Tim Clark’s Blog

Yesterday at I was at Starbucks at 6am to meet some guys from the church and the College. We’re reading the Bible together and praying—a small group in public—it’s really a lot of fun.  Anyways, we read from Mark 3 about the time that Jesus appointed those He would later send out, and we read about his ministry development curriculum for these folks.

It says that He chose them that they might “be with Him, that He might send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons.” Education is important. But sometimes we over complicate it. There were three major points of training that Jesus would give to His closest followers, knowing they would be the ones to lead the church to change the world.

1.    That they might be with Him: First priority; to be with Jesus. As we grow in ministry, we can learn a whole lot about running a church or leading a gathering or creating a budget, or any number of things we think are necessary for a good ministry—and they just might be indispensable in a particular setting. But the greatest and most universal imperative for those who are going to represent Jesus is that they have spent a huge amount of time with Him.

2.    That He might send them out to preach: Deliver a sermon; Publicly proclaim; Earnestly advocate: These are all definitions of the word, preach. Often we only consider the first definition— the sage on the stage—as the preacher, when in reality all serious disciples of Jesus need to be ready to communicate the reality and passion that is wrapped up in a close relationship with Jesus. That can’t happen without our first point. It’s actually fairly simple: Be with Jesus and then be prepared to share what you heard when you were with Him.

3.    That He might send them out to have authority to drive out demons: Spiritual authority is essential to an effective ministry life. In the western world, we tend not to live as if there is a real spiritual realm, but there is. Demons exist and need to be dealt with. Miracles still happen. We are just as much in a spiritual battle today as Christians always have been in. When we go out to share what we have heard from Jesus, we also need to be prepared to encounter the forces of darkness and know how to deal with them.

After 3 years of this kind of development, Jesus died, rose again, and ascended. Then He sent the Holy Spirit. Then these followers changed the world. We need to get these three things right. We need to keep them front and center. If we could get this down, I think we would be better prepared for the outpouring of the Spirit through our lives to make a difference like these apostles did.

And, you’ve probably figured it out already, but these aren’t just things Christian “leaders” need to be involved in—I think every Christ follower would be better off knowing and practicing these things. Really, these are accessable to all of us…it’s not rocket science and it doesn’t take a Bible college degree to folow Jesus effectively and change the world. Good thing, too!

Last night I attended a dinner that Life Pacific College hosts for the local pastors of churches where our students serve while at school. It was a great celebration, a time of community, and a big thank-you to leaders who are doing the work of modeling what a real pastoral experience looks like and providing discipleship to called and emerging leaders.

You see, even though LPC is a Bible College, students can not be trained for ministry apart from the local church. They can learn theory and theology here; they can be partially developed and discipled through our faculty, staff, and our well thought-through programs. But without committing to and working with a local church, their education is radically incomplete. Like Luke Skywalker leaving Yoda and the Dagobah system too early to face his enemy Vader, these emerging leaders who have “learned” the Bible and Ministry but didn’t actually serve to “test it out” during their learning phase are heading into a huge shock and big trouble…but I digress (this is another blog post waiting to happen).

So, at the thank-you last night, Larry Powers, one of our most respected and long-standing professors (and an elder at Lifehouse Church where I am the pastor) read a quote from early American minister Cotton Matther about the importance of the job of a pastor. It’s the best job in the world, he says, and I concur.

For all you non-pastors, your ministry is just as vital as your pastor’s is (1 Cor. 12), and all of us are called to do much of what is in this quote. But as Hebrews 13:9 & 17 say, a good spiritual leader is worthy of our imitation, respect and honor as that leader must give an account not only for his or her own life, but for our lives as well. For all you Pastors out there, I wanted to share the quote to encourage you. In a time when vocational ministry is often downplayed because of the correct theology of the priesthood of all believers, there is still something amazing about the pastoral vocation.

The Job Of A Pastor  (Cotton Mather): The job of a pastor, rightly understood is the most honorable, and important job that anyone in the whole world can ever have, and it will be one of the wonders of all eternity to think about why in the goodness of God he would ever let any of us have such a job!  A pastor has the awesome privilege of being a bridge between God and the world He sent His Son to save!  A pastor gets to tell about measureless width, length, height, and depth of the love of God, and invite all who are willing to come into personal relationship with God through Christ.  This is a work which an angel might wish for as an honor to his character, indeed a job which every angel in heaven might covet to have for a thousand years to come.  It is such an honorable, important, and useful job, that if anyone is blessed by God to have it, they may look down with disdain if they were ever asked to be a king, and shed a tear of pity for the brightest ruler of the earth!

A few days ago, billionaire Mark Cuban unveiled a radical stimulus proposal on his blog. He asked people to publicly post a business plan that could be profitable within 90 days and he would consider funding it—up to no maximum amount. The catch is that he may or may not fund a plan based on: Whether he loves and believes in it, how much equity a plan is willing to give back to him, and a few other quirky rules that guarantee the entrepreneur is deadly serious about throwing his or her life into their plan.

