On a personal note...

Many of you know that I am making a major change in my life’s work.  As of May 19, 2013, I will hand over the reins of the First Apostolic Church and assume the auspicious title of Bishop.  (I am still trying to find out exactly what that means.)  I do know that I will be able to devote more time to the great Ohio District, travel a little more, plus give myself more to my writing ministry.  Some of the posts on this blog have fleshed this transition out, and I hope they have generated a few ideas for others who are contemplating a similar move.  The date of transition marks a full thirty years as Senior Pastor, and forty years since joining the staff of FAC as Assistant Pastor to Fred Kinzie. 

Kris Dillingham has been elected as the new Senior Pastor of the church.  He is already doing an incredible job in the limited role he has had as Associate Pastor for the last few months.  If you want to meet him, go to www.factoledo.com and see his video clip on the home page of the website.  He brings a wealth of experience and talent in evangelism, church planting and congregation building, as well as knowledge of business as an executive in a major corporation.  Just the prospect of change has caused much excitement and an increase in attendance.  We believe the future of the church is secure and promising.

I plan to keep Toledo as my home, but my travels will probably take me away from the church to a great extent.  The new pastor doesn’t need me breathing down his neck and interfering with his leadership.  First Apostolic Church is a great church.  The sky is the limit.  My heart is full of gratitude for the many wonderful years it has given to me and my family.  Thanks to all of the beautiful people here who allowed me to practice my ministry on them.  God bless every one of them!  I will probably blog a little more about my rich experience as their pastor. 

Now, if you will excuse me, I have a tee time scheduled.

Why We Must Care

“And brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” Luke 10:34

Caring in 2013 is a multi-billion dollar business.  Meteoric rises in health care costs no longer shock us; we now pay monthly for anticipated legal care; child care, elder care, hair care, eye care, lawn care, pet care, car care, environmental care—you name it—are all familiar terms in today’s vocabulary.  Compelling qualifiers like intensive, quality, superior and comprehensive make care even more appealing.  It’s a wonderful, caring world that we live in as long as you have the money to pay for it!

Caring used to be the expression of basic human concern.  People simply cared for each other without thought of payback.  We cared about family members, relationships, causes, institutions and ideas because we loved them and realized that they were vital to our way of life.  Now, care seems to be the springboard for exploitation rather than genuine concern.  When someone says “I care about you,” run for your life!

At one time, families were the primary source of care.  “Home, sweet home” was where you could count on a hot meal, a warm bed, clean clothes and a bunch of family members hovering over you.  With the decimation of the twenty-first century family, home is not much of an option anymore.  Groups of people in temporarily arranged “families” cling to each other for care as long as they find it convenient and profitable.  Otherwise, you’re out on the street.  The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness promotes their cause with this statement: “No one should experience homelessness. No one should be without a safe, stable place to call home.”  The need to say this is, in itself, a telling description of how out of whack our culture has become. 

Can you say CHURCH?! This is precisely why more and more people are looking to the church.  It may be a place of salvation and truth, but it is also where people still care about people.  In fact, every church needs to take inventory of its caring practices.  After (and sometimes before) we demonstrate our care for the soul by leading people to salvation, we must focus on other aspects of their welfare.  Our primary mission may be spiritual, but that does not exclude meeting human needs.  The Good Samaritan modeled the caring mission of the Savior, and, by implication, the church.  He knelt down in the mud, got messy giving primary care, exerted physical effort, and paid dearly to give—not receive—care.  Today’s church has not fulfilled its duty just by explaining full salvation and the Godhead, and then walking away.  Unless we really care for the person, we become smug dispensers of doctrine.  The New Testament church must practice the following:

We must care for ourselves.  “For every man must bear his own burden.”  Galatians 6:5.  This simply means that we should not intentionally become a burden on others.  It is not right for a Christian to neglect his personal welfare, to live irresponsibly or to become a parasite to society if he is able to take care of himself.  You should not expect others to do for you what you can do for yourself.

We must care for each other.  “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”  Galatians 6:2.  Keep an eye on each other.  Pay attention to telltale signs that indicate a brother or sister is having a tough time.  Pray for one another.  If you can, slip a few dollars into someone’s hand.  Send a card, speak a kind word, fix a meal, buy some groceries, run an errand, and ask if there is anything more you can do.  Imagine yourself in a down-and-out situation and respond to someone else like you would want them to respond to you.

We must care for the church.  “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” Ephesians 5:29.  Love the church.  Pray for the church.  Attend every service you possibly can.  Support the church with your tithes and offerings.  Respond to initiatives led by the pastor.  Participate in activities sponsored by the church.  Strive to keep unity in the congregation.  Talk positively about the church.  Invite and bring people to the church.  Minimize your criticisms and maximize your compliments.

We must care for the faith. “Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”  Jude 1:3.  These precious Apostolic truths need to be cherished, taught, practiced and handed down to the next generation.  Do not undermine them with generic, widely acceptable dogma.  While they must not become weapons or sledgehammers, they nonetheless are powerful revelations of truth. 

Care for each of these elements lies in the portfolio of every church member’s business.  The level of your care will determine the viability of who we are and what we believe.  Care is not a collective emotion.  It cannot be left to others or to the group as a whole.  You, as an individual, have to care. Your willingness to care shows the depth of your love, the breadth of your understanding and the height of your vision.  Care may really be the most Christ-like attribute that any of us possesses. 

Let it be said of every Apostolic church “Those are the most caring people I have ever known!”  In an uncaring world, let them come to us.  We care.

Preacher, Avoid These Mistakes

Everybody makes mistakes, but there are limits to what goes wrong and who did it.  Attorneys who err in critical courtroom battles or airplane pilots who miscalculate landing planes by a few feet do not have the luxury of a forgiving clientele.  Bill Cosby’s old line about the surgeon who says “Oops!” is funny only to the audience at the comedy club; the patient is not amused.  The consequences of mistakes by professionals are much worse than those made by amateurs because professionals “profess” expertise.  Preachers should embrace their calling with the same level of professionalism as the most elite practitioners in society.  For even one soul to be harmed or misled by a preacher means eternal consequences.  

