Real Needs

A couple weeks ago, a pastor and I were sitting down over lunch discussing church growth.  The conversation centered around meeting people’s needs. This was one of those spirited, fun conversations where each of us played devil’s advocate. I made the observation that if we are not meeting people’s needs then we are not following Jesus’ example. His reply was that it’s not our responsibility to meet people’s needs. The trouble is, we are both right. The bigger issue is the lack of understanding of what real, spiritual needs of people are. Many people leave churches and organizations because their “needs” are not met. But when you sit down and talk to them, they define “needs” as items that are really personal preferences: like music styles, sermon delivery, service length, order of service, time of service, schedule and so on.  The real definition of “needs” is something you can’t live without. Can you really and truly survive without it?  An interesting phenomenon in churches is that growth happens in the first 3-4 years and then plateaus. The reason for this is that when people start a church it’s because they are led to do so by the Spirit. When we follow the Spirit we meet people’s spiritual needs.  We also have a vision, one that is shared by the entire group. One example of a need is best described by a man who wrote a letter to his church simply asking why no one ever invites him fishing. It would be easy for us to dismiss this as someone who’s just pouting, and some people do that. But if we jump to conclusions on our own what are we putting our focus on? Are we allowing the Spirit to show us this person’s real need, or what we think the problem is. I think the simplest definition of our real needs is summed up in faith, hope and love. This man doesn’t really need to go fishing, he needs someone to love him, give him hope and share their faith. When you understand what real needs are and you have the tools, vision and motivation to meet those needs, and are following the leading of the Holy Spirit, people’s lives are changed and churches grow. So, if you are a church who is wondering why you are not growing, are you meeting people’s real needs? Do you have the vision, tools and motivation that the Holy Spirit provides? If not, now is the time to start.

Geremy

Motives

We live in a world of broken dreams and promises and we don’t need to go far to find someone hurting someone else just because they didn’t get their way. A while back I was having one of those days, you know, when nothing seems to go right. I felt like people were trying to hang me with my own rope. That’s when the guy I was working with said,  “I don’t know how you do it, you’re so calm.” The response that most people are used to getting, is one of anger and frustration. If I acted that way, would it have changed anything? The answer is no. Now, I’m no saint, in fact, I think he just caught me on a good day. But the point is still the same. When we demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control  we stick out in the world. The reason for this is that human nature is to be selfish. It takes loving something more than ourselves to stop being selfish. You see, the reality is, it isn’t what we do, or how well we do it, as long as God has asked us to do it and we do it because we love Him. Regardless of how proficient we are in our careers, we need to allow the Spirit to lead us in all decisions, no matter how small. I’m not saying you have to stop everything and have a prayer meeting before every decision, but what I am saying is that we need to be in tune with God, understand what He’s told us through the Bible and listen to the Spirit as we make day to day decisions. By loving and listening to God, we will help people instead of hurt them. We will meet their needs instead of focusing on our own selfish desires. The question is: what is your motivation? Why do you do what you do? 

Geremy

He Uses Our Heart

I was working with a client a few years back, on a youth conference, when he stated, “Well, you know it takes a minimum 24 moving lights to have a worshipful experience.” I was under the impression that whenever people gather together to worship, God is there. There are no technological requirements, literary requirements or ritual requirements. All He wants is us to worship Him. We, however, have a hard time grasping how perfect God is; so we continually try to help Him. We start placing requirements on worship to ensure that worship happens: the right prayers, readings, songs, song styles, locations and approval from the right people to do so. I’m guilty of trying to plan the perfect event; putting hundreds of hours in so that God can work, then He reminds me, “You know better than that.” It is our responsibility to take out the noise that we have put into the message and plans that God has for us. It needs to be our goal for an event or gathering that people can see, hear and experience God, not the lights, sound, eye catching video, great speaker or phenomenal programming. We need to allow God to use us as tools, so that people can see how He works, hear His promises, and experience His grace; not only through the event, but through our actions as well. This means that we impact the people that come to our events and the people who are involved in putting that event on. God uses what and how we do things to demonstrate to others what He has done in our own heart. When we do it our way, people see us. When we do it God’s way, they see Him. 

Geremy

Eternal Math

I can’t count the number of times someone has said, “We aren’t successful at our church or ministry because we can’t...” Many times it is numbers or attendance that are the gauge for their success. Isn’t our heart, soul and mind what God has requested of us? Does He even care about the number of first time commitments or attendance records that we have racked up? I remember when I told God “Okay, I will do whatever You want me to do and go wherever You want me to go.” Then, over the next 20 years, I have continued to learn how much different God’s measure of success is from our own. He cares about the person that we give hope to when we stop and help when their car is broken down alongside the road, when we give dreams to the kid who no one else gives a chance, and when we give passion to those who see us care when no one else does. God cares about how we worship and serve Him with a result of people’s lives being changed around us because of Him. Our hearts need to serve God so that our body can share God and our mind can thank God. The result of this is eternal success that cannot be calculated in human terms. 

