It is always good to remember the past. It becomes so easy to get focused on the way we do church verses the mission that drives the church.

I do want to thank the choir members, as well as the band (including all the hidden ones in the sound room) that worked hard on “Jesus Saves” you guys did a great job.

No matter what we do whether it be congregational, choral, or just instrumental it is the message through a life of integrity that changes people. And after the few years that I have been here, I see lives that are being changed. I know that I have grown and I see those in the music ministry growing. (I am also growing horizontally as well but I get to blame that on my pregnant wife. I don’t know how she’s related to this growth problem but I’ll blame it anyway).

Great job everyone. Let’s keep changing and comforting. Can’t do it without you.

The Five Stages of Renewal in the Local Church - Click here for Original Article
By Rick Warren
Christian Post Guest Columnist
Wed, Jun. 25 2008 09:28 AM EDT

In the last three years, I’ve told you this several times: I believe God is preparing the church for another reformation. The first reformation focused on what the church believed; this one will focus on what it does.

For too long we’ve separated the Word of God from the work of God. As the church, we’re called to be the body of Christ – the whole body. We’re not just called to be the mouth of Christ, but the feet and hands as well.

Every time a new reformation has come, five renewals have preceded it. The awakening and reformation of the global church will begin with churches like yours. The same five renewals will precede this movement in your church.

1. Personal Renewal: It starts with the heart. If God is going to renew your church, he’ll begin it with you – and then it has to continue with the rest of your church. You might call it rededicating your life, being filled with the Spirit, or the “deeper life.” I don’t care what you call it. Just get it! Pastor, the bottom line is this – you need to fall in love with Jesus again. Do that and all of a sudden it’s not about religion and rituals; it’s about a relationship with Jesus. You realize that Jesus doesn’t just love you, but he likes you.

2. Relational Renewal: After you get right with God, you’ve got to get right with others. Jesus told us this. He told us to love God with all of our heart and then love others as ourselves. When you have relational renewal in your church, the gossip goes down and the joy goes up.

How do you know when a church has been through relational renewal? People hang around longer after the service. They want to spend time together. If people don’t want to hang around after your services, you have a performance not a church. The church is more than content; it’s a community.

3. Missional Renewal: This is when a church discovers what God wants it to do. We have a kingdom assignment. We’re not here just to bless one another. God wants to bless the world through us. Specifically, God has given the church five purposes – worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. Missional renewal happens when we focus our churches on these purposes. When your church gets personal, relational, and mission renewal, it can’t help but grow.

4. Cultural Renewal: In this stage, God renews the culture of the church. I’ve known pastors who have tried to change the culture of the church without going through the other three renewals. There’s a word for that – martyrdom. You cannot change the culture of the church. Only God can. But once the first three renewals have happened in the church, God will change the culture.

5. Structural Renewal: After your church has been through the first four renewals, it’s going to outgrow your current structure. No doubt about it. I’ve seen it happen at Saddleback. The structure that works for a church of 100 won’t work for a church of 250 and so on. There is no perfect structure in Scripture. Why? Every situation is different. We’ve got to structure our churches differently depending on our circumstances. We change structures just about every year at Saddleback. You can’t put new wine in old wineskins. As your church begins to get healthier and healthier, the structure has to change.

There’s a sixth renewal, but it doesn’t happen in the local church. Institutional renewal happens when Christianity’s institutions change. Institutions like seminaries and denominations are always the last ones to change; they never start the change process. Change always happens first in the local church. Institutions are there to preserve the change of the previous generation. Take a look at a tree. The growth of a tree is never on the trunk. It’s always on the new branches. Institutions are like trunks. They provide stability not innovation.

A great spiritual awakening is on the horizon. Will your church be a part of it? Be aware of these five stages of renewal. As a pastor, God has called you to be a catalyst in the renewal of your church. You can’t do that unless you know where your church is on its journey.

Exciting days are ahead of us!

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Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America’s largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life and The Purpose-Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for ministers. Copyright 2005 Pastors.com, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved

A few months ago I started talking about the general plan that God has for your life. It is spelled out in II Peter 1: 5-8. The first problem that I run into is that I believe that we have mis-defined what Faith is. I was having lunch with a few friends last week and they were discussing the dilemma between faith and dead faith. At that time I didn’t want to get into my dissertation on definitions.

But once we move Faith from some head-knowledge and actually start believing that He is everywhere and will hold us accountable for our actions, our moral excellence must improve. If it does not improve, I challenge whether the person has faith or just knows of faith.

Matthew 5:8 - “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.”

Psalm 24:3-6 - “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hards and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have right standing with God their savior. They alone may enter God’s presence and worship the God of Israel.”

It cost $50 to get in the gate, $12 to park, $6.50 per hotdog, $5.50 per coke. Yet all this for a Rangers Game. But the question is, why to we spend so much and watch a 3 hour baseball game yet have problems with one hour at church? I think it has to do with one word - Excitement. But wait a minute. What should be more exciting, interacting with our Creator or watching some way over priced guys run around some bags? Don’t get me wrong, the game last night was really exciting.

This got me thinking about the emotional agenda of church. It seems like it is the same agenda every single week almost at every single church. The first song is something exciting. Then we have a welcome, followed by a sequence of songs that goes from exciting to reflective. This if followed by a sermon that is suppose to convict, then followed by an invitation where the entire service is critiqued. More people come to the front, the more productive we have been.