Now that I have sufficiently scared you to an NDE*, I will boldly predict that we will make mistakes.  By the same token, I also firmly believe that we should be very cognizant of the dangers, and strive to avoid them.  No one may file a malpractice suit against you in this life, but we will give an account to God for those placed in our care.  Preachers who take their calling seriously will guard against malpractice in and out of the pulpit.  Here are ten notorious errors (sins?) in preaching: 

Misquoting a Bible verse.  There are fewer excuses now for misquoting a verse than there have ever been.  We have multiple Bibles lying around, electronic Bibles, Bibles on smart phones and iPads, audio Bibles on CD’s, and Bible verses projected on screens while we preach.  Also, remember that we have Bible quizzers in the congregation, plus scores of former Bible quizzers who have committed hundreds of verses to memory.  Flubbing an article or preposition may be overlooked, but a major gaffe indicates a lack of serious study.  If you don’t really know a verse, don’t try to quote it.  Say, “Put that verse up there so I don’t misquote it!”  People appreciate that more than they do barreling on through with some gross inaccuracy.  

Misinterpreting a Bible verse.  We preachers are charged with “rightly dividing the Word of truth.”  Every scripture has an intrinsic meaning, but many scriptures also have multiple meanings for different times, places and people.  These meanings must be defined according to vocabulary, context and corresponding scriptures.   Let the Bible speak for itself.  Don’t make a verse say what it doesn’t say, even if your theme is valid.  Embellishing, enhancing, liberally paraphrasing or twisting scriptures invariably make your case weaker, not stronger.  Also, if you are not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, give attribution to a scholar whenever you refer to these languages in your message.  

Misapplying a Bible verse.  I heard a preacher take his text from the verse about the woman with the issue of blood.  His title was “The Blood is Still the Issue.”  It was an unfortunate choice.  There are so many specific scriptures about the blood of Christ that could have been selected, yet this scripture, in an effort to be clever, was taken totally out of context.  Subordinate your creativity to solid and proper application.  Our mission is not to be cute, creative or shocking.  It is simply to preach the truth.  

Confusing Bible stories.  Keep your stories straight.  You may get by with a momentary lapse of recall, but if you continue to put the wrong name with the wrong character, or put an event into a different story or era of time, your credibility will suffer.  Rehearse your Bible illustrations and stories until you know them forwards and backwards.  

Using confidential incidents as illustrations.  A breach of confidence by a preacher inflicts damages that may never heal.  No matter how apropos the illustration may be, never yield to the temptation.  Someone in the audience may know someone who knows who you are talking about.  It may seem safe enough, but the risk is too great.  Whenever you use a real life experience, get permission from the principle person in the story, or change a substantial part of the story so that no one can make the connection.  Always tell your audience that you have made this change so they know that you are protecting someone and you are not misstating the truth.  You are safest when you avoid referring to others altogether and limit your stories to personal examples. 

Feigning knowledge.  If you don’t know what you are preaching about, don’t say you do.  First, you are being disingenuous.  Second, you may be spreading an untruth.  Last, there may be someone listening who really does know what you say you know.  You’ve just given that person a huge reason to doubt you.  Why would preachers pretend they know something when they don’t?  It’s either an ego problem or a work ethic problem.  Anything worth including in your message is worth getting right. 

Fabricating facts.  It seems unthinkable, but some pulpiteers have made things up on the spot, and because they were able to sound authoritative, they got by with it.  Anytime you are not sure of your facts, admit it.  (Do your homework ahead of time and you won’t find yourself in that situation!)  Most people are fine with rounding, approximating and even guessing if you are honest about it.  They are not fine with manufacturing numbers and stories out of thin air when it is deliberate and calculated to deceive.  If you want to preach about integrity, you have to demonstrate integrity. 

Attacking individuals.  Whether through righteous indignation, personal grievance or a misguided attempt to set people straight, launching an attack against an individual from the pulpit is always out of order.  All preaching should be delivered at a high level of decorum, untainted by animosity.  Your objective is to proclaim a timeless truth.  Targeting a person trivializes the Word of God. 

Sermonizing.  The difference between preaching a sermon and sermonizing is that the former is done to serve God and people, but the latter is done to serve one’s own self.  If our focus is only on delivering a homiletically correct, oratorically excellent, perfectly poised sermon, we are sermonizing.  Mount the pulpit with true sensitivity to God’s Spirit and a concern for souls.  Excellence is better found in the results rather than the performance.  

Insincerity.  The gravity of preaching precludes posturing, showboating, attempting to impress, entertaining, performing a duty or any other dubious reason why preachers might preach.  Understand that preaching has been ordained of God to save souls!  (1 Corinthians 1:21)  The sincerity your hearers will perceive in your message will make up for any lack in composition or delivery.  Souls who are truly thirsty for God desperately need a sincere, anointed preacher.  If you are anointed, your message will be anointed as well. 

*NDE = Near Death Experience 

Writing Your Spiritual Renewing Script

On April 13, 2006, Susan Cenkus took her six year old daughter and two year old son to one of her favorite places, a serene, sixty-five foot waterfall in Cherokee National Forest, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.  What followed was an unthinkable tragedy.  A black bear, apparently just emerging from hibernation, launched a brutal and unprovoked attack on her family.  Susan heroically saved her son from the powerful claws of the predator, and turned to stare down the wild animal.  Angered by her actions, the bear lunged at her, viciously biting into her neck, crushing bones and ripping deep lacerations in her body.  She regained consciousness briefly before being life-flighted to a nearby medical center only to learn that the bear had killed her beautiful daughter, Elora. The medical team miraculously saved Susan’s life.  After nineteen days in the hospital, nine of them in a drug-induced coma, and seven surgeries later, she finally went home.  

Susan now travels out from her hometown in Clyde, Ohio, sharing her story.  She has discovered that only the spirituality of life can lift a person out of an horrific ordeal of injury and death and heal the deep, emotional wounds.  Life without spirituality reduces mankind to protoplasm, electrical impulses and aimless careenings.  In a feature story about Susan, Molly Kavanaugh of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, “Cenkus has played piano and sung in church since she was a young child. She believes in a gracious, loving God and had turned to him for comfort during two divorces. But nothing could prepare her for the heartache of losing her only daughter.  ‘When the hard times come, you have to have a deep relationship with God,’ her father said.  Paul became his daughter’s rock of support. For about four months, she and Luke lived with her parents so they could be looked after while her husband was at work. Father and daughter spent hours praying and sifting through memories, both painful and loving.”  (CPD, 5-5-08). 

Up to this point, this book has targeted all things temporal.  Your personality, your social image, your personal effectiveness and your mental acumen all relate to your earthly welfare.  But, even if these efforts result in a wildly successful new you, it’s all in vain if you fail to develop your spiritual nature.  Paul said, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”  1 Corinthians 15:19.  Most of what you hear in today’s media is for “this life only.”  Scant attention is paid to our spiritual essence, leaving us shallow, hollow and disconnected.  You are not primarily a body with a spirit attached.  Rather, you are a spirit living in a body.  This fact signals a fundamental change in your perspective on life.  Your script must now take wings and soar above all else. 

