I’m continuing to highlight the teaching of Apostle Joseph Mattera and some of his articles/posts that I have found very helpful.

Recently he shared on Avoiding the Top 5 Regrets of an Eighty-Year-Old Minister. They are:

1. I sacrificed my children and spouse on the altar of ministry.
2. I put programs before people.
3. I spent most of my time attempting to nurture the whole church myself instead of concentrating on potential leaders.
4. I never befriended young people.
5. I raised up faithful church members instead of sons and daughters.

As a young minister I want to establish healthy practices/habits in my life now so I will not fall into these traps as I move forward - you can read his insights on how to practically do that here.

This week I’m continuing to focus on Apostle Joseph Materra and highlighting some of the outstanding teaching  I’m gleaning from his blog.

In another recent post he talked about 8 Reasons Why Pastor’s Fail. They are:

1. Churches are becoming complex enterprises which pastors are not equipped to lead.
2. The lack of a safe place to run.
3. Tension between the Spiritual Leader role and Organizational Leader role.
4. Compassion Fatigue
5. Many pastors do not know how to develop a Dream Team and have people operating outside of their gift mix.
6. Competition among churches (or pastors).
7. Lack of Personal Vision/Life Plan.
8. Many leaders don’t know how to lead.

He actually gives really in depth explanations for each point - check the full article out here.

He also suggests solutions to address these challenges:

1. Pastors need to find peer communities with compatible vision where they will find a safe haven to receive from and aid them in fulfilling their vision. Denominational presbytery meetings do not necessarily meet this need.
2. Pastors need one or more other pastors who will coach them, hold them accountable, and speak to the needs of their emotional and inner lives.
3. Pastors need to erect boundaries and firewalls around them and their families so that their personal lives and families will have time to replenish and be renewed.
4. Pastors need to take care of their physical bodies with regular exercise, solicitude and silence, rest, and proper diet.
5. Pastors need to take regular times of rest and/or sabbaticals.
   -1 year for every 7 years in ministry
   -1 day for ever 7 days
   -3 days away for prayer and reflection every 3 months
6. Pastors need to pay attention to their emotional needs, not just their spiritual lives.
7. Pastors need to take care of their intellectual lives.
   Some pastors should go back to school. The majority of pastors in many regions have less than a bachelor’s degree, thus most lack serious well-ordered learning. Pastors should prioritize regular times for study to develop their intellect and regular times for devotional reading. Just reading to preach is work and will wear you out and not necessarily draw you closer to God.
8. Pastors need to bring their spouses along in all facets of self-renewal and ministry so that there is unity and compatibility of vision in their marriages.

Pastor Barry Boucher posted a powerful video clip of Pastor Bill Johnson’s response to someone who sent him an e-mail asking “how in God’s name can you support Todd Bentley?” What he said really impacted me, and I believe it will for you as well. If you have been critical of what is going on I really encourage you to hear the heart of what Pastor Bill is saying. (On a totally non-spiritual side note: check out his jacket… it’s tight)

I love to learn and I’m really focused on being a life-long learner. If you’ve read this BLOG very often you will have noticed that in many posts I share nuggets I’ve picked up from books, blogs, messages, articles etc.

I do this for several reasons:

1. When I find something that helps me I naturally want to share it with as many others as possible.
2. I use my blog as a bit of a ‘learning journal’ - and if I want to recall something that stood out to me I simply have to run a search on my own blog to find it again.

This week I want to focus on one leader that I’m learning from: Apostle Joseph Mattera from New York City. I met him briefly once but really have been impacted through his blog. I find that he is both practical and theologically sound. He really challenges me to grow in ‘loving God with my mind’ and to make sure I stay grounded in the word. He is not intimidated by political correctness and speaks the truth both articulately and boldly.

