So anyway, life happens. You get off track. Fall off the bandwagon. I want to motivate you to catch up with a little math. I can almost promise you it isn’t as overwhelming as you think it might be. We’re going to answer the question:

“If I up my reading from 4 to N chapters per day, how long will it take for me to become completely caught up?”

I created the graph below to answer this question. To use it, you need to figure out two things: (a) Count how many days behind you are, and (b) think about how much you could push yourself for a limited time in terms of total chapters read per day. The goal here isn’t in-depth study of each chapter, just reading it. At this clip, reading 10 chapters in a day should easily take less than an hour. (Note: in the legend, these are TOTAL number of chapters to read per day, not additional above the standard 4 chapters per day.)

Here is an example illustrating how to use it. Suppose you are 50 days behind on the reading plan and want to catch up. You think for a limited time you could push yourself to read 10 per day (2 when you wake up, 2 over mid-morning coffee, 2 over lunch, 2 during afternoon coffee, and 2 right before bed—easy right?). Start off at the y-axis where the number of days behind equals 50. Move across horizontally until you hit curve corresponding to a reading rate of a total of 10 chapters per day (the red line). Find the value on the x-axis directly below. That’s the number of days it would take to catch up.

If you are 50 days behind and read 10 chapters per day, you can catch up in 33 days (approximately a month!).

If you decide to temporarily increase your reading to 8 chapters per day (the green line), it will take you as many days to catch up as you are behind.

The point is, with a little extra time every day, it’s not so insurmountable. We have a hard time thinking in terms of incremental investments over the course of 40, 60, 80 days, but trust the math: you’ll get caught up slowly and surely.

After you catch up, you can roll back your rate to 4 chapters per day. Or you just might want to keep it up.

For anybody interested in the math: It’s just a simple algebra problem. You have the total number of missed days x 4 chapters per day to catch up on, in addition to the 4 chapters of new reading you add each day during the catch-up period. It works out to be:

In other words, give us what we need to sustain us until tomorrow. The point of teaching and exhortation in the Body of Christ is not to tickle our ears, blow our minds with new insights, and forge new connections through masterful re-translation. There is a place for that, and I love a Spirit-melting revelation as much as the next guy.

BUT … the higher goal of ministry is to equip believers to wake up tomorrow loving and obeying God more than they are today.

That may come through skilled and insightful teaching, but more often than not, the teachings and exhortations that actually help me the most (when it comes to actually obeying God and securing my affections in Him) are ones that are the most foundational, most genuine, most rooted in the Gospel. Sometimes what I need the most is someone to remind us that Jesus is Lord. Sometimes I just need to hear the Gospel again. Sometimes I just need to hear that if I fight through and set my heart on God and resolve to obey Him in everything, it will be worth it. That those who trust in Him are never put to shame.

A common trap in the church is a growing expectation that each teaching needs to be outdone by a more insightful or interesting one, almost like an addiction. This sets up a house of cards and actually discourages people from giving out of what God has given them. The barrier to entry creeps higher and higher. It’s especially dangerous in organic church because it’s even more likely than in small traditional churches that there won’t be someone in the group with a teaching gift to rival A.W. Tozer or Francis Chan (pick your poison).

The good news is that you don’t need Tozer in your local fellowship. You need exactly who God has put around you. You need normal church gatherings. You don’t lack any good thing. God equips the Body of Christ masterfully. And if you do have an itch for something deeper than what you hear in your church meetings, you’ll find no shortage of what you’re looking for via the Kindle store and podcasts.

And by the way, you might just end up in an organic church like ours that has multiple people with incredible teaching gifts that will pull out the mind-blowing treasures every now and again for you to feast on.

One of the strengths of our particular group is that we try to encourage people to leave well, as much as it depends upon them. The original “members” of our church came mostly from another local Baptist fellowship to start doing house church exclusively. This was a process, but it was also a positive experience in that the pastors at the Baptist church blessed them and they all still have healthy relationships to this day.

This is rare.

It is sad that it is rare in the universal Church, but many people’s experience is very different.

