10 Reasons Business Leaders Reject Their Local Churches

I have been a pastor for more than 29 years and have ministered to hundreds of pastors and visited numerous churches over the past three decades. During this time, I have noticed often that key marketplace leaders who love the Lord have a hard time connecting to a local church.

Because of this, some in the marketplace have felt compelled to consider their businesses and employees as their local church! In my opinion, this should not be necessary. The following observations are based on interaction with entrepreneurs and business leaders. Here are ten reasons business leaders reject their local churches:

1. The leadership cap of the pastor is less than that of the marketplace leader
One of the greatest shocks I have felt over the years occurred when I realized that not every pastor is a strong leader. I had to learn the difference between a leader and a minister. Every leader is a minister but not every minister is a good leader. By leader I mean someone who knows how to cast vision, strategize on how to go from A to Z, and then galvanize people to get behind that vision. (Successful business leaders and entrepreneurs must constantly put budgets together that match their business plans and then measure their success or failure based on legitimate feedback systems to monitor progress.)

Oftentimes the pastor that a marketplace leader sits under might not have the same level of influence on other people that key business leaders have. Thus, such a business leader will have a hard time respecting their pastor as their leader or overseer. If a business leader is a 7 or 8 out of 10 on the leadership scale, and the pastor is only a 5 or 6, the business leader needs to leave that church and find an apostolic leader of a local church with a leadership level of 9 or 10 who understands how to lead and nurture other entrepreneurs. The only other alternative would be for the business leader to keep his family in a nurturing church and then have an apostolic leader from another region personally coach him or her in their spiritual life.

2. The financial mismanagement of the tithe
A billionaire once told me that if he gave his full tithe to his local church, it would probably be destroyed by it! The pastor would not know what to do with the tithe because it exceeds the management capacity of the church trustees and pastor. Many business leaders connect to God through order and systems that exhibit excellence, not just emotionally or spiritually. In cases like this, business leaders will give part of their tithe to foundations or nonprofit charities they have created that know how to harness finances much better than their local churches. (Note, however, this is not the best-case scenario and is not necessarily congruent with the storehouse concept of Malachi 3:8-14. Marketplace leaders are sometimes left with no other alternative unless they can find capable apostolic leaders and their ministries, which they can personally sow into.)

3. Not being appreciated as a fellow minister in the kingdom of God
Ephesians 4:10-12 teaches that the main function of the ministry gifts Christ gave the church is to prepare God's people for the work of the ministry. Verse 10 tells us the reason Christ ascended was to "fill all things." Hence, context demands that our definition of preparing the saints for the ministry (verse 12) involves training leaders for every realm of the created order, not just church ministry. When high-level business leaders or emerging leaders are in a local church and their pastor does not treat them as a marketplace minister in the kingdom of God, they will lose interest and leave the church. People only go where their gifts and calling are celebrated.

4. Business leaders are only viewed as a cash cow for the church
Unfortunately, the only value some pastors place on high-level business leaders is that their tithe helps fund the vision of the church. When people feel like they are only being used for their finances, they will eventually leave the church.

5. Pastors do not know how to utilize great marketplace leaders
Pastors need to view potential or actual marketplace leaders as gems in the kingdom of God who have the ability to help bring kingdom vision to pass. Often a pastor will only look to pour into potential preachers, overlooking emerging marketplace leaders in their discipleship process. One of the signs of an apostolic leader is their ability to discern the kingdom leadership callings of those under their care, and then properly place them and minister to them. Marketplace leaders can be successfully trained to lead financial committees, kingdom expansion in regard to the creation of charities, and community development and business ventures that can generate income streams to expand a local church's influence and service capacity. When studying the book of Acts and the New Testament epistles, we see that Paul the Apostle had a group of more than 20 benefactors who were part of his team. Paul knew that he could not be successful in his mission without properly utilizing those called to generate wealth in the marketplace.