In his “Four Dimensions of Life,” segment of The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Stephen Covey makes an especially insightful observation.  He says “Renewing the spiritual dimension provides leadership to your life.”  This must resonate.  Every other aspect of your life pulsates with power, ability and talent, but they are meaningless without leadership.  Think of them as air escaping from a balloon.  The brightly colored balloon races around the room in fantastic arcs, randomly slamming into walls and lamps, creating lots of noise and excitement.  Unfortunately, with no specific path or purpose, it ends up in a shriveled little wad of plastic on the floor, having spent all its resources, and nothing to show for it.  We’ve all known balloons disguised as people.  But, if you want more to life than a colorful flight to nowhere, begin to seriously consider writing your spiritual script. 

So, what are we talking about?  The inner man, the soul, the spirit, the heart, the seat of your emotions, your core being, the divine breath within you, the real you, the indefinable essence of your life.  We can’t define it with precision, but we know it exists.  And, it calls for strategies that seem bizarre to the physical and material realm.  Paul writes about this different strategy.  “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NIV).  In order to do this, you must rip script handed to you by secularists.   

Pray a prayer you’ve never prayed before. 

The lowest kind of praying borders on the juvenile.  It is  selfish “gimme” praying, insisting that God cater to our wants.  Such praying services our pride, our lust for pleasure, our ambitions, and our greed.  The Apostle James condemns such prayers.  “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:3 (NKJV).  Foxhole prayers, fear-motivated prayers and prayers in the midst of tragedy cause people to say things to God that they probably wouldn’t say when all is well, and don’t remember when out of danger.  

Spirituality recognizes the carnality of “praying amiss” and searches out the mind and will of God before petitioning Him.  Spiritual praying squeezes truly honest expressions from the heart to the lips.  This is when and where people drop all pretenses and lay their soul bare before God.  If you want to elevate your spirituality, you need to voluntarily go to that level of prayer without a selfish interest, without the threat of some horrific event, or without an attitude of desperation.  

In a moment of epiphany, galvanized into action by the vision of the exalted Lord and lips seared with coals from the sacred altar, Isaiah boldly prayed, “Here am I Lord, send me.”  Hannah, the barren mother of Samuel prayed, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life.” 1 Samuel 1:11 (NKJV).  These were courageous prayers, but, the most radical and sacrificial prayer in the Bible was from our Lord Jesus Christ.  Anticipating the excruciating pain and the enormous shame He was about to endure, Jesus still prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”  Luke 22:42 (KJV).  My salvation, and yours, hang on that one word, “nevertheless!” 

The common denominator in every spiritual prayer of the Bible is sacrificial giving.  Isaiah gave up his personal dreams, Hannah was willing to give up her son, and Christ laid his own life on the altar.  This is your template.  What are you willing to give up?  How deep will you go into the inner recesses of your soul?  What guarded treasure, what carnal goal, what cherished dream will you relinquish in submission to the will of God?  Did your old script hold you back from the edge?  Did you always renege when things got too hot?  Your new script should take you to the brink, and then beyond.  It is your ticket to spiritual freedom. 

Make a commitment you’ve never made before. 

Legend has it that Julius Caesar had a commitment problem with his soldiers when they launched their invasion of England.  He assembled the troops near the white cliffs of Dover and told them to look out at the harbor.  Their eyes were greeted with the fiery wreckage of every ship used to arrive in Britain from Gaul.  With all hopes of retreat gone, the Roman armies were forcibly committed to conquering the land.  That’s exactly what they did.  The commitment was Caesar’s and not the soldiers, but the troops learned commitment anyway. 

“Commitmentphobia,” a term coined by Steven A. Carter and Julia Sokol, is rooted in the irrational fear of making a wrong decision and of canceling out all options.  A trapped or caged animal best illustrates the feelings of those who fear commitment.  It’s not that phobics take commitment lightly; it’s actually the opposite.  They take commitment so seriously that they equate it with death.  The sad fact is, however, that avoidance of commitment leads to a forfeiture of life.  While those who run from commitment keep their personal freedom intact, their life ends up devoid of a certain richness and verve that commitment to a single cause, person or idea brings.  Nearly every significant development or invention in life can be attributed to commitment.  Someone had to say, “For this, I am willing to give my life!”  I would rather live until I die, than die while I live!  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. models this commitment in a classic way: 

“So King went back to Memphis to start another march. On April 3, he made a speech there. Toward the end, he talked about death. He had been warned he would be killed in Memphis, he said.

“But death doesn’t matter with me now,” he said. “Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I’m happy.  I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

It was King’s last speech. The next day, King met with his helpers in his room. It was on the second floor of a motel. King told his friends that nonviolence was the only hope of saving the soul of this nation.

Later, King went out on the balcony outside his room. He wanted to relax before dinner. Suddenly, there was the sound of a rifle shot. It came from a rooming house across the way. The bullet ripped into King’s face and slammed him against the wall. Then he fell to the floor. Less than an hour later, he died in a hospital.”  (Scholastic Scope). 

Why commit?  Because, afterwards, you are guaranteed to be assailed by feelings of regret, daunting adversity and doubts that you will succeed.  Had you not committed yourself, the temptation to turn and run away would be overwhelming.  Thus, commitment necessarily escorts you into a different realm of life with an entirely different set of challenges.  You will be amazed at the person you will become.  Commitment calls patience out of hiding; it forces the nascent quality of perseverance into maturity; it demands that endurance man up and show itself; it summons to front and center all your powers of creativity and innovation; it elevates character to the prominent place of life leadership.  

What commitments have you always resisted?  A more regimented discipleship program?  More time with your spouse and family?  Intensifying your devotional life?  Enhancing your education?  It could be something uncomplicated.  Or, it could be some esoteric item that only involves you.  What difference will it make in the world?  More to the point, what difference will it make in you?  Commitment to a noble cause brings exponential growth to your spirit. 

Sacrifice a part of yourself you’ve never given up before. 

The Bible mandates sacrifice.  The scarlet thread of sacrifice wends its way throughout the Bible, from Adam to Calvary, and from Calvary to the Apocalypse.  The worth of a sacrifice is directly proportional to its cost to the supplicant.  King David turned down the opportunity to offer a sacrifice provided by someone else at no cost to him.  He said “Neither will I offer to God that which costs me nothing.”  Not only was he obedient to the mandate, he understood the mandate.  King Solomon placed the highest possible value on the temple he built for the Lord by dedicating it with elaborate sacrifices commensurate with the value of the temple.  

“Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 2 Chronicles 7:4-5 (NKJV) 

In Christ’s parable, the nameless man who shall forever be known only as “The Good Samaritan” chose to sacrifice his time and money, in contrast to other religious types who passed by on the other side of the road.  This scenario was not lost on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He said, “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’  But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”  True sacrifice is driven by an unselfish concern for others, not a calculated scheme for one’s own benefit.  

Break out the searchlight of introspection and dig around your life’s inventory.  Tear down the fences and “no trespassing” signs that have long guarded certain areas of your heart.  Selfish or greedy clinging to your stuff is akin to the spoiled child who screams when someone else touches one of his toys.  Maybe it’s your money.  It could be your time.  Many people refuse to release their grip on pleasures, personal welfare, talents, abilities, skills, information, certain possessions, privileges, access to owned commodities like tools, instruments, houses or lands.  It could even be your ego, your intellect, your reputation, your position, your public image or your status that you are protecting.  It is time to realize that it’s not what you own that makes you significant; it is who you really are in the depths of your soul.  In fact, liberating yourself from all things carnal will actually affect your selfish nature 180° opposite of what you fear.  You will feel freer, not more restricted; richer, not poorer; bigger, not smaller; more connected, not isolated; closer to, not farther from, God.  

More specifically, the very thing you refuse to sacrifice embodies your most sensitive trait. You have consciously avoided the invasive probing of God’s voice when He speaks to you about this matter.  The reason is clear.  This area, more than any other, is the peg on which you hang your pride.  You embrace it as the real you.  If you lose this, you think all is lost.  Jesus pinpointed this in another parable.  

“Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

“Which ones?” the man inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:16-24 (NIV) 

Each sacrifice you make is another step up on the climb to greater spirituality.  Don’t get the wrong idea, though.  You can’t sacrifice your way into spirituality in an attempt to impress God.  Rather, through sacrifice, you impose God’s values on your personal value system.  It is bringing your thoughts into alignment with God’s.  It is shaking up the disorganization of your life to reflect the hierarchy of heaven.  It is reaching into the depths of your soul, and finding a cancerous tumor, pulling it out, roots and all.  The writer to the Hebrews said, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1 (NIV).  The precious commodity you sacrifice may be the precise roadblock which hinders you on your spiritual journey. 

Embrace God in a spiritual sense you’ve never had the courage to do before. 

My father-in-law, Fred Kinzie, lay in a Pensacola, Florida hospital for fifteen days straight, paralyzed with scarlet fever.  He lived on morphine.  The year was 1943.  He and his wife, Vera, were taking a break from the farm he owned near the little village of LaPaz, in northwest Indiana.  They were not vacationing.  They were helping in an evangelistic crusade, providing music, prayer and anything else asked of them.  He had strongly felt for some time that he should sell the farm and launch out into ministry on his own.  It looked like a huge step, however, and there were serious doubts as to the long-term success of the venture.  Now, it looked like his life was coming to an end.  In that critical moment, he surrendered.  He summoned Vera to his side and told her to write a letter back home, instructing his father to put up the farm for sale.  Immediately, he fell into a deep sleep.  Sometime during that night, his fever broke.  When he awoke the next morning, he was pain free!  He left the hospital that day, followed through with his decision, and “The Kinzie Evangelistic Party” became one of the most popular groups on the circuit for the next ten years.  In his subsequent ministry, he never failed to tell the story of his miraculous healing, always basing it on his decision to embrace the calling of God on his life. 

For Fred Kinzie, the challenge was full time ministry.  Relatively speaking, that calling only applies to a fraction of Jesus followers.  Most wrestle with a very different set of circumstances, yet the essence of the struggle is the same.  Paul said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:14).   His expression is representative of an innate desire for spiritual upward mobility common to all sincere Christians.  Unless we pursue that desire, we stagnate, languishing in boring, fetid monotony, never realizing half of what we were destined to be.  Of the many frustrations I have experienced in over four decades of full-time ministry, none is worse than seeing someone with giant-sized potential settle for a pint-sized vision.  By the same token, nothing is more gratifying than watching someone with limited abilities refuse to stop until he or she achieved an incredible level of success.  

What do you need courage to embrace today?  You’ve flown high on the wings of your wildest dreams; you’ve taken hostile territory, conquered formidable foes, banqueted with angels and touched the face of God.  You were destined for greatness.  Then, somebody who had you saddled with much lower expectations, somebody who never envisioned you at anything higher than pedestrian level accomplishments, handed you a plain vanilla, muted script.  Days, months, years have passed.  Your dreams float back into your mind, sometimes they assail you, but you have learned how to suppress them and get your mind focused back on “reality.”  Yet, you somehow feel cheated and unfulfilled.  You are like an airplane.  It fits nicely into a hangar, but it was built for the air.  You’ve managed your suppressed life okay, but you were built for much more.  Embrace God.  He’ll take you where you were meant to be.  

My final story is about a friend of mine, Bobby Wade.  (Bobby gave me permission to share his story.)  An anointed and insightful evangelist, Bobby was nevertheless hopelessly limited.  His weight had gotten out of control to the point that he tipped the scales at over 600 pounds!  He was forced to sit on a stool behind the pulpit just to preach.  One by one, pastors cancelled his visits until there were few places that would have him come.  His ministry had reached a crisis point.  About the same time, he developed some other weight-related physical conditions that were causing lack of sleep, major skin irritations, and other problems.  

Sometime in 2008, he heard the voice of God speaking to him.  In so many words, the Lord said, “Bobby, it is time to do something about your weight.  You will die an early death if you fail to act now.”  Even more, God revealed to Bobby that his physical weight was interfering with his spiritual growth.  There were places in the realms of the Spirit that God could take him if only he were to apply major discipline to his physical condition.  

By this time, Bobby had heard all about the options that were open to him.  He knew about pills he could take.  He knew about stomach bypass surgery.  He knew about special, radical diets and other extreme measures he could take.  He felt that none of them was for him.  If God had spoken to him about his weight, then God was well able to direct his strategy to lose the weight.  That’s exactly what happened.  Through self-discipline, voluntarily restricting his own intake, carefully regulating the kinds of food he would eat, Bobby began to shed pounds.  First, fifty, then one hundred, then two hundred, then three hundred pounds melted away!  When he came to our church for the first time, he was under three hundred pounds, not necessarily svelte, but a far cry from his former weight!  Not only has his ministry expanded to many other churches, he now has an inspirational story to tell about the power of God that helped him lose so much weight.  His travels have now even taken him to mission trips overseas.  Bobby is a hero of mine, an awesome testimony to the desire to embrace God in a powerful, new way.

