With His first coming, Jesus started His kingdom; in His second coming, Jesus will come to rule His kingdom.

The second coming of Christ is not to be confused with the rapture. The rapture is the event when Jesus gathers believers together with Him in the air. The second coming is when Jesus returns to the earth for battle, bringing the nations under His dominion in the battle of Armageddon. The second coming occurs after the rapture.

The Bible refers to the second coming as the Day of the Lord. It isn’t a 24-hour day, but rather a time period that belongs to Jesus Christ to take His place of authority and to cleanse the earth. The wrath of God will be poured out, purifying the world and making it ready for Jesus to reign.

At His first coming, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a lowly donkey; at His second coming Jesus will ride in on a white horse, surrounded by an army of saints.

At His first coming, Jesus entered Jerusalem as the sacrificial Lamb; at His second coming Jesus will enter as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, in strength and power.

At His first coming, Jesus was mocked as a king, tortured and crucified. In His second coming Jesus will be glorified as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him as Lord over all.

It will be a glorious day when Jesus rules the nations, but today He wants to rule our hearts. Today Jesus is building His kingdom in us. His temple is not in a building, but instead He dwells in our hearts as our King. His power, His glory – it is seen in us. We are to represent our Lord and do the works that He did. We are to preach, teach, heal, deliver, give, and go in His name by the anointing of the Spirit that He sent to us. He is King in the hearts of those who believe, both now and forever.

Application: God’s desire is for His kingdom to expand and strengthen until the day He sends His Son to take His dominion over the nations. Our part is to yield to His lordship and to go out with the power of the Holy Spirit to win more of the people that Jesus died for. Share the Gospel message with someone today.

There are seventy sevens prophesied for the Jews in Daniel 9:24-27. Those sevens have been translated as weeks, but they are actually sets of seven years. The seventieth seven is yet to be fulfilled. The sixty-nine sevens ended at a special event. In verse 25 it tells us that the sixty-nine sevens would continue until Messiah the Prince. The Hebrew word for Prince is nagiyd. The root of this word is nagad meaning, “to be made known, to announce, to declare, to acknowledge, to be conspicuous.” When did the Jews first publicly announce Jesus to be the Messiah?

The event took place in Jerusalem, a week before Passover. The Jews were gathered in the holy city for their upcoming feast. Jesus instructed his disciples to acquire a donkey to fulfill prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, “…Behold your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey…” As Jesus entered into the city on the colt, Jewish people laid down palm branches, a sign of victory, and shouted out, hosanna, which means “save us now.” They shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David, a term signifying Jesus as the promised king, a descendent of David’s throne. The triumphal entry also fulfilled the prophetic song in Psalm 118 foretelling the words declaration, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” The Jews were not celebrating Jesus for their spiritual salvation; they were declaring Jesus as their promised king that would free them from the oppression of the nations.

The Jewish priests and scribes to become indignant when they saw the attention that Jesus was receiving, not only from the adults, but from the children who were also shouting with their parents, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” fulfilling a prophetic song in Psalm 8:2. The Pharisees called to Jesus from the loud crowd, instructing Him to quiet His followers. Jesus answered, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” Jesus said this because He knew that to fulfill scripture on that day, the end of the sixty-nine week of Daniel’s prophecy, there had to be the declaration of His kingship by the Jews.[1]

Application: The day of the Messiah’s pronouncement also included the cleansing of the temple, prophetic of the season of the Gentiles preceding the seventieth seven,[2] and supernatural healing for the blind and lame. Declare Jesus as your king today, allowing Him to rule over anything that would keep you from seeing or doing all He has for you.

We are living in a time when the Gospel has gone farther than it has ever gone before. There are thriving and growing churches of thousands in nations around the globe, doing church well and reaching multitudes of people. These churches have been planting new churches, strategizing outreaches and sending out missionaries into remote places.

Not only are churches increasing by the thousands in various countries, but through the internet the Gospel is available to any developed nation with online capability.

