Hershel’s Blog

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False Teaching

Posted on December 1, 2011 by hersheladams

My small group was having a discussion this week about why the writers of the New Testament had to correct so much false doctrine. But as I thought about it, the real issues is why does the church today have so much false teaching present. Looking at the early gentile believers, they didn’t grow up using the Old Testament, nor did they have the New Testament. So they relied on men of God to bring them the word of God. So I could see how easy it would be for them to follow someone who brought false teaching into the church.

But today’s’ church has the complete revelation of God’s word. We have both the Old and New Testaments. We have that which is perfect and complete. So how is it possible for false teaching to invade our church.

Most of the time it’s because people have incorrectly interpreted Scripture or they have allowed something else to supersede Scripture. When you read through the New Testament, this seems to be a major issue in the early church. Mainly because they didn’t have the New Testament yet. So they were relying on people to come to them and speak the Word of God. Words of knowledge, and prophecy.

Today, we have God’s word in its entirety. We don’t need any further special revelation from God. His word is all sufficient for all our needs. Nothing is to be added and nothing is to be taken away. Yet, even with having God’s word, why are so many people following false teaching? The reality is that most people don’t want to take the time to research truth for themselves and spend the needed time in God’s word to fully understand it’s meaning.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” 2 Timothy 3:16

God’s word is the most powerful and beneficial thing we can have in this life. I believe with all my heart that “All Scripture” means every verse, every phrase and every word that it contains and it’s all vital to live that life that God desires for us to live. My problem comes when people take God’s word out of context. When they don’t take the time to understand God’s word through proper techniques of hermeneutics. Time should be spent to study the context of the entire book, chapter and even the bible as a whole. There should be a historical and cultural examination that considers the audience that the passage was written to and their culture, along with that of the author. We must perform a complete literary analysis that considers what type of genre it represents. Is it a narrative? Is it prophecy? Is it poetry or apocalyptic? To gain the correct understanding from God’s word, we must know and seek these answers.

Otherwise, we will read a verse like Matthew 19:21 where Jesus said, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” And out of context, we could say that everyone should sell all our possessions and give their money to the poor in order to be perfect. But that’s not what Jesus is communicating in this passage. Or if he is, I’ve never heard of anyone following it.

So all Scripture is inspired and useful, as long as we apply correct hermeneutical principals to the text.

Filed under: Bible, Discipleship, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines | Tagged: false, scripture, teaching | Leave a Comment »

Every member a minister?

Posted on November 4, 2010 by hersheladams

Today has been a powerful day of God speaking to my heart and confirming many things that He has revealed to me during this sabbatical. I have been praying for God to bring this sabbatical to a close with a powerful message from Him and that’s exactly what He is doing. I can’t wait to get back and begin to reveal how God has spoken to me over the last eight weeks. This Sunday I will get an opportunity to begin that process.

Have you ever thought of yourself as a missionary? Probably not. We usually reserve that title to someone like Kenny and Teresa, those who surrender to the foreign mission field. One of the things that God has been revealing to me is that every person that claims to be a follower of Christ is called to be a missionary. I’m not talking about moving overseas. Although some of you might be. I’m talking about you being a missionary where you are. Taking the gospel to others and at times, even taking the gospel to others in the world.

So who do you know that’s far from God? A friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, a teacher, a student, a relative? You have your own unique mission field where you can proclaim the life saving message of Jesus. If you don’t assume the responsibility of being a missionary, it might mean that they will never have a chance to hear about the only thing that really matters in life. It’s time for you to obey the command of Christ and become a doer of God’s word and begin to live out your audacious faith.

At Sonlight, we have a saying, “Every member is a minster.” However, for far too long we have limited that to mean ministering inside the church building. God has brought a stirring in the hearts of our staff. He’s been communicating that it’s so much more than what we do on Sunday mornings. You are not only to be a minister in the church, but you are also to be a minister in your workplace, in your school, in your neighborhood, in your grocery store and every place you go.

1 Peter 2:9 NLT says, “…for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

Isn’t that incredible! I thank God that ministry isn’t limited by a building or by having pastors. At Sonlight, our pastors are to help equip the people of God for ministry in this world. Actually, that’s the standard for every church. You are a minister. You are a priest.

