” (ESV). God wants to help you develop a vision for your life, or your business, or your church. God is a great planner—before the foundations of the world He planned out His creation! He also spent around 1,500 years assigning different individuals to write down His vision for mankind and put it into a book called the Bible. You can count on it—every word written in the Bible will come to pass!

The truth is, every person who is considered one of the “great people of the Bible” dared to implement and then act on the vision—revelation, guidance, prophetic insight—that God gave to them. Abraham dared to leave his country to go to another land. Moses became the deliverer of Israel. Noah dared to build a boat according to God’s instructions. David became a king. The disciples became fishers of men. Mary gave birth to the Son of God. Paul became a great missionary for Christ.

Often people get excited when they hear about having a vision but they never implement a vision for their life or ministry. Here are four reasons that contribute to this:

It is easier to hear about having a vision than to implement a vision. Life is kind of like a football game—lots of people are excited about football and love to watch the game, but only a few pay the price to practice so they can implement the plays needed to participate in the game. These people are also the only ones who get paid. In any profession, the people who will achieve anything significant are those who actually develop a vision of their future, and then take action steps accordingly. Disillusionment and deception occur when a person hears about something, gets excited about it, and then never does anything to attain it. (James 1:22)
Some think that developing a vision would limit what God could do for them. Lots of spiritual, well meaning believers do not focus specifically on what God has planned for them. They often say, “I just want whatever the Lord has for me” or “All things are possible with God.” These people have the wrong idea of how God works. Without implementing a vision, you will experience very little of God’s plan. God’s plan includes certain things for individuals or ministry, and through implementing a vision you can focus on and attain these things.
Some people (and churches) are too busy taking care of today’s problems to implement vision for their future. Many people are caught up in the daily grind, only dealing with their immediate problems, and mostly live reactionary to their current circumstances. They never take a portion of today to prepare for their tomorrow. Sadly, these peoples’ future will not be much different from what they have today.
Some people or organizations do not want change. Joel Barker stated that “Those with the greatest vested interest in the present paradigm are least likely to see the new paradigm.” 1 Some people are busy defending their present position and are not interested in any kind of change. Other people’s goals are to get all their ducks in a row and keep them that way. But it’s like one person said, “I finally got all my ducks in a row, and then someone shot them.” The truth is, change will happen whether you are prepared for it or not. By implementing vision, you can be properly prepared for change when it happens, and it can lead you to a better life.

However, you may be one of those people who is excited about having a vision. You see the Biblical pattern of people following a vision. You may have pushed aside any excuses for not following God’s vision for your life. So what do you do next? It’s time to implement the vision into your life and ministry! Here are a few guidelines…

First, Identify Your Mission in Life.

Prayer and seeking God is necessary in the beginning stages of obtaining a godly vision. In this environment the Holy Spirit can communicate with you about your mission in life. Otherwise you may come up with a plan that leaves God out, and you won’t please Him. Ask God to show you why you exist. You need to know why you are here on this planet. Ask God what your calling is, and the purpose of your ministry is.

No one is born an accident in the mind of God. Every person has an assignment to fulfill. No ministry is raised up without God having a certain mission for them to accomplish. Frederick Buechner said, “The place where God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world’s hunger intersect.” 2 On the Damascus Road, God told Paul his mission in life—taking the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul did not spend his life trying to do something different, or be like someone else. Later he wrote that he obeyed the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19), and that he had finished his course (2 Tim 4:7).

If it’s in your heart to do something or be in ministry, perhaps God gave you those thoughts. Proverbs 16:3 (NKJV) tells us “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” So God will direct your thoughts if you commit yourself to do what He wants. Once you hear from God concerning your purpose in life, write it down. Keep it in front of you and let it be a guiding light that directs your steps.

Next, Create a Dream Sheet of What You Can Visualize.

Next, after identifying your purpose in life, use your imagination to visualize what is needed to fulfill your purpose, and make a list of those items. This is your vision at the present time. Later it may change, but for now it is important that you begin to visualize all you can. Ask yourself some questions like the following. What do you want to do in life? What kind of work does this involve? Where do you have to live to fulfill your mission? How much money will this take? What successful people do you want to meet to help you? What places do you need to see that will provide input into fulfilling your mission? How much education or training do you need to accomplish your mission? What gifts and talents did God deposit within you to help you achieve your mission?

If you’re developing a vision for your church or ministry, make a list about what you can do in your community to fulfill your purpose. Dare to think big—take the attitude that money or resources are no obstacle. What kind of skills and giftings do the people in your organization have? What is positive about your location? What things can you do to change peoples’ lives? How can you reach the people in your community for Christ? How can you show the love of God to them? Instead of waiting for people to come to your church, how can you take the Gospel to the community?

The important thing is to write these things down. Habakkuk 2:2 (NKJV) tells us “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.” In this setting God had given the prophet a revelation of future things concerning Israel. God told him to write it down, so that people could see it and follow it. Even though it may take awhile, yet it will surely come to pass. In the same way, what God speaks to you may take awhile to happen, but it will happen when you follow it.

As you write your dreams and thoughts on paper, they don’t have to be in a certain order—just get them on paper where you can see it. This makes your thoughts and dreams something real and concrete. Writing them down clarifies them in your mind and gives you a better perspective so you can make the right decisions. Remember, without a written plan not much will happen, and what does happen may be mostly accidental.

Actually, this is the way many things work in life. Before houses are built, a blueprint is drawn on paper. For effective production, a company has a written Standard Operating Procedures Manual or a Policies and Procedures Handbook. For cities and towns to be established, they have a city plan and laws written down. For the United States to become a country, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written.

Finally, Put Time Lines with Each Item

Once you have your mission written down and made a list of thoughts and dreams, it is time to prioritize them. You cannot do everything at once, but to get started you must identify what to do first. Psalms 37:23 (NKJV) tells us, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord . . .” God leads us step by step into fulfilling our mission in life. He does not expect us to do everything overnight, but He does expect us to get started.

I suggest making four columns and labeling them “One Year Plan”, “Three Year Plan”, “Five Year Plan”, and Twenty Year Plan.” Put every item in your dream list in one of these columns. Now you have taken what you visualized and put them in a time frame of when it could happen. Certain things have to be done in the first year so that the things in the next three or five years can be done. Going someplace is accomplished by a series of steps. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Big things are accomplished by breaking it down into manageable steps.

Denis Waitley states that “successful people are at the right place at the right time to a great extent because they have learned to take certain action steps in proper sequence.” 3 This is especially important in order for your family or church people to follow you when you implement your vision. People can’t accomplish the vision in one giant leap, but they can take sequential steps in the right direction.

Another way to prioritize your dream list is to divide the items into categories under these three questions:

What you have to do. These items should be your first priority to do. No ifs, ands or buts . . . you have got to do these things, whether you like to do them or not. These are non-negotiable things you must do just to survive and stay out of trouble.
What you should do. This is a list of things that would benefit you and improve your life or organization if you did them. You can basically survive without doing these things but it would improve your life and organization if you did them.
What you would like to do. Here is where everyone would like to live, but this is often not the real world. Consequently, these items should be your last priority. No matter what you do in life, there will be things you like to do and things you don’t like to do. Hopefully, developing your vision will enable you to be involved in something where there are more things you like than you dislike.

Prioritizing the items on your dream sheet will help you accomplish the right things at the right time. Timing Is Everything, Denis Waitley compares seasons of success with the seasons of the year: winter as a time of planning and dreaming, spring as a time to plant and start new things, summer as a time to continue building and persevering with the things you started, and finally, fall as a time of harvesting the fruit of your labors. In this way the progress of individuals, projects and, organizations is prioritized, and the appropriate actions can be taken at any given time.

Prioritizing can help you identify what is most important and valuable to you and your church or ministry. No matter how you choose to prioritize your dream list, you have to find a way to make sure you get the important things done. E. C. McKenzie stated that “it is extremely easy for us to give our major attention to minor things.” 4 By finding some way to prioritize your dream list, you turn dreams into written goals with a time line in which to achieve it.

In summary, having a vision and implementing it into your life is primarily so that you can please the Lord, and also do something that is satisfying and fulfilling in your heart. You cannot do everything, but God has enabled each one to do something valuable for the kingdom of God, and in so doing, enrich our own lives. George Barna said, “In all cases…a total commitment to God’s vision for your life is the most appropriate and the most honorable course of action.” 5 Let’s go do it!

1 Joel Barker, Leading When God Is Moving, Wayne Schmidt (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1996) 11
2 Frederick Buechner, Leading When God Is Moving, Wayne Schmidt (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1996) 27
3 E.C. McKensie, Leading When God Is Moving, Wayne Schmidt (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House 1996) 85
4 Denis Waitley, Timing Is Everything (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992) 17
5 George Barna, Turning Vision Into Action (Ventura: Regal Books, 1996) 49

Four Things a Church Needs

October 15, 2014

Fulfilling God’s Vision – Four Things a Church Needs
By Pastor Michael J. Burns Pastor

Mike is the founding pastor of Christian Joy Fellowship in Bellmore, Long Island, New York. He founded the church in July 1984 after graduating from Rhema Bible Training Center in 1981. He and His lovely wife Cynthia, also a 1981 graduate from Rhema, have been married for 21 years and are the proud parents of their Son, Christopher. For further information please visit their website at www.cjoy.org.

Vision is the fuel that keeps God’s people working together to accomplish Kingdom purposes!

Isaiah 65:8
Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. (KJV)

NOTE: There are several examples here…

1) New Wine – This is a type of God’s Holy Spirit, His Presence and His Anointing!
2) The Cluster – Specifically this is speaking about the effect of the whole being greater than the individual or what is known as Synergy.

The history of Synergy goes back to the invention of the Jet engine. Actually the technology existed long before they were able to make use of its explosive power. The problem was that they couldn’t find a single metal strong enough to endure the intense heat produced by the Jet engine without breaking down and melting. Until one day someone suggested combining different metals together to see if they would have a greater ability to withstand the intensity of the heat. Low and behold it worked! That is where alloy metals were developed and synergy was revealed. Synergy simply says, “The effect of the whole is greater than the effect of the individual parts!”

A Cluster is NOT food to Eat, but Wine to Drink!!!

3) A Blessing – One grape doesn’t give you enough juice to bless anyone but you. There is a measure of blessing in one grape, but the real blessing is in the whole cluster! [The Pastor is one Grape – I am NOT a cluster by myself – You are NOT a cluster by yourself – We are a cluster as we stand together!]

There Are 4 Things a Church Needs to Successfully Fulfill God’s Vision:

#1 – A Spirit of Excellence – PROCLAIMS THE VISION!

Daniel 6:3
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. (KJV)

NOTE: That Daniel was PREFERRED Above all others! WHY? “Because an ‘Excellent Spirit’ was in him”.

Excellent = Pre-eminent, Surpassing, Extreme, Extraordinary!

As a result of Daniel’s Excellent, extraordinarily extreme spirit, the King thought to set him over the whole realm!!! THAT’S PROMOTION and a POSITION OF INFLUENCE!

Here’s the Bible Description of Daniel’s Excellent Spirit…

Daniel 6:4
Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. (KJV)

Edwin Bliss once said, “The pursuit of Excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic and a terrible waste of time.”

Brian Harbour picks up on this theme in Rising Above the Crowd: “Success means being THE best. Excellence means being YOUR best. Success, to many, means being better than everyone else. Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday. Success means exceeding the achievements of other people. EXCELLENCE MEANS MATCHING YOUR PRACTICE WITH YOUR POTENTIAL!”

Booker T. Washington once said, “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

#2 – A Spirit of Servitude – PROMOTES THE VISION!

Matthew 20:25-28
25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.
27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (KJV)

ILLUSTRATION – (D. L. Moody Story of the Northfield Pastor’s Conference where he had a large group of European Pastors who came and between meetings as they went to their rooms to rest, took their shoes off and after European custom, left them in the hall for the hall servants to shine them. This was America and Moody who saw this and understanding their custom decided to serve them when no one else would and he shined all of these pastors shoes. It provoked others to follow his example of servanthood! Only an unexpected friend who showed up and saw Moody doing this was able to tell the story because Moody never did!)

ILLUSTRATION – Mother Theresa was cleaning out the wounds of a leper one day when a News photographer, who was doing a photo story on her ministry in India among the lepers, was watching in disgust through the lens and said, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!” To which Mother Theresa replied, “Neither would I!”

#3 – A Spirit of Commitment – PRACTICES THE VISION!

Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (KJV)

There are 3 Areas of Commitment We Need;

A) A Heart Commitment. Not a Divided Heart!