In a recent post he shared 15 Reasons Men Don’t Attend Church (very good food for thought):

1. Many churches do not clearly articulate their vision. Men are generally task-oriented and are motivated by vision and purpose.
2. Sunday messages are often more hype than practical teaching with substance. Men are often very cognitive and logical, and crave practical teaching that will equip them to be better fathers, husbands, and businessmen.
3. Sunday worship often involves excessive displays of emotion that make men feel uncomfortable.
4. Sunday worship is often 45 minutes or longer, which is way too long for the average first-time male visitor.
5. Sunday services are too long, with lengthy announcements and other elongated verbiage most men deem unnecessary.
6. The lack of male leadership among the pastors, elders, deacons, and ministry team. The situation is even more exacerbated in cases when the senior pastor is a female, although this is improving in the corporate world. Most strong men have a hard time submitting to a female executive leader in a church setting. I am told there are some rare exceptions to this, although I have never witnesses one firsthand.
7. Lack of male bonding, fellowship, and men’s discipleship.
8. Men in marketplace leadership are not affirmed. Many businessmen feel their leadership gifting is not recognized in the local church; they are only viewed as cash cows to fund the local church.
9. The feminization of Christianity has caused numerous men to see Jesus and Christianity as wimpy and effeminate.
10. The Anabaptist concept of pacifism has infiltrated the Evangelical world and emasculated men’s innate desires to both defend and protect their families and country. For example, “turning the other cheek” in Matthew 5 has been misunderstood to mean that a man cannot go to war for his country and defend his family when they are threatened with bodily harm. This cannot be what Jesus meant, since going to war was expected in the Old Testament. Romans 13:4-7 teaches that magistrates act as God’s ministers when they use the sword to protect their citizens, and Jesus Himself resisted evil forcibly when He drove the money changers and thieves out of the temple. Thus, we conclude that “turning the other cheek” means that Christians should not fight merely if they are insulted, since being slapped on the cheek represents no mortal threat but is only a way of insulting the victim.
11. Many churches emphasize a feelings-centered subjective relationship with God rather than objective principle-centered faith based on the Word of God. Although feelings are important, it should also be emphasized that faith is first, then correct feelings will follow.
12. Most of the church celebrates Mother’s Day and ignores Father’s Day, due to family fragmentation and divorce. Often, boys are brought up by single mothers and do not even know how to relate to their earthly fathers and other male authority figures.
13. Many of the words in contemporary songs emphasize the church as the bride of Christ, thus emphasizing the believer’s role as the receiver in the relationship (a feminine position much like the wife in a marriage) instead of balancing out the songs with hymns and lyrics that emphasize Christ as King and His church as His army called forth to conquer the nations for Him.
14. In urban centers, especially among African-Americans and Hispanics, many boys are raised in fragmented families by single mothers, thus making it harder to disciple them when they come into the church. Generally, a woman does not have the capability to balance nurturing with strong correction to properly raise up a boy to manhood. Thus, often boys are undisciplined and not used to the confines of structure and male authority. The exception is when a boy is either in the military or team sports, in which the male coach becomes a surrogate father exerting authority in the boy’s life.
15. Many men (businessmen in particular) will attach themselves to a successful enterprise exhibiting a spirit of excellence and fiscal responsibility. This is a far cry from many shabby storefront church operations, in which the pastor runs a mom-and-pop shop with autocratic control without fiscal disclosure, accountability, and proper church government.

This decision was pushed through in a manner that has never happened before and was done in such a way to keep the news from Conservative and Family organizations until the last possible minute. This was deceptive and out of step with the values the majority of Canadians hold dear.

Kelly Cameron, a member of CWL who works on the front lines of the Pro-Life movement in a Pregnancy Help Centre sent out the following e-mail today.

Hi friends,

If you have not heard as yet it is planned that Dr Henry Morgentaler (father of abortion in Canada) will recieve the Order of Canada (Canada’s highest civilian honor, which recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation) tomorrow (Canada Day).

Unlike every other committee decision for the Order of Canada this was not a unanimous vote but rather a democratic one (ie majority wins). This highly controversial figure is responsible for helping to abolish all abortion laws in Canada making us the only developed nation where a woman can can legally obtain an abortion into her 9th month of pregnancy.

As someone who works with abortion-vulnerable and post-abortive women on a daily basis I can attest to the fact that abortion has not been good for Canadian women, children or families and that Dr Morgentaler is not deserving of the Order of Canada. If you agree please see the email below for numbers to call in to the committee members.

