Clif McKinley Dot Com

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ed caught it, sort of.  The question was “What’s my role?”  not “What’s my job?”

My job is to do all kinds of things.  Right now I get paid to where lots of hats and do a kinds of different things, to be the buck stops here guy.  That is my job.  To marry and bury, to counsel and care that is my job.  But the question was “What is my role?”

I started all of this with by referencing Ephesians 4:16

“Under His (Jesus’) direction, the whole body (church) is fitted together perfectly (just as He intended, every part where He put it for its own unique purpose). As each part (member of the body of Christ) does its own special work (again its unique, God ordained, God chosen role), it helps the other parts grow (mature, stretch, become what God intended for them), so the WHOLE BODY is healthy (in a state of balance, functioning well, working as God intended) and growing (increasing in size and strength) and full of love (the thing that tells the world that we really are His disciples).” Ephesians 4:16 NLT w/Clif amplifications

I was waiting for someone to say, “What is the context?” But no one has done this yet. I was waiting for someone to say, “How does Scripture define the minister’s role?”

Ephesians 4:11-16

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

The role of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher is not to do all the “ing’s” but to equip, train, enable the church, the various parts of body, the individual parts fulfill their God designed roles.

So now we make the shift, “What is your role?”  And how can I better equip you to fulfill your God given role in the Body of Christ?

Andy Stanley is a pretty amazing leader and pastor. He is the son of Charles Stanley, he is Dr John Maxwell’s pastor, & he is down right scary smart. So here is what he has to say, this is taken from his book The Next Generation Leader :

“It is both natural and necessary for young leaders to try to prove themselves by doing everything themselves. It is natural because, as a leader, you want to set the pace even as you demonstrate that nothing is beneath you. It is necessary because most of the time nobody is around to help. But what may initially be natural and necessary will ultimately limit your effectiveness.

Perhaps the two best-kept secrets of leadership are these:

1. The less you do, the more you accomplish

2. The less you do, the more you enable others to accomplish

As a young leader, my biggest mistake was allowing my time to be eaten up with the things outside my core competencies. I devoted an inordinate amount of my first seven years in ministry to things I was not good at-things I would NEVER be good at. At the same time, I invested little energy in developing my strengths.

During the 2001 baseball season, Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves had a batting average of .253-average by professional standards. Yet he is one the most highly sought-after players in the National Baseball League. Why? Because in his role as pitcher, he struck out 173 batters the previous year. His skill with a bat is not what makes him an indispensable part of the lineup. His ninety-mile-an-hour fastball dose. Should he spend more time working on his hitting? Maybe-but certainley not at the expense of his pitching.

The moment a leader steps away from his core competencies, his effectiveness as a leader diminishes. Worse the effectiveness of every other leader in the organization suffers too.”

Thoughts?

• New series “Why?” started yesterday, i think it kicked off well, I have to wait on some feedback to see how other felt about it.
• Worship went well, Johnny still hasn’t broke string in like 2 months this is a record.
• Attendance was really amazing!!! Higher than the last two weeks and this was a holiday weekend!!!!!
• We finished up our month @ Sunbridge, yesterday they were celebrating a birthday for a resident that was turning 103!!!! WOW
• I took Ange to the ER last night, I was sick all week and she got whatever it was toward the end of the week, anyway she was really feeling lousy and her heart kept racing on her, so off to the ER we went. She is home and doing OK we have to follow up with her Doc this week. Please keep her in your prayers.
• Have a happy memorial day

I, like Lisa expected to see more comments on the last post. Either people don’t care or they are afraid to say what they really think. This post was inspired by some personal study of Scripture and some book that I have been reading.

So here we go, the church is the body of Christ, Scripture is rich with this imagery. Paul spends some time explain that each part serves a different function, eyes are not ears, hands are not feet, etc. We are all different parts of the body placed there by the Holy Spirit. He gives the gifts, He assigns the roles. Now I can pick things up with my feet, sometimes it is fun to see if I can do it, sometimes I do it because I am lazy and don’t want to bend over. Now just because I CAN pick things up with my feet does that mean that is what they were intended to do? Evolutionist would say yes, creationist would say no (but that is for a whole different set of posts). It is the job of the had to pick things up, in the absence of hands using your feet to pick things up makes sense. In a lot of churches body parts are doing things they CAN DO but were not INTENDED TO DO.

When it comes to roles we should do what God intended for us to do, LIFE IN THE SWEET SPOT, LIVING OUT OF THE BAG GOD PACKED FOR YOU, (just stealing lines form better minds).

The 80/20 principle says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts and 20% of your results come from 80% of your efforts. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put 80% of your time and effort into the things that give you greater return? Financially this would be a no brainier, you wouldn’t leave 80% of your savings in a place that was giving you a low return if you knew you could put it with the 20% that was giving you a huge return.