This only makes sense because you will come in contact with people that I will never come in contact with. You will witness needs that I will never witness. In those moments, you need to be God’s ambassador and allow the God of the universe to work through you. Isn’t that awesome!? I know it can be risky, I know it can me scary, but when did following Jesus become easy and without risks?

All of us are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. We are His hands and feet and voice to those in our circle of influence. When are we going to begin living a life of obedience? “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 2 Corinthians 5:20

Have you ever accepted the call to be a minister or are you holding back? Please feel free to leave your questions about stepping out to be a minister.

Filed under: Church, Evangelism | Leave a Comment »

Coming Home

Posted on November 1, 2010 by hersheladams

Yes, we are coming home! I haven’t blogged in a few days because I needed to catch my breath. I have been reading so many books and I didn’t even blog about the last two that I read, but now I have also started preparing for my return to Sonlight on November 7th. I’ve been thinking and talking to God about what He wants me to share when I get back. I began to write my thoughts out today and I can’t wait to share with you how God has began to work in my life through this sabbatical. I’m really going to be transparent and reveal my heart about what God has shown me concerning myself – and yeah, I’m gonna leave Deena out of it.

God is also leading me to have our church participate in where we are heading this upcoming year. In order to accomplish that, I’m going to walk our church through a survey that I’ve been preparing over the past two weeks. This survey will help me to get a true spiritual pulse of our church and it will me help shape what I will be preaching on this year.

I’ve also been working on the first series of messages that I believe God wants me to bring to our people. During this new series we are going to be looking at the radical statements that Jesus made to those desiring to be his followers. This is going to get crazy! We will either shrink our church to less than fifty people, or we will explode to proclaim the gospel in ways that we have never dreamed of. I can’t wait and I hope you will invite your friends beginning November 14th for this series!

We are leaving here on Wednesday morning and driving to South Bend, Indiana for a church conference at Granger Community Church. It will be over Friday evening and we are hoping to arrive back home late Saturday evening. I will probably update my blog after the first day of the conference. So you can check back on Thursday evening. We are hoping that God continues to speak to us the remainder of this week and especially at the conference. Please keep praying for us! We are praying for all of you at Sonlight!

Filed under: Church, Personal | 1 Comment »

We are the church… the church is not where we go!

Posted on October 26, 2010 by hersheladams

One thing that I’ve tried and hopefully taught our church is that the church is not a place where we go, it’s who we are. Jesus calls us to be the church to our city and our world. The only way we can impact the lives of others for eternity is to get in the game personally and take the gospel to those that God places in our lives. The reason it requires us to get involved is because people in our generation are different than people in previous generations. People don’t just come to church out of the clear blue. They don’t just turn on Christian radio or Christian television, thank goodness in some cases. If we are going to impact the lives of others and influence our city, we have to change our methodologies to reach this generation. What worked in the past doesn’t necessarily work in the present.

Today I finished an interesting book called “The Passionate Church” by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad. They said that today’s generation is more interested in having a life coach than just attending plain discipleship classes. The generation of people today are looking for someone to coach them, someone who is living out their faith in a real and relevant way. A life coach is actually more in line with how Jesus modeled discipleship.

One day Jesus called together all of his disciples and he chose twelve of them to be apostles. These twelve men would be with Jesus during his three year ministry and He would spend many hours and days discipling these men. As time went on, Jesus gave the ministry over to them, eventually leaving this world and trusting the gospel in the hands of ordinary men who he had discipled. Folks, that’s the way it should work! Every person who knows Christ should be involved in discipling someone else an/or being discipled.

Through the disciplship process, you will learn many things. One thing that you will learn is that you need to live a balanced life. Jesus had a balanced life as he lived out three different relationships. He lived UP with his Father, He lived IN with his disciples and he lived OUT with those in the community.

We are called to do the same thing in order to have a balance in our lives. If we neglect God, we are out of balance. If we neglect our Christian brothers and sisters, we are out of balance. If we neglect our lost world, we are out of balance. We need to constantly look and evaluate these three key relationships in our lives.