In addition, there are reports of people in remote areas that are hearing the Gospel preached in visions and dreams. My husband and I personally met a Christian from Iran who gave us his testimony of conversion. He was searching for the truth about God and had a vision of a man dressed in white that shared the salvation message of Jesus Christ. After that supernatural experience, he believed and accepted Christ as his savior. The end is in sight – the Gospel is going to the end of the earth! In our lifetime, we are seeing the kingdom of God expand like no other generation has seen.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” The world as we know it with sin and death, disease and deformity, poverty and famine, wars and terrorism, human trafficking and pornography, drugs and abuse – it is coming to an end! By that end, the Gospel will have gone out to all nations. Daniel 8:19 says, “at the appointed time the end shall be.” I don’t believe that God is waiting on the church before He sends His Son to rule over His kingdom. I believe that God knows the day and the hour that Jesus Christ will return, and I believe that in that time period this Gospel will be preached to the end of the earth. We are seeing it happen!

Jesus is returning as a King for His Church, an invisible kingdom that has been building and strengthening over generations. Let’s continue to prepare for His return, and reach as many people as we can in the time that we have left!

Application: Who is in your world? Who needs to hear of God’s love and salvation? Don’t wait! Share the Gospel message with everyone you can.

By Melanie Stone

When two people marry, they always hope to live happily ever after.  For 1st time marriages (biological families), the divorce rate is near 50%.  However, the statistics change significantly in remarriage. The divorce rate of 2nd marriages exceeds 60%, and is near 70% for 3rd time marriages.

The high divorce rate in the last several years has created a large population of hurting adults and children. It also has led to a very high number of blended families, and the number grows by 1,300 each day.

Why is the divorce rate higher in blended families? The people in a blended family often carry the hurts, unforgiveness, lack of trust, lack of full commitment, and other baggage from the prior family breakdown that hinders the new family.

Then there are issues exclusive to blended families. As we began the process of blending our new family of seven people in 1989, we were blind-sided by issues that were new to us, and our attempts to solve them with human reasoning only led to failure, hurt feelings, frustration, and disrespect. Resentment was starting to take root.

In our prayer time God began to expose negative dynamics in our family and showed us in His Word the changes that needed to take place to build our family. The first thing God confirmed was that He was on our side. He had completely forgiven us from our past failed relationships, and He wanted to restore our lives and give us and our children a loving family environment.

We also began to realize key areas where our family was divided, and areas where we were fighting each other rather than working together.  Matthew 12:25 describes the shortcomings in many families today.

“Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.’” Matthew 12:25

Here are some symptoms of potential divisions in blended families:

• “You discipline yours and I’ll discipline mine” are common statements.
• You only talk prideful of your children, while your spouse only talks prideful of his or her children.
• You have high grace toward your children, but low grace toward your spouse’s children.
• Two sets of expectations, rules and/ or discipline exist in your new home.
• You and your spouse cannot come to agreement on one set of rules and discipline.
• Children call the new parent by “Mr. or Mrs. (name).”
• Your one-on-one time with children is only spent with your biological children.
• The term “step” is used in your new home (stepfather, stepmother, stepsister, stepbrother).
• You do not love your new children as your own, nor do you think you can.
• You feel like you are raising someone else’s children.
• “They have other parents” is your excuse to not treat your new children with acceptance.
• You think, “My spouse’s children do not want me in their life.”
• You have feelings of dislike, anger, or resentment toward one of your spouse’s children.
• You do not consider your spouse’s grandchildren as your grandchildren.
• Child support is not used to support the intended children.
• You and your spouse have separate checkbooks.
• You and your spouse disagree about the use of child support.
• There are “favorite” children in the home.
• A former spouse is allowed to interfere with your new marriage and family.
• You or your spouse does not feel secure in your marriage relationship, or with your home environment.

Notice how many of these involve the children. Also consider the expanded family size with many new personalities, possible custody or child-support court dates, juggling children between the biological parents for visitation, the lack of intimate quiet time between spouses, and overcoming the “stepmother” syndrome.

As the Becnels began to address these divisions in our family by applying solutions in God’s Word, our family began to blend.