It is a stewardship issue, think about Jesus parable about the talents, the master was mad about the number of talents, but the poor stewardship.

Let’s hear some thoughts on this post Jansen and Lisa, I don’t think anyone else is reading these anyway.

I will be posting more on this subject this week.

It is more than a day off, more then the start of the summer season, more than a family barbeque, it is a day to remember those that gave their lives as a sacrifice for the freedoms we all too often take for granted.

So takes sometime to reflect and remember all those who have given their lives for us.

I can say I am excited that American Idol finally picked a worthy winner!!!!

I picked David Cook early on as one of my favorites, Carly was my other pick.  When she got the boot I figured David wouldn’t be far behind.  It would be Daughtry all over again.  But Cook kept getting the votes and in the end he beat the cute kid by 12 million of them.  Very cool!!!  I loved his song selection all along and his versions of Hello & Always Be My Baby are amazing.  David Cook will have an amazing career and I am super happy for him.  You can find tunes by his old band Axium floating around the net.  The best man won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok the time is here, the Summer Movie season has begun, every May the studios start rolling out the heavy hitters and this summer is going to be a good one.  I don’t get to go to the movies all that often anymore due to the little ones, but my amazing wife SENT me to see IRONMAN, yes my wife is amazing.  Ironman was killer!!!  And because I am a comic geek I am super stoked for the next Batman as well as the new Hulk &  Hellboy.

Not mention this summer we will finally see a new Indian Jones picture & another X-Files, I am all geeked up about that.  M. Night’s The Happening looks interesting and Sandler in Zohan and Carell in Get Smart should be very funny.

Are you looking forward to any summer movies?  Which films are on your must see list?

Great site for all the summer movies CLICK

I am trying to decide where to go with my next series of messages, I have stuff prepared on the following subjects:

• Stress
• Marriage/family
• Why questions directed at God

Which of these is of the biggest interest for all of you?  I really need some direction for you all, I feel all are important and I plan to preach on them all at some point in the next few months, but where to next is the question.  Let me know your thoughts.

Ephesians 2

• 1-3 We were all born in sin and because of that we were all DOOMED.  WE used to live just like everyone else that doesn’t know Jesus, giving in to our every desire, basically slaves to Satan even though we probably didn’t understand it at the time.  (It is funny how we thought we were free before Christ doing whatever we wanted but actually we were in chains, but now that we have real freedom in Christ many treat it as restrictive.)  Anyway it is Satan that is at work in the hearts of those who do not know & obey God.  We all used to live that way, after all we were born with that nature, we were under God’s judgment like everyone else.
• 4-7 BUT God loved us sooooo much and His mercy (not getting what we do deserve) is sooooo great, He sent Jesus to pay our debt, it is only by God’s grace (getting what we don’t deserve) that we are able to be in relationship with God.  Jesus death on the cross satisfied the judgment of God, sin had to be paid for and Jesus took it on Himself so that we wouldn’t have to!  WE were raised Spiritually from the dead with Jesus, meaning our soul was dead, but when Jesus was raised from the dead, He made it possible for us to become Spiritually alive.
• 8-9 Our salvation is by God’s grace, His special favor, we received it when we believed, put our confidence in Jesus.  We can’t take credit for our relationship with God, it is a gift from Him to us, we didn’t earn it & we don’t deserve it, but He offered it to us anyway.  Our salvation isn’t a reward for all the good things we have done, just the opposite, it is a gift that cannot be earn, therefore we can’t brag about how wonderful we are, if it wasn’t for that free gift we would be lost no matter how good we are!
• 10 We are God’s MASTERPIECE, those are His words not mine.  When HE looks at us He sees a beautiful work of art, a priceless one of a kind treasure.  He made us new in Jesus so we can do good things (instead of giving into every evil desire) and that was His plan all along.
• 11-15 Paul talks about how we, the Gentiles (all non-Jewish people) were once Outsiders (much like those who are outside of the family of God now) we treated like with contempt.  Funny how the Jew treated the Gentiles is how many time we treat the unchurched and those that are searching.  But because of the death of Jesus we, the Gentile, were brought into the family of God.  Before we had no hope, we didn’t have the benefit of the promises of God but now we do because of Jesus act of sacrifice on the cross.
• 16-18  Now we are ONE, no longer to groups but one group, we can come to God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, because of the Son Jesus Christ.
• 19-22 Now the Gentile, us, are no longer Outsiders, but now are part of the family, no longer illegal aliens, but full fledged citizens.  We are now MEMBERS of GOD’S FAMILY!  Jesus is the foundation, the cornerstone  and we are joined together to form the CHURCH,  WE are the temple of God, we are were the Spirit of God lives, not ina build like in the Old Testament Temple, no He resides in the hearts of His people the church.

Just wonder, what do you like most about Lighthouse?  You can name a few things, say your top three.  I would like to know what we are doing well?  So tell, what do you like most about Lighthouse?