Hosea 10:
2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. (KJV)

This is the root of division – ‘di’ meaning 2 and we know what vision means, so division literally means 2 visions. When marriages fail or business partners split or church members leave a church it is usually a result of each having a different vision for that marriage, business or church.

Amos 3:3 says, ‘Can two walk together except they be agreed?’

Dr. Edwin Louis Cole said, “Agreement is the place of power and all disagreement leads to powerlessness!”

B) A Mind Commitment. – I like to say that the mind is the arena within which many a believer has lost the battle over their commitments.

Hebrews 12:3 states, “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

ILLUSTRATIONS – Perhaps you remember the story in the former Soviet Union of the underground church members who were meeting secretly when one day, during a secret worship service, the door was kicked in and the KGB showed up with AK-47’s in hand. They threatened everyone at the meeting to deny their faith in Christ or to face immediate imprisonment and possible execution. Several fled the meeting place. Again, the threats were repeated and more left. Finally, when the remaining committed believer’s were left the KGB officials took off their coats and said, “Okay, now that the phonies are gone, let’s have church!”

Nehemiah 4:6
So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. (KJV)

1 Chronicles 28:9
And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. (KJV)

Psalm 110:3
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. (KJV)

C) A Financial Commitment.

Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (KJV)

Weymouth’s Translation – V. 21 – “For Where your wealth is, there also will your heart be.”

Another way to say it is, ‘For where your treasure is NOT, there will your heart NOT be also’. There are 2 books that reveal much about people and their priorities, their Date book and their Check book! These 2 books reveal how people spend their Time and Money. If they are investing their time and money in the church then that would be an indication that their heart is in God’s house. Wherever you spend your time and money is where your heart is at!

Malachi 3:8-10
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (KJV)

#4 A Spirit of Prayer – PRAYS THE VISION!

In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul exhorts the church in this… “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (KJV)

James 5:16b
The earnest (heart-felt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available – dynamic in its working. (AMP)

Praying in line with the vision God has deposited in the heart of the leader cannot be overemphasized. In Verse 17 Elijah prayed for the rain to fall again! We should pray for the rain of God’s presence to fill us, our church and our land!

A Prayer for the Future

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

Sir Frances Drake Quoted in OC Missionary Prayer Letter of Jeanie Curryer, September, 1997

Closing Thought – While there are numerous things I could have focused on these 4 areas are vitally important to the fulfillment of the vision God has given us as a church or to me as a Senior Leader. May we all strive to develop our ministries and churches in the Spirit of Excellence which Proclaims the Vision, the Spirit of Servitude that Promotes the Vision, the Spirit of Commitment that Practices the Vision and the Spirit of Prayer that Prays the Vision.

Grace: God’s Grace is the Game Changer by Pastor Gerald Brooks

October 15, 2014

Grace: God’s Grace is the Game Changer
Pastor Gerald Brooks

Gerald Brooks is the senior pastor of Grace Outreach Center in Plano, Texas. In addition to pastoring a thriving and vibrant church, Pastor Brooks continues to influence thousands of pastors with teaching on leadership. Check out his web-site. Pastor Brooks recently sent this outline to 1,500 pastors and encouraged them to share it with their congregations.

Grace: God’s Grace is the Game Changer

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Grace is the basis of transformation by which we who were dead in trespasses and sins are made alive.

Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Grace is God doing for us what we could never do ourselves. When we couldn’t go up there, He came down here.

The doctrine of Grace is simple; God creates possibilities for us that we would never have without Him.

But every doctrine is followed by principles.

Speak Grace – Our Words

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Serve with Grace – Our Gifts

1 Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Shout Grace – Our Problems

Zechariah 4:7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Share through Grace – Our Giving

2 Corinthians 8:7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

Stand in Grace – Our Position

Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Sustained by Grace – Our Strength

2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Secured by Grace – Our Relationship

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Yet if we are not careful, we can frustrate God’s grace, ignoring that to whom much is given much is required.

Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Grace is not a replacement for growth; We are to grow in Grace.

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Grace is not a substitute for obedience; God’s grace is not a license for disobedience.

Romans 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Grace is not a shortcut for ignoring faithfulness.

1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

The Forgiving Power of God

October 15, 2014

The Forgiving Power of God
By Pastor Michael Cameneti

Faith Family Church
Canton, OH As a Christian, there is not a sin that you can commit that God cannot forgive. God is so full of mercy and compassion toward His children that He will never get to a place where He stops loving you. Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us, “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

And notice Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” When you sin, and you confess your sin to God, that sin is now under the blood of Jesus (I John 1:9), and God forgives you. He doesn’t even remember your sin; you’ve been washed clean and stand blameless in His eyes. Aren’t you thankful for the forgiving power of God? Do you wish people showed that same type of mercy and forgiveness toward one another? Well, as Christians, we are instructed to do just that, and the only way to truly understand how to do so is to first understand how God forgives us.

A Sinner Forgiven
First, let’s look at the sinner or unbeliever (one who has not received Jesus as Lord). The main sin a sinner has committed is separation from God. Therefore, a sinner just needs to change his lordship. Notice Romans 10:9-10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” When a sinner confesses Jesus as Lord, he turns from serving himself to serving God. The very moment confession is made unto salvation, the sinner is now a believer – a new creation – and his past is forgiven. II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” That is why sinners do not have to confess all that they’ve done prior to calling on the Name of the Lord. That’s great news for a new believer!

A Believer’s Sins Forgiven
When a believer sins, he must go to God and ask forgiveness for the sin that he has committed. I John 1:5-9 reads, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When a believer confesses his sin to God, God is faithful and just to forgive, and the blood of Jesus cleanses the believer from unrighteous deeds. Now, that’s not a license to live any old way we want to live, but when we do slip, God is faithful to forgive. Praise God!

Christians Forgiving One Another
Understanding now how God forgives us, let’s look at how we are to forgive one another. I like this example from the book of Matthew. In Matthew 18:21-22, Peter approaches Jesus to ask him how often he should forgive someone who sins against him: “…Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” That’s 490 times…in one day! Most of us would agree that we’ve probably never had to forgive someone that many times in one day, but the point made is this: Our forgiveness should never be exhausted. We should be willing to forgive – always.

In Matthew 18:23-27, Jesus explains the powerful significance of forgiveness in a parable: “Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.’ Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.”

In this parable, the king represents God, and the servant represents Adam. Here is a man (Adam) who owes an immense debt that he’ll never be able to pay, but the king (God), moved with compassion toward him, forgave him his debt and loosed him – set him free. In the same way, when we call on the Name of the Lord to be saved, we are forgiven our incalculable debt and are set apart as children of the King with heaven as our home. Praise God!

Now, notice the rest of the parable: Matthew 18:28-35, “But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me that thou owest.’ And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, ‘O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?’ And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”

Now we see that the man who had been released of his great debt refused to show mercy toward the fellow servant who owed him pennies by comparison; he took the man by the throat and had him cast into prison! What happened? He completely ignored the fact that he, himself, had been released of his debt. He was consumed with the fact that the fellow servant owed him and demanded payment.

Do you realize that when you refuse to forgive people for sins they commit against you that you are acting just as this servant did in the parable? And just as he was handed over to the tormentors, unforgiveness will breed torment in your life. It is destructive and profits you nothing but sorrow and heartache.

As individuals, and as the Church, we must forgive one another the same way God forgives us. Yes, we are human, and most likely we will remember a number of the sins against us, but we must forgive and not cast judgment on one another. In being obedient to forgive, it takes the sting away of the wrong done to us and enables us to live peaceful lives in position to fulfill the plan of God.

I like the definition Bullinger’s Greek Lexicon Dictionary gives for “forgive”: “to treat the guilty party as though they never sinned.” This is how we are to treat other people who have sinned against us; we are not to hold them in bondage to try and repay a wrong done to us. Love covers a multitude of sins; it takes no account of wrongs done to it.

No matter the severity of the offense, God’s forgiving power is available to all of us. Let’s embrace it and cause our lives and our church to be in unity and peace.

*Scripture references are King James Version unless otherwise noted.

The FAB of Follow Up By Joe Cala

October 15, 2014

The FAB of Follow Up
By Joe Cala

Joe Cala is the author of, “Living Your Life Today – The Fool Proof Way!” and “The Proven Formula of Success!” traveling minister, seminar leader, creator of “The Next Step Visitor Follow-Up System”, contributor of Personal Excellence Magazine and the founder of Joe Cala Ministries. Visit www.calaministries.org and contact Joe at 848-248-0730 or by email at [email protected] to receive a free “Next Step Visitor Follow-Up System” Sample Packet and a Complimentary 30 minute Customized Strategy Session for your Church.

Joe Cala Tony Cooke So what in the world does Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS) have to do with Visitor Follow-Up Systems (VFS)?

The Feature (What it is) – An anti-lock braking system, or ABS is a safety system which prevents the wheels on a motor vehicle from locking up (or ceasing to rotate) while braking.

The Advantage (The value it adds to the product) – What is the advantage in having this on your vehicle? The anti-lock braking system was designed to allow the driver the ability to steer around an object while braking. So the primary advantage is the ability to steer the vehicle out of an accident, instead of locking the wheel and skidding into an accident.

The Benefit (The value it adds to you) – How does this benefit you? You are safer, receive reduced insurance rates for safety features and lessen your chances of accidents caused by your brakes locking up and skidding.

The Bottom Line (What it all means) – No matter who the manufacturer of the vehicle is, Anti-Lock Brakes provide the consumer with the peace of mind and knowledge that if they have ABS on their vehicle they will ultimately be safer in an emergency stopping situation.

So what does all this have to do with Visitor Follow-Up? The answer is simple. If I was to tell you that basically every new vehicle that is sold today has ABS brakes and kept going without pointing out the FAB, (Feature, Advantage, Benefit), you probably wouldn’t care whether your car had it or not. However, if I properly tell you and clearly explain the FAB, the Feature (What it is), the Advantage, (The value it adds to the product) and the Benefit, (The value it adds to you), you can now see not only that the vehicle has the feature of ABS but you can also see the importance and value of why you need to have ABS on your vehicle, and why you need to have a vehicle with ABS.

The same is true with Visitor Follow-Up Systems (VFS).

The Feature (What it is) – A Visitor Follow-Up System is used to help churches retain and connect visitors and potential members into lifetime members.

The Advantage (The value it adds to the product – the church) – What is the advantage in having this in your church? The Visitor Follow-Up System is designed to empower the church with the tools necessary to organize the right People, maximize the proper Products, and utilize a prepared Process so that the visitor can escalate into a lifetime member of the church.

The Benefit (The value it adds to you) – How does this benefit you? You as the Pastor receive another person given by God to help fund His mandates, invest their abilities, gifts and talents into your local body and get actively involved in building His church with you.

The Bottom Line (What it all means) – No matter what denominational, inter-denominational or non-denominational church the visitor visits, Visitor Follow-Up Systems provide the pastor and internal leadership with the products, processes and knowledge that are needed to empower them to more effectively escalate visitors into lifetime active members of their church which will ultimately help advance the Kingdom of God and build the local house of God in the area in which it is located.

All Visitor Follow-Up Systems are NOT Created Equal
You see, not all (VFS) Visitor Follow-Up Systems are created equal. When I ask Pastors what they do to follow up with their visitors, the response is very familiar. For the most part I’ll hear pastors tell me that their Follow-Up System to the visitor consists of “A phone call,” “a letter,” and maybe if they’re really aggressive, “a visit to the house to pray with them.” At that point I ask, “now after that week is over and they didn’t come back, now what do you do?”

Most churches today don’t do much after one week. Some go into two weeks with follow-up. Very little go beyond three to four weeks with any kind of Follow-Up. Less than one percent digs into the pile of visitor cards from over a year ago to resend a letter, an email or even make a phone call to re-invite them back to another service again. We have a gold mine of opportunities inside the drawers of past visitors waiting for us to reach back out to them. What if we just sent one email or letter to every visitor who came within the last two years to re-invite them back out to a special service. What if one percent showed up? It’s still one percent more than we had. We can’t lose something we don’t have, so let’s come up with a plan to go back after the ones who didn’t stay and retain these visitors! What does this scripture say to you? Luke 15:4-5 (New King James Version) “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”

The First Time Visitor
It’s time we start realizing that the First-Time Visitor is more than just a part of the announcements. How welcomed and valuable do you think the First Time Visitor will feel if we say, “Sorry, I almost forgot, if this is your first time here please raise your hands, we’d like to welcome you to our service!” The Visitor is your opportunity to grow the church. In the business world you need opportunities to do business in order to do business. In the church world you need visitors to grow the church. The First Time Visitor is a valuable and important part of ministry.