How are you doing in your relationship with God – Are you taking time to pray and listen to God? Are you spending time reading His word? Are you finding yourself worshipping him? Or do you find yourself too busy for this relationship? Evaluate yourself.

How are you doing in your relationship with God’s church – Are you connecting with others in small group? Are you corporately worshipping God on Sundays? Are you meeting the needs within the church family? Are you using your gifts within the context of the church family?

How are you doing in your relationship with the world – Are you inviting people to church? Are you meeting their physical needs? Are you showing compassion and love? Are you desiring to go on a mission trip? Are you investing in the lives of others so you can introduce them to Christ?

These are important questions that we need to ask ourselves on a continual basis. If we could get these three relationships down, we would be a passionate church! Can you imagine what God could do through us?! It would be amazing!

Filed under: Book, Church, Discipleship | Leave a Comment »

Not very impressed with my latest book I read.

Posted on October 25, 2010 by hersheladams

A few weeks ago I picked up a book that I’ve been wanting to read with high anticipation. I have heard of its author and I really wanted to stretch my beliefs and understanding of his teaching. I was really excited to have time today to read this book. Well, it didn’t turn out like I thought it would. He had some excellent points, but it was overshadowed with unnecessary conformity to this world. The book is called “The Radical Reformission” by Mark Driscoll.

Here’s what I really liked:

The reformission is the idea that missions is not just the act of taking the gospel to foreign nations, but it includes taking the gospel into our own culture. Driscoll says, “Reformission is a radical call for Christians and Christian churches to recommit to living and speaking the gospel, and to doing so regardless of the pressures to compromise the truth of the gospel or to conceal its power within the safety of the church.” It’s a call to take the gospel message outside the walls of the church and into our schools, the marketplace, the restaurant, the neighborhood and even the soccer fields.
If we are going to engage God’s calling, we have to learn to engage the gospel, engage the culture and engage the church. We have to love God, love our neighbor and love one another within the church. If we are missing any of these elements, then we are failing to be the people of God.
Our mission is to stay close to Jesus. He says, “This transforms our hearts to love what he loves, hate what he hates, and to pursue relationship with lost people in hopes of connecting with them and, subsequently, connecting them with him. This actually protects us from sin, because the way to avoid sin is not to avoid sinners but to stick close to Jesus.” This is true in that we must be close to Christ so that we will not fall into the sin that we are trying to help others escape from. However, if we are not careful in keeping our walk with Jesus strong, we could find ourselves slipping back into the patterns of the world. We had better have a healthy dose of hanging out with Godly people who will help lift us up as well.
We have to continually evaluate and change how we are communicating the gospel of Jesus so that we can speak the language of the ever changing culture. Driscoll said, “Since every presentation of the gospel is culturally expressed, the form of its presentation must continually change as the culture changes, while the content of the gospel remains unchanged and truthful.”
The way your friends and co-workers come to know Christ is by allowing them to get close enough to you so they can witness the natural and practical outworking of the gospel in your life.

But here’s the major problem I have with this book. He goes as far as saying that we can watch whatever movie our culture watches, we can watch whatever we want on TV, we can buy our friends beer in the local gay bar, as long as we are discerning and using this to be hospitable to them and earn the right to share the gospel. As long as we are watching the show in order to understand the culture so we can better interact with the lost. But in my mind, this ruins your testimony. Isn’t Jesus supposed to change your life? Isn’t Jesus supposed to call you out from the world? Shouldn’t the lost see a difference in our lives and not just hear us pray for them and buy them beer?

Years ago, while I was serving in the Navy, the guys would go out to Hooters or even some gentlemen clubs each Friday. I never went. Not once! They knew why too. Should I have gone with them for the sake of trying to win them to Christ? I think not. You see, I believe that we are to establish and nurture relationships with unbelievers, but that doesn’t give us the right to go live like they do. We are called to be different! We are called to a level of holiness! Even though I didn’t go with them, one day someone came up to me and said, “Hershel, I know you live differently, and I need what you have in my life. Can you tell me how I can have that.” Yeah, baby! Living differently from the world will result in bringing people who are far from God into a relationship with His Son, Jesus!