All families can blend, but it takes commitment, love, grace, sacrifice, a willingness to change, and time (an average of 6 years).  Here are some suggestions that will give hope to blended families:

Your family will blend:

• when you start believing that it can.  If you think it will not, it will not.
• when you realize that God is a good God, and is on your side. After all, He wrote “the book” on relationships (The Holy Bible).
• when you highly respect your spouse, stand up for your spouse, and “demand” that your children treat your spouse with respect. You are two working to become one. Relentlessly pursue becoming one.
• when the stepparent chooses to love the children as his or her own. When a man or woman marries a person with a child, they are marrying that child too. A biological parent their children cannot be separated, though many stepparents have tried – and fail.
• when you seek to understand the potential pain in the hearts of the children in your home, and give them your compassion and consideration,
• when you avoid using the prefix, “step-”. Using this term puts people in a lower category than their biological parent, child or sibling.
• when stepparents “friendship-date” their stepchildren. Just as you spent one-on-one time building a loving relationship with your spouse (their biological parent), begin to build a sincere loving relationship with your stepchildren by consistently spending one-on-one time with them.
• when you do not try to discipline your stepchildren until you love them as your own. (Hebrews 12:6) Trying to discipline without love will only lead to resentment and disrespect, which in turn leads to more chaos in the home.
• when you stop allowing the children’s other biological parent to control or manipulate what goes on in your home. Defend your family against outside interference.
• when you do not give up trying.

Though the statistics were not in our favor, the Becnel family truly blended into a loving family. Our family members love each other, respect each other, visit each other on vacations, and enjoy family reunions whenever we can.  In fact, we find that we function more as a loving family than many biological families we know.

The Becnels believed that with God all things are possible, and as we sought His Truth and Provision to blend our family He showed up in an amazing way, healing the hearts of our family members and drawing us close together.

In the book, “God Breathes on Blended Families – 2^nd Edition,” we share our heart, our struggles, our failures and our successes with you.  We tell you now that blending a family is not easy, and it doesn’t happen quickly.

It requires sacrifice, being willing to make changes in yourself.

It requires a positive attitude. Do not expect other people’s attitudes to change until yours does.

It requires relentless patience – another tough one.

It requires considering all those around you, even children, as more important than yourself.

It requires extending grace – treating others as God treats you.

It requires setting goals, strategies, boundaries, and high standards for you and your family.

It requires an “adoptive” spirit, which God will provide when you ask.

It requires faith that God will breathe on your blended family, just like He did the Becnel family. Only God can bring forth fruit from the good seeds you plant.

It requires prayer. God’s breath and voice comes as we spend time communicating with Him.

Becoming a loving blended family requires much from you, Mom and Dad.  You must take the lead.  It is an investment into your future and your children’s future, and the dividends are great!

Copyright © 2012
Blending a Family Ministry

www.blendingafamily.com

In the Old Testament there is a Hebrew word for singing praise, tehillah. Several times this word is used in connection with singing a new song – a song that hasn’t existed before, a new song that has a message for the time it is given. God would inspire psalmists to write songs as His message to His people. In the book of Psalms, we know that some of these songs were even prophetic, foretelling the future of Israel and of the coming Messiah.

In the New Testament, after the penalty for sin had been removed and the Holy Spirit had been poured out, God is still giving new songs. With the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of each believer, the Holy Spirit continues to give songs, and He gives spiritual songs.

What is a spiritual song? A spiritual song is a spontaneous song given by the Holy Spirit for the moment it is applicable. Just like with the gifts of the Spirit, a spiritual song is a gift from the Holy Spirit as a supernatural message from God or a song that God has for us for that moment. Ephesians 5:18-19 “…be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord….” Remember that under the old covenant God sang over His people (Zephaniah 3:17). With the anointing of the Holy Spirit, God is still singing messages to His people with spiritual songs or songs sung in the spirit.

Songs sung in the spirit are songs that are sung in an unknown language. I Corinthians 14:15 “… I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” Singing in the spirit as an individual or as a congregation often brings a glorious experience of God’s manifested presence into our praise.

Application: We should be intentional to praise the Lord both with our understanding and with our spirit. In a worship service, when a song is over and music is playing, don’t stop worshipping to wait for the next song. Begin to sing in the spirit and learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in your worship in between the songs. You will learn how to flow with the Holy Spirit and hear what He is saying. It is glorious!