Most so called Follow-Up Systems that I mentioned above have been used and are still being used producing little to no results. From what I’ve seen and researched, there aren’t many Follow-Up Systems that vary in the “How to” aspects of retention. These practices are what most churches that are in existence today have built there growth on. But with these previous follow-up practices the average church has failed to retain 83-90% of the people God sent to visit. In other words, only 10-17% of the visitors that are coming through the church doors are being retained.

In simpler terms, for every 100 people that visit the church, only 10-17 are staying. These numbers are not good. They produce some results, but just because we have produced some results doesn’t mean we have produced the best results possible, right??? Even a broken clock is right two times a day, but that doesn’t mean we should never consider fixing it. An effective Visitor Follow-Up System should arm you with the proper Products, prepared Processes, organization of People and suggestions of Promotions to help you maximize every opportunity to retain your visitors.

Facts to Consider from Dr. Dean Radtke, founder of Ministry Management & Leadership

– The average church fails to meet the needs, disciple and therefore fails to retain 83-90% of the people that God sends to their doors for ministry.

– God’s provision for leaders & finances to accomplish His Great Commission are lost in the 83–90% of people not retained. He sent them. He provided. He funds His mandates. We lost them — many for years before they attend somewhere again. Some never do.

– Most pastors do not know how poor their retention/assimilation rate is & how pathetic their response to the Great Commission.

– Your church is a spiritual hospital. There is a crisis in your emergency room. 83-90% of the people who come to you hurting & searching for help — go home without their needs met.

– The average church in the United States retains 17% of those people God sends them.

– The average pastor has no idea where he stands and what to do about it.

The Importance of Follow-Up
As you consistently follow-up with your visitors, you are keeping yourself, the church and your services in front of them at all times. Follow-up is vital. Businesses constantly follow-up with their first time and existing clientele to maximize every opportunity they can in order to adopt them as their own. As a church we should be that much more diligent to attend to and Follow-Up with God’s people.

As a church we provide a service to the community which we are located in. When a visitor comes into our church they will not be able to see everything the church has for them and their families in only one visit. Their first visit may be their last. This is the reason follow-up is so vitally important. It is our responsibility to do everything in our power to show them our church has everything they need for themselves, their families and their friends. It is so much more than just praying and believing they will come back. Those days are long gone. With the world competing and diligently working on retaining them to its agenda for their lives, we need to equally and even more so work on retaining them to the Lord’s agenda for their lives.

James 2:17 (New International Version) “…In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

If we do not put any corresponding actions to our believing that they will come back than our believing is powerless. If we really believe they will come back than let’s follow-up with them through contacting them by email, letter, phone calls, text and in person.

Through these follow-up processes we will be providing to our visitors and potential members our service times, staff member information, contacts, ministry opportunities, outreaches, testimonials, uplifting & encouraging messages, feedback questionnaires, updates on events, video emails, community involvement and importance of membership to our local church.

From Visitor to Lifetime Member
Referring back into the business world, I have sat in meetings where we would look at ways to recapture clients who have not been in the store for over a year. A business will not think it to be strange to spend thousands of dollars a month to go back after these clients. They want you to become their client, buy their products and utilize their services for a lifetime and not only one time. They see the value of every person to their company and will invest whatever it takes to win them over again. How much more should we be focusing our efforts towards Gods kingdom and His people?

Proverbs 27:23 (New International Version) “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.”

We may not be in the business world but we are in the Family Business! Church is the Father’s Business that we are apart of and have been called into. What about us? What are we doing to recapture a church member who has been missing in action for over a year? Is there a plan to go after them, or are we comfortable with the numbers and people we have? Do we really care about these people as God does? Are we doing everything in our power and resources to influence their lives for Jesus? If we do not have any plan than how can we expect any results? We need not be complacent any longer. God wants us to use the resources we have to reach His people for Christ. Time is short and God is a God of order who expects us to have a plan in place to retain and account for the people He sends to us.

We hope that they’ll see enough to convince them to stay and hear the Word and realize that this is where God has called them. Some may be in tune enough to know that this is where they need to go to church, but mostly others will walk out the church doors and have the weight of the world and the craziness of life distract them and overwhelm them so much to make them not remember to come back and forget how good they felt and how powerful the message was when they were there.

So it’s so important that we do what we can to seek and save those who are lost, floating around and not connected to a local body. The visitor is the reason the doors are opened. We want visitors to come but once they come we want to make sure we do everything possible to help them see that they should come back and stay.

Here’s a question for you to consider. If I were a visitor why should I come to your church? Write down 5 reasons. Are they good enough? Do they speak to meeting the needs of the people visiting?

Here’s another question I’m going to ask. If I were a visitor why wouldn’t I want to come to your church? Write down 5 possibilities you can think of. What would hold me back from ever visiting your church?

A first time visitor only has one visit to determine whether they want to come back for a second time. If you only have one chance to let them see the full impact of your ministry than what are you showing them? Are you showing them that your church has an atmosphere of love and acceptance? Are you showing them that they can fit in here? Are they seeing that they can be included? Or do they feel that they were never really welcomed at all?

Pray for clear direction and the right People to put in place to manage and run a prepared Process, utilizing every Product possible to help retain every visitor the Lord sends to your church in 2010!

To receive a free “Next Step Visitor Follow-Up System” Sample Packet and a Complimentary 30 minute Customized Strategy Session for your Church contact me today.

Fingertips on Glory by Pastor Kenneth W. Hagin

October 15, 2014

Fingertips on Glory Pastor Kenneth W. Hagin

Kenneth W. Hagin, President of Kenneth Hagin Ministries and pastor of RHEMA Bible Church ministers around the world. Rev. Hagin began preparing for his call to ministry—a ministry that now spans 50 years—at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. He graduated from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and holds an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Faith Theological Seminary in Tampa, Florida.

Having organized and developed RHEMA Bible Training Center, Kenneth W. Hagin’s array of responsibilities also includes being the International Director of RHEMA Ministerial Association International. He also hosts the annual “A Call to Arms” Men’s Conference, and with his wife, Lynette, co-hosts RHEMA Praise, a weekly television program, and Rhema for Today, a weekday radio program broadcast throughout the United States. They also conduct Living Faith Crusades. You can learn more about Pastor Kenneth W. Hagin and the ministries of RHEMA at www.rhema.org.

John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

God has made a way of escape for us. He has given unto us a way out of the mess that this world is in. The world today is in a horrible condition. We do not know what will happen in the years to come because we are in uncharted waters! We are facing perplexing problems that cannot be overcome with just a few antidotes.

In the world today, people are grabbing what little happiness they can find anywhere they can find it. It doesn’t make any difference what it is as long as it can relieve the pressure and give them a thrill for the moment. They’re grabbing for it because they have come to a position in life where there seems to be no hope. Everything seems to be downhill, and what you get out of life is what you can grab as you go by.

You find this kind of theme in our television commercials and periodicals and even in listening to commentators on the radio and television. It is the underlying theme behind most of our commercials – especially in the area of beer and wine advertisements. It is that “grab what you can get out of life right now, because you don’t know what tomorrow is going to be” mentality. And if you grab for that happiness, you sure don’t know what tomorrow’s going to be because it’s going to bring untold misery.

People are reaching for a high on drugs and sex, and are living in a pleasure-seeking world! They will do anything to get out of the pressure-cooker of the moment. The world that you and I live in has become the most complex society that has ever existed on the face of the earth. We have become the most complex, and the most educated. We have become the society that has known more earthly pleasures and benefits than any other society that’s ever lived on this earth and breathed the air of our atmosphere.

In all of our education, in all of our psychology, in all of our great medical discoveries (and thank God for them), in all of our great statesmen, and in all of the great kingdoms and governments of the world, we have found ourselves in the position of being at a holocaust rather than at a utopia. Today, we are smarter, have higher IQ’s and are more intelligent than any generation that has lived before us, and yet, with our intelligence, our inventions, and our greatness, we still see society headed toward ruin!

Satisfaction only lasts for a season and people are dissatisfied. You hear this statement over and over again from young people, “I’m bored!” Some of you find yourself in the same position. We’re bored! We have vacuum cleaners for our rugs. We have washing machines and driers; we have garbage disposals and compactors. We don’t even have to take the garbage out anymore! We sit in our house and become bored with life. We have become a nation and a world of pleasure-seekers!

The pages of history tell us about the great Empires that existed centuries ago. The Egyptian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, andthe Roman Empire, and. If you study these in world history, you’ll find that they also reached to great heights. However, the downfall of every one of these Empires was the fact that they became pleasure-seeking! They indulged in their own lustful pleasure until they destroyed the very utopia that they had built. They became aloof to the problems around them, and they became selfish individuals thinking only of their selves. This has become the pattern of the age that you and I live in. We think only of ourselves and what we can get.

Solomon, a man of wisdom, said in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” He’d had everything and was the wisest man in the world at that time. He had the greatest kingdom. More gold, more silver, more of this, more of that, more of everything than anybody else had ever had, and he came to the conclusion at the end of his life that, “All is vanity!” There’s nothing to it. After you’ve had wisdom, after you’ve had everything in the world and you make that final statement, it becomes the epitaph on your gravestone. Vanity of vanities! Nothing is important. Nothing lasts.

When we begin to look at that statement from the human side, with our humanity, he is correct. But that is a picture of a world without God. Their god has become their pleasure. Their god has become their stomach. Their god has become the luxuries of life!

We have all upped our station in life. We’re better off today than we were a few years ago. The history of our own country would tell us that each generation, as we have evolved for over 200 years, has been better trained educationally. Each generation is better off physically. Each generation is better off financially. We have progressed! There’s not a parent reading this that hasn’t worked hard so that their children can have a better position in life than they had. And we that are older, our parents worked and helped us for one reason – so that we could be better off in life than they were. And their parents helped them, and their parents helped them, and it’s just a progression all the way through. Thank God for that!

Some would say, “I could be happy if I just had enough money.” No you wouldn’t. The only difference between the problems of those that seemingly don’t have enough money and those that you think have all the money in the world, is the fact that the one that’s got the money just has more of the same problem. If houses and lands, if money and cars, if fame and fortune brought happiness then why is the highest rate of suicide in the world among the middle and upper class? The highest rate of people taking their life is in the class of people that are supposed to have it made; not in those that are in the ghetto or those that are down and out. This tells me that monetary things do not bring happiness.

What brings happiness? Happiness is a condition found within the inside of man. The Apostle Paul very aptly understood this when he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior, and he said, “I am content in whatever state I’m in.” Now, he didn’t mean Iowa, Oklahoma, or Ohio. He meant that he was content in whatever situation he was in because his happiness did not depend on his environment or his circumstances. His happiness came from Jesus Christ Who dwelt within his heart.

Many people have had their fingertips on happiness, or their fingertips on glory, if you want to say it in that manner. King Agrippa, in Acts 26:28, after Paul had been talking to him for a number of hours, said, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Paul said in verse 29, “I would to God, [I pray to God] that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, [in other words, would accept Jesus Christ or be born again] except these bonds.”

Judas had fingertips on happiness. He was one of the twelve disciples who walked and talked with Jesus. King Agrippa, that I just mentioned, had his fingertips on the greatest thing that the world had to offer – the greatest life insurance policy that anybody can ever purchase. The rich young ruler, the scribe that came to Jesus, all of these people had their fingertips on glory.

Those mentioned in the Word of God are not the only ones found in this condition. Not just those in the Word of God were weighed in the balance and found wanting, as old King Nebuchadnezzar was. Daniel, the great prophet, talked to him and yet he would not listen. The handwriting was on the wall. His greatness came to nothing as he became a raving maniac living in the field when once his head was pillowed in the palace. This day in which you and I live, right now at this very moment, there are people all around the world who have their fingertips on glory, and that glory is slipping away.

A preacher’s son that I knew grew up in the church and knew all about the things of God. He said, “Aw, I’ve got plenty of time. I’m young. I want to have a good time.” He married one of the girls in the church and they had children. He would bring them to the church but wouldn’t come inside himself. If I remember correctly, one day after he had let his family out to go to church and was just a few blocks from the church, his life was taken from him in an auto accident. He never intended to let it slip away. He was just going to have fun for a season. Instead, he went out into eternity. Nobody knows for sure whether he ever tightened that grip on glory or if he let it slip away.