Leaving one church to begin living among another is an awkward thing. It is easy for the former church to feel rejected. What do they lack that the new church has? And of course no church is perfect, so often there have been conflicts and contentions along the way if there’s been any real relationship at the former church at all.

The first piece of advice is that you should never leave one church and to go another while there is still unresolved conflict, bitterness, and contention between you. The reason to move on to another fellowship is simply that God is leading you to another church and another family of believers to walk with for a season. Be sure of His leading from a pure heart before making any decisions.

To move on with unresolved conflict and bitterness leaves a root that the enemy can, and will, use to cause more bitterness and contention in the new church, usually in the form of criticism and judgment on your part. As awesome as they may be, the new church won’t be perfect, either.

This is an issue that first must be dealt with in your heart. And the answer is to look upon those people, that former fellowship, with a thankful heart and love. See the gifts in the people and how God loves them. Be thankful for them. There may be valid issues, but God is among them to some degree, too.

If you have left with bitterness and unresolved conflict, it is almost never too late to go back and have phone conversations or meetings with people and come to peace with others in the Body of Christ.

The second major piece of advice is to bless them as you leave. They have been a blessing to you. Don’t use the leaving as an opportunity to say all the negative things you never had the guts to say before. I don’t believe in parting shots. Bless and give thanks for them to their face, whether that is leadership or others you have been close to. Take the time to have those conversations and affirm who they are in the Lord. If you’ve truly been in fellowship with others, that should be an easy thing to do. If not, God can show you. 99% of the time you will leave as brothers and sisters in peace and hard feelings will have been avoided.

From that place, you are able to dive into the lives of others with a free and pure heart.

Peace.

• know your name
• know your story
• know the consistent struggles you face
• know the dynamics of your marriage
• notice when something is up with you
• spend time in your home and vice versa
• know and play with your kids
• make themselves accessible to you, for example…
• have your cell # in his phone and his in yours
• spend enough time with you for you to know that he meets the Biblical qualifications of an elder

they might:

• be a great teacher
• encourage, challenge or inspire you
• exemplify great leadership qualities
• say things from the pulpit you need to hear
• counsel you during a time of crisis

but they are not:

• a practical shepherd in your life
• keeping watch over your soul
• able to give account for you
• bearing your burdens
• effectively and consistently pastoring you

I’m sorry—they are not your pastor. It’s not possible that they can shepherd you if they don’t really even know you, or you them. I am not putting down the necessity of the gift of teaching. It is critical for the life of a healthy church. Rather, I offer the perspective that operating in a teaching gift/ministry alone does not mean you are shepherding people God has entrusted to your care.

If you are a pastor and think you and are shepherding more than, say, ten people—I don’t believe that’s actually possible. You can’t be in close enough relationship to provide real spiritual care to that many. (I chose the number ten somewhat arbitrarily, but this metric has been informally confirmed in conversations I’ve had with numerous current/former pastors.)

This is why I believe the apostles set up churches to be cared for by a plurality of elders who can share the honor of discipleship, shepherding, teaching, protecting, counseling, guarding, exhorting, and building up the Body into the one Head of the church: Christ and Christ alone.

It’s the great safeguard against burnout or overwork in the church—the spiritual labor is distributed among so many that the yoke is easy. The Body practically operates by what each joint supplies. The “body” concept from Scripture transitions from metaphor to reality. Abstract to practical. Ethereal to obvious.

And finally, I don’t know where the idea of someone being “your pastor” comes from anyway. Nobody refers to someone as “their apostle” or “their evangelist”. But if there is someone who is your pastor, it’s probably not somebody on the platform, but someone who pulls you aside after a gathering or calls you on Tuesday to check in with you about a spiritual battle they know you are facing. That is what a shepherd does.

The Parkersons have rules in their family.  And I was introduced to this by little Micah (not my son, Micah … the Parkersons also have a Micah) while we were having a big breakfast at the Parkerson house a few weeks ago in Jackson.  Little Micah Parkerson spilled his drink all over himself, stood in his chair, and very firmly declared, “Don’t freak out!”  As I was fairly amazed and amused by this exchange, David Parkerson, the father, explained that they have rules in their family, and rule number one is: don’t freak out.