By Melanie Stone

As I was studying the Hebrew word for praise, tehillah, I noticed several verses that mentioned singing a new song. Psalm 149:1 says, “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints.” Isaiah 42:10 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth.” In Psalm 40:3 it says that God has put a new song in my mouth, a song that gives praise to God. A song, that when people hear it, they will fear and put their trust in the Lord.

Psalms is the largest book in the Bible, a compilation of songs that the Jews sang together as a congregation. Psalmists were people who wrote songs that were inspired by the Holy Spirit in the same way that the rest of the Bible was inspired. The words that God speak carry weight and cause the world around us to change. When we speak His words, there is tremendous power behind it. When we speak as one of His children, the world around us can change. When we take those words and sing them with passion and expression, it is not only a beautiful and acceptable praise to God, but it delivers words with feeling and strength.

When we have a new song, it is a song that God has inspired for that season. It is a song that carries an anointing for that moment. A new song does not take away from the power of God’s word given in an old song, but a new song will carry a fresh anointing for what is needed at the time that it is given. It is a “now” song. It is what God is doing now, in the present, in our midst.[1]

God is still giving new songs. They are new songs that are for the church today. They are songs that give us a way to express how we feel about God and about what He is doing right now. They are songs that help us to declare God’s words over our lives right now. They are songs that I believe God wants to hear us sing to Him from our hearts and our mouths because of the love we share right now. I believe we experience a fresh anointing- an anointing to bring change for what God is doing right now.

Application: When you here a new song, give attention to what God might want to do in your church service or in your life in that moment. Be open to receive all the new things God wants to do in you, in your church, and in His kingdom – right now.

By Melanie Stone

Tehillah is a Hebrew word that means to sing a song or hymn, singing praise to someone who is being celebrated or praised. The word “psalm,” is tehillah. Psalms, the Bible book, is Tehillim, literally the Book of Praises containing songs or hymns, sung to the Lord.

In Psalm 22:3 it says that God is enthroned in the (tehillah) praises of His people. The Hebrew meaning behind the word used for “enthroned” means “to sit down, to remain, or marry.”[1] In another version of the Bible the word “inhabit” is used. God inhabits the singing praise of His people. When we praise God with our hearts and our mouths, we experience the tangible presence of God.[2]

I like tehillah in Psalm 106:12 (NIV), “Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.” When we believe God’s promises, we have joy and peace – so much joy and peace, that it causes us to sing His praise. Faith will tehillah; faith will sing praise. Our faith is a factor in a promise being fulfilled.  This was true for the Israelites in II Chronicles 20. They had an enemy determined to overtake them in battle. God instructed Israel to begin praising Him, to believe in Him (verse 20). In verse 22 as they praised (tehillah), God’s power took out the enemy. Israel didn’t even have to fight! God fought for them as they sang their praise to Him, believing His promises.

We see the same principle at work in the New Testament. In Acts 16:16-34 we read about Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns to God while they were in prison. Their belief in God and in God’s promises caused them to want to sing praise to God. Their faith was seen in their celebration of who God was, and because of their praise, God’s power was manifested. There was a supernatural shaking of the earth so that the prison doors broke open and the chains were broke free. Breakthrough happens when our faith causes us to sing our praise!

Application:  Psalm 33:1 says that “praise (tehillah) from the upright is beautiful.” You may not feel that you are perfect before God – none of us do. However, Jesus has given us right-standing before God because of our position before God. When you sing praise to the Lord, whatever your voice may sound like, God says that it is beautiful to Him.

By Melanie Stone

Like the English language, in the Hebrew language there can be more than one meaning to a word. The Hebrew word for praise, barak, means “to kneel before the Lord, to bow,” but it also means, “to bless.”

God blesses His people all the time. When God blesses us, He is doing us good. He is extending His grace. He is giving us good things. He is allowing us to partake of His life – what He has to give. I remember a moment with God that I had years ago. My husband and I were at a church conference, preparing to move to another country as missionaries. When we checked out of our hotel, we learned that someone had already taken care of our bill. I was thankful. I was thankful to the person who had blessed us, and I was thankful to God for moving on this person to bless us. As we began our drive back home, I said to the Lord, “You bless me all the time, I want to do something to bless You, but how could I ever bless You?” He reminded me of scriptures in the Bible that mention blessing the Lord with our praise. God is blessed when we honor Him with hearts of praise. I began to sing to Him in the car, blessing God with what I had, my praise. It was a beautiful exchange of love between God and me.