Please let your voice be heard on this issue TODAY!

All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” -Edmund Burke

His,

Kelly

UPDATE: MORGENTALER AND THE ORDER OF CANADA

Though it has not yet hit the national media with force, evidence is mounting that the Order of Canada will likely be awarded to abortionist Henry Morgentaler tomorrow on Canada Day. This award, which is the highest honour that can be given to a civilian in Canada, is meant to be reserved for Canadian heroes. In the eyes of so many Canadians (many of whom are women) Morgentaler is anything but a heroe. Now (LITERALLY) is the time to express your views on this to those that have been responsible for pushing his nomination forward.

In our update late Saturday night we gave you action steps [click here to go there now]. Late last night we also tracked down the phone numbers of all those who are on the nomination committee, or affiliated. PLEASE take a couple minutes today to give these offices listed below a call and express to them disapproval of this decision. Let’s jam their phone lines.

[Click here to read amazing article just posted on-line with the National Post about the nomination.]

PHONE NUMBERS FOR THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS (ADVISORY COUNCIL) WHO PRESIDE OVER THE ORDER OF CANADA NOMINATIONS:

1) Chair of the Council:

Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., Chief Justice of Canada, 301 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario    K1A 0J1, Telephone:  613-992-6940

2) Clerk of the Privy Council:

Dr. Kevin Lynch, Clerk of the Privy Council, Langevin Block, 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario   K1A 0A3, Telephone:  613-957-5400

Deputy Minister of the Department of Canadian Heritage:

Ms. Judith LaRocque, Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, 25 Eddy Street, Gatineau, Québec, K1A 0M5, Telephone:  819-994-1132

3) Chair of the Canada Council:

Ms. Karen Kain, C.C., Chair, Canada Council for the Arts, 350 Albert Street, 12th Floor, P.O. Box 1047, Ottawa, Ontario    K1P 5V8, Telephone:  1-800-263-5588

4) President of the Royal Society of Canada:

Dr. Yvan Guindon, C.M., President, Royal Society of Canada, 170 Waller Street, Ottawa, Ontario    K1N 9B9, Telephone:  613-991-6990 

Prof. Yvan Guindon, c.m., Directeur, Laboratoire de chimie bio-organique, IRCM, 110, avenue des Pins ouest, Montréal (Québec)    H2W 1R7, Téléphone:  514-987-5785 

5) Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada:

Mr. Thomas Traves, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Directors, Ass’n of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 350 Albert Street, Suite 600, Ottawa, Ontario   K1R 1B1, Telephone:  613-563-1236

Mr. Thomas Traves, Ph.D., President and Vice Chancellor, Dalhousie University, 6299 South Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia    B3H 4H6, Telephone:  902-494-2511

OTHER:

Ms. Sheila-Marie Cook, Secretary to the Governor General, Rideau Hall, 1 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario    K1A 0A1Telephone:  613-993-8200

Ms. Emmanuelle Sajous, Deputy Secretary, Order of Canada Chancellery, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A1

Our time with Bishop Flynn and Carolyn Johnson at CWL was so good in so many ways - here are a several further highlights/insights from our time.

• I’m very thankful for the time they take to coach and pour into us personally. For example, on Sunday Bishop Johnson took about two hours to talk with my wife about several areas of her life that she wanted some sharpening.
• I appreciate their approachability and openess in their interactions with CWL members. Sometimes ministers want to preach and then “get out of there”- the Johnsons took time after each session to chat and connect with people
• Boy, can they shop… I’m shopped out for a while.
• Not only did they encourage and mentor us but they also sharpened us in several growth areas - I consider this invaluable because it helps us to grow.

All in all - it was an excellent four days and we are looking forward to the next time when we have the Johnsons with us.

Loving People

One of the things I was reminded this past week with the Bishop Flynn and Carolyn Johnson is how well they love and treat people they come across in every day life. Whether it is a salesperson at a store, a waiter or waitress at a restaurant, or a CWL member after church services they are consistently warm, engaging and demonstrate real love.