Another preacher’s son I know, while his dad was standing in the pulpit on Sunday morning, slipped out and got in the car and began to drive around the city to have a big time. Authorities later interrupted the service to get his parents to go to the hospital to identify the remains of what was a young, handsome 16-year-old. He had his fingertips on glory. His dad was a preacher! There are many people today that laugh and mock and say, “I’ve got plenty of time to accept Jesus.”

Another man I knew would say, “Oh that’s good for the women and kids, but we tough Texas-men, we don’t need anybody but ourselves.” That was this man’s gospel; that is what he preached. He’d come to church with his cowboy boots and his western clothes on maybe Mother’s Day, Easter and Christmas. He was a friendly guy. He’d shake hands with the pastor and say, “How are you doing, Brother? I’m fixing to kill a couple of cows; my wife will bring you some steaks.”

He liked the pastor well enough, and even liked the church. But real men didn’t need the church. Real men didn’t need God. But that night when he sat in the hospital emergency waiting room with his boy that he’d taught, “Real men don’t need God; they take care of themselves. They fight. They drink! They do all the carousing they want to do.” The tears were rolling down his face. There was no mocking. There was no laughing. “Why didn’t he listen to his momma instead of listening to me? He’d be alive,” he said.

You see, that kid had been in Sunday School and church with his momma as long as he was a little kid. As soon as he got old enough, his dad started preaching his own “gospel.” His dad took him out of church and took him with him to the rodeos, the bars, or to this or that. He was very proud when he was able to set him up with his first beer, yet there wasn’t any of that macho-image left when the devil had gotten through with his life. Thankfully, this dad found God, but nobody knows whether that boy had an opportunity or not to make things right with the Lord. Oh yeah, he knew how to pray. He’d been in church, but all we can believe for is that in those last few breaths, he was able to ask for forgiveness.

There are too many people, such as Judas, who get disappointed and lose out. The rich young ruler, who hung onto the possessions of this world, gave up Jesus. Many people today are like the people I mentioned – the two preacher’s kids and the man that I described as the “macho man.” They are holding on to something that’ll never last.

Many years ago in England, there were many, many urchins and little orphan boys and girls running the streets. You can read the history of it. Their nation was a mess until hundreds of orphanages were built. One day one of the bobbies heard one of the little boys in the trash can. He went around to see him, and saw nothing but feet sticking out of the trash can as this kid was digging for food. He pulled him out, dirty and ragged, and fighting. The bobby couldn’t understand why the boy was fighting him. He took him over to the orphanage and started cleaning him up. He gave him a bath to get the dirt off of him, and he put him in clean clothes. However, there was one hand that was still black and filthy; clenched in a fist. He said to the boy, “Come on. Let us wash your hand and go downstairs. There’s food on the table.”

Now the meal might not have been what we would consider a banquet, but for this hungry orphan boy, it was a banquet indeed. A banquet was prepared, but he kept his fist clenched as they tried to pry his little fingers open. “It’s mine! It’s mine! You can’t have it! You can’t have it!” he cried as he held on to his possession with that dirty hand. Finally they pried the fingers open and in the palm of the little boy’s hand was a round ball of molded old bread. That small boy was hanging onto something that was rotten in his hand. All he had to do was be washed clean and walk down the stairs, put his feet under the table, and have all the bread, soup, beans, and food that he wanted.

This world is like that little orphan boy. People have been made dirty by the world. They need to be cleaned up by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many in congregations all across the country who need to be cleansed. There are individuals who have been washed, but are still playing the church game. They’re hanging on with one hand to a few of the possessions that they don’t want to give up. And yet they’ve got their fingertips on glory! They even come to the house of God, but they’re like that rich, young ruler. They’d rather hang on to a few possessions of pleasure than to dedicate themselves wholly to God.

Though millions have come, there’s still room for one. Like that old rugged cross, the blood flowed from His hands and His feet and His sides. He died that you might have life, and have it more abundantly. He died that so that you could be set free from bondage and addictions. He died that you could have real happiness and not just a moment of pleasure – a sexual act in the back seat of a car in a cheap motel somewhere.

That same Jesus is still washing people clean with the blood that He shed at Calvary. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty shame. There’s room at the Cross for you. Though millions have come, there’s still room for you!

First Impressions: Saving Souls Begins with Clean Restrooms By John R. LaBruzzo

October 15, 2014

First Impressions: Saving Souls Begins with Clean Restrooms
By John R. LaBruzzo CHA

Known for his entrepreneurial and intuitive management style which has created value and profitability for clients and company’s alike, John LaBruzzo brings thirty plus years of leadership experience to hospitality rooms and food and beverage operations, new project development and staff training and development in his consulting practice. With a functional speciality in food and beverage concepting and development; John has opened nine notable hotels from the ground up during his career as either General Manager or Development Team member. Among them, the Waverly in Atlanta, the Ritz Carlton in Washington, DC, The Peabody in Orlando and the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels in Orlando, Florida..

John is an expert on the dynamics of “brand in-culturation” that takes the promise of the operating brand and translating that promise into sustainable programs and techniques at the operating level. These programs and techniques are presented in either onsite training programs for staff and management or delivered via a series of direct application consulting initiatives to return properties to former product and performance levels. John’s focus in the “brand in-culturation” segment of his consulting practice is made relevant in that his platform is one of direct experience and involvement as a General Manager charged with opening new hotels or turning ailing ones around.

John has earned the coveted CHA designation of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and has presented programs on hospitality leadership at the major hotel schools around the country.

First Impressions Back in the day when Frank Borman was the President and CEO of Eastern Airlines there were abundant stories of his rampages with senior and junior managers on the never-ending quest to pursue excellence and to build the traveling public’s confidence in the then floundering airline.

Maybe it was Borman’s military background or the time he spent in the space program; either way he never was known as a leader that allowed for the integrity of the big picture to be diminished by the inconsistency of small details gone astray… witness if you will the exchange between Borman and some of his managers when he was trying to make the point that passengers needed to be able to have a sense of confidence in the quality of the airlines maintenance efforts…

Borman, using an airline cabin as a classroom, proceeded to demonstrate his point as he pulled down one of the service trays from a seat back to reveal to the astonishment of the assembled management cadre that the surface of the tray had not seen any cleaning since the plane had landed from its flight… the surface of the tray was stained with the spilled residue of coffee and meals past… Bormans’ anger and elevated tone of voice was not intended to be a lecture on the necessity for cleaning the tray surfaces between flights… it was meant to demonstrate that the lack of cleanliness in this small detail when viewed by the passenger was tantamount to an indictment of Eastern Airlines overall maintenance program… or the lack of it!

This lapse in detail was the visible breaking of an unspoken bond between passenger and airline that the airline would do everything to make sure that the passengers would be safe. Eastern Airlines made sure that its pilots were competent and their planes were well maintained. Dirty seat trays could be misconstrued by the passengers to mean that Eastern Airlines was going soft on taking care of their airplanes… the impression of not taking care of the trays could easily have said that Eastern didn’t bother to maintain the hydraulic brake lines either.

First impressions are lasting impressions… and if you take that first impression apart… whatever it might be, you would find that the composite of that first impression was gathered around a series of sometime separate impressions… individually they might tell a singular story, but when viewed on an end-to-end basis, they read like a novel. Needless to say you want those first impressions of your church to read like a classic and not a horror story.

Getting ready for Sunday service is daunting… sermon, songs, prayers and microphones, video cameras and lights… the order of service must be perfect! But what about the parking lot, the front drive, the carpet in the lobby and the area underneath the pews… and how about those restrooms? Neat, clean, supplied, everything working? Not too dissimilar from Chairman Borman’s rant about the seat trays not being clean, a church whose housekeeping and maintenance are spotty will surely give rise to faulty first impressions.

Eastern Airlines had a marvelous service tagline… ”At Eastern we earn our wings every day!” When the thousands of EAL employees saw this tagline or heard it spoken in advertising; they knew that their culture demanded that they never accept anything less than product and service excellence from themselves… this culture set a high value on creating and maintaining a solid first impression.

Doing the Lord’s work should carry with it no less stringent a demand for the delivery of a solid first impression to those who come to your church whether it is for the first or the five hundredth time. Our God is a God of order… what he created for us shows a lot of thought and execution… can we aspire as a church to do no less in the way we prepare for our guests on Sunday morning. Earning your “wings” everyday at your church begins with knowing what are the series of impressions you want to create on a consistent basis, documenting what processes you need to have in place to deliver that impression… training your staff to put it together (make sure you know what it is supposed to look like when it is done so you can communicate clearly to the staff)… and lastly inspecting what you expect.

Some years ago when I first became a hotel General Manager, a mentor of mine told me that the great GM’s knew how to do a lot of things well, but the really great GM’s knew how to do simple things well ….and often!

Making sure that all of your first impression triggers are in place this Sunday morning will speak volumes about the quality of your church and the fact that you were expecting your guest. God bless you.

Convenience – the Enemy of Financial Controls in a Church or Ministry by Mark Helland, C.P.A.

October 15, 2014

Convenience – the Enemy of Financial Controls in a Church or Ministry
Mark Helland, C.P.A.

enemy of church finances For most church and ministry organizations, maintaining strong internal controls over the finance and accounting function is a difficult task. Clearly, a church or ministry’s main focus is the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and the finance and accounting function, while important, is often a secondary consideration. Additionally, in today’s modern world the virtues of convenience and speed of response are highly emphasized, often to the detriment of policies and procedures. While efficiency, convenience and responsiveness are admirable, ignoring or circumventing organizational internal controls can result in some very negative outcomes. As I have discussed in previous articles on internal controls, the current weak state of the U.S. economy has caused financial fraud to be rampant and churches and ministries are certainly not exempt from fraud schemes. Church and ministry organizations must continue to take proactive steps to protect themselves and establish strong internal control structures.

In our audit work with churches and ministries, we have noticed that many organizations allow certain practices, despite policies and procedures to the contrary, that provide an “open door” for fraud to occur. Even organizations with solid controls in place should be careful not to let these structures be weakened by some well known practices. Following are three common practices to consider eliminating or modifying significantly in your church or ministry.

Eliminate Rush Checks
A “rush check” can officially be defined as an immediate request for payment of an item that was unexpected and/or a request that did not follow the official chain or command process for approval. While they might seem innocuous, rush checks are a horrible practice to allow on a consistent basis. Rush checks essentially circumvent the internal control process for full and complete approval of the item and they are a breeding ground for fraud. Often the accompanying backup documentation for the expenditure is missing and the ability to determine if the expense is even valid is compromised. As such, rush checks interrupt the accounts payable function and can result in duplicated payments to vendors, errors in the accounts payable aging schedule and rush checks sent by overnight delivery are also more expensive. Here are some ways to put a serious dent in the number of rush checks issued by your church or ministry:

Make it very difficult to get a rush check. This may include requiring a dual signature from a board member or the senior pastor, etc. An explanation should also be required as to why this check could not wait for the normal payment cycle.
Keep a record of the organizations or individuals within your own organization who request rush checks. After logging these activities for several months you may be able to identify trends and you may be able to change behaviors.
Communicate to those within your organization that rush checks are prohibited and explain the new processes to them.

Clamp Down on Petty Cash
Access to petty cash is one of the easiest ways to provide an employee the opportunity to commit fraud. This opportunity is further multiplied when an organization has multiple departments with petty cash accounts and when larger dollar value limits have been allowed. The term “petty cash” implies that this is an area that is insignificant, which usually results in little attention being paid to it by management. All of these factors result in an area that is easily manipulated by the fraudster. The reality is that petty cash accounts are frequently not necessary at all for most departments within an organization and are similar to rush checks in that they allow employees to circumvent the approval process of expenditures. Bottom line, unless there is a compelling reason to keep petty cash accounts, eliminate them and force as many purchases as possible to go through the formal approval process. If you absolutely must have petty cash accounts, by all means require a full and exact accounting of the expenditures before replenishing the account. Finally, make it clear to petty cash custodians that the absence of documentation for the accounting of expenditures could result in dismissal.

Restrict the Use of Credit Cards or Gas Cards
Many organizations allow certain employees to carry credit cards, especially those who travel frequently. While credit cards are an essential tool for certain situations like booking air travel or hotel rooms and paying for meals and incidentals for trips out of town, they can also easily be abused. For example, in our audit practice, I have noted many situations where an employee incurs credit card charges for hundreds of dollars at the Apple store or Best Buy, etc. for equipment purchases without obtaining pre-approval. I know I sound like a broken record, but again, credit cards effectively circumvent the accounts payable approval process for expenditures and also the budget process. If your organization must issue credit cards to employees, here are some best practices to implement:

Restrict the access to credit cards to only a few key employees. Issuing credit cards to multiple employees is a recipe for disaster.
Keep the credit limit on employee issued credit cards as low as possible from an operational standpoint.
Have a credit card usage policy that is clearly communicated to employees. Equipment should not be purchased by employees on credit cards and should go through the formal approval process. Let employees know that they must provide receipts for all purchases made, and expenditures deemed to be non-essential will be required to be repaid.