I knew immediately I would adopt this rule.  They have others that were good but not necessarily as universal as the first rule.  What a great rule.

A great deal of problems in the world happen when people give into that first reaction and FREAK OUT, then make decisions in that state.  This doesn’t mean that there aren’t real crises and emergencies in the world or in our individual lives, but for those of us who serve a God for whom nothing is impossible, we have to curb our emotional responses and instead address the situation with truth and His ability, which is literally infinite, omniscient, and omnipotent.

In our church, we believe the Bible to be authoritative to life and godliness and good doctrine.  In that precious book, we have testimony after testimony of people in actual life threatening situations that instead overcame by faith instead of just freaking out.  In fact, we are told in no uncertain terms that we shouldn’t freak out.  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”  (Phil 4:6)

You can’t help the initial thought to freak out or the initial emotional response.  As my mentor used to say, you can’t keep a bird from landing on your head but you can keep it from building a nest there.  Once you recognize it for what it is, being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” means that you reject that “freak out” thought and instead be thankful (guess what, you still have things to be thankful for) and bring your requests to God who is able to do all things.  And those words “nothing” and “everything” are important words; there are no situations too critical to apply this.  And we see this truth from Genesis through Revelation in some pretty valid emergencies and even history changing events.

So I made the official announcement at our meeting on Saturday night.  Rule #1 for the whole church: don’t freak out.

Peace.

PS … if you’ve been singing the song the whole time, here it is.

This “transfer growth” usually exacerbates problems or issues more than addresses them.  Of course, some people leave one church and go to another out of healthy and Spirit-led reasons, or even practical ones because of job/geographical change, but oftentimes those that transfer do it out of worldly or consumer-driven ideas or – at the worst – because of bitterness, conflict, and strife.

The point here is that when you are a church and you get visitors, it is important for them and for your church that this is discussed and explored.  While it is exciting that people visit and even seem to really connect with you and your group, the best thing for everyone involved is to make sure through prayer and accountability that people are where God has called them to be and doing what God has called them to do.

Some people who visit haven’t left another church recently.  For one reason or another, they may be uncommitted to any fellowship and looking.  It is still important to ensure God’s calling and leading to your particular church and to address conflict, bitterness, and wounds from previous fellowships if they exist.

But with others, they may be currently regular attenders at another church or even really plugged in there, and after visiting your church, they want to be involved with your fellowship to some degree.  These are times to be especially sensitive.  First, God may have them at that other church for a specific reason or for a specific season.  While your church is awesome, I’m sure, you don’t want to assume that means God is calling these visitors to your church.  God has people in all kinds of places for all kinds of reasons, and you don’t want to get in the way of His plans.

Second, once it has been prayerfully discerned, both in those individuals and your local assembly, that they are called to be a part of your fellowship, you must encourage them to LEAVE WELL.  This will probably be its own post at some point, but it is important when you leave one group or place to be a part of another that you leave well.  That means encouraging people to meet with leaders/pastors to talk about what is going on.  Talk about the blessing the church and leaders have been.  If there are issues and conflicts, they must resolve them before they can move on with another fellowship.  They should be open and honest with the other major relationships they have in the church before leaving.  It will probably be awkward to some degree and no one wants to see people leave, but we have to understand the necessity of leaving in peace, as much as it depends upon us.  Important things are exposed and learned in the process.

As an aside, we also encourage people that being involved in two churches at once doesn’t generally work, at least not for long.

These aren’t things that most churches even try to work through, for various reasons, but it is the best thing to do if you want to truly disciple people.

Peace.

Any church or fellowship of saints is connected first and foremost because of their individual and collective commitment to Christ and Him alone.  This makes the corporate time of intentional focus on Christ the most necessary part of any community of faith.  Everything else flows from the corporate focus on Christ.  It is a very real reminder of the centrality of Christ to all things, especially a Christian community, and is also the time when God speaks and operates both through and to His Body.  Within this larger context, there is also training in how to hear the voice of the Lord, to respond to His voice, and training in the gifts of the Spirit.  Consistency within the corporate times of worship builds momentum to lead the local body where God wants to take her.  It is indispensable to any real church.