When we bless God, we are giving Him honor, glorifying His name. We are lifting Him up. We are promoting Him and making His name famous. We are doing Him good, being helpful to Him and to His cause. We bless Him with our song, but we also bless Him with our serve – our actions that give God what He wants. He wants us, and God wants us to reach others that He sent His Son to die for. We bless God when we give to His cause, giving from our resources to cause His kingdom purpose to advance in our city and in our world.

When we bless God, we are bringing him joy. Our gift to Him is our life, our heart. Our gift to Him is our love. Our gift to Him is our praise, and He receives what we have to give with joy because He loves us. We bless God when we show Him we want our life to be intertwined with His. What a wonderful opportunity that we have to bless God with our praise!

Application:  Do you ever feel that what you have to offer God isn’t enough? Know that your value comes from the price God paid for you – the blood of His Son. You have tremendous value and the surrender of your praise blesses the God of the universe.

Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of pastors and leaders ask me the same question:  How can I create a fast growing church?  What do I need to do to create a fruitful congregation?

Of course, I usually stop these people and remind them:  You don’t necessarily want a “fast growing church.”  Rather, you want a healthy church that effectively creates long-term disciples.  Some pastors seek fast growth out of ego.  Others, like most church planters, are just trying to survive.  After all, if they can’t generate success straight out of the gate, they may not have much food on the table.  But, I believe that anyone who cares about expanding God’s kingdom is going to be interested in accelerating the growth of their organization.

Keep in mind:  The Bible says, “Only God makes things grow” (1 Cor.3:7). So, plain and simple:  if we’re out of sync with God, no amount of “watering and planting” will amount to much.  Without humility, integrity, and generosity, it’s going to be hard to grow our churches (or our lives) into anything significant.  But,  beyond this obvious reality, what are some of the factors which can dramatically affect how fast a church grows?  I like to put numerous ingredients into a simple formula I call the Momentum Equation.   It goes like this:

“The right person,

at the right time,

in the right location,

with the right methods,

with the right inner circle of leaders

equals success.”

But here’s the important part:  If any one of these criteria are off, it will have a dramatic affect on your success as a leader.  Almost all of the great pastors I know could easily write a book on each one of these ingredients.  And if you haven’t considered each of these criteria, then listen up:  You just might discover a missing link in your own leadership tool-box.  So let’s begin:

The Right Person:  A lot of people can be quite deceived when it comes to their true strengths and weaknesses.  (Just look at the first few weeks of American Idol for starters).  Not everyone is meant to be a CEO.  Not everyone is meant to be a teaching pastor… or a church planter.   But if we get our self-esteems wrapped around ministry positions we’re not, we’re always going to experience a frustrating lack of fruitfulness.  But my Bible says:  “A gift makes room for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great” (Prov. 18:16).  And sometimes, this process takes decades to unfold.  But, if opportunities seem to be drying up for us, there’s a good chance we’re out of sync with our true gift-mix.

So, how do we know if we’re the “right person” for a given task?  Simply find people who are experts in the area you feel called.  Once they know you, ask them:  “Do you truly see the same potential in me?” Sometimes your greatest fruitfulness and promotions can come when you demote yourself into a supporting role.  No one wants to be an ugly duckling when God created them to be a swan.

The Right Time:

Over the years I’ve met a good number of church planter’s who’s “timing was off.”  I.e., They’ll make a great church planter… in a few years. But many of them bow to external pressures and pull the trigger on a vision that hasn’t fully matured.  As a result, their resources and opportunities always seem to be lingering along.  The same process can show up when taking over positions at established churches.

I once had a pastor friend who became the interim pastor of a church in crisis.  He was a brilliant leader; but, circumstances beyond his control made it almost impossible for the church to see and get in sync with his skills.  Again:  Right person.  Wrong timing.