As noted in the title, convenience is the enemy of an effective internal control structure. While policies and procedures need to allow for a degree of flexibility, make sure that your organization isn’t being too flexible, thus opening the door for fraud to be committed more easily.

Does Your Church Need a Financial Check-up? By Mark Helland

October 15, 2014

Does Your Church Need a Financial Check-up?
By Mark Helland

Mark Helland, CPA is a partner with the public accounting firm of Elliott, Dozier and Helland, PC which is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mark specializes in audit and tax related issues for church and ministry clients across the United States. Mark’s firm works with hundreds of churches and ministries across the U.S. and is available for assistance on this issue. To contact Mark on this topic or for assistance on any other tax, accounting or church audit and compliance need, Mark can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 893-1259 or (918) 488-0880.

Financial Checkup Mark Helland Our church needs an audit! That is the phone call that I have received so many times from pastors and churches across the country during my career. In most instances, this call is the result of one of the following events or “triggers”:

the church is trying to obtain financing or already has outside bank financing and the bank is requiring some level of financial review,
fraud has occurred in the church and/or
the church congregation is questioning the use of church funds, etc.

While some churches have made it a policy to have some level of financial review or “check-up” on an annual basis, the three situations noted above seem to prompt the need for help from an outside CPA firm in many cases. What I seem to find in many cases is that pastors, church business administrators and church board members many times don’t fully understand what “an audit” entails or if this is really the level of service that they even need. This article will hopefully help give pastors, churches and ministries a quick synopsis of the menu of financial “check-ups” that are available and the level of service offered for each one.

A comprehensive set of financial statements with footnotes is perhaps the best way to evaluate a church or ministry’s performance and, from a lender’s perspective, to determine its ability to repay debt. Generally speaking, there are two types of financial statements – audited and un-audited. Audited financial statements are those statements that have been examined by an independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm, who has expressed their professional opinion of the organization. The CPA firm is bound by generally accepted auditing standards and "General Accepted Accounting Principles" (“GAAP”). GAAP is essentially a very complex set of rules as to how financial information should be reported and how financial transactions should be recorded. Un-audited financial statements contain no such professional opinion of the organization’s compliance with GAAP and to some degree this limits their usefulness for a lender to evaluate the financial health of the organization. Following is a more comprehensive explanation of the three levels of service.

Financial Statement Audits
Audited financial statements provide the highest degree of assurance to financial statement users, but this is also the most expense alternative to a church or ministry. In an audit, an independent CPA firm uses various techniques to verify the accuracy of the information in the financial statements, and then expresses an opinion on the fairness of the financial statements. The CPA firm provides written assurance that financial reports are ‘fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Audit standards also require that the internal controls of the organization be evaluated in order to assess control risks present within the organization. For many churches, internal controls are most likely insufficient, so this is a critical factor of an audit that is not present for a review or a compilation. The final product of an audit is a set of financial statements with full footnotes that explain many key aspects of the financial statements and the nature of the organization and its policies. Additionally, a report is issued to management which details any internal control deficiencies that were noted during the audit and corrective measures that should be implemented.

Financial Statement Reviews
Reviewed financial statements provide a much lower degree of assurance as opposed to audited financial statements, albeit at a much lower cost. During a review, the CPA firm makes inquiries and performs analytical procedures, which allows the CPA firm to express limited assurance that it is not aware of any material changes that should be made to the financial statements for them to be in accordance with generally accepted accounting policies. For example, during a review a CPA firm would likely ask management how inventory quantities are determined, as compared to audit procedures for inventory which would include observation of the taking of physical inventory. Additionally, there is no formal consideration of internal controls and the documentation of weaknesses as noted in an audit. While a review does not provide the same degree of assurance as an audit, the form of the financial statements and footnotes issued are essentially the same as those issued in an audit and some financial statement users may find it to be an acceptable alternative.

Financial Statement Compilations
Compiled financial statements provide no assurance whatsoever to financial statement users, and generally a compilation does not include the statement of cash flows or footnotes to the financial statements. In a compilation, the role of the CPA firm is to simply assist management in preparing the financial statements. The CPA firm is not obliged to verify the information that is presented, nor is it obliged to offer any level of assurance as to whether the financial statements meet any of the professional standards. In a compilation, the CPA firm only agrees to present the financial statements in the appropriate format and make certain that the data presented is in the correct format and is clerically accurate. Compilations are obviously the cheapest alternative of the three financial statement presentation alternatives.

Agreed Upon Procedures Engagements
Agreed upon procedures engagements do not provide a set of financial statements or footnotes and basically are a specialized engagement whereby an organization can enlist the help of a CPA firm to investigate and report on a specified issue. For example, a church might ask a CPA firm to see whether or not their church’s internal controls over its offering count procedures are adequate or whether or not the church is in compliance with major IRS requirements for non-profit organizations. In other words, all that the CPA firm reports on in this type of engagement is the pre-defined issue(s) that is of concern to the organization. We sometimes refer to more broad scope engagements as a “church compliance” engagement where many issues can be addressed, without any financial statements being issued.

Ultimately, it is up to each church or ministry to determine what is the best fit to them in terms of cost and to define who the financial statement users are and what their requirements or needs might be. For smaller churches and ministries, we generally recommend either a compilation or preferably a review. The cost of an audit can be significant and if the church’s lender is amenable to compilation or review this can be the more cost effective way to go. While the church or ministry would forgo the additional assurance and consideration of internal controls that an audit affords, it may be possible to specifically target areas of concern by pairing a lower cost agreed upon procedures engagement with the compilation or review. For example, if controls over a specific church function are a concern, the church could enlist an independent CPA firm to specifically address these controls rather than considering ALL controls of the organization.

For larger churches or ministries, we strongly recommend an audit or at a minimum, a review engagement. While the definition of “large” is somewhat vague and hard to pinpoint, I would consider any church with over five hundred members to be relatively large. For this type of church or ministry, it is important to stay ahead of the curve and make sure that financial statements are accurate. I have seen many cases where the church had a sudden need for financing and the church had never had the financial statements examined by an external CPA firm. In the majority of these cases, there were significant problems that had gone unnoticed for years and the cost of performing the engagement was much higher and/or the lender was “surprised” or not impressed with the financial health of the organization. Additionally, it is very important for the church congregation to have confidence that the church’s financial statements are strong and that the church is operating as a good steward of their contributions. An outside audit or review performed by a CPA firm can provide this level of assurance and confidence. Given the present state of the economy, we would predict that information requirements will only continue to increase in future years and that churches and ministries should prepare themselves for these new realities. Our firm provides audit, review, compilation and agreed upon procedures engagement services to dozens of churches and ministries across the United States and we feel count ourselves as blessed to serve you and help you accomplish your goals!

Remember From Where You Have Fallen, and Repent By Rick Renner

October 15, 2014

Remember From Where You Have Fallen, and Repent
By Rick Renner

The following is an adapted excerpt from Chapter Five, “Jesus’ Message to the Church of Ephesus,” in Rick Renner’s recently published book, A Light in Darkness, Volume 1. Click here to order your copy of this fabulous book.

Learn more about Rick Renner and RRM.

We must regularly allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal whether or not we are still on fire for the Lord as we once were. It may be a painful revelation to realize that we have become doctrinally sophisticated yet powerless. However, if we are willing to remember from whence we have fallen and then to repent, we can be spared the tragedy of becoming irrelevant to our generation.

‘Remember’

This is precisely why Jesus said to the Ephesian church, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:5). Notice the three things Jesus urged the church at Ephesus to do in order to correct their backslidden condition: 1) remember, 2) repent, and 3) do the first works.

It was essential that the Ephesian believers remembered their place of departure if they were to return to the vibrant relationship they once experienced with Christ. Therefore, He urged them to “remember.”

When a church becomes older and more structured, polished, refined, and doctrinally developed, it can become so engaged in ministry business that it runs the risk of forfeiting its zeal and spiritual fire. What was once held as precious often becomes routine. And as the leadership and church members become accustomed to the precious Holy Spirit in their lives, too often they unintentionally begin to simply “traffic” in the things of God. It is difficult to find a single mature Christian who hasn’t had to fight this temptation as his or her sinful past gradually becomes a distant memory. It’s a subtle backsliding that occurs in the very act of serving God.

The church of Ephesus had a great deal to remember:

Their deliverance from idol worship.
Their liberation from evil spirits.
The many miraculous healings that occurred in their city.
The great bonfire where they burned all their occult books and magical incantations.
Their public repentance before a pagan crowd.

From the inception of the Ephesian church, these early believers were renowned for their passion for Jesus, their willingness to sever their new lives in Christ from their pagan past, and their aggressive missionary zeal. All of this was a part of their glorious history.

In its early years, this church burned like a spiritual inferno, and the vibrancy and excitement of these Ephesian believers inspired the same passion in other churches and spiritual leaders. But as the years passed, the zeal the Ephesian church had once possessed for the things of God slowly ebbed away. Knowledge increased, but the believers’ fiery passion for Jesus diminished. Undoubtedly, as the church grew, so did its members’ schedules, routines, habits, customs, and traditions. The subtle backsliding that often occurs when Christians become consumed with serving God began to take hold in this great church. The Ephesians were so busy serving Jesus that they lost their intimacy with Him. It is also likely that they experienced a loss of joy in their service, since joy is impossible to maintain without a vital connection to the Savior.

Revelation 2:4 says the Ephesian believers had lost their “first love” — in other words, the simplicity and passion that marked their early love for Jesus Christ. This tells us how far they had unintentionally drifted from the spiritual zeal that once characterized them. For this reason, Jesus went on to tell them, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen…” (v. 5). Christ urged them to stop everything they were doing in order to “remember” the precious fellowship they used to enjoy with Him before they became so spiritually sophisticated.

The word “remember” comes from the Greek root mneia. In ancient literature, this word denoted a written record used to memorialize a person’s actions; a sepulcher; a statue; a monument;or a tombstone. It is very significant that the word mneia can be translated a sepulcher. This suggests that the Ephesian believers’ early experiences with Christ had become buried by 30 years of activity. Thus, Jesus urged them to dig through the clutter of their schedules, routines, and activities so they could “remember” their vibrant beginning. Like dirt on a grave, the busyness of ministry had buried what was once precious to them. Using the word “remember” — the Greek word mneia — Jesus implored them to unearth those early memories when their faith was tender and new, to dig deep in order to recall and recover their powerful past. Once they remembered, they would be able to see how far they had drifted from the spiritual fervency that had marked their beginnings.

However, the word “remember” (mneia)also refers to a statue or a monument.Thistells us that some memories should forever stand tall in our lives and never be forgotten. The purpose of a statue or monument is toput living people in remembrance of a significant historical event or person. That statue or monument is intended to memorialize a historical event or a deceased hero so future generations will never forget.

Statues, monuments, and tombstones are made of metal or stone; therefore, they endure many years without any human effort or upkeep. Generations can come and go, but because statues and monuments stand tall, it is still possible for present generations to look upon the faces of deceased heroes and read the inscriptions that describe their past actions and contributions. As long as a statue or monument remains in its place, it will stand as a reminder to future generations.

However, memories must be deliberately maintained and cultivated if they are to remain vital in our hearts and minds. And if significant memories are not deliberately passed on to future generations, they become lost under the overgrowth of life, just like a neglected grave with no tombstone. It doesn’t take long before the location of such a grave is completely lost. People will walk across it without even knowing that the remains of a precious person lie buried beneath their feet.

Like an unmarked grave, important memories are easily forgotten. Adults forget their childhood; nations forget their heritage; and Christians forget their early beginnings with Jesus. In Revelation 2:5, we discover that churches can forget their past. Years of activity and Christian service can so consume a congregation’s energy and strength that they begin to forget the great work of grace God performed in their hearts. Weariness, busy schedules, and a constant stream of new programs to implement all have the ability to wear down a body of believers — turning their activity for God’s Kingdom into spiritual drudgery and reducing what was once fresh and exciting into a monotonous, religious routine. Soon their early memories of coming to Christ are buried under an overgrowth of activity and spiritual weeds, and they forget how wonderful God’s grace was when it first touched their hearts.