6. Not crafting a proper discipleship plan
Marketplace leaders have odd hours, travel frequently and cannot always fit nicely into typical discipleship structures of local churches. For example, they have a hard time fitting into a weekly requirement of attending small groups and sometimes cannot attend Sunday services every week. Pastors who attempt to force marketplace leaders into the mold of the general blue-collar populace will frustrate them and eventually lose them. Discipleship plans need to be personalized with the pastoral expectation of the business leader to prioritize Sunday attendance and small group attendance as best they can. Also, marketplace leaders do not usually need a pastor to give them financial or business advice unless it is dealing with biblical ethics and principles. Pastors should concentrate on the personal and family life of marketplace leaders in their churches. Leaders in high-stress jobs, like those on Wall Street, are often challenged to keep their families in order and their lives properly balanced.

7. Churches often do not have a clear mission and vision
When high-level marketplace leaders participate in any organization, they need to understand the purpose and goals of the organization's existence. Often, the only plans of pastors are for high church attendance and anointed meetings. Sometimes even plans to erect a new building are not enough because there needs to be a reason to fill the building and give financially. Marketplace leaders are not wired to emotionally connect to organizations (including churches) with no clear vision or goals to accomplish that vision.

8. Sunday services appeal only to the uneducated or those without means
Every local church has a particular subculture that attracts—whether intentional or not—a particular category of people in regard to age, income and ethnicity. Pastors who want to attract successful business leaders need to understand who is attracted by the culture of their church, because culture always trumps both vision and anointing. Pastors need to ask themselves the following questions before they should expect successful business people to attend their churches:

• What is the appearance of the church building, both inside and out? Successful people are attracted to success and repelled by sloppy appearances.
• Is parking available for their expensive cars? Who would want to park their expensive car three blocks away from their local church in an at-risk neighborhood?
• Is there a spirit of excellence exhibited in the way church business is conducted?
• Does the church have a compelling vision?
• How are Sunday service announcements made?
• How are people dressed on Sundays?
• Does the leadership of the church include successful business people?
• Is the preaching condescending or uplifting and motivating? Does it appeal only to the uneducated or also to the educated? Those in a higher economic bracket are usually independent thinkers and cannot be screamed at or only told what to do, unlike former drug addicts or prisoners who come out of strict programs and need to be told what to do, to keep them in line.
• Does the church have a heart for community service in which marketplace leaders' gifts can be utilized?
• Do poorer church members gravitate constantly to successful business leaders for handouts?
• Will poorer church members exhibit resentment towards those who own multiple homes, expensive cars and travel frequently?

9. Biblical preaching is not relevant to their needs
Preaching that is only hype, without practical substance, or preaching what is merely exegetically correct (unpacking the history, culture, original languages, and biblical author's intent) without skillfully applying the text to the felt needs of one's audience will cause marketplace leaders to disconnect from messages that are preached. These leaders are wired to succeed in life and are often under great stress every day to perform at a high professional level. Thus, they need messages that will motivate them to excel and believe for great things and relevant teachings to empower their personal lives, marriages and families. 

10. People constantly ask them for handouts
Pastors who want an economically diverse local church need to instruct their leaders and congregations on how to relate to successful people. Often, successful business people will attend a church that attracts other successful people, so they do not stand out from the rest of the congregation (and thus attract those who always have their hands out for money). Secondary leaders in a local church should be the first ones trained on how to interact with key marketplace leaders, since they will often be the first ones "in line" to use their influence in the church to sell an idea or get a handout!

Finally, pastors who desire economically diverse congregations with both the rich and poor feeling welcome must intentionally work on these ten areas if they desire a church subculture that attracts both groups of people.

Joseph Mattera has been in full-time ministry since 1980 and is currently the presiding bishop of Christ Covenant Coalition and Overseeing Bishop of Resurrection Church in New York, a multiethnic congregation of 40 nationalities that has successfully developed numerous leaders and holistic ministry in the New York region and beyond. Click here to visit his website.

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Original Page: http://www.charismamag.com/life/business-finance/16864-10-reasons-business-leaders-reject-their-local-churches

Jack Hayford: How the Church Misunderstands Worship

Over the years I have sought to teach people both why we worship and how to worship. Worship has often been misunderstood as the musical prelude to the sermon, rather than the means by which we, as the people of God, invite the dominion of His kingdom to be established on earth.

Psalm 22:3 says that the King of kings is literally "enthroned" in our praises. Wherever God's people come together to worship, and where that happens, all the weight of His glory, His rulership, and His dominion are present.