Those that break these molds are usually criticized. Pray for me as I begin to reexamin this emotional agenda within our own church.

As I am writing this, my cell phone is off and there is almost no way to contact me. Rachel and I have gotten away for the weekend and we are staying in this very unique hotel. We are actually staying in the Hyatt Place, which is a hotel for the target consumers of 30 year-olds. Rachel and I were trying to describe it because we would like to say that the hotel is pretty fancy. But fancy would be the wrong word. Instead of some 4-star hotel where there is marble floors, gold lampstands, and dead floral arrangments on every floor, there is a 42 inch flat screen HD tv in every room.

Here’s where the uniqueness really kicks in. Instead of someone being at the front desk checking you in, there is a computer kiosk where you check yourself in. It even kicks out the keys for you right there at the computer. You go to the kitchen, order your food at a flat screen computer and someone comes out with your food.

So instead of having people work for you, the people here are payed to be with you (well, not all the time). The workers (hosts as they’re called) are not here to check you in and make sure there are towels in your room, but they are here to help you find whatever you need. They are here to print out maps to where ever you are wanting to go. They are here to carry on conversations and to make you feel at home.

This is unique, but why is it that important to blog about this? Because people, especially in my generation, are not looking for places to be, but looking for a place to belong. We have questions about how to be holistically successful in life. There are churches on every corner. What we want is to find one where we BELONG not just go to. This hotel does this well. They focus on making their customers belong, not just sleep well.

I hope all is well in Texarkana. I figure it will probably be there come Saturday when we get back. Love you guys.

I am currently going through the book of Isaiah, gleaning from it what I can. One thing that I have continually noticed was this idea that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament. We tribute God with Holiness, Sacrificial, Righteousness and Judgement. He is the God of punishment. That is until Jesus arrives. But what I am finding in Isaiah is that He continually shows mercy and grace to people. He watches out for every individual who seeks after Him.

So I am getting to that point where Isaiah is prophicing about the end time. “In that day the Lord will punish the fallen angels in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth.” “Woo Hoo!” I shouted. That was until I was reading my commentary which does not view some of these prophicies as the “end time” but states that most of these had taken place much earlier.

Here is what was said for this verse.

“There is a rabbinical saying, to the effect that ‘God never destroys a nation without having first of all destroyed its prince…’ Just as, according to the scriptural view, both good and evil angels attach themselves to particular men, and an elevated state of mind may sometimes afford a glimpse of this encircling company and this conflict of spirits; so do angels contend for the rule over nations and kingdoms, either to guide them in the way of God or to lead them astray from God; and therefore the judgment upon the nations which the prophet here foretells will be a judgment upon angels also. The kingdom of spirits has its own history running parallel to the destinies of men.”

Compare this with Ephesians 6:12.

As many have already known, God is in the process to move our beloved Bro. David to another ministry. We are excited that we have men of God who are following after God’s movement.

But now that I am the only staff member in the office, I would like for me as well as the church to keep their priorities straight. So to help me keep my priorities straight, what would you say must be on my priority list? You choose. Let me know what you think.

I read this quote today in an undisclosed book. Let me know what you think about it.

“In a sense, much of a [successful ministry] is about creating a culture of discipline. It all starts with disciplined people. The transition begins not by trying to discipline the wrong people into the right behaviors, but by getting self-disciplined people on the bus in the first place. Next we have disciplined thought. You need the discipline to confront the brutal facts of reality, while retaining resolute faith that you can and will create a path to [success]…Finally, we have disciplined action…This order is important. The comparison [ministries] often tried to jump right to disciplined action. But disciplined action without self-disciplined people is impossible to sustain, and disciplined action without self-discipline people is impossible to sustain, and disciplined action without disciplined thought is a recipe for disaster” (Jim Collins).

What do you think about this?

BUT WE WILL BE HAVING CHOIR ON SUNDAY

One problem that I have had with “Christianity” is its complexity. Nothing seemed simple. We have this really huge book which is really difficult to read even within one year. If you do make it within a year, then it’s even harder to glean from it (however, I do recommend a one year plan from time to time).

But back in March, I found something. It was something that I had missed several times. It was a “God’s plan for you” list. It is generic but as I began to study this order, I found it consistant with EVERYTHING else in the Bible.

It stems from 2 Peter 1:6-7. God has a plan to develop you. So if you question what is going on in your life, well, here it is. The foundation is faith, but I believe that most Christians have the wrong idea of faith. It seems that many Christians are buying into this “leave your brains at the door” attitude. I have expounded on this on other articles.

But faith challenges us to believe with your heart, not just your head, one issue. God is omnipresent. This is good to hear when we are going through a crises. But this is not so good of news as we disobey God. As we begin to move “faith in God” from a head knowledge to a heart knowledge, one thing must change. Our behavior. If my behavior is not being changed, then I challenge my faith.

2 Peter 1 tells us that we are to add our knowledge of God to our moral excellence. After we have knowledge of God, then we become more in self-control, patient, and build a better character, and becoming more loving. But many Christians today want to skip being morally excellent and skip straight to knowing God or becoming more loving.

Take a look at the list of 2 Peter 1:6-7. Let’s talk about what God is doing in your life to grow you.