Get comfortable with confrontation!

As a leader it’s your job to pull the potential out of everyone you lead. You have to take ownership for making whatever it is you lead better. If you don’t, no one will. To make things better means you have to address the things that aren’t being done well or well enough. To do that you have to have hard conversations with those overseeing the areas that need to be improved. This can be difficult. It can get emotional. It can get personal. It is confrontational!

The alternative is complacency and eventually stagnation. As an organization there is constantly things that will need to be tweaked in order to be more effective. As a leader you will notice these things. You must then take the necessary measures to induce the needed change. You are doing those you lead a disservice if you aren’t willing to sit down and push for improvement. If you love those you lead you will do all you can to make them more effective in what they do. To do that you have to have intense conversations that force everyone to examine the weak points in their areas of responsibility.

We must be careful to confront and not just complain. There’s noting more frustrating than a person who points to problems but offers no solutions. When we confront with the purpose of making improvements we have to be willing to offer some constructive ideas to enable the change we wish to see.

A willingness to have confrontations is essential to being a good leader. Learning how to say what must be said is an effective and loving way is a must. To achieve your goals you will not be able to avoid conversations that will make you uncomfortable.

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’” ² Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” ³ Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” Exodus 5:1-3

“They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” Exodus 5:8b-9

Moses is asking that his people be allowed to step away from their work in order to worship God. Pharaoh’s response is to accuse them of being lazy and increase their work load.

We have an enemy that continues those same tricks on the people of God today. We often define ourselves, and others, by how hard they work. Which isn’t always a bad thing. A strong work ethic is a great attribute. A necessary one for a follower of Jesus. But REST and WORSHIP are also commands of scripture. For some, Satan tries to convince them that’s laziness. In doing so, many feel a load of guilt for the time the carve out to do “nothing”. The reality is “nothing” times can mean everything. When we escape from work and open ourselves up to pure, uninterrupted worship, God moves. When you stop working in order to worship God you’re not lazy, you’re obedient.

Pharoah also increased the Hebrew people’s work load in the hopes that they would get too busy to worry about worship. If the work was more demanding then they would not have time to give attention to God’s agenda and can solely focus on his. Satan uses this same trick. He loves to get you too busy to think about your Creator. He wants your mind cluttered and spirit drained. Satan loves when you burn yourself out. When you’re physically spent you aren’t very useful to God. That’s exactly what the enemy wants.

Don’t fall for the trick of busyness. Set priorities! Learn to say no to good things and yes to God things. Slow down! Hard work is great and should be valued, but it can consume us so much that it squeezes out the worship. And yes, I know, often work is a form of worship. When we are serving His church and His people. But there must be room for moments of work free worship. Jesus did it!

On Sunday we launch a new series that I’ve been praying over and preparing for months. Jesus death and resurrection were a huge piece of God’s plan for humanity, but he was not done!  Over and over again Jesus told his disciples how important the Holy Spirit would be as they moved forward in their mission to share his message. For some reason we see very little evidence of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives today. That must change! God has given us this amazing source of power for very specific reasons. He should play a huge roll in our every day lives. Over the next few weeks I hope to unleash THE GHOST!

To maximizes the impact of our study we are encouraging everyone to read “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan. It is by far the best book on the reality of the Holy Spirit I’ve ever read. Copies will be available for purchase at the Altar’d Resource table. Be sure to pick one up on Sunday.

Here is a little preview of what Chan hopes to accomplish in “Forgotten God”:

Power to live and love like Jesus is available. It’s time to take advantage of “THE GHOST”!

This weekend at Vintage we have two opportunities for you to celebrate what Jesus has done for you. You do not want to miss either. I’m convinced these are going to be the two most powerful times of worship we have ever experienced. There is just a different vibe leading up to these celebrations, and everyone is feeling it.

Join us on Good Friday (April 22 @ 7 p.m. @ Randleman High School). We will take a look at what Jesus experienced in order to give us life. As we examine His suffering, born out of love for us, you will be challenged and changed. We will continue to walk through John. Our text for Friday will be John 19. Read it!

On Sunday (April 24 @ 10:30 p.m. @ Randleman High School) we will celebrate Jesus’ victory over death! Jesus’ resurrection has huge implications for our every day lives. He is the giver of life. During this amazing time of worship will see testimonies to the fullness of life in Christ as we watch people go public with their faith through baptism. We will conclude our time in John. Our text for Sunday will be John 20:24-29.

I spoke to someone this morning who is bringing at least 5 people with him this weekend. You should match that! I can’t wait!

I love my church. I love being a part of Vintage. I’m excited each week to worship with others and serve alongside great people. I’m convinced God has huge plans for Vintage (and every other church). Plans to use us to change our community. I know that through our ministry God is going to bring thousands of people to faith in Jesus. We will bring hope.

I also know for all this to take place more people need to share my belief in the church. We are so blessed to have a handful of people who really are passionately in love with Jesus and called to serve him through Vintage Church. The problem is, it’s only a handful. We need more! More people to get motivated to inspire people to live and love like Jesus. We need more people investing in the lives of others, inviting them into a relationship with God, and continuing to influence them with the power of His Word.

Not to grow Vintage but to grow the Kingdom of God. If we set out to build His Kingdom, then our growth will just be a by-product. I want to see more people at Vintage because I believe deeply that it is a community of believers who loves people. I believe God’s presence is in everything we do. If I believe all this why would I not want as many people as possible to experience it?

So I’m calling everyone who claims Vintage, everyone who claims to believe in the church, to take a hard look at ourselves. We have to get excited. We have to get jacked up about what our God is doing through His Church. No matter what or where you attend church, your attitude has a huge impact on its ability to accomplish its mission. We have to release the excuses and express our faith in God and His Church.

Are you excited? Prove it!! Here are some signs you are excited about His Church.

#1 – You invite others to experience it.

#2 – You support it financially.

#3 – You pray for its leadership.

#4 – You attend consistently.

#5 – You volunteer.

#6 – You can explain its mission and/or vision.

#7 – You celebrate its success.

These are seven things that are imperative if we are going to move the Church toward being the unstoppable force Jesus envisioned. They aren’t negotiable. Each is too vital to attempt justify away. If you can’t check each of these off as it pertains to your church, then either find a new one or get alone with God and ask him to change you heart!!

We were all moved by Mary’s extravegant expression of love to Jesus. What she did symbolized what we all must do. She threw off tradition and publicly declared who Jesus was to her. The jar of perfume was a great representation of her life journey. It was valuable to her not just because of it’s cost but because of what it represented. She must have spent years trying to obtain something of such great cost. It was more than just a jar of perfume, it was her identity. But now she had found something, or someone, in which she could find her identity. That someone was Jesus!

On Sunday I watched as many others shattered the things that defined them in order to step into new life in Jesus. This is some of their responses. They inspired me! I hope they inspire you as well.

Join us this Sunday for our first worship gathering of the Lent season. This will be the most unique time of worship we’ve ever experienced at Vintage. I can’t wait.