So my take on the book is to read it with discernment.

Filed under: Book, Evangelism | Leave a Comment »

Being moved by God!

Posted on October 24, 2010 by hersheladams

No, I’m not moving! I’m talking about God speaking to my heart and redeeming the vision that He placed in my life over eleven years ago for Sonlight church and our city. During my time on this sabbatical, God has constantly reminded me of the calling that he has placed on my life. I just finished reading Steven Furtick’s book, “Sun Stand Still,” and God confirmed in me again the need to return to his calling for my life.

God’s journey in my life has been a roller coaster ride. I served Him faithfully during most of my high school years, although most of my walk was shallow. I really wasn’t challenged much in my church, and there wasn’t a thriving youth ministry that was at work around me. My parents didn’t go to church, so even in the home there wasn’t any chance of spiritual discipleship.

After I joined the Navy, it didn’t take long before I would walk away from God and pursue sinful pleasures and the ‘American Dream.’ However, in January 1990, God drew me back in church, (Aka – Deena made me go) and I surrendered my life to Him once again. In January, 1996, I surrendered my life to preach. Six years before this day, I would bring in the New Year with alcohol and a group of partying friends. But this day was different. I had six years of God working in my life. On this New Year’s Eve, I found myself praying in the New Year at a church, St. Elmo Baptist Church, in Chattanooga, TN. I remember God’s whisper, ‘Hershel, when are you going to surrender your dreams for my dreams? When are you going to make my Kingdom your primary concern?’ That night, with the pastor who helped me to come back to God six years earlier, I bowed my knee and surrendered to ministry.

As a side note, we are all called to ministry. Now that I’m a pastor, I’m actually supposed to equip God’s people for the works of ministry. Steven Furtick said, “To say that someone is called to full-time ministry suggests that others are permitted to do part-time ministry. But Jesus didn’t die on a part-time cross. He doesn’t voce us with apart-time love. He doesn’t cover us with a part-time pardon for sins. There’s no such things as a part-time Christian, and there’s no such thing as part-time ministry. The day you gave your life to Christ, you signed a full-time ministry employee agreement.” Wow! That is so true!

So I put down my dream of becoming Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy and I began to pray for God’s dream to be a reality in my life.

Leaping into seminary, I quickly discerned that God wanted to use me to plant a church from scratch. He showed me how he had wired my DNA specifically for the task. I would drive by empty fields and look out into the fields and literally see thousands of people gathering together to worship God and build His kingdom! I still envision it!

Three years later, without a shadow of a doubt, I heard God’s voice to begin what would soon be Sonlight Church. I remember saying to God, “Are you sure? I mean, don’t you want me to get out of the Navy first? Don’t you want me to go somewhere else, like Florida? Don’t you want me to finish my seminary degree before I begin this? I don’t know enough. I don’t have the skills. I don’t know what I’m doing!” It didn’t take long for God to confirm His plan for my life and that it wasn’t about me, it was about Him and His power!

From that moment on, I have prayed for God to take an open field and fill it with thousands of people. I know I’m incapable of causing that. I know that I don’t have the ability to lead it. But for some reason, I have faith in God. I believe that God can and will accomplish his vision for our church and our city. I believe that God will save thousands and empower them to serve and love. I believe that lives will be changed in miraculous ways. I believe that God will make the Sun Stand Still until His vision is accomplished.

I love what Steven Furtick said, “If you’re not daring to believe God for the impossible, you’re sleeping through some of the best parts of your Christian life.” He also said, “Choosing to live with Sun Stand Still faith will never be the easiest way to live. In fact, it’s often downright intimidating. But it’s the best way to live.”

I thank God for reminding me why I’m pastoring Sonlight. It’s not about me, it’s all about God and what He wants to accomplish in our city! It’s impossible apart from God! The dream will not be easy, it will not be cheap, it might even get dangerous, but I’m committed more now than ever in seeing God accomplish what He set out to accomplish through us eleven years ago! I hope you will join God’s dream with us!