It’s time to reject the script handed to you by someone else.  Your personal relationship with God is at stake.  You must write your spiritual renewing script.  Pray a prayer you’ve never prayed before.  Make a commitment you’ve never made before.  Sacrifice a part of yourself you’ve never given up before.  Embrace God in a spiritual sense you’ve never had the courage to do before.  All of these steps, individually and collectively will transport you into a spiritual realm that you could never experience otherwise. 

The world will hear from you.

The Last Piece of the Puzzle

“And ye are complete in him.” Colossians 2:10 

Have you ever been the lucky one find the last piece of the puzzle all by yourself?  The 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle has been scattered out on the card table for weeks. You toy with a single piece, and suddenly, it starts coming together.  You get on a roll and put the last piece into place. You shriek and shout, but no one is there to see it happen and your moment goes unappreciated except for your inner satisfaction.  You no longer have to stare at an incomplete picture with its gaping holes.

Incomplete is a frustrating word.  Not complete; not filled up; not finished; not having all its parts, or not having them all adjusted; imperfect; defective.  It is the bane of our existence; it carries the baggage of failure; it sags with disappointment; it weighs heavily with depression.  An incomplete grade; incomplete test; incomplete treatment. To a quarterback, an incomplete pass is not good; neither is an incomplete game to a pitcher; or an incomplete three-point play to a point guard.  We hate an incomplete manuscript, an incomplete call, an incomplete contract, an incomplete portrait.  But, that’s where we are.

The world cannot complete us.  Not only does the world fail to complete us, it actually depletes us!  In Colossians 2:8-10, Paul alerts us to the dangers that exist in the world, dangers that threaten our faith and leave us with an incomplete life. We can be spoiled—meaning stripped of all value and left with nothing, e.g. the spoils of war; or “to the victor goes the spoil.”  We can be stripped of value by philosophy, by vain deceit, by the tradition of men, by the rudiments of the world.  Our incomplete life cries for a greater understanding about God.

God completes; He is the essence of completeness.  “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Some wonder about the importance of the oneness of God.  Does it have practical value?  Is it meaningful to us in real life?  Absolutely!  The doctrine of the oneness of God is more than a mere theological position. The plenary indwelling of God in Christ Jesus, the awesome revelation that all of God—his height, his depth, his length, his breadth—is located in the man Christ Jesus. All of God I will ever see, all of God I will ever know is in Jesus Christ!  This truth profoundly impacts my life.

“Ye are complete in him…” The two words—fulness and complete—both come from the same root word. In fact, some versions of the Bible use the same word in both verses.  Have you grasped this powerful concept?  However incomplete we may be by the standards of the world, we are complete in him!  Because God dwells fully in Christ, we are full by living in Christ. Because Christ has access to every attribute of God, so we have access to every attribute of God by dwelling in Christ. Jesus Christ is totally complete and fully divine; therefore we are complete as we live in Him.

We are incomplete in who we are.  The introduction of sin into the human race separated us from God. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2. Rick Thompson writes, “‘Incompleteness’ is directly associated with ‘aloneness’. We are incomplete in our isolation. To be alone is to be unhealthy. The worst punishment for a prisoner is to be put in solitary confinement because it has the most torturous and debilitating effect on the emotions. God created us emotionally and spiritually to live life together. There is, in fact, a direct correlation between physical and emotional disease and isolation.”

But, something happened inside of me when I knelt at a Pentecostal altar. When the Holy Ghost came in, the part of me that felt so incomplete was suddenly transformed. I knew that the last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.  He who keeps searching for something more after knowing Christ needs a greater understanding of God. 

We are incomplete in what we can know.  Do you ever get the feeling that everyone around you is speaking a foreign language?  Did you ever seriously consider buying “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Life?”  To put it mildly, we are incomplete in our knowledge. There are many things we don’t or cannot know; many things we “know” are not really true anyway; many things we know today will be irrelevant tomorrow. The wisdom of this world does not resolve our incompleteness.  1 Corinthians 1:18 says “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. …Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” But, I am complete in him. The one who knows all things lives in me. I don’t have a need to know anymore than that.  I have only a need to abide in Christ.

We are incomplete in what we can do.  Have you tried to work a miracle lately?  Matthew 6:27 says, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”  Have you tried to cure cancer? Have you tried to stop arthritis from creeping into your joints? Have you tried to slow down or stop the aging process? We can replace hair, but not the head on which it grows. We can replace joints, but not the whole skeleton. We can get new glasses, new teeth, new ears, new voice boxes, a whole litany of parts that make the hospital sound like a human AutoZone… But, we can’t create life, and we can’t create eternal life. We can make death run a little longer and faster to catch up to us, but we can’t out run him altogether. We can brag about the things we can do all we want. But we don’t have much room to talk about the many things we can’t do. Like, abortion, crime, divorce, depression, suicide, poverty, disease…So many things I can’t do, but, I am complete in Him.

We are incomplete in what we can be.  Remember the man to whom Jesus said, “One thing you lack…?”  That man was fortunate; he just lacked one thing. If I had been there, Jesus would have said, “Get out a notebook, sharpen your pencil and sit down…” Did you ever look around in the church and say to yourself, “I don’t deserve to be here?” Where did we ever get the idea that we could enter into fellowship with God? How can we approach his holiness? How can the highest walk hand in hand with the lowest? Everything about us offends him. We are not just less than God, a difference of degrees; we are the antithesis of God, a difference of essence. We are as different as night and day, black and white, hot and cold, wet and dry, good and evil, up and down, in and out, guilty and innocent, turmoil and tranquility.  “For when we were yet without strength, in due time ^a Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8.

Is your life a vast array of disjointed experiences, forced relationships, misspent moments? Are you continually looking for the last piece of the puzzle? Are you tired of one more failure, one more “go-round”, one more stupid move?  Turn your wandering eyes to the Ultimate One. He will not disappoint you.  He’s my doctor, my lawyer, my counselor. He’s my need supplier, my burden bearer, my friend in need. He’s my mother, my father, my sister, my brother. He wakes me up in the morning and sets me on my way. He raised me from my ashes. 