And if there is any part of the corporate life that the enemy will try to make inconsistent or get you to miss, it is that time of corporate worship.

Our spiritual enemy has been at this longer than you.  He knows what will work and will not work.  He will not get you to miss times of corporate worship to go to a strip club or to do a drug deal downtown.  If he can, he will, but that isn’t very good strategy against people who are trying to follow God long term.  People trying to follow God will quickly see those things as from “the debul” and reject it.

No, our enemy knows that the greatest way to distract someone trying to follow God is with other “good things.”  The reason you begin to miss times of corporate worship with your “church family” will look like a very valid and good thing.  The examples vary as widely as you can imagine, but it can be everything from times with old friends you haven’t seen in so long or close family that can “only” get together at that time or “once in a lifetime” opportunities of things you’ve “always” wanted to do.  The good is the enemy of the best, my mentor used to say.

Whether because of past religious experiences or the continued voice of the enemy twisting this idea, the danger in bringing this up is that people can quickly get into feelings of “obligation.”  The religion of obligation or tradition tries to produce the discipline and consistency that should come from freedom and understanding.

Let me be clear.  You are not disciplined and consistent with corporate worship with the saints because you are obligated to do so.

You are disciplined and consistent with corporate worship because you realize the immediate and long term value of being a participant in the Lord speaking to His people through His people, that there is nothing more amazing and special you could possibly be doing.  There is nothing else more worth your time.  Other good things and opportunities will come at other times or in other ways if they are from Him.

There is a special manifestation of the presence of the Lord when His people gather with this in mind, as the oil upon the beard of Aaron, so to speak.  God speaks to you in the moment; the Body is immediately edified.  When there is consistency among all the members of the Body in this over time, God can move His people forward as a Body in ways that will shake the world and overwhelm the gates of hell.

And if there is anything the devil wants to stop at all costs, it is that.

Peace.

Everybody is different and has different reactions to the more intimate and communal setting of house church and an open meeting.  First reactions widely vary, but invariably we would get a visitor from time to time that would just be blown away by the meeting or the group.  They get really excited and say things like: “This is real church!  I can’t believe a group like this exists!  That was the best worship I’ve ever been a part of!  I could feel the presence of God like never before!  I’ll be here every week!”

Now, for us in the group who are a part of something we also think is great and edifying, hearing these things gets us excited, too.  “Did you hear what the visitors said?  Oh, it’s so encouraging.” It is natural to want others to experience and join something you think is a treasure.

But then you never see those visitors again.  They never come back.  Whether the meeting was at a time that wasn’t “convenient” for them or they were already heavily involved in another church or sometimes not even hearing from them again at all, they don’t come back.  Understanding this is a generalization, but it happened enough times that it became an expectation among us that those that were super excited probably won’t ever be back.

Some people just have super positive and excited personalities.  They probably think Kindergarten Cop was the best movie ever made. It isn’t a spiritual thing and they weren’t speaking from any place of real commitment.  They experienced something real and reacted to the moment, very positively (which is still encouraging), but it takes much more than a positive emotional reaction to stay committed to a group.  You learn to be glad that people were blessed by the meeting but guard your heart and not be disappointed that you don’t see them again.

There was a flip side to this observation (both sides of which have proven generally true over the past fifteen years of all kinds of ministry all over the world).  There are also the visitors who sit in your meeting, don’t participate, and sit there with a frown on their face the whole time.  They look at you like you’re crazy, sometimes even with this half expectation you’re about to get the snakes out at any moment.  At the end of the night, they might say, “Hmnn.  It was interesting.”  They’re trying to be polite.

And they’re the ones that come back.  And they keep coming back.  Maybe they ask some challenging questions, but they are being challenged themselves.  And often they are the ones that grow with the group and become dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Peace.