Filed under: Book, Church | 2 Comments »

Choosing an Adventurous Life

Posted on October 22, 2010 by hersheladams

God was wired me for adventure. Ever since I was a young boy, my parents had a hard time taming my outgoing personality and my constant desire for doing some crazy stuff. Like riding my skateboard down a very steep road that only had pain written at the end of it. Because when and if I arrived at the bottom of the hill, there was no literally direction to go but over a cliff. What was I thinking? Fortunately for me, I fell off about 3/4′s of the way down and slid on my back, head, arm and chest before I went over the cliff at the bottom! I may have not lived if I would have went off the cliff with all my wheels intact and with a full head of steam!

When it comes to serving God, I want my life to be filled with adventure. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to crash and burn and live as stupid as I did as a child. But I do want the thrill of doing the impossible. I want the thrill of being where only God can come through. And if he doesn’t come through, well I’m up the creek without a paddle! In Mark Batterson’s book, “Wild Goose Chase,” he talks about this very topic of reclaiming the adventure of pursuing God. He made a statement that really stuck with me. He said, “Nothing is more unnerving or disorienting than passionately pursuing God.”

By the way, you don’t have to be a pastor to be a part of this great adventure. All you have to do is be willing to follow the Holy Spirit. He also said, “Take the Holy Spirit out of the equation of my life, and it would spell b-o-r-i-n-g. Add Him into the equation of your life, and anything can happen. You will never know who you will meet, where you’ll go, or what you’ll do.” What an awesome adventure!

Just think about the ordinary disciples and what they would have missed if they had not left everything to follow Jesus. They would have missed drinking the wine that Jesus created from water, they would have missed feeding five thousand people with a few fish and chips, they would have missed seeing dead people brought back to life, they would have missed seeing sick people healed, blind people given sight and even Jesus being resurrected to life!

This book is worth reading, that is if you want to embark on an adventure and not spell your life with b-o-r-i-n-g. In this book, he describes six cages that we find ourselves locked in that prevent us from following God’s Holy Spirit and living a life of adventure. I wish I could share something about all of them, but I don’t want to ruin the book for you. I’ll just share one cage that we find ourselves living within. It’s the cage of guilt. Sometimes we think that because we have messed up in our lives, that God is finished with us. That we are no longer worthy of being a follower of His. Let me say this, if you are still breathing, God is not finished with you yet! And it’s never too late to begin the adventure of following God’s Spirit.

Peter denied Jesus three times during the most critical time of Jesus’ life, and then the rooster let out a loud crash to remind him of what Jesus had just told him. “Peter, before the rooster crows, you will deny even knowing me three times.” Do you think that every time Peter heard the rooster crow after this failure, that he had feelings of guilt flood his mind? He could have, but I don’t believe so. If he would have not engaged his adventure with God, then maybe he would have lived with the guilt all his life and stayed locked up in the cage of guilt. But Peter refused to live in guilt. Instead, he knew that Jesus had a better life for Him. Was it a safe life? No way! It was still a dangerous life, but it certainly wasn’t going to be boring! Because Peter refused to live in the cage of guilt over past mistakes, God used him in some amazing ways. People were healed just by being in Peter’s shadow as he walked by. Wow!

May we all let go of the guilt that lingers in our lives. Once we confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive all our sins! Why don’t you join the adventure! Pray, seek His word, and join His kingdom work.

Filed under: Book | Leave a Comment »

So how’s my sabbatical going? I’m glad you asked!

Posted on October 21, 2010 by hersheladams

I shouldn’t be surprised but I am. I’m just amazed that when you stick to a discipline, it can make all the difference. The first day I ran, I couldn’t even run 1/2 mile. I’m not sure I even ran five minutes before my calves locked up and if I hadn’t been a man, I would have cried! With persistence and discipline in forcing myself to workout,(including cardio and strength) today I was able to run 4.7 miles in just over 56 minutes without stopping! I only stopped because Deena was finished watching “Price is Right” and she was ready to leave. Guess I have to push her harder from now on! Actually, if it wasn’t for her pushing me, I wouldn’t be on the road to being physically fit.