I also had a friend who pastored in a church and city that was riddled by moral failures and theological extremists.  Christians were desperate for a new voice and my friend fit the wish-list perfectly.  Not surprisingly, he had explosive growth.  He was the right leader at the right time.

So, can we manufacture “great timing?” Sometimes, yes.  After observing organizational life-cycles for a while, it’s a lot like jumping rope:  there’s a time to jump in and jump out.  There’s also a timing to our own personal ministry skills.  Much like baseball, if you enter a big-league vision without big-league skill… you just might turn into one of those bitter players who rant about how you always got the short-end of the stick.  But here’s a better approach:  In the storyline of your life, God’s got a climax for your calling.  But don’t allow finances, comfort zones, or impatience obscure God’s will.  “At the proper time, you will reap a harvest if you do not give up” (Gal 6:9).

The Right Location / City

Before my wife and I planted in the Twin Cities, we were very careful to study a good number of cities.  We constantly asked these questions:  Who are the people that God has most qualified and anointed us to reach?  And where do these people live?

There are also many regional factors that affect speed of growth.  Downtowns and Urban centers often have increasingly transient membership – thus making stability a problem.  Cities with populations less than 50,000 usually have the opposite problem…requiring much more longevity and political savvy.  Bible belt or Sun-belt metros can have a huge number of semi-Christianized transfer growth but can also be over-saturated with your style of church.  But after hours of diligent study, we intentionally chose, not merely our city, but the location and methods as well.  This leads us to the next part of the equation:

The Right Methods

Let’s face it:  We all have opinions about worship, service length, sermon styles and church sizes.  But it’s amazing how thoughtless many Christians are about their methodology.  Almost every month I hear another silly pastor spiritualize a singular method or format of church as though it is the only one we need.  But my Bible instructs me to judge a tree by its fruit not it’s format.

For example, I once heard a well-known pastor say:  “If you’re not doing line-by-line expository messages straight through the Bible then you aren’t preaching the Gospel.” Perhaps if he preached this way through the parables of Christ, he would have realized his statement was both ridiculous and ironically un-Biblical.  But, in every Christian movement there is an unspoken list of values intended to delineate a true elite “super-Christian.”  Unfortunately, many of these values and methods are actually extra-Biblical and are a hindrance to fruitfulness.

So, how do I know if I might be carrying some of these religiously transmitted diseases? Well, simply go and study a diverse group of fruitful Christian leaders (i.e., Find Christians that worship differently or have different secondary doctrines.)  As long as they value the scriptures and are clearly taking ground, open up your heart and listen.

There is also a “statistical science” to success.  Studies like Natural Church Development have long been saying that churches are like human bodies:  you can statistically predict growth and health issues.  For example, obese smokers have a life-expectancy that’s 15 years less than other people.   I didn’t learn this through some prophetic gift.  I learned it by listening to God speak through statistical facts.

For example, it’s also statistical fact that:  Rarely will an American church grow larger than 200 people per acre.  Also, for every two to three seats, the average American church needs one parking stall.   So, in light of these practical insights, I made the controversial decision to relocate our church to a more adequate facility.  Of course, this completely angered one man in our church.  (He was convinced that we weren’t growing healthy because I refused to preach more on his pet-theologies).  He acted as though a simple sermon or worship format would suddenly compensate for methodological foolishness.

But listen:  God doesn’t honor this type of hyper-spirituality in leadership.  Don’t think that your prayer life will compensate for the fact that you never wear a seatbelt.  I.e., Don’t allow hyper-spiritual pressure to cause you to overlook common sense.  Again:  You can be the right person in the right city; but, if your methods & practices need tweaking, no amount of sweat is going to change that.

The Right Inner Circle:

Of course, you might be a tremendously gifted person.  But very rarely will a person make it to the top of their field without a great team.  As John Maxwell says:  “You are only as good as your inner circle.”  For example, when I first started Substance, our entire leadership team was comprised of inexperienced college students.  Almost none of them had been in leadership positions before.  And even though my preaching skills were fairly well-developed back then, these skills were certainly not enough to overcome the foibles of our rookie leadership teams.  Not surprisingly, many dynamic Christians came through our church; but, eventually they moved onto better churches who had better leaders who created better leadership systems.