The Josh Groban song, You Raise Me Up was recorded in 2003 and has been acclaimed as the most inspirational song of the decade. 

When I am down, and oh my soul, so weary,
when troubles come and my heart burdened be.
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
until You come and sit awhile with me. 

There is no life, no life without its hunger,
each restless heart beats so imperfectly.
But when You come and I am filled with wonder,
sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity. 

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.

I’m not sure who the original composer had in mind when he wrote these lyrics.  There is only one who deserves this kind of praise. He hung on a tree for me. He poured his Spirit into me. He raised me from the ruins, from nothingness, from a lost condition. I am complete in him.

Windows of Opportunity

Pastor, is the prospect of retirement making you nervous?  I understand completely.  In fact, if you’re like me, you don’t even use the word retirement.  You may prefer bishop, pastor emeritus or senior minister.  Some would rather keep the term pastor, but move another minister into the office of lead or senior pastor.  Whatever term you use, the end result is that you will relinquish the full authority of the leader and transfer it to another.  It is a huge decision. 

This article will not address all the ramifications of that transition.  They are legion.  Let’s just assume that everyone in your situation knows what you mean when you say to want to turn the office of pastor/leader over to someone else.  (Okay, I will deal with those details in a future article.)  For now, your decisions to initiate the change are time sensitive.  I refer to them as windows of opportunity.  Each window represents a unit of time.  All of them move across the spectrum of time; none are stationary—or optional.  Missing one window may be so crucial that you may as well miss all of them.   

At least five windows must be negotiated for a successful transition: 1) the age of the pastor, 2) finances, 3) the preparedness of the congregation, 4) the health of the congregation, and 5) the availability of the prospective leader.  Some windows are wider than others; some move faster than others; some more flexible than others, but timing is still critical.  The key is to get all the windows aligned in order to safely pass through each of them simultaneously.  It might help to think of them as lining up telescopic sights or, more dramatically, the alignment of the planets.  What are these windows?

The age of the pastor.  There is wisdom in the old saying, “young men are for war; old men are for wisdom.”  Proverbs 20:29 says, “The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.”   I know of pastors who were ready to retire at age sixty; others were still going strong at nearly eighty.  The pastor’s personal stamina, health and mobility do factor into the retirement decision, but there are other major factors as well.  Just because a pastor still “feels good” is not enough.  The rapid pace of the cultural revolution, the new complexities of business, advances in technology and changing communication norms (to name a few differences between today and the last century) make it extremely difficult for the older pastor to stay on the cutting edge. 

Perhaps the main reason why age is a monumental factor is the ability to reach and retain younger people in the church.  It’s not altogether what a pastor thinks about himself; it is more about what others think about him.  Another popular saying now becomes a cruel truism:  “perception is reality.”  In speaking about this, I have often made the following comment: “Young people may love me, they may respect me, but they don’t want to be like me!”  As much as I try, I am no longer a role model for the under-thirty crowd.  I talk funny (as in odd), I dress funny, I comb my hair funny, and I sing funny songs. I represent the past.  If they are going to see a future for themselves in the church, they must be able to relate to the leader.  Whenever I try to talk myself out of this notion, I simply recall how I felt about older ministers when I was in my twenties.  Pretty much the same.

The window of opportunity with regard to age varies widely from person to person.  It may span from ten to twelve years.  As a pastor approaches age seventy, however, it is definitely time to get serious.  The brevity of this article will not allow me to enlarge on the things that can happen if this window is missed, but suffice it to say that they can be catastrophic.  The pastor who keeps a finger on the pulse of the church, as well as his own pulse (literally), will know when it is time to make a change.  One thing is for sure: time marches inexorably onward.  To remain oblivious to this fact is an inexcusable indulgence in self-deception.

Finances.  The number one reason why many ministers put off retirement is that they can’t afford it.  It is true that the pastor who procrastinates in establishing his financial resources until retirement age is in trouble already.  Yet, the answer is not more procrastination!  If this is the case, recruit the assistance of a professional financial planner.  Many options present themselves in preparing for an adequate retirement income, and each situation is different.  Here are a few important points:

• Start your financial planning twenty-five years or more before retirement age.
• Late starters need to set aside a much greater portion of monthly income—like 50%!
• Social Security income is not nearly enough.
• If a pension from the church is possible, get the plans in order now.
• Begin paring down debts and obligations. (Smaller house, less furniture, fewer toys☺).
• Assess your net worth and ask for professional help to show you ways to use it.
• Pull your head out of the sand, bite the bullet and forget that these are clichés.

Remember, this is a window of opportunity.  It may narrower than you think, and it is definitely traveling across the horizon much faster than you realize.  If you miss it, you may never get another chance.  A retirement forced by ill health or diminished ability to do the job rarely becomes a pleasant end to a ministry.  Get serious about it today!

A prepared congregation.  Assuming the pastorate of a church means digging in and taking charge.  Conversely, turning the pastorate over to someone else means letting go and allowing someone else to take control. This cannot be done successfully without the church being prepared.  Preparation includes an informed congregation, the buy-in of the church in supporting the pastor’s retirement, an understanding of who will be affected by the change, and a sense that the congregation is participating in the selection and empowered to make the choice.

The retiring pastor needs to understand the deep, personal nature of the pastor/saint relationship.  Few relationships eclipse the role of the pastor in the life of church members, and, once established, people cannot easily disengage and follow another leader.  The pastor needs to make them aware of the elements of change, assure them that everything is okay, and encourage them to accept the transition.  Although others may help, the pastor is the key to this change.  His voice, his optimism, and his calm spirit will make this change as smooth as possible.  Any reluctance or hesitation on his part signals the church that he is not ready.  They will respond in kind.

There is also danger here, and the wise pastor needs to understand this as well.  The church might be ready for the pastor to leave before he really wants to!  If he talks about retiring, but drags it out or reneges on a commitment to follow through, he damages his own credibility and aggravates the people.  One man opined that a pastor has only one, good resignation and he had better use it well. 

Congregational preparedness is a wide window and it moves fairly slowly.  If it is missed, however, the church body is at risk of disunity, rebellion and strife.  The words and actions of the pastor will determine the optimal time for the transition.

The health of the congregation.  The church whose status is immature, carnal, confused, deeply hurt by some tragic event or suffering from a power struggle is not ready for a pastoral change.  Should one be forced on it at this time, it may likely fall apart.  It is possible that switching leaders may be the only solution to monumental problems within the congregation, but it will undoubtedly come at great expense—loss of unity, loss of people and/or loss of property.