Geremy

You Want Me To Do What?

One of my favorite movie lines is, “We’re gonna do what?” It’s interesting how hard we work to do a good job at work, home and at church thinking we are doing what God asked us to do when in reality, we are doing our own thing and are ignoring what God asks us to do. Then, as our lives deteriorate to the point where we have to return to God and say, “Okay, I’m trying to do it myself again, it’s Your turn.” He generously answers and our response is, “You want me to do what?” It’s funny and sad at the same time, how forgetful we are of God’s perfect goodness. I realized part of our problem one day while speaking on the story of Peter walking on water. The Bible says Peter saw the wind and started to sink. Interesting fact, you can’t see wind. You see Peter started to believe in something he couldn’t see, instead of Jesus who was right in front of him. Even though Peter was successful at first, he started to believe in the “what if’s” and took his own path. For us as Christian leaders, we need to take a look at what God is asking us to do and reply, “Yup, I can’t do that, but I know You can.” Look at this blog, for example, why would God choose the stupid dyslexic kid to write anything at all? The answer is simply, so that everyone can see that He did it and not me.  So, where are you at? Are you going to trust in God’s plans or the wind.

Geremy

It's About Needs

Jesus said, “if they’re hungry, give them something to eat, thirsty give them something to drink, naked give them clothes. What you do for them, you do for me.” One early Christian leader said, “if they’re hungry, you can’t teach them.” There are a lot of churches and ministries who are struggling with sharing the Gospel with anyone today. And if you listen to many Christians, “the world is lost and God needs to come back right now and get us out of here because the world is going to hell faster than we can save it.” This is just sad. Over the last year, Kirsten and I have talked to a lot of different people, who would be considered unchurched by many, but who really want to learn about God. The trouble is they can’t find a church where they feel comfortable or where their spiritual needs are met, even though they don’t know what those needs are. Through multiple conversations and building relationships with these people, the need that isn’t being met is someone who will not give them all the answers, but who is there for them and will say “it’s okay.” That someone who they can call 24/7, who will listen, cry and laugh with them. That someone who will watch a ball game, go fishing with or go on a walk with them. The need that is not being met by churches is friendship. If we are not willing to put in the time needed for fostering a friendship with someone who is seeking out God, then how and why do we expect them to care about our God? Why is it that we have a solid understanding of the needs in our own lives, but are unwilling to take the time to truly understand the needs of the people whom we have been called to serve? It is our responsibility to care about those who God puts in our life.  It is time for us to stop assuming what people’s needs are and start taking the time to let those we encounter tell us what their needs are so we can meet them where they’re at.  This is not just our opinion, but we have seen thousands of lives changed because someone cared enough to care.

Geremy

Pushing a Rope

Here’s a practical example for you, go find a rope and throw it on the ground. Now push it in a straight line all around your house. How did it go?? Probably not very well. This is one of the most common mistakes in leadership. Regardless of effort, you cannot push people in the direction of your vision or goals as a leader. Now take that same rope and tie it to your back belt loop. It will always be behind you. Granted, sometimes it will get slammed in the door and other times, someone will step on it to slow you down. But it will always be there. In my life, I’ve had leaders who have pushed me around where I had to try to figure out where they wanted me to go. I have also had leaders that I would follow anywhere and anytime through the good and the bad. As a wild land firefighter, I make it a point to only risk my life with the latter. What stinks is that when I look back on my own leadership experience, I can clearly see the times I was leading and when I was pushing. Maybe it’s better to say that I can see my successes and my failures. It is amazing how you can tell people how to do what you want them to do and get nowhere. But when you start demonstrating by example, setting the standard with your own actions, making sure that people are being taken care of so they can accomplish the tasks that you have for them, then you will foster a group of people that will not only follow you, they will want to follow you. Think of the best leaders you have followed and I will bet that you remember someone who cared about you, met you needs, clearly told you what was correct and incorrect, thanked you for your hard work and you learned by their example, not only your job but more importantly how to lead others. The Bible has a word for this, it’s called discipleship. The thing with discipleship is that it takes hard work from both parties involved. When Jesus called Peter, James, John and Andrew he said “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Not you “are fishers of men.” It took 3 years of teaching, betrayal, fear and the Holy Spirit to become the first leaders of the Christian church. Why is it today so many of us  think we can say we trust in God and expect to be a good Christian leader with none of the lessons. We need to learn to be good leaders. You see, to be a leader after God’s own heart, we need to live our life serving others, discipling them while being willing to be discipled.  

Geremy