The word translated “remember” in this verse is in the present active imperative, which means Jesus wanted the Ephesian believers to be continually mindful of their past. What God had done in their midst was a wonderful memory that needed to be memorialized among them for all generations. And if they took an honest look at their hearts and compared their present to their past, they would see what Jesus knew about them — that they had fallen from the zeal and spiritual passion that had once burned in their hearts. Regardless of the adulation the Ephesian church received from other churches and spiritual leaders throughout the Roman Empire, Jesus could see the true state of this body of believers — and He said they were “fallen.”

‘From Whence Thou Hast Fallen’

Jesus continued in His admonition to the Ephesian church: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen….” The word “whence” is the Greek pothen, which points back in time to a different place or a different time.It is intended to draw one’s attention back in time to where he came from, to what life was once like, or to a specific moment or experience in the past.

Outwardly, everything looked great in the Ephesian church, but Jesus knew that its leadership and members had lost the spiritual passion that once burned so intensely in their hearts. For this cause, He told them that they were “fallen.”

The word “fallen” means a downfall from a high and lofty position. The Greek tense doesn’t describe the process of falling; rather, it refers to one who has already completely fallen and who is now living in a completely fallen state.

For the past 30 years, the church at Ephesus had hosted the world’s greatest Christian leaders, experienced the power of God, and become more advanced in spiritual knowledge than any other church of that time. The Christian world looked at this congregation as the ideal church. However, we must never forget that what can be carefully hidden from human eyes can never be concealed from Jesus. Hebrews 4:13 tells us that “…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Jesus is often unimpressed with the things that impress us because He often sees a different picture than we do. Others may have been impressed with the heritage of the Ephesian church and its roster of famous personalities — but in Jesus’ eyes, it was “fallen….”

Spiritual smugness is an attitude that deceives a person into thinking more highly of himself than he ought to think (Romans 12:3). Often this self-congratulatory attitude emerges among those who “think” they are more advanced, educated, or spiritually sophisticated than others. It is a spiritual pride that blinds one from seeing his own areas of shortcoming and need as he once did and causes him to be overly impressed with himself.

This is a spiritual affliction that the enemy attempts to use against every successful minister or church. It was such a serious problem in the Corinthian church that Paul sternly rebuked them for thinking too highly of themselves. Deeply disturbed by the cocky attitude and spiritual smugness of the Corinthian congregation, the apostle commanded them to repent. Otherwise, he warned them, he would have to come to them with a rod of correction (see 1 Corinthians 4:21).

It is vital that we take this as a divine warning that directly pertains to our own walk with God. We must understand that our own opinion of ourselves or the high opinion of others concerning us is not a trustworthy measure. Proverbs 16:2 says, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.” According to this verse, flesh is always prone to be self-congratulatory and to excuse its own failures and weaknesses. But there is nothing hidden from Jesus’ sight; He sees it all from the beginning to the end. All the public relations in the world will not change what Jesus sees in a person’s heart. Therefore, it is what Jesus Christ knows about us that is most important — not what we or others think and say about us.

The church at Ephesus had a glorious past and a famous name. It was large, well known, and recognized by others as a spiritual leader and a model church. Nevertheless, Jesus saw the situation very differently from what human eyes could see.

We must never forget that what can be carefully hidden from human eyes can never be concealed from Jesus’ eyes. Hebrews 4:13 tells us that “…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” In addition, Psalm 94:9-11 states, “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.” Jesus is often not impressed with the things that impress us. He often sees a different picture than others see. Others may have been impressed with the heritage of the Ephesian church and its roster of famous personalities — but in Jesus’ eyes, it was “fallen.”

If this illustrious ancient church with its list of remarkable accomplishments could be called “fallen” by the Head of the Church, it is clear that any church, regardless of its notable beginning or enduring fame, can also be “fallen.” This means one’s past is not a guarantee for the future. If an individual or a church is not completely devoted to doing whatever is necessary to retain spiritual passion, it is likely that over time, the initial passion will slowly dissipate, as was the case with the church of Ephesus.

That is why Jesus lovingly pointed the Ephesian believers backward in time, reminding them of the spiritual vibrancy they once possessed but had lost. Then He enjoined them to take action to rekindle their fire. If they would recognize the religious routine into which they had fallen — and allow this knowledge to produce conviction of sin about their backslidden condition — they could repent and turn the situation around.

Repentance demands acknowledgement of sin and agreement with God concerning our condition. Admitting we have done wrong is the first step in repentance. That acknowledgement is difficult, but the pain it produces is part of the process that leads us to repentance.

Thus, Christ pleaded with the Ephesian believers to remember what they had lost. Once they acknowledged the height from which they had fallen, they would be in a position to take the next step of true repentance.

‘And Repent’

Jesus went on to say in verse 5, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent….”

The word “repent” is the Greek word metanoeo, which is a compound of meta and nous. The word meta means to turn,and the word is nous is the word for mind, intellect, will, frame of thinking, opinion, or general view of life. When the words meta and nous are combined together, the new word depicts a decision to completely change the way one thinks, lives, or behaves.This doesn’t describe a temporary emotional sorrow for past actions; rather, it is a solid, intellectual decision to turn about-face and take a new direction, to completely alter one’s life by discarding an old pattern and embracing a brand-new one.

As noted above, the word nous — the second part of the word metanoeo — means the mind. This is a very important component of the Greek word translated “repent” because it tells us the decision to repent originates in the mind, not in the emotions. Although emotions may accompany repentance, they are not a requirement. True repentance involves a conscious decision both to turn away from sin, selfishness, and rebellion and to turn toward God with all of one’s heart and mind. It is a complete, 180-degree turn in one’s thinking and behaving….

The idea of an across-the-board transformation is intrinsic to the word “repent.” If there is no transformation or change of behavior and desire in a person who claims to have repented, it is doubtful that repentance ever truly occurred. Repentance brings about a conversion to truth so deep that it produces a life change.

Five Ways to Fight Fraud in Your Church or Ministry Organization By Mark Helland, CPA

October 15, 2014

Five Ways to Fight Fraud in Your Church or Ministry Organization
By Mark Helland, CPA

fight fraud in church Mark Helland, CPA is a partner with the accounting firm of Elliott, Dozier and Helland, PC which is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For further information on this topic, Mark’s firm has a short report on basic fraud prevention tactics which is available to you at no cost. Mark can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by phone at (918) 627-2286.

“A church should be run like a business.” In my nearly twenty years of performing audits and reviews of churches and ministries, if I had a nickel for every time I have heard that comment I could be residing on a tropical island somewhere! From my experience, the comment has a kernel of truth to it in some respects, but as we all know it is not accurate in many other respects. However, there is one area where church and ministry organizations should be run like business organizations and that is in the area of internal controls over financial reporting.

Maintaining strong and effective internal controls is critical for all organizations, regardless of for-profit or non-profit status and regardless of size. Unfortunately, financial fraud (i.e. embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, etc.) is a fairly common crime in America and religious organizations are certainly not immune from the occurrence of this crime. There are many reasons for the continued growth of financial fraud. Fraud typically initially takes place due to extreme financial stress on an employee’s life as a result of certain life events (i.e. high amounts of debt, divorce, addictions such as gambling, etc.). However, from my experience the major reason why financial fraud continues to grow is that the perpetrators, even if caught red-handed, are rarely prosecuted. I have personally worked with many organizations who have been victimized by dishonest accounting employees and I have seen only one situation where the employer was actually able to get local law enforcement to vigorously prosecute the offender. In many cases, local law enforcement has “bigger fish to fry” and either requires an impossible amount of documentation of the theft or is simply not interested. The end result usually is that the fraudster is not prosecuted, is not bound to make any form of reparation to the organization and the record of the fraudster in effect remains clean. This invariably allows the fraudster to move on to the next organization to do the same thing again and in many cases, it has emboldened them to commit even greater acts as they feel as if they are bullet proof.

A strong internal control structure has many components, but following are some very effective, low-cost ways that you can strengthen internal controls and keep your organization safe from fraud:

1. Control access to bank statements.

Never allow an individual who has direct access to bank accounts (i.e. access to blank check stock, check signing authorization, reconciling the bank statement, etc.) to initially receive and open the monthly bank statement(s). This is one of the easiest ways for fraud to go undiscovered as the images of checks that were unauthorized or forged are initially being received by the person that committed the act. Even if the bank statement were to be subsequently reviewed by someone else, the individual who received the bank statement could have removed or altered certain check images or data to hide transactions.

The good news is that there is a very easy solution to this problem. Simply change the mailing address on all bank statements to the address of a trusted individual such as a senior pastor, administrative pastor or better yet, a board member or deacon. The key factor here, is the individual that you choose should be someone who does not have any access to the organization’s bank accounts – in effect, the individual should be a neutral third party who is “auditing” the monthly bank statements for irregularities. The designated individual should then look for irregularities such as checks made payable to unusual or unapproved vendors, unauthorized check signors, forged signatures of authorized signors, payroll checks to unknown employees, payroll checks to employees for the wrong amounts, etc. If you can only implement one step from this article, implementing this step will greatly enhance your organization’s internal controls.

2. Require dual signatures on checks for larger dollar amounts.

Ideally, all checks would have dual signatures by authorized check signors, but this is just not realistic in a fast-moving, dynamic church or ministry environment. A more realistic policy is to require that any check over a certain amount, for example $1,000, be signed by two people. Ideally, the two authorized signors of “large” checks should be the individual in charge of finance and accounting and a board member. Furthermore, the board member chosen to co-sign large checks should not be the same board member selected to review bank statements as listed in the previous point. I recognize that this is a bit cumbersome and may require a degree of coordination, but that is kind of the point. Large checks should require a greater degree of thought and consideration before they go out the door.

3. Restricted funds need extra tracking and caution.

One of my biggest “pet peeves” as an auditor is when restricted funds are co-mingled with unrestricted funds. Donations that have been designated for a restricted purpose by the donor should never be deposited into a bank account with unrestricted funds. If your church or ministry receives restricted donations, a separate bank account should be maintained specifically for these funds. These donations can then be tracked and payments can be made directly out of this account for the restricted purpose(s). Depositing restricted funds in an account with unrestricted is dangerous as it is far too easy to “forget” that these funds were restricted by the donor for a certain purpose.

4. Make sure that payroll taxes are being paid.

The most critical payment that your organization can make on a monthly basis is the payment of payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state and local tax authorities. If you want to get in trouble quickly, failing to make a payroll tax deposit or failing to make such payments timely is the best way to do it. The penalties for any mistakes in this area are enormous and the IRS is becoming much less forgiving of errors in this area. This is also an area where the fraudsters that I mentioned earlier love to operate. Rather than remitting the payroll taxes to the tax authorities, a frequent fraud is to instead remit these amounts to a shell company or organization that they have formed. The check made payable to “IRS” which they provided to you for signature can easily be changed to FIRST ROOFING, LLC or FIRST FEDERAL BANK, etc. Your best bet here, especially if your organization is small, is to outsource your payroll to a third party provider such as Paychex , ADP or a local CPA firm where you can be sure that the payroll is being done correctly and that all deposits are being made. The cost for this type of service is minimal as compared to the payroll costs of keeping an employee on staff. If you do decide to have your payroll done in house, again make sure that someone is “auditing” the payroll function to make sure that all payroll tax deposits are being remitted correctly and timely.

5. Place a priority on the accounting and finance function.

From my experience in working with churches and ministries, many seem to greatly underestimate the importance of the accounting and finance function. It is a widespread practice for accounting and finance employees in churches and ministries to be paid far below the “market” rate for their skills. Further, in is not uncommon for churches to require that all employees also be church members. I have no problem with this requirement per se, but this requirement combined with below market compensation greatly diminishes the pool of qualified, desirable candidates. Accounting is a complex area and while anyone can call themselves an accountant or bookkeeper, very few truly understand the intricacies of balance sheets, income statements and statements of cash flows. Consider increasing compensation levels for key accounting and finance employees and I am confident that your church or ministry will have much better, more qualified candidates from which to select.

FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES

October 15, 2014

FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES WILL TAKE MORE THAN FAITH!
By Richard D. Locke, CPA and Larry L. Perry, CPA

OUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY?

Walking out of a weekend government-sponsored seminar on the White House’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, one pastor was thinking this way: “I’ve only wanted to do one thing my whole life–pursue the Lord’s call with no limitations, particularly the lack of money! And now here is my golden opportunity, an answer to prayer—government funding to do God’s work!” Back at his office on Monday, he downloaded the federal grant application forms, assigned a new intern the responsibility for completing the papers by Friday and began to dream of new soul-winning projects.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, the pastor of a small town church was anguishing in prayer over a notice from a federal agency reporting that the church was not in compliance with the requirements of their grant to provide job interview training for the unemployed. The letter informed the pastor their grant was being suspended and their church could even be penalized or required to pay some of the grant money back. The pastor was probably thinking: “I wish I had understood when our auditors told me our recordkeeping and reporting requirements needed improvement and that our management resources were not adequate for administering a federal grant. Maybe this wasn’t my answer to prayer after all!”