The ideal moment for a pastor to step down is when the church is doing well.  He can then exit with honor, and the incoming leader can go right to work to initiate his vision without having to solve major problems or deal with troublemakers.  Of course, we are not talking about perfection; we are still dealing with imperfect people, after all.  Even pastors of healthy churches have to confront people problems from day-to-day.  Major upheavals, however, are different, and the pastor who is working towards retirement needs to get these problems resolved before making a change in leadership. 

Church health is a narrow window, and it can move fast.  A younger church which has had multiple pastors over a few years may be volatile.  An older congregation served by long-term pastors is more stable and is an easier scenario.  Health and stability is the key to a smooth transition.

Availability of a prospective pastor.  More than one pastor has lamented to me that they are ready to retire, but they don’t know of anyone who can come and take the church.  Indeed, this is an alarming situation.  It may become an organization-wide crisis in the next few years.  The pastor may be ready, he may have his finances in order, the church may be prepared and healthy, but if he has no one whom he can bring in as the new pastor, he has no choice but to hang on beyond the optimal moment for retirement.

Faced with desperation, some pastors simply default to an available person who wants the church.  Vince Lombardi, famed football coach said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”  Likewise, a tired pastor who just wants to get out from under the load may choose an incompetent man to replace him.  Such scenarios are tragic; once thriving churches have turned into train wrecks; strong and powerful congregations have been gutted of orthodoxy and holiness; growing churches have lost their fervor and have become barren wastelands.  All of this is because the out-going pastor did not pay close attention to the limited number of qualified prospects available. 

Other pastors are so paranoid of getting the wrong man to come in that they refuse to make a move at all.  If they wait too long, however, poor health or becoming incapacitated may force the transition.  In this case, the pastor himself becomes the wrong man for the church!  Prayer and fasting for the right person is vital, but an active search is also necessary.  God certainly has someone out there, but it is largely up to the pastor to find him.

This window of opportunity is extremely narrow and moves swiftly.  The person whom the pastor has in mind may be here today but gone tomorrow.  A growing number of churches now chase a shrinking pool of prospective pastors.  This reality must sink in to the aging pastor’s mind. 

When all these windows are in alignment, it is time to move.  The unique role that every leader must fulfill is that of the decision-maker.  Others may have the knowledge, but no one else has the authority to decide.  Pastor, the decision about your successor has the profound potential to affect the future of the church more than anything else you may do.  Monitor these situations closely.  Make the decision.  As much as you love doing what you are doing, the future belongs to others.  Hand it over.  Time is of the essence.  It is the best decision.  It is your decision!

Old Books I Treasure

From time to time, I talk about new books that I am reading.  However, there are old books that have been a tremendous source of inspiration to me over the years.  If they are still available in print, you would do yourself a favor to pick them up.  If you are interested, check them out on Amazon.com or else Google them. 

Mastery in the Storm                   Duncan, George          Christian Lit. Cru.    1965

Jack Shuler’s Short Sermons        Shuler, Jack                Zondervan              1952

Conversations with Giants            Prokop, Phyllis             Concordia              1964

The Glossolalia Phenomenon        Horton, Wade ed.        Pathway                 1966

What Meaneth This?                     Brumbeck, Carl            Gospel PH              1947

Hunted Heretic                             Bainton, Roland H.       Beacon                  1953

Celebration of Discipline                Foster, Richard J.         Harper & Row        1988

Trumpet in the Land                     Bennett, William L.        Zondervan            1959

Divorce and Remarriage                Duty, Guy                    Bethany               1957

Adventures in Faith: Abraham       De Haan, M. R.              Zondervan           1953

Portraits of Christ in Genesis         De Haan, M. R.               Zondervan         1966 

Some of these are popular books, written by well known authors, like De Haan and Foster.  Still, you would do well to own a copy for yourself.  I consider the sermon by George Duncan, “The Danger of Illegitimate Desire” an absolute classic.  Nearly all of Jack Schuler’s sermons are repeatable from any pulpit.  The Pentecostal books are relevant because they address common objections to tongues-speaking with scripture and reason.  Some ministers like books from the 19^th century or the first part of the 20^th century.  I find their writing styles a little too quaint to be useful today, at least to me.  Exceptions include E. M. Bounds, Clarence McCartney. 

I do have many other books that I like, but I condensed the list to these.  I may add to it in a later post.  I will, however, mention a few older authors who have been prolific writers, and almost anything they have written is worth having. 

• Robert G. Lee
• Clovis G. Chappell
• Leonard Ravenhill
• Paul Rees
• Halford Luccock
• Vance Havner
• David Wilkerson 

Happy reading! 

Writing Your Mind Expanding Script

Captain Jack Sands, a navy pilot during the Vietnam War, was shot down and captured by the Viet Cong.  Imprisoned for the next seven years in a 5’x 5’ cell, he fought to retain his sanity.  He succeeded by envisioning himself playing eighteen holes of golf every day of his captivity.  Each detail of the game—the contour of the course, the weather, the club selection, the smell of the freshly mown grass—was all conjured up in his mind.  He even picked out the clothes he wore.  Mentally, every shot he made was perfect.  Before he enlisted in the Navy, he was an average golfer who was happy to break 100.  After his release, he finally got the chance to play an actual game of golf again.  The result?  He shot a 74!  He did more than keep himself from cracking up; he imposed a mental discipline upon himself that made a concrete difference in real life.  (Brandon Webb, The Red Circle.) 

Incredible stories like that of Jack Sands have led to an explosion of mental acumen concepts like mental management, strategic visioneering, cognitive consciousness and other systems that focus on mental imagery.  Innovators in the field believe that the power of the mind towers over every other factor in human achievements.  Training and development programs across diverse disciplines like athletic programs, military units, sales and management teams and educational psychology increasingly employ mental enhancement techniques.  The mind, more than any other consideration, is the key to improved performance, regardless of the field in which it is tried.  

Recent studies have enlarged on this belief, but the basic concept is hardly new.  Nearly two millennia ago, the Bible said, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”  (Romans 12:2).  Also,  “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”  (Philippians 4:8).  In 1902, James Allen wrote his classic “As a Man Thinketh” based on a scripture found in Proverbs 23:7, “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.”  This doesn’t mean that the mental side of life is more important that the spiritual, but it is an affirmation that the mind is a gift of God as much as any other human feature.  

