we often think people will reach their God-ordained destiny by accident. We get frustrated waiting for people to grow up.

I started laughing when I read this one. People actually do think that. I’ve known people that really just want to sit back and let people figure out how to walk out in their giftings without any outside help. Sounds crazy when you really think about it, so I usually assume that it something like frustration, busy schedules, or maybe laziness that causes Godly people to just sit back and let others flounder.

As I blog through the list of ten things that we can do to improve church atmosphere, I seem to see a common theme in all of them – the Church has to work together, as a team, to accomplish God’s will. The point I am blogging on this week is “Be a people of destiny.” The author (surprise, surprise) related this point back to everyone being involved in church life.
Some well-meaning Christians told me that I was supposed to grow up spiritually before I could help others grow.

I’ve heard that said so many times: first you get healed, and then you reach out. The problem is, you don’t find that thought anywhere in the Bible. Pretty much from the beginning, Jesus was taking his disciples with him as he went out to minister. We see in some cases that the disciples were praying for people while Jesus was off somewhere else (Mark 9:14-32). The disciples obviously had some issues in their life, but they were still reaching out to others and doing what they knew, even if it wasn’t that much. I believe that as we are healed, we reach out. Isn’t it kind of crazy to think that we ever get to a place of full healing? That would make us perfect.

So, the next item on the list that I have been blogging through is “accomplish the great commission.” Being a part of the Antioch movement seems to ingrain this one in our brains. I did find this statement in the article pretty funny:

A “go” atmosphere creates expectation and excitement, and transforms a dull Christian life into an action thriller.

It just made think of a really cheesy idea for an action thriller: The Missionary! Somewhere in there is probably a really good idea for a cool, entertaining training video. Or at least a really funny one.

Sometimes, though, we have to watch out for ideas like this. Not the one about sharing the great commission. The one about Christian life being an action thriller. Don’t get me wrong – there can some great times to be had when you follow the Lord. But there are also the hard times when it’s not too exciting.

The secret is to realize how bad unrealistic expectations can be for our sanity. If you can’t control whether an expectation is fulfilled, then you will become depressed, upset, or downright cranky when it doesn’t. Something like “I will have an exciting day every day of my life” is just something that will be out of our control from time to time. However, something like “I will look for the exciting aspect in everything I deal with every day” is much better – because you can control that one by making a choice. Notice that it doesn’t say “find the exciting aspect.” You can look for something all you want, but there is no guarantee that you will find it.

Reaching out to the lost can also breed these types of expectations. If you start the day with the goal to “convert 3 people” by the end of the day, you might end up a little disappointed if everyone you share Jesus with that day ends up rejecting Him. But if you have the goal of “sharing the love of Jesus with most of the people I meet today,” you can be in control of whether or not that goal is realized.

As I’m blogging through the 10 Ways to Refresh Your Church Atmosphere, I have come to the one that I think is the hardest one for me to write about: Make Church Fun. Does that make me a grimace?

Here’s the reason why this is hard for me: I have seen so many goofy attempts to make church fun. When I lived in Waco, there was a big tiff about a “gay-friendly” church that gained some attention. I checked out the website for this church to find out more about it. I went to the youth pastor’s page to see what I a “gay-friendly” church did for youth activities. I was then introduced to Bobo, the Youth Pastor of the church. I kid you not – the “Youth Pastor” was a puppet sitting on the head pastor’s lap.

Sometimes, it seems like efforts to make church “fun” are just goofy, silly gestures like this, and not a serious attempt at having fun. Umm…. yeah…. serious attempt at having fun. Anyway, I am all for having fun. Those that know me know that I tend to gravitate towards any kids in the room. I just like to goof around and have fun with children.

I think the article makes some interesting claims on this point. I’m not saying that they are wrong, I just feel that “for everything there is a season.” There is a season to be solemn. There is also a time to have some fun. Mercy Place has a softball team that is called Moose, after all 🙂 So this is probably not one that we are getting too wrong as a church. But for those that need to hear it: feel free to have fun at church!