One day I was running on this track that goes through a wooded area in Dayton and Deena was out in front of me, but just by like 50 yards. I had started to walk and this guy asked me if I was chasing the woman in front of me. I told him I’ve been chasing her for over thirty years! Deena is such an inspiration and motivation to me in life. Not only now through physical exercise, but also spiritually. She was the one that got our feet headed in the right direction after I had led the family away from God in the early years of our marriage. God, thank you for a spiritual and loving wife!!

Not only has God helped me to get in better physical condition, but God has also helped me to get in better spiritual condition while I’ve been isolated in the back hills of Tennessee. I was surprised that even birds travel this far away from civilization! God has used this time to renew my spirit. My love for God has grown richer and my understanding of being a pastor has been deeply enriched. Through reading so much of God’s word everyday and spending time in prayer, God has taught me so much about myself. A lot of what He has shown me I don’t like! But He is working in the depth of my mind and heart. He is renewing my mind through the reading of His word. I have never had a time in my life where I have spent as much time as I am right now in God’s word. I have never had a time when I have prayed and sought God’s Holy Spirit more than I have right now. I have never been able to read and grow like I have had the opportunity on this sabbatical.

For that, I want to thank Sonlight for giving me this opportunity. I have benefited so much and have heard from God so much, that it’s impossible to tell you everything. My prayer is that my actions will reflect what God has done in my mind and my heart as I prepare to return.

God has shown me more of what it’s about in being a pastor. He has taught me much about raising up leaders and helping them become all that God desires. He has burdened my heart for the lost and renewed my passion for reaching the unchurched in our community. I truly can’t wait to get back and lead our church into God’s dream of reaching our city.

I look forward to seeing you all on November 7th! Until then, please know that I’m praying for you and for God’s glory!

Filed under: Personal, Spiritual Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Being an Unstoppable Force!

Posted on October 20, 2010 by hersheladams

Today I finished one of the most challenging and engaging books I have ever read called, “An Unstoppable Force: daring to become the church God has in mind” by Erwin McManus. I must have underlined about half of the book in my attempt to gain as much understanding and wisdom as I possibly could. Here are several main points that I have either learned or has been reinforced in my life from this book:

The church is all about relationships.

How we relate to God, how we relate to one another and how we relate to the culture of unbelievers around us is essential. When any of these relationships are out of sync, we fail to be the unstoppable force that God has called the church to be.

The church must continue to change and adapt to its culture.

We have to make positive changes while keeping the essence of God’s word pure. He states, “Over the past forty years, the communities around many churches have changed dramatically, yet the church has stayed the same. Somewhere in the community’s transformation, the church disconnected. The church must acclimate to a changing world, or she will destine herself to irrelevance or even extinction.” This is so true! I have seen this played out first hand. I have a pastor friend that is leading a small church that was at one time thriving with four or five hundred people. They sit in an auditorium that can seat over 500 people with now only a handful left. He told me once that years ago, as the community began to change, the church refused to change. They decided in a business meeting to end all evangelistic efforts into the community. As a result, my friend is trying to resurrect a church that died years ago by making their faith relevant to the community that surrounds them.

Here’s another incredible quote, “Even the most culturally conservation churches have no problem turning the lights on, using the microphone to preach against technology, or enjoying having running water and good plumbing. Ironically, we tend to accept technologies that bring us comfort and convenience, while rejecting the technologies that can produce creativity and innovation.” We have to learn to use and leverage the language of the culture to be an unstoppable force.

The church is meant to serve.

Too many churches desire only to survive. They are not focused on the spontaneous calling of God to serve Him and others as His Holy Spirit leads. The heart of God is to serve a broken world. Even God is a servant. I know you and I like to think of God as all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present. That makes Him seem big and able to handle anything that’s before us. But did you know that He is also a servant? Jesus demonstrated this when he took a towel and wrapped it around his waist to wash the disciples feet. Then He said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. The Father and I are one. Wow! The God of this universe, the Creator and Maker of all things, is a servant at heart. Should we be anything less? Absolutely not. We were made to serve! To serve God by serving others.

Pastors are called to lead change.

