I don’t stop often enough to sing the praises of some of the people in my life. My ministry would barely happen without the help of others.

1. My Wife. She hates it when I draw attention to her, but I need to occasionally shout her praises. She supports me and works harder than anyone I know. Her work in the Church is often unnoticed by others, but is vital to me. I thank God for her and for all she does for the Church as well as our family.

2. My Children. My children have never been allowed to sit on the sidelines at Church. They have been a part of worship, sound, PowerPoint, lawn care and a hundred other things since they have been old enough to walk and talk. I deeply appreciate their help in my ministry on so many levels. There is nothing like serving the Lord side by side with your children.

3. My Elders. It has been an enormous blessing to be a part of the leadership at ACC. These guys are always praying for me and with me. They are encouraging to me while making me laugh. The push me to be a better person as I grow older in my faith. Their support is the best I have ever had in ministry.

There are other people in my life who are a blessing to me. They encourage me and support me on my journey of faith. I am thankful for them as well and one day I will blog about them. But TODAY – I thank God for these people He has put into my life.

Who are you thankful for today?

Last night at RUSH we asked the kids to turn to a passage in the Bible. It was painful for me to watch them flip and turn and try to figure out what I was talking about. I understand that many teens today have the bible on their phones and can just find what they want in a couple of touches of the screen. I have it on my phone and love it.

BUT if you are an older adult with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews who want to know about faith I would ask you to make sure these children understand a few simple things.

1. The Bible has two sections – An Old and New Testament. This seems so elemental but it is vital information. Moses and the Law are primary in the Old Testament. Jesus and the Church are essential in the New Testament.

2. The Bible is put together by genre not date. What I mean is that in the Old Testament books are lumped together as history, poetry, major and minor prophets (size description). The New Testament has the Gospels together and the letters of various authors lumped together. It is not put together chronologically.

3. There are 66 total books – 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament. Each book is broken down into chapters and verses for easy reference. These are not inspired by God but added by man to make Bible study much, much easier.

4. Try to memorize the order of the books. This is the most helpful piece of advice for study that anyone can give. It speeds up time finding material. (I repeat them to myself regularly.)

5. Understand there are three great ages in the Bible. The Bible begins with a Patriarchal age that lasts until Moses in Exodus 20. That means the oldest male in the family acted as the priest of the family. Then there is the age of the Law. This lasts from Exodus 20 till Acts 2. This means the law given to Moses was God’s desire for his people and the priests were man’s connection to God. Finally we have the Christian age that last from Acts 2 until heaven and Jesus is our connection to God.

6. Try to give a big Bible overview. How about something like this: God created man and man rebelled. God tried to clean up the mess but man kept rebelling. God made a promise to Abraham. He then gave the law to Moses. God wanted to live in harmony with people and he gave them every chance. They kept rebelling and he finally let them be punished. Eventually he brought them back to their home and reestablished a covenant of grace through Jesus Christ. The Church was formed. God sent his Apostles to teach the Church what it meant to have faith and follow Jesus until Christ’s return.
That is a very simple way to view the Bible (I am sure you can do better)

7. Learn these things yourself. Enough said.

What would you add to my list?

I completely understand that the world is changing and the future will be all digital. I do still hope that people understand the basic format and story of the Bible even in a different form. And from what I saw last night, we are raising a generation of people who claim to follow Jesus who have no idea about the Bible.

The Church is a place where people are called to love God and to love one another. Those are two essentials of Christian character and thus are the way the Church people should behave. Most of us would affirm those truths vocally while we are trying to live them out daily. And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

Weekly we meet to worship the Lord and receive instruction in his word. There is a time of worship for us to express our love of God. This is seen in our songs, our prayers and our communion with him.

Then followers of God are daily challenged to live out a life of love for other people. I hear people declare this concept regularly. We try to connect to other people and care for them as Christ commanded.

My fear is that most of us actually keep people an arm’s length away from us. We like people but we would rather they did not get too close.

I have seen at least two areas that are a test of my real relationship with other people.

1. Do you regularly have people into your home?

Personally, I have tried hard to escape this truth. I really like my personal space. But having teenage boys we have started to have people in our home almost all weekend. Friends parade through our home regularly and I am learning to adjust my thinking. Originally I stood in the corner smacking myself in the head and screaming “Hot water burn baby” (Yes, a “Rain Man” reference). Now I am starting to relax and open myself up to those who enter my home.