For those new to this type of meeting, it has its challenges.  Some people take to a more open and spontaneous environment like ducks to water.  My wife was that way.  Others have a difficult time with the “lack of structure.”  And specifically, the lack of a regular and intentional teaching time, or a sermon.

Now, if you are like me, you were raised in a more neo-traditional church that was very structured.  The styles of things were probably different, but the basic structure was the same across the board: music/praise at the beginning, some taking of an offering, and then a longer time sitting and listening to a teaching or sermon of some sort.  The whole structure places the importance on the sermon/teaching time.  The system of paying a salary to at least the one person doing the teaching every week underscores the importance of the message.

But the problem is that you won’t find this structure, or the necessity of a prepared teaching, detailed in the Bible.  You find something different in 1 Cor 14.  Every member is to willingly and voluntarily participate, whether in song or teaching or reading of scripture or prayer or however the meeting is led by the Holy Spirit.  And what you have instead, when following the biblical model, is something far more beautiful and powerful because at the end of the time together, you not only heard from God but participated in following the Spirit yourself.  That is true discipleship.

But even though God’s messages to His people are consistently clear in these times of gathering together, some people still miss the nicely packaged sermon and teaching that the previous structure gave them.  They feel something is missing.  Invariably people get frustrated with some times together because, “No one got up and gave a message.”  My response is usually, “You’re right.  About eight people got up and gave a message.”  And generally speaking, there was a theme and a word for the Body woven throughout people’s different expressions and gifts, which is far more reason to believe the message than one person prepackaging it for you.  Sometimes you have to renew your mind.

Let me be clear, though.  In our group, sometimes we have longer times of teaching.  In fact, often we do.  We have both men and women who are gifted and solid teachers, and God uses them.

Some of this is personality, but sometimes the people who have the most problem with a lack of regular “sermons” are “trained ministers.”  They have been told and trained to have a message, a teaching, ready for the church every week or so (there was one time I was giving three Bible messages a week or more).  It isn’t their fault; it’s been pummeled into their brains that this is their job as a leader, not to mention the shock of no one regularly giving them an individual platform to use their gift.

But which is the greater leader, the one who prepackages a message for everyone every week … or the one that teaches people to hear the voice of God themselves and become the minister, giver and encourager in the Body they were meant to be?

I know which one I have chosen.

Peace.

For people looking for something real and genuine, a church that actually lives like one and does intentional things to live life together, finally finding a fellowship that does that is like a breath of fresh air, rain on parched ground.  There is a great deal of excitement in meeting new people, learning new things, and expectation that there are wonderful things ahead.

This is a natural and good time in any relationship, and for those attempting to find and participate in real Christian community, there is a definite honeymoon period where everything feels amazing.

And then the honeymoon ends.  Reality sets in.  There are several reasons.

When people begin to deal with the real church, the real Body of Christ, and attempt to live life together with them, it is not like any other church experience.  So they begin to compare.  Some people who were once so excited to find an organic church setting begin to miss the trappings of the more institutional setting.  They are held more accountable for their own spirituality in ways they never have before.  Weaknesses in them that a “normal” church would never see are exposed.  That’s not fun.  The people you once thought were awesome begin to be far more human than previously thought.  What was once fun is now work.

Of course in the midst of all this we have a spiritual enemy that does his best to take this time and manipulate it for his own ends, which is ultimately division.

So as the honeymoon period ends, people begin to pull away, usually disappointed and discouraged.  Maybe they start to miss little gatherings here and there, or maybe begin choosing things that are more entertaining than being disciplined with their walk with the church.  Maybe they even start looking for another church to begin feeding a “need.”  They are trying to get that honeymoon feeling again.

And it can be found in a new group that doesn’t want to live so closely and share deeper things.

But just as real love in a marriage begins to happen when you get over yourself and get past expectations and misconceptions about what its supposed to be, begin to get past the fantasy and deal with the reality, begin to love the person that you are with instead of who you want them to be … it is the same in the church.

Those who are willing to grow up a little bit and get past the honeymoon period and stay just as committed … they will find a treasure of what it really means to have brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers in the faith.

Peace.