Too Good To Be True?

Someone once said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!” We’re not saying that faith-based initiatives and other federal award programs are too good to be true but, like Paul Harvey often said, we need the “rest of the story.” Briefly, here is the rest of this story.

Most churches and ministries continually need funds to expand existing programs or initiate new ones. Government funding may be one way to do this…but the “rest of the story” is that strings are attached! Luke 14:28-30 instructs us to “count the cost” before undertaking our work. Failure to “count the cost” of receiving federal funding can have devastating consequences to a church or ministry. This could even result in some of God’s men and women being prevented from fulfilling their calling!

Strings Are Attached

Here’s what they look like. Church or ministry recipients of federal funding:

* Are required to comply with extensive laws and regulations, federal, state and local.
* Are prohibited from using public funds for sectarian worship, instruction or proselytization.
* Should carefully plan their legal and operational structure.
* Must comply with extensive accounting systems, internal control systems and reporting requirements.
* Need adequate management resources to manage their programs.
* Must have annual audits of their financial statements, internal control systems and grant compliance, usually performed by CPAs.

Basic Prohibitions

In the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and earlier legislation, the question is not so much whether a given activity is religious but whether government money is funding a religious activity. Service recipients cannot be excluded based on their religious beliefs and cannot be subjected to religious activities as a condition of receiving services. A faith-based provider must be able to demonstrate that any religious activities it engages in are privately funded and that recipients of the benefits of a federal award program are not required to participate in such religious activities.

The 1996 Welfare Reform Act, and the House version of the faith-based initiatives legislation, prohibits the use of public funds for “sectarian worship, instruction, or proselytization.” Both, however, embrace the concept of “charitable choice” that allows faith-based organizations to provide social services without impairing their religious character, i.e., displaying religious symbols where services are being provided, using religious criteria in hiring and including religious concepts and language among other alternatives. The Senate version of proposed legislation, on the other hand, does not embrace the “charitable choice” concept.

Legal and Operational Structure

As future legislation emerges concerning government funding of religious groups, it is possible faith-based organizations will not enjoy the religious discrimination exemptions of the past (such as hiring members of their own faith). Courts, in fact, are likely to increase scrutiny of all forms of employment discrimination.

The possibility of greater prohibitions on the use of federal funds and fewer exemptions from employment discrimination for religious organizations, as well as other legal, audit and insurance requirements, are leading some faith-based organizations to establish legally-separate non-profit organizations to deliver government-funded services. The nature of a proposed separate organization, its operational, management and accounting resources and its impact on the government’s award selection process should be carefully considered by an organization’s professional advisors before filing a grant application.

Systems and Reporting Requirements

Not only must a faith-based organization utilize accounting and internal control systems and related computer technology that will produce accurate financial information (including indirect cost allocation), government-funded programs require accurate, detailed reporting of payroll and other expenditures, eligibility records and the numbers of persons served. Personnel requirements for a program must include persons providing the services and those necessary to comply with a program’s recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Discussing these administrative and technical issues with pastors and directors of ministries often produces what we might call “the glazed eyeball effect.” This effect begins with a translucent coating forming over one’s eyes, coupled with a simultaneous blockage of both eardrums! During this phenomena, the person’s thoughts often run to feeding the poor in a third world country, to passing out tracts at the bar down the street or to the rapture. In short, administrative and technical issues are often the last to be considered by faith-based organizations. If an organization is planning on applying for government funding, the cost of the detailed recordkeeping and reporting requirements must be counted!

Management Resources

While this may be apparent, successfully managed federal award programs must have good managers! Federal award programs require managers that can manage projects and achieve organizational goals, not just cast a vision. These programs require managerial skills that, frankly, are beyond those found at some faith-based organizations. Planning for a program should include an assessment of internal management resources and an evaluation of available external, contractual resources such as program managers, accountants and other professionals.

Annual Audits

A surprise to many first time grant applicants, most federal and other grant applications require two years audited financial statements as a condition for application. After receiving federal funding and expending more than $300,000 during a year, a non-profit organization must comply with the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996 and the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-133, Audits of States, Local Governments and Non-profit Organizations and submit annual audited financial statements to the granting agency. This audit, usually performed by independent certified public accountants, includes an entity-wide audit of the organization’s basic financial statements and a detailed audit of the expenditures for major federal award programs. The audit of the major programs includes testing and reporting on internal controls and the compliance requirements of the programs. Only with adequate accounting and internal control systems, and the demonstration of adequate management resources, can an organization expect to successfully complete this extensive audit process.

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS ARE ALLIES, NOT OBSTACLES

Some pastors and directors of ministries regard relationships with CPAs and attorneys as hindrances to their faith visions. Sometimes this can be explained because the relationship is approached in the way we sometimes approach God—we make our plans then ask Him to bless them! In some cases, CPAs and attorneys aren’t familiar and experienced with the federal funding process or, as is more often the case, they don’t understand the unique operations of churches and ministries. In any event, it is simply wisdom to involve experienced, qualified professionals in your process of planning for federal award programs! Churches and ministries will benefit greatly from investing in on-going relationships with skilled professional advisors (allies!) to help plan for filing grant applications, to prepare for grant management and compliance and to successfully complete the financial audit process required for recipients of federal funding. As Proverbs 11:14 suggests, there is safety in many counselors…and we think the writer meant before we get into trouble rather than after!

Richard D. Locke is a certified public accountant with over forty years of experience. His firm, Locke & Associates, P.C., is a full service accounting firm which specializes in taxation and nonprofit services. The firm has six certified public accountants servicing approximately one thousand clients in the United States and thirty countries. You can reach Richard D. Locke, CPA at 918-488-0880.

With over 30 years’ experience as a CPA, Larry L. Perry is a nationally-known author of accounting and auditing manuals, a professional continuing education instructor and author, and a consultant to CPA firms. Larry practices in Colorado Springs, Colorado and serves primarily churches, religious organizations and other nonprofit organizations. He is also president of CPA In-House Seminars, Inc., an organization that arranges and presents cost-effective, live-taught seminars on all functional subjects in CPA firms and cities throughout the nation. He is an ordained minister and serves on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations. Larry can be reached at 719-963-6775 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Faith that Flows from Grace Christopher Alam

October 15, 2014

Faith that Flows from Grace
Christopher Alam

Christopher Alam was born a Muslim and received Jesus Christ in 1975. After enduring much persecution including spending almost an entire year in prison for preaching the Gospel, Christopher was threatened with execution. After this he escaped and went to Sweden as a refugee where he was granted political asylum. There, in church, he met Swedish-born Britta. You can read Christopher’s story in his exciting book, “Out of Islam.” Click here to read the rest of Christopher’s Bio.

Visit Christopher Alam’s web-site.

Learn about the Dynamis World Ministries Farm and Orphanage Project.

faith that flows from grace God has decreed in His Word, “Now the just shall live by faith…” (Hebrews 10:38).

This exhortation tells us that we, who belong to Jesus, should not merely act in faith when the need for faith arises, but that we should live our lives immersed in faith. Living a life of Faith is one of the very foundations of the Christian life.

To live by faith would therefore mean breathing faith, thinking faith, speaking faith, acting faith, walking faith, and so on – literally every aspect of our lives being based and grounded in the spirit of Faith.

Our faith rests upon and flows from that which the Lord Jesus did for us upon the Cross of Calvary, and upon the Written Word of God. The Bible declares:
“Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5 NRSV

In other words, upon the Cross the Lord Jesus bore upon Himself our sins, our diseases, and the curses that were upon our lives so that we may be righteous, healed, free, and blessed.

This is what faith is for, to enable us to appropriate these and every other blessing that Christ has purchased for us with His own blood, so that they no longer remain as theological truths and phrases printed on paper but as living and dynamic truths in our earthly lives. By faith, we can take possession of the things which Jesus has purchased for us at the Cross.

I have noticed through my years in ministry that people carry one of two different perceptions of faith. In other words, there are two different ways in which faith is taught, preached and practiced. Both of these perceptions of faith are deceptively similar in many ways, but they are, in reality, very different from each other. Only one of them is right.

One of these is what I would call “legalistic” faith or “law-based” faith. This is when the believer believes that he can possess God’s blessings only by exercising what he calls the “laws of faith”. The whole idea is that of God being in a passive state who stands at the sidelines watching us as we go through the motions and spiritual gymnastics of faith. Once he is impressed that we have gone through all the motions of faith, he would then see to it that the miracle that we have asked him for happens.
In this “law-based faith”, the believer believes that the main factor which ultimately produces miracles in his life is his own ability to believe, to confess, to hold fast to his confession, etc.

Although confession and these things are Biblical principles, his faith leans more upon his own going through the motions of faith than it does upon Jesus.

HE is the active one, whilst God is passive. The “burden” unfortunately is on him, and not on Jesus. The results appear to depend more upon him and his ability to pray, believe, and confess, rather than upon the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus.

In this “philosophy of faith”, what appears to be “faith” is actually nothing but “works”.
The other approach is true Biblical faith. This is what I like to call “Grace-based faith”. Grace and works are opposites of each other. We live either by Grace or by works.

Many Christians try to make a convenient “mix” of the two, which NEVER works, because the two just cannot mix. It is either one or the other.

After all, the Bible does say, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Romans 11:6).

Works-based faith may give some limited results because God’s Word, even spoken or exercised under a legalistic mind-set is still God’s Word. But on the whole this kind of faith usually brings only disappointment and failure.

Now let us understand what Grace-based faith is. Before doing so let us take a look at Strong’s definition of “Grace” or what the Bible means when it says that we are “under Grace”. The word “Grace” is the Greek word “Charis” which means the following:

God’s unmerited favor
The merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.
The spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace

Wow!

In other words, true Grace is the power of God’s Holy influence working in the hearts of people and drawing them close to Jesus. Grace, as many people erroneously assume, is NOT a passive attitude of spiritual laziness, complacency, or neglect of God and His Word. Grace is NOT a license for sin. Grace is the power of God working in man. When a person stands under God’s Grace it brings forth life, freedom, victory, holiness, healing, peace, and prosperity.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8

Two things stand out in this verse:

1. Grace precedes faith. In other words, Grace comes before faith. This leads us to something that most people have never realized – that we can’t truly understand faith without first understanding Grace, because Grace always precedes faith. Grace is the bedrock upon which faith rests. To truly understand faith, we must first understand the Love and the Grace of God.

2. Faith is “not of ourselves.” In other words, faith too like Grace, is a gift of God. It is through Grace that God gives us the faith to appropriate all the blessings that Grace provides!

An easy way to understand this is through this allegory: God shows me a house that He owns and says, “I am selling you this wonderful house, but it will cost you ‘x’ amount of money, which is far more than you could ever afford!” He then proceeds to give me the money so that I can use it to buy the house from Him. I may say that “I bought the house”, but did I really? It was, after all, He who gave me the money to appropriate it from Him!

Grace could also be described as the pipeline through which God freely and undeservedly pours down all His blessings to us. Faith is the pipeline that God through His Grace freely puts into our hearts. The purpose of this pipeline is to connect to the pipeline of His Grace. When we align and connect our pipeline of faith to God’s pipeline of Grace, God’s miracles begin to flow.

Grace is unmerited favor given to us just because of Jesus. Even faith, which follows Grace, is given to us by God as an act of God’s Grace. Do you know how He does this? “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Notice that faith is not “produced” by us “working the Word”! On the contrary, faith “comes” as yet another gift of God’s Grace! This is how it works: as we live in

God’s Word and immerse ourselves in it, we meet Jesus (Who Himself is the Living Word) in His Written Word and see what He has done for us. God, by this act of His Grace, deposits faith in our hearts so that we can, by that same faith, lay hold of and appropriate the very things that we have seen in His Word.

This wonderful interaction of the Word, Grace, and Faith is pivotal to our Christian life. Paul said, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

The Word of God is the “Word of God’s Grace”, also known as “the Word of Faith”. Grace working through God’s Word not only brings us faith, but also builds us up and brings us into the fullness of our inheritance in Christ.

Another wonderful thing about Grace is that it is for EVERYBODY! Nobody is left out, and then once we receive Grace, we receive faith too!