I believe most of us do not let people into our homes for several reasons. One, we are afraid of what they might think of us. When they see my cluttered mess of a house and the coat rack with a mirror that says Budweiser they may change their opinion about the public persona I work so hard to maintain. When my children eat without praying they may question my spirituality. Two, we know that having people in our home will mean I have to give up a part of myself. I will really have to ask questions about these people. I will really have to listen. It is much easier to say “Hi” on Sunday and a “How are you doing?” during greeting time than to have a person into my home.

Most of us will never have people in our home because that would require us to drop our arms and let others in. That is a hard step to take. Maybe that is why in most congregations I get invited to less than 40% of people’s homes. I imagine for the average church goer that number is way, way less.

2.Do you open up about the struggles inside your heart and mind?

I do not mean that you have to spew your personal issues on everyone who passes by you. I see people on Facebook who continually do this as a form of getting attention. People care when I cay, so why not cry more, then I will have more care. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about setting down with other people and saying, “My marriage is a mess” or “my kids are making poor decisions” or “my faith is weak during this struggle.” Sharing real life struggles with people who might really care. Most of us do not share these kinds of struggles (especially men) because we have no one we are close too. Everyone we know is an arm’s length away. They are not close enough to share that kind of personal information.

In a world in which people struggle with loneliness and isolation we need to put our arms down and let people into our lives. That is part of what it means to follow Christ and I believe will lead you to a happier life in the long run. Ask yourself these key questions to reveal your true heart for people. You might be surprised at the answers and need to make changes. I know I do.

This article was originally posted by Brian Jones at brianjones.com.

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After church services one Sunday a couple greeted me on their way out the door. By their cologne and big jewelry and cliché Christian lingo I knew they weren’t our typical non-religious visitors. “Pastor, what an anointed word from God you delivered today,” the husband said. I cringed. The only people who talk that way are on Christian television.

I swallowed and said, “Hope to see you next week.”

His wife looked at me with a grin, “Nope. We won’t be back. Years ago the Lord told us to attend a different church every week. So we’ll be somewhere else next Sunday.”

I said, “Let me get this straight. You go to a different church every week?”

“Yep,” he said, “been doing it for five years now.”

I said, “How sad.”

“Why do you say that?” she angrily shot back.

“Because,” I said, ”you never get to experience real Christian community. You’re, like, connoisseurs of fine churches or something. My hunch is it wasn’t the Lord who called you to do this. You need to find a church and put down roots.”

Needless to say they didn’t come back.

It’s sad, really.

We’ve become a nation of church shoppers. If the preaching gets boring at our church, we pull out the yellow pages. If the worship style changes, we go to First Church’s early service. If our Sunday school class starts to get too impersonal, we don’t sweat it, we try the hot new church in town.

We Christians change churches like we change favorite restaurants.

I’m sure that makes God sad.

Here is a TED talk from London. It is entitled “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong” and is presented by Johann Hari. The implication for addictions are enormous. If this is true, I would also like you to think about the wisdom of God for putting us into a community we call the Church.

If you listen close and think about the implications this could possibly be the best 15 minutes you spend all week.

I sat in the stands watching my son’s first football game of his senior year. He started off well, but slowly I noticed he was slamming into people hard and not wrapping them up. In fact people from the stands started yelling “wrap them up” when a player broke through the line.

I figured it was first game jitters and prepared my “dad speech” for after the game. He came off the field after the loss and I gave him the usual hug. Then I told him that he needed to tackle better. He said, “It was hard to tackle when I can hardly feel my left arm.” He turned over his arm and it was obviously swollen and red from his wrist about half way up his arm. He told me that he had been stepped on early in the game and his arm was killing him.

In that moment I felt about an inch tall. I had rushed to judgement about my own son. I saw a boy who was not prepared enough and was not completely fulfilling his job. In reality, he was gutting out the pain and trying to do his best while wanting to quit. Quickly my perspective changed about him and the way he played the whole game.

I have been reflecting about this incident over the last few weeks. I have come to the simple understanding that most things we see in life are not as they initially appear. I believe this is especially true in a sound bite culture of social media. A person writes one thing and it gets taken the wrong way. A person can be seen doing something and it is perceived in a negative way. Someone from the outside shares their opinion on what they saw and the story gets repeated. Many times the truth is far from what everyone thinks they know.