Our seminaries have taught pastors to not lead change, but to keep order. Let me quote what this author said, because I can’t say it any better. “Pastors were valued for their ability to bring and keep order rather than for their ability to bring and lead change. The reality was that pastors were being equipped to preserve the past rather than to create the future. We became known for being traditional rather than transformational. The ritual replaced the radical.” Today churches are spending thousands of dollars to replace and preserve hymnals from the 1800′s instead of working to create a worship environment that expresses the culture in which we live.

The church must become a movement.

We are not to retreat and focus on ourselves. The church is not just about feeding the believers. When you join a church, it’s not about, “What’s in it for me?” It’s about joining a movement that Jesus started over two thousand years ago. When the church is a movement, it’s a place where unbelievers will want to come and find refuge. A place where they will come seeking for God. It’s a place where those that are broken can find healing and where those that are lonely will be embraced and loved intimately. When we are a movement, the unchurched will flock to the place where transformation is the norm. This is how we will impact our culture. We must continue to be a church for the unchurched. A place where people are coming into an intimate love relationship with Jesus and their lives are being transformed in powerful ways.

Deena said that if I write too much, people will not read it. So I’ll end here and maybe finish my thoughts tomorrow. I’m just blown away by all that God is saying to me during this time of intense focus. Thank you all for your prayers!

Filed under: Book, Church | Leave a Comment »

Has God Spoken to You?

Posted on October 18, 2010 by hersheladams

While I’ve been on this sabbatical my prayer is that I would often hear from God. I long to hear from God so that I can be a better pastor, a better husband and a better father. There are so many times that God has tried to talk to me but I’ve just been too busy to listen. I’ve had too many distractions in my life to realize that God is seeking me and desiring to share His heart with me. What I’ve discovered is that God not only wants to speak in our quite times, He also wants to speak throughout the day. I have let things like email, internet, television and Xbox to get in the way of hearing from God.

Are you like me? Have you wanted God to just give you an incredible sign, maybe a loud audible voice or his words written in the sky as you gaze upon the clouds? We long to hear from God but the fact of the matter is, He’s been talking to us all our lives but we have just failed to recognize his voice.

I just finished reading, “The Power of a Whisper” by Bill Hybels. Bill really helped me to understand how God speaks and how I can tune in to His voice. God has never spoken to me in an audible voice, but He has spoken to me in so many ways. The loudest way that God speaks to me is through His word.

Psalm 19:7-11 says, “The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the LORD is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the LORD are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.”

When you are wanting to hear from God, first open up the Bible and begin to read it. God has so much that he wants to say to us through his word! He’s already said it, now we have to read it.

Pastor Bill talks about time after time when God brought to his mind, through a whisper, a passage of Scripture that he had memorized in his heart. Right when he was getting ready to do the wrong thing, to act in the flesh, God’s Spirit would remind him of a Scripture that would allow Him to act in a godly manner. A lot of my problem is that I have neglected putting Scripture into my memory. Lord, forgive me and help me to begin hiding your word in my heart!

Another way God speaks to us is through others. If we will run our idea through some people that love God and love us, God can use them to confirm the truth of what’s being communicated to our heart. This is hard because we have usually made up our mind before we tell anyone. I need to listen to the wise counsel of those who love me and love God. I can’t tell you how many times God has spoken to me through someone who loved me enough to speak truth to me. It’s hard at times to hear it, but I have to be open and realize that God may be using this person to speak to me. One word of caution: Make sure it is from someone who loves you and has demonstrated their love for you.

God also communicates to us through our circumstances. Sometimes God will put us in a certain circumstance in order to get us where we need to be or to give us an opportunity to follow His leading. What are your circumstances telling you right now? Are they telling you it’s time for a change? Are they telling you to learn to trust on God more and less on your own wisdom? Are they telling you to change your occupation or maybe your place of employment? Listen to God through your circumstances.

Right now I’m crying out to God to speak to me and reveal direction in my life. Please pray for God to lead me and confirm what He is saying. I want to be in the center of God’s will!

Filed under: Book, Church, Discipleship, Spiritual Disciplines | 2 Comments »