Of course, I couldn’t blame my lack of fruitfulness on my inner-circle; after all, a good leader is measured by their ability to recruit such a circle out of nothing.  I.e., it’s my job to create the inner circle.   Keep in mind, your age, your ethnicity, your dress style, even your spouse can affect your ability to build a healthy inner-circle.  As a 24 yr old senior pastor, I had to surround myself with dynamic 46 year old leaders.  As a white pastor, I have to surround myself with multi-ethnic leaders who are more adept at recruiting their people.  So back when we planted Substance with a rag-tag group of college students, I knew I had to be intentional about recruiting across cultural and age barriers.

So rather than whining about my circumstances (or lazily hiring other people’s staff), I simply made the decision to do three things better:  (1).  Do a better job at developing the leadership skills of my current team.  (2).  Do a better job at identifying and recruiting socially intelligent leaders out of nowhere… even those outside of my own demographic  (3).  Constantly be switching people into their sweet spots; (and/or removing the people who stop growing / stretching / or who stop living in sync with their own gift-mixes.)

Even more, I taught my inner circle to do a brilliant job at these same three things.  In fact, if your inner circle can’t write a book on each of these three things, then you probably have a rookie leadership team.  And the same thing is true with all of the elements in this formula.

The Final Word

So it begs the question:  How can I get in sync with this equation? How can I increase my leadership insights on this equation? Well, here’s a simple solution:  Get insightful mentors who can help you answer these questions.  After counseling hundreds of young leaders over the years, I’ve always asked them three questions:  What are your dreams?  Who is living out your dream?  And what are you doing to get around these people?  Or, to rephrase these:  What are your leadership problems?  Who has successfully navigated these problems?  And what are you doing to serve these people? (Because access to good mentors usually requires meeting the needs of good mentors).

Keep in mind:  Leadership is a life-long art-form.  I’m only just beginning to understand the momentum equation myself.  But, one thing is for sure:  If we ignore a single aspect of this equation, it’s going to affect how fast our churches grow.  It simply means:  Our time has not yet come.

Of course, God may intentionally ask you ignore a few of these criteria.  I adore pastors who are willing to take on inglorious positions for the cause of Christ.

But pity the leader who’s church has stalled-out simply because they were ignorant of how momentum works.  Agreed?

There are several Hebrew words that are translated into the word “praise,” showing us that there are several different ways that we can demonstrate our love for our God. There is a Hebrew word for praise, barak, that means “to kneel before the Lord, to bless, to bow.” There are times when we lift our hands, times when we clap, times when we shout, times when we dance and times when we play an instrument. The Hebrew word barak shows us that there are also times to bow, or to kneel, before God.

There are times when we want to show God our heart to surrender to His love for us. Taking the knee before God is a demonstration of a humble heart, giving ourselves to the authority of a gracious and compassionate Father. Bowing is an outward action that conveys an inward posture of someone who is fully submitted to the Lord. There are times when we want to do something that shows God our deep reverence for Him, when we experience the awe of who He is and want to yield to His greatness. Kneeling can be an expression of our praise.

Our praise in a church worship service is merely an expression of the position our heart is in every day of the week. Worship isn’t just a time of singing before the message when we come together in church. Worship is also how we live our lives. Not only can we bow in a worship service, but we can live everyday life with our heart postured in humility. We can live a bowed life, not bent over because of lack or shame, but as surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord. We bow to Him by the way we live our life – surrendered, yielded, submitted to our loving Lord.

If we aren’t living a life of worship, then our words and are actions are meaningless to the Lord. He is looking at the heart that are in the words and the actions we do. Jesus quoted Isaiah in Mark 7:6 “…This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” When we kneel before the Lord, we don’t want it just to be just an outward expression, but we want it to be an expression of the genuine posture of our heart.

Application:  In Philippians 2:9-11 we read that one day every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. Is He your Savior – have you received His salvation? Is He your Lord – do you surrendered every part of your life to His loving authority and care? If there is an area that isn’t surrendered, I encourage you to bless the Lord by giving it to Him today.

By Melanie Stone