But funding really isn’t the point; he wants to spur creative thinking all over our country. Here is what he says about this “open source” idea: “You must post your business plan here on my blog where I expect other people can and will comment on it. I also expect that other people will steal the idea and use it elsewhere. That is the idea…If its a good idea and worth funding, we want it replicated elsewhere. The idea is not just to help you, but to figure out how to help the economy through hard work and ingenuity.”

This is a serious case of somebody putting their money where their mouth is, as well as calling the bluff of those who talk a good talk—(“I’ve got a great idea if only it could get funded”)—but who won’t sell their life out for it.

As I skimmed through the thousand-plus responses (and that was only 3 days after the idea was posted) and read good and bad plans, I started thinking about the Kingdom of God. What if, instead of posting great plans that could turn profitable in the next three months, thousands of people generated and posted grass-roots ideas to extend the Gospel?

Now, I don’t have the kind of following that Mark Cuban has, but I’m going to ask you the question: If you could do anything to extend the gospel, no holds barred, and money wasn’t an issue, what would your plan be?

Are there any dreamers out there? Are there folks who are willing to share with the world an idea that might possibly generate an impact if someone else picked it up and ran with it?

While it would be a blast to get some of your responses here, the main point of this challenge is to get us to think. Are we obsessing over, and dreaming of, ways to extend God’s Kingdom? Is anything burning in your heart that, if it could be accomplished, would impact your world for the gospel?

My friend Mike Larkin likes to ask students the following question: “If you could do anything for God, and you knew if would be effective, and you didn’t have to worry about money, what would that one thing be?” Do you have an answer? If not, I pray that God would re-engage your dreams for Him.

This week reminded me that Southern California is not built for rain. It’s been a stormy week. Most places in the country would be anticipating this kind of weather at the beginning of February; but not here. You’d think we were buried in 5 feet of snow the way the meteorologists go on… “STORMWATCH 2009” (it even has it’s own graphic) is the lead story on every local station, and fills much of the evening news. Traffic reports are over-full of weather-related problems. The question of the day is “when is it finally going to let up?” (after a steady 4 days of rain).

As a kid who grew up in California, I never knew how odd this all was until after I had lived in the Pacific Northwest for 7 years. Now that place is built to expect rain. The amount of precipitation that shuts down freeways, building projects, sporting events, and even schools here wouldn’t even get a mention in the Northwest. What sends people into a panic, scurrying for shelter in this city wouldn’t even phase most of those hearty souls in Portland or Seattle.

Here our water doesn’t often come from the sky; it always comes from a faucet. The miracle of irrigation transforms this arid desert called Southern California into a lush garden. Well, maybe lush is a bit too strong an adjective, but we do have over 23 million people living in a climate that, without human engineering, couldn’t support close to half that many.

But, boy, do we have problems when it rains hard. The ground just isn’t ready for it. Aside from all the California jokes, the reality is that the roads are too slick after a first rain and driving is quite dangerous. The ground that is hard won’t let the water saturate it and it runs off, creating hazardous flooding conditions. The burned out areas that have gone through fires are especially prone to treacherous mudslides. Rain can be bad news, even when we are in desperate need of it in the middle of a drought (like now).

And this all gets me thinking about my life: Am I regularly refreshed by the downpour of the Holy Spirit? Does a constant flow keep my heart soft and ready for the next deluge? Or, does my life become hard and dry and incapable of receiving the blessing that God wants to shower on me? A person who expects the rain is blessed when they get it—one who is not prepared for that blessing might consider it a curse. Have the places where there have been fires in my life been tended to?

More Questions: Do I irrigate my soul, living on rationed water that fell a month or a year ago? Do I dread fresh water because of how it will mess me up even though I need it so badly, or am I preparing myself to take it in? Do people know they can come to me when they are thirsty, and am I able to offer them fresh water?

As I consider all this, a some scriptures come to mind:

“Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness, streams flow in the desert. Hot sands will become a cool oasis, thirsty ground a splashing fountain.” (Isaiah 35:7)

“For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven…” (Deuteronomy 11:10-11)

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37-38).

Let it rain; Lord I’m waiting for Your rain to fall…

On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe.  And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD… (Exodus 28:33-35)

The priest was to have a robe with a cloth pomegranate and a golden bell alternating—a golden bell & a pomegranate, a golden bell & a pomegranate—all the way around the hem.

The ring of the bells had to be heard as the priest ministered to the Lord and to the people. A bunch of bells clanging together, however, would be a noisy, ugly sound. So, there had to be balance. A fruit, made out of soft material, would act as a buffer between the bells.

It’s this way with the gifts of the Spirit. Given through us—the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)—to build the church and impact the world, these manifestations are beautiful and necessary for ministry. Without the fruit of the spirit, however, they project a noisy, ugly sound. Kind of like a resounding gong or perhaps a clanging cymbal.

So, there has to be balance. In fact, a good rule of thumb would be that there should be at least as much fruit growing in an individual’s life as there are gifts operating. If we are to be people who, as Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 14:1, “eagerly desire spiritual gifts”, let’s be sure to also “follow the way of love”—Love being the first in the famous list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22.