One job of a Christian is to not rush to judgement. We are to give people the benefit of the doubt. We are to function under the assumption that there is more to the story that we will never know. A Christian believes the best in other people.

How many times have you wanted to shout out to a group of people, “This is not what it looks like!” Maybe you have wanted to write to the editor and say, “Here is what really happened.” Quite possibly you still bear the scars of being misunderstood by a group who only had half the story. We have those feelings and yet we rarely cut other people the slack we think we deserve.

So today, what if you believed the best in someone? What if you accepted the fact that you don’t know what really happened? What if you encouraged instead of criticized? What if allowed people the grace we all so desperately need?

I spend my life ministering to people in the name of Jesus. Much of what I do is producing programs to further the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ.

Lately I have had a couple of people stop by the Church and pitch their ministry ideas to me. Each one of these ideas the people thought were great and they should have my support because they were doing it … in the name of Jesus. Let me tell you a few things I have learned about these programs and ministries.

1. People can teach bad theology in the name of Jesus. One of the biggest threats to faith is false teaching. Just because someone quotes a Bible verse, calls their teaching Christian or says they are doing it in the name of Jesus does not make it true.

2. People can further their own agenda in the name of Jesus. Politicians get religious during an election year because it furthers their own agenda. I have even experienced people who divided a Church because they felt like they were serving in the name of Jesus.

3. People can get rich in the name of Jesus. This was true even in the beginning of the Church. Sadly, it is still true today. I am not just talking about televangelist. I am getting sick of organizations who want to help grow my faith or my Church for a fee.

4. There are some bad ideas even when they are done in the name of Jesus. I once had a friend who was told he should start a puppet ministry out of the back of his van. He didn’t, because it was a bad idea. Even if he put Jesus name on the side of his van it still would have been creepy.

5. I can do things God has not called me to do because it is done in the name of Jesus. I believe that each Christian needs challenged to do whatever the Lord needs us to do. But I also believe that each of us have gifts and talents God has given us at which we can excel. Sometimes we need to say, “No” to some ministry opportunities because they don’t match my giftedness. For example, I once had a lady approach me about hosting a daily Christian music radio show. She wanted me to give her 3 hours a day to play music on the local Christian radio program 5 days a week. I politely told her no. I believe God called me to preach and teach and I would lose 15 hours a week from using my giftedness to do something I do not believe God has called me to do.

I don’t get involved in every activity in which I am asked to participate. I do not allow the Church I lead to get involved in every activity that happens in my area. That sounds awful because they are being done in the name of Jesus. I do not believe that means you or I have to participate.

That type of thinking has set me free to say no to some things in order to use my time more wisely. Also, I no longer feel guilty for turning down some opportunities that present themselves to me. It’s okay to turn down some things done in the name of Jesus to have an even greater impact.

When I was in High school my home Church had a preacher named Ron DeLong come and preach one Sunday. I really know nothing about the rest of his story. I don’t know where he came from or any of his background. I don’t remember how many weeks he preached for our Church or why. I believe we were between ministers and he was a retired preacher. Honestly, I do not remember a word of any of his sermons.

But I remember him and what he said by way of introduction. He walked to the front of the Church pews and started talking from there. Every preacher I had ever seen preached from a big wooden pulpit up on the stage. He walked to the front of the Church and he opened his Bible where he had only one little note clipped inside of it to help him. As an introduction he told us his name and then he said something to the effect of, “I don’t like to preach up there at the pulpit. I like to preach down here among the people. This (he held up his Bible) is a word from God for his people.” From there he launched into his sermon.

I wish I could remember all that he said. I really wish I could remember any of it. What I remember was being held spellbound for 30 minutes by a guy who could preach without a pulpit and extended notes. In those moments a seed was born that made me the preacher I am today.

I type my sermon out in long form each week. I do that so that I have completely thought everything through and so I will have it for future reference. I then take those long form notes with me to a music stand just in case I need them. Last Sunday I needed them once. Then I preach down on the floor among the people because God’s word is for his people.

I tell you this story for several reasons:

1. I want you to know a little bit more about me.
2. You never know when God is going to touch your soul and affect your life.
3. Words and actions are intimately linked. Both hold the power of influence
4. Do you remember all the little moments your life was altered by God in some way?
5. What will people remember about you?

The sad truth is that even great sermons will be forgotten. But that point where God touches the life of another person through you will never be lost.