Last week I started blogging through an article called “10 Ways to Refresh Your Church Atmosphere” by Ben Wong. The first point in the list says “Have a Positive Faith In God.” So, that made me wonder: is there such a thing as “negative” faith?

I guess we can have faith that something negative is going to happen. But, I think by definition, faith is always positive. If faith is not positive, it ceases to be faith and becomes unbelief. Some people believe that unbelief is the opposite of faith. I tend to think it is the absence of faith. The difference may seem to be just splitting hairs, but I think that it is important.

Think of light, for example. Some people think that darkness is the opposite of light, like a yin-yang of equal and opposite forces. The truth is, darkness is just the absence of light. If you have equal and opposite forces, eventually you can decrease both to the point that there is an exact middle, and both forces are at zero. In other words, you can get to a place where there is neither light nor darkness. And that is just not scientifically possible. So, you have to look at darkness as the absence of light, not the opposite.

The same is true of faith and unbelief. If you lose faith, you are in unbelief. I have met many people that think that they are not acting in faith or unbelief. They are just being “neutral” until God comes through. In realty, by not walking in faith, they are walking in unbelief. We all do this from time to time, so the challenge is to stir ourselves back into faith once we lapse into unbelief.

So, we live in a negative world. How does one have a positive faith? To be honest, I don’t have an easy, pat, Sunday School answer. Not that we do Sunday School around here, but you know what I mean. I think the secret is in the Proverbs passage from last week: “For As A Man Thinks Within Himself, So He Is.” Think of yourself as a person with positive faith, and it can become so. Sounds a little New-Agey, but I can’t help it if the New Age movement stole from the Bible.

There are probably many ways to make this practically happen. So, if you get a chance, hit the comments below and share your practical ideas on how to make positive faith happen.

This weekend I was looking through some old CellChurch magazines I have. I was looking through an article about refreshing your church’s “atmosphere.” There was some great insight in that article. One quote really struck out to me:

Remember this important principle: You put people in touch with their faults when you assume a negative attitude toward them and reflect back to them only your perception of their weaknesses. Conversely, by assuming a positive attitude and concentrating on their strengths, you put them in contact with their good attributes. Their behavior inevitably improves. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a man thinks within himself, so he is.” – Ben Wong, 10 Ways to Refresh Your Church Atmosphere

Some pretty powerful thoughts there. We tend to refer to ourselves as “sinners saved by grace.” I remember a preacher a long time ago that preached an entire sermon on this subject. If we call ourselves sinners, then that’s what we are going to do. Isn’t it strange that scriptures call us saints, people that are clothed in righteousness, God’s chosen people, etc…. and yet we seem to focus on ourselves as sinners? Odd, huh?

So, now, if you see me at church and I start telling you that you are such a generous giver that has given me so much money, now you know why 🙂

I think, looking at my church experience in general, that the most common sermon topic has followed this line of thought: Here is what we do wrong. Everyone raise your hand if you have done it. Shouldn’t we all have our hands raised? (audience laughs in agreement) We’re all a mess. Then few or no practicals are given on how to do better. Well, at least as a former preacher and pastor myself, that’s how I remember most of my sermons. Yikes. What was I thinking? Well, according to Proverbs, I was focusing too much on what I did wrong, or on what others did wrong.

Now, I’m sure we can all think of people that think too highly of themselves, so I don’t think we need to turn this around and have a “flesh-appreciation party.” I think the important thing is to think of who you are in Christ, not just sit around with a Stuart Smalley self-encouragement session (“I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!”). I think the key verse here is Hebrews 12:1-3.

By the way, the Ben Wong article can be found here: http://www.touchusa.org/web/Articles/CC_archives/volume8/issue3.htm

Scroll down until you find it. It’s a great article, and I think I want to blog more on the ten points listed there to “refresh your church atmosphere”:

1. Have a positive faith in God
2. Make Church fun
3. Bring out the best in people (today’s blog)
4. Accomplish the great commission
5. Be a people of destiny
6. Learn to work together as a team
7. Learn to fail well
8. Constantly change for the better
9. Include everyone in ministry
10. Depend on a supernatural God