“And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:16-17

Grace also gives us “righteousness”, which does not mean fleshly perfection as some assume it does. Righteousness means “right standing” with God. This means that God accepts us and loves us just as we are. He looks at us in Jesus, as if we never sinned or failed in our lives. This in practical terms means that our own failures and imperfections are of no consequence when we are in Christ Jesus and walk with Him. God sees us just as He sees Jesus! Because of this we can walk with a clean conscience without guilt, and our faith is always powerful and always brings miraculous results. The Bible says:

“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17

When we live under Grace, faith and righteousness are not an issue because they are ours, given to us freely by our Lord. The problem is that man’s natural tendency is to turn to legalism. There is something about the natural man that, although he recognizes that he is saved by Grace, he feels he has to turn to legalism for Christian life and conduct. This is religion and not freedom in Christ. The Bible says:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage…Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” Galatians 5:1, 4

Religion and legalism are more dangerous than we realize because they can actually put us in bondage and cause us to fall from Grace! That is why we have to fight the fight of faith – to fight against the tendencies of our flesh to go into the works of the law. We should fight to stay in Grace and in faith where we know that God’s favor abounds to people like us, not because we deserve anything, but we are blessed with all things only because of Jesus, and Jesus alone!

Lastly, True Grace makes us holy. I say “True Grace” because the concept of Grace has been so misinterpreted and misunderstood by some, that there are those who have come to believe that God’s Grace is a license to neglect godliness and even to indulge in the lusts of the flesh. True Grace is NOT lawlessness!

A man truly living under God’s Grace develops a mind- set that says, “God loves me so much, He has given me so much more than I could ever deserve in this life; therefore, I will never allow anything into my live that would cloud my communion with Him!”

Grace, Faith, Righteousness bearing rich fruit in our lives and in our ministries. This is true and wonderful living indeed!

Is Faith No Longer Needed? by Marvin Yoder

October 15, 2014

Is Faith No Longer Needed?
Marvin Yoder

Is Faith No Longer Needed I came to Christ in a time when having faith in God and receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit were very common. Many people talked about believing God, having their prayers answered, experiencing the power of God, and seeing God do mighty things in the world. Furthermore, we were busy talking to others about these things. If they even gave us five minutes we would talk to them about faith in God, receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or having the power of God in their life.

Personally I was astounded at the idea that God would hear my prayer. I had no idea that God cared about my needs or that He would was willing to listen to my prayers. So I was pretty excited to learn that you could pray in faith to God based upon His promises, and He would answer my prayers. I had never heard anything like it. I devoured the Word of God, went to meetings where these truths were taught, and excitedly shared my new found understanding of the Scriptures with almost everyone that I met.

People were swept along in the excitement of discovering what the Bible had to say and seeing the Holy Spirit do mighty things in their lives. The Bible became alive when we embraced the literal truth of it. We would read about things in the Bible that God did, and then see the Holy Spirit do them in our midst, too. Loved ones were saved, multitudes of people were healed or received deliverance, and many received the baptism with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues. People in almost every denomination were united together by their new understanding of the Bible and their experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

We were talked about, made fun of, criticized, and rejected by others who went to church. Some accused us of being in a cult, and others said we were following false prophets. But it didn’t matter to us. We were too busy discovering biblical truths we had never seen before and having biblical experiences that they said we couldn’t have!

Looking back, I now realize what a great time that was.

Fast Forwarding to Today . . .

Since then the Spirit-filled part of the Church has grown rapidly and exponentially. Today it is purported to be the fastest growing segment of Christianity. In many cases, the Spirit-filled church has risen above the rejection of their critics to gain a place of respectability among the rest of Christianity. It now has its own seminaries, commentaries, theology, scholars, churches, and mission programs.

But it also has its own problems as well. All is not well today in the Spirit-filled Church. Almost one generation later, the critics are many. That would be okay if they were only from the outside. Historically, persecution from others has never stifled the progress of the Church. The greater danger has come from the divisions that have occurred within the Spirit-filled Church, and the divisive voices within that point fingers at each other. This has caused people to choose what camp they are in.

Today, many Spirit-filled Christians are divided into different camps, or schools of thought. Some are in the camp of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Others are in the camp of extreme grace. Still others are in the camp of legalism and dogma. Some are caught in the camp of hyper-faith. We find some adhering to the school of thought that prophecy, spiritual experiences, and bizarre occurrences take precedent over the Scriptures. Sadly, many Spirit-filled Christians have not embraced any one particular camp—rather they pick and choose what they want to believe, having what one person referred to as a "sound-byte" theology rather than a "systematic" theology.

Most of these things that I mentioned are scriptural when connected or applied with other truths within Scripture. Truth should be balanced with truth. When people leave the whole counsel of Scripture by emphasizing one truth at the expense or the exclusion of all other truth, they leave the mainstream of their Christian faith, and get into an extreme type of Christianity. Taking one truth of the Bible and making it a stand-alone subject is a short trip to error. Remember that the apostle Paul tells us to "rightly divide the Word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

Have We Forgotten The Roots of Our Faith?

Perhaps it would be good to re-visit the roots of our faith. Being Scripturally grounded in the Word of God is vital to our Christian life. The reason some have lost the joy of their salvation and their Christian life has become a ho-hum existence is because they have strayed from their Biblical roots. What am I referring to when I talk about the "roots of our faith"? I heard one person say that “it is the person who executes the basics well that will have success in their life.” I have listed some of the basics, or roots, of our Christian faith with which we should make sure we are well connected.

1. Embracing the whole counsel of the Word of God.

F. F. Bosworth said, “Most Christians feed their body three hot meals a day and their spirit one cold snack a week. And they wonder why they’re so weak in faith.” 1We become weak Christians when we do not have a daily intake of God’s Word. A return to daily feeding on and believing the whole counsel of Scripture, and taking it literally for what it says (unless it uses a figure of speech) is absolutely vital and necessary.

Instead of being thrillingly entertained until we have no desire to work, we should study the Word of God so that that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17). A return to believing the literal Word of God will in turn lead to an increase in God confirming His Word with signs following (Mark 16:20).

2. Having Faith in God and His Word.

Hebrews 11:2 tells us that by faith the elders (patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament) obtained a good report or commendation from God. As these people demonstrated the nature of faith described in Hebrews 11:1, they gained God’s approval. The writer of Hebrews also admonished Christians in his day to also maintain faith in God (Hebrews 11:6).

With tongue in cheek I would say . . . if the elders obtained a good report by exercising faith in God’s Word, then the younger ones will also have to exercise their faith in God’s Word to obtain a good report with God. Faith in God and his Word is never outdated . . . indeed it is a truth that has spanned the dispensations of God and the millenniums of human belief in God.

3. Keeping the redemptive work of Christ central in our belief system.

Sometimes in the midst of the many things that are being said, it is easy to forget that Christ is to have the preeminence in all things, including our Christian beliefs and practices (Colossians 1:18). In their book entitled Interpreting the Scriptures, Conners and Malmin said, “In the wheel of divine revelation He is the hub, and all truths are as spokes relating to Him who is the Truth.” 2

All that we have today as Christians is because of what Jesus did at Calvary. Christ’s redemptive work is the determination point of what we as believers are entitled to receive from God. Consequently, the further we stray from this point makes it harder for us to receive what we need from God.

4. Accepting the Baptism with the Holy Spirit as Scriptural and necessary.

We must keep in mind that the New Testament was written by men who were filled with the Spirit! The early Church people were filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4)! Today we still need to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-20). Being filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with His presence and power! We could not be where we are today without Him!

Therefore the baptism with the Holy Spirit and speaking in other tongues is essential (not optional) to our Christian walk! We should not apologize or be ashamed of the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues, but seek to be a blessing and continue to boldly share the knowledge of this with others as we have opportunity.

5. Walking in the new commandment of the love of God.

Jesus Himself said that the way the world would know that we are God’s people is by the love of God we demonstrate (John 13:34-35). Paul said that nothing is greater than to walk in love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Walking in love toward God and our fellow man is basic Christianity. A return to loving your neighbor can help evangelize the world faster than straining to be supernaturally endowed by some spectacular or even bazaar spiritual experience. I believe it takes a greater dedication to God to actually love those around us than it does for us to simply pray for God to do a miracle for them.

Speaking with a voice of compassion and love will promote unity among the believers, and keep us from killing our wounded. As we reach out with a response of love toward those who speak divisively, it will keep believers from polarizing themselves with others like themselves, and instead help them to reach out to others who may not have the same exact set of beliefs and stand together in the faith.

6. Laying aside sin and developing godly character.

When we as Christians do wrong, we still need to turn from our sinful deeds and receive forgiveness from God. Turning from sin and endeavoring to develop Godly character on a daily basis is part of the foundation and roots we must have in order to stand strong and be successful.

Peter admonished us to “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7). In essence Peter tells us that having godly character is not a one-time event, but rather a continual, daily effort of leaving sin behind and building godly traits within us.

7. Fulfilling the Great Commission in the authority and power of God.

The Olympic flame is carried in segments by people to the place where the games are held, and they are careful to not let the flame go out. We as Christians can learn a lesson from that, in that we must not let the flame of joy that we received when we accepted Christ to go out.

Remember the original thrill of joy you had when you accepted Christ as your Savior? That great joy within you provided strength and enthusiasm for your daily living. Many Christians long to again feel the thrill of joy they once had when they received Christ . . . and they can feel it again . . . if they get involved in sharing their faith with others! Seeing someone else come to Christ, or gain victory in their life, or receive an answer to a prayer that you said together will help keep the thrill of joy alive within you, and help you keep a proper perspective on life!

Lord, Increase Our Faith!

As I thought about these things, I said as the disciples said, “Lord, increase my faith”! I am taking a fresh look at my Christian walk and making sure that I am doing these things well. Faith is still necessary to believe that I can receive what the Word of God promises to me. Faith is also needed for me to become persuaded that the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work at Calvary can be mine. It takes faith to receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues. I also found that it takes faith to walk in love and unity, to believe I can walk away from sin, and become a godly man in my daily walk. And yes, it takes faith to believe that someone wants to receive the same Christ that I have as their Savior! Faith is still needed by everyone of us, for by it we obtain a good report with God!

How the Health Care Mandate Affects Non-Profit Organizations Mark Helland, C.P.A.

1. The “No Coverage” Penalty (also known as “Pay or Play”)

2. The “Unaffordable Coverage” Penalty (also known as “Free Rider”)

Health Care Reform and the Health Insurance Tax Credit by Mark Helland

Eight Ways to Guarantee Failure with Your Helps People Marvin Yoder

How to Not be a Gutter Ball Virgil Stokes

Grace for Effectual Ministry – Locating, Cultivating, and Using Your Spiritual Giftings Special Endowments for Special Tasks By Guy Duininck

Financial Endowments

Old Testament Endowments

New Testament Grace Endowments

Paul’s and Peter’s Grace Endowments

Supernatural Sufficiency for Service

Timothy’s Grace Endowment

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo—Get a Vision! by Marvin Yoder

God’s Heart for the World Pastor Mark Brazee

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo – Get a Vision (Part 2) by Marvin Yoder

Grace: God’s Grace is the Game Changer Pastor Gerald Brooks

Grace: God’s Grace is the Game Changer

First Impressions: Saving Souls Begins with Clean Restrooms By John R. LaBruzzo CHA

Convenience – the Enemy of Financial Controls in a Church or Ministry Mark Helland, C.P.A.

Does Your Church Need a Financial Check-up? By Mark Helland

Is Faith No Longer Needed? Marvin Yoder

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How the Health Care Mandate Affects Non-Profit Organizations
Mark Helland, C.P.A.

Health Care Reform and the Health Insurance Tax Credit
by Mark Helland

Eight Ways to Guarantee Failure with Your Helps People
Marvin Yoder

How to Not be a Gutter Ball
Virgil Stokes

Grace for Effectual Ministry – Locating, Cultivating, and Using Your Spiritual Giftings
Special Endowments for Special Tasks
By Guy Duininck

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo—Get a Vision!
by Marvin Yoder

God’s Heart for the World
Pastor Mark Brazee

Don’t Be a Blind Magoo – Get a Vision (Part 2)
by Marvin Yoder

Grace: God’s Grace is the Game Changer
Pastor Gerald Brooks

First Impressions: Saving Souls Begins with Clean Restrooms
By John R. LaBruzzo CHA

Convenience – the Enemy of Financial Controls in a Church or Ministry
Mark Helland, C.P.A.

Does Your Church Need a Financial Check-up?
By Mark Helland

Is Faith No Longer Needed?
Marvin Yoder