Has the script you have followed short-circuited your ability to think?  Do you feel “dumb” because you have been led to believe that you aren’t as smart as other people?  Have you deliberately curbed your appetite for intellectual pursuits because other people (parents, siblings, best friend) would disapprove, or because you felt “out of your league?”  Have you held back because you were afraid of destroying your relationships?  Rip up that script!  It has turned you into a hollow, unfulfilled shadow of your real self.  You are under no obligation to continue following a plan written by someone else.  Open the door and walk into the life that God has planned for you! 

Try to understand a concept that has always seemed too deep for you. 

Have you always wanted to “go deep” but never felt you could?  Mathematics, physics and computer sciences come to mind immediately, but you may not have an interest in any of these.  You may want to tackle human socialization, organizational theory, free-market economics or political science.  Theological concepts like the essential Godhead and the human soul intrigue many people as well.  It’s time to take a deep breath and launch.  The greatest failure is the failure to try.  Whatever you take up, apply your best efforts to understand the subject matter. 

It has been said that “cerebration is painful.”  Mind expanding exercises may hurt more than taking a beating, but the pain is simply because you are cleaning out the laziness, apathy and your mind’s preference for being left alone.  But, the worst thing you can do is leave your mind alone!  You have the capacity to be twice as smart as you are, and maybe more.  Studies have proven conclusively that a person’s intelligence quotient can be raised.  One of the more recent experiments was run in 2011 by Michigan State University’s Professor Jason Moser in which he measured twenty-five undergraduates’ response time to errors. The key is mindset.  Moser found that anyone who thinks he or she can do better can; those that don’t think they can, can’t.  He stated, “We therefore show that growth-minded individuals are characterized by superior functionality of a very basic self-monitoring and control system.”  Crank up your “want to” and you’ll astound yourself! 

John Wesley, blogger of “Pick the Brain” blog, says five simple exercises can get you started:  1) Stop watching TV; 2) Exercise; 3) Read challenging books; 4) Go to bed early, get up early; 5) Take time to reflect.  All of these steps are absolutely within each person’s realm of possibility.  Start with something that interests you. Narrow it down to manageable targets.  Make sure your subject has intrinsic meaning for you.  Discover what you know about it.  Identify what you don’t know.  Finally, commit yourself to fully understanding the subject matter, whatever that takes.  Even if you fall short of your goal, you will have stretched your mind in a positive direction.    

Learn a skill that always seemed beyond your ability. 

Researchers who study the innovative skills of inventors, entrepreneurs, writers and artists talk about tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.  “Explicit  knowledge  refers  to  knowledge  that  is transmittable  in  formal,  systematic  language,  while  tacit knowledge has a personal quality, which makes it  hard to formalize and communicate.”  (Ibrahim and Fallah.   http://www.uvm.edu).  You may not choose to tackle formal, systematic knowledge, but you can still develop your mental prowess by using intuitive, “hands-on” abilities (tacit knowledge) that have been dormant but can be awakened if you put forth the effort.  Music, painting, writing and crafts fall in this category.  For many people, a leisurely interest in photography, gardening, furniture restoration, hiking, health foods and more has turned into expertise in the field.  There is a mysterious quality about knowledge that acquiring a little bit incites a thirst and a need for more.  

Appreciate your potential and find out what you truly are capable of doing.  The above-mentioned interests will have a profound impact on your mental capacity.  If you focus on furniture restoration, for example, you will learn about styles, periods, woods, fabrics, construction techniques, finishes, famous craftsmen and their distinguishing trademarks, values and much more.  If you choose gardening, you will have to learn about soils, seeds, plants, fertilizers, planting seasons, herbicides, pesticides, sunshine, rain, temperature, rabbits, squirrels, cooking, canning, preserving and much more.  There is a horizontal and vertical trajectory to the knowledge you will acquire, and whether you intended to or not, you will achieve expertise in the area.  Your interest will take on a life of its own, pulling you along with it.  

There are secondary and tertiary benefits to learning a skill as well.  For example, what would learning to speak Spanish (assuming you are an anglophone) do for you from a social aspect?  Who could you befriend?  Who could you influence?  How would your interest in travel change?  How would you be perceived by others?  Going further, the same thing would happen if you were to develop an intense interest in the American civil war.  You would become acquainted with areas of the country you never knew existed.  You would enhance your understanding of the social realities that affect African-Americans today.  You would understand the politics of that era that remain a viable force in twenty-first century America.  In fact, learning almost any skill becomes more then a narrow, singular accomplishment.  Rather, it reverberates into many areas of life and makes you an enriched, viable and interesting player in society.  

Embrace a fact that has always filled you with dread. 

Are you terrified of contemplating your own mortality?  Do you resist acquiring any facts about your risks to inherit certain diseases or physical conditions?  What would you do in the event of a major catastrophe in your community or in the world at large?  Some people are so paranoid of these thoughts that they refuse to write a will, they avoid any mention of a living will should they require surgery, and they will not buy burial plots where they will one day be laid to rest.  

Unfortunately, superstition reigns in far too many minds, keeping people from addressing facts and circumstances that would prove beneficial to them.  The fact is that thinking and talking about death will not hasten it along.  Planning for a major disaster will not make it happen.  Neither preparedness nor lack thereof, has an effect on the likelihood of these events.  They will happen in their own time. 

But there are other topics that incite fear and dread in people as much as mortality.  Many people will not venture into any discussion that challenges their core beliefs, their cardinal doctrines or the traditions by which they and their families live.  “My grandfather was a democrat, my father was a democrat, and by George, I am a democrat!  End of discussion!”  (Substitute republican, liberal, conservative, libertarian or any other political persuasion in the foregoing sentence.)  Not to say that there is anything wrong with being a democrat, but the basis for the belief is suspect in this instance.  Blind faith, brand loyalty, clannish behavior and mob rule all share the same motivation for belief—visceral, emotional reaction.  Anytime that raw, uncensored, knee-jerk emotion stands as the number one reason why a person espouses a certain belief, all rationality evaporates.  When someone else writes your script, your emotions are about all you have left as a solid place to stand. 

Even in matters of faith, we must not close our minds to reason.  The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:15 (NKJV) “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”  Faith built on the dubious foundation of emotion has little durability.  Sometimes, the slightest opposition causes a meltdown. On the other hand, one who has personally, and at considerable mental anguish, searched out reasons for his or her belief system can absorb the strongest of challenges.  

Knowledge is power.  But knowledge also is a direct route to a more tranquil, less tension-filled existence.  Once you know the answer to a deep, dark question, you have released its hold on you.  Jesus said it best.  “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  John 8:32.