Several things they do:

• Remembering names - this may not seem like a big thing at first but they find out people’s names, remember it and use it. This speaks loudly to people whether it is after a service or the waitress at the restaurant.
• Remembering important events - one of our leaders commented to me that one evening Lady Carolyn had briefly encouraged his wife in something. Two days later she reminded her of the same thing. There was so much going on over the weekend but it really impacted this young lady because she remembered and reminded her.
• Buying gifts for people - the Johnson’s are some of the most generous people I know. They are always buying gifts for others, paying for others to do things. Whenever my wife and I visit them in Atlanta they pay for virtually everything - we try to pay for stuff and they won’t let us. They have bought so much stuff for our son Micah.
• Opening up their home - when in Atlanta my wife and I have the honor to spend time with the Johnsons at their condo. They are true examples of hospitality - they are always welcoming people into their home.
• There are so many other things I could list here…

In all of this I am personally encouraged/challenged regarding my love towards others. It can be so easy for me to get self-centred and not truly engage with and love people and yet this is what Jesus would want me to do. I want to see each person I come in contact with as valuable. I want to be generous with what I give to others. I want to be generous with the home that God has blessed us with.

As you know if you read this blog I’m continuing to follow the Healing Outpouring in Lakeland, FL with Todd Bentley. I’m sure that many of you reading have formed opinions for or against what is going on - personally I’ve stated that I’m for what God is doing there but that I’m not expecting it to be perfect either.

I want to encourage you to be open to ‘new things’ - I was reading a post from a leader that I really respect but he took a shot at ‘gold dust, jewels’ etc. This hit home with me because I’ve had the opportunity to meet an amazing, God-loving couple who have had supernatural jewels given to them. we have had people in our church come out of time in the presence of God and had gold dust all over them (my Mom didn’t wash her shirt for several days :)).

Do I completely get this? No. Do I need to? No. Now it would be wrong if someone got so focused on gold dust for example that they forgot about Jesus, winning souls, making disciples etc. but it is also wrong to write something off without meeting people who have experienced it, thoroughly researching it, spending time in prayer over it because it may be something new (to us) that God is doing! I can say from personal experience that I have seen these experiences (when handled with wisdom) be a benefit and blessing to people.

With Lakeland, if you have been there, talked with people who have been healed, heard the hearts of those involved and you have decided that it is not of God then I respect your opinion. If you have made a decision based on some rumors, and a couple youtube videos then I would humbly encourage you to not write it off and speak negatively about it. Is it ok to have concerns/reservations? Sure. But don’t pass judgement without thorough research and prayer. Maybe this is God and you need to be open to ’something new’.

Here are several posts regarding Lakeland:

• Pastor Barry Boucher posted some of his thoughts from his recent trip.
• Randy Bohlender  had an interesting perspective from his ‘pilgrimage’ with his 6 year old son.
• Charisma reported on some recent developments as well.

This week I’ve been writing about some of my ‘behind the scenes’ interactions with and insights from Bishop Flynn Johnson, my pastor, who was at CWL last week.

Willingness to Learn

In one of the sessions with our leaders Bishop Johnson shared about how he came to a place in the church that he had built for almost 30 years that he realized God was telling him to make some major shifts. He talked about how he has ‘become a child again’ and is constantly learning and growing.

This really stood out to me for several reasons:

• Bishop Johnson could have easily rode out the momentum of what he had built for a very long time. Instead, while in his 50’s :), he was prepared to ‘risk it all’ to grow, change and allign with what God was doing. What an example!
• I love the example of being teachable - here I am not even 30 yet and I find I can get set in my ways here at CWL. I love (and desire to follow) the example of Bishop Johnson in staying teachable and hungry for growth and change.
• I am challenged in my personal teachability - am I truly hungry to grow and change? How do I respond when corrected and challenged? (One area I’m working on myself is that I have no problem with being corrected when I understand, but when I don’t ‘get it’ yet I can get quite defensive)

It was confirmed today. They Raptors traded T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and the 17th pick in the draft to the Pacers for Jermaine O’Neal.

Read the report here.

2008/2009 should be very interesting…