In this atmosphere––where worship ushers in the presence of God––four critically important things take place: first, the Word becomes life, not just an intellectual exercise; then, as His kingdom is established, people will be healed and people will come to know the Lord. Finally, because God is empowering His people, their worship crowds out the borders of hell's current domain––Satan having been given rulership of this planet by man's forfeit of dominion at the Fall.

Worship is essential to God's plan of redemption and provides a strategic avenue for God's entry into an alienated world. An illustration of this is found in the Lord's Prayer, which begins with worship: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name." Then, it extends the invitation "… Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:9, 10, NKJV).

When we pray in the manner that Jesus taught His disciples, we are first, with worship, reaching into the invisible realm and then, on the grounds of our worship, welcoming the entry of His divine authority, rulership and power into this world.

How then do we worship?
After giving the Ten Commandments, the Lord gave explicit directions to Moses about a tabernacle of worship in which He would come to dwell among His people (Exodus 25:8, 9). The people spent a year at Sinai building the tabernacle according to God's pattern and learning how to worship. God's plan for His people's redemption was to be realized through the priestly ministry of worship. In Christ, all believers have become a "royal priesthood"that we "may proclaim the praises of Him who called (us) out of the darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9, NKJV).

The biblical patterns of worship involve all aspects of the human personality: physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Most people recognize that worship ought to be spiritual from the heart and that it ought to be intelligent. But there's uneasiness about the involvement of our emotions and physical expression. Yet people who acknowledge their own physical and emotional being before the Lord do what in any setting other than church would be considered the most natural thing. The living God has created us with a response mechanism that expresses joy when we are happy or elation and shouting over victory, for example.

The expression of worship should not be confused as a requirement for salvation, but as a means for truth springing to life in the midst of people. When we surrender ourselves to the full expression of worship, the Spirit descends, and room is given for Him to meet every person in a special way.

Worship involves physical expressions founded upon biblical guidelines; they are neither ritual, perfunctory actions or the serving of emotions for their own sake. Among the physical expressions of worship found in Scripture are kneeling, clapping hands, raising hands, verbalized praise, singing hymns and psalms, weeping, laughing, bearing witness aloud ("Amen"), reading the Word aloud, prostrating before the Lord, speaking in tongues, dancing before the Lord, giving public testimony, standing, silence and spiritual song. In 2 Chronicles 20, as many as 11 different Hebrew verbs for active physical worship are found.

In his epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul proclaims the glory of our Lord and the motivation for our worship: "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! … For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36, NKJV).

And then he summons us to worship with what can be considered our only appropriate response to such magnificence: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1, 2, NKJV).

Thus, the Bible calls us to: present our rededicated bodies by kneeling, bowing, raising our heads and hands, and dancing before the Lord; present our revived emotions by shouting and clapping to the Lord, praising aloud, rejoicing and expressing thanksgiving, or by being silent before Him in the beauty of His presence; present our regenerated spirits by worshipping in the Spirit, singing spiritual songs and giving thanks; and present our renewed minds by obedient, orderly, intelligent, sensitive worship with understanding. Even spontaneity must have some point of discipline and control (1 Corinthians 14:40).

The Lord is not displeased by our reticence to the physical expressions of worship, but when we present ourselves wholly open before Him, the compounding of both our life in Him and of His beauty in us takes place. We are made more whole—and holy—in the likeness of Jesus. The weight of his glory begins to seep through our system. Our identity becomes more secure and established, and our sense of sufficiency in the life of Jesus Christ increases.

The Lord says in Romans 14:11 that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess Him. Therefore, we are summoned to present our bodies, emotions, spirits and minds to Him in every biblical form of expression as He would graciously teach us. And when we worship as His appointed "priests," we invite and administrate His glorious life, purpose and power to be realized not only in our lives, but also in our world.

For the original article, visit men.ag.org.

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Original Page: http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/church-ministry/16879-jack-hayford-why-and-how-we-worship

Tithing: Why Give Money to the Church?

Money! We love to make it, spend it, save it, give it … "Wait a minute," you say. "Give it? That's my money you're talking about. I earned it and I will decide how I spend it, save it and do whatever I want with it. But just give it away? I don't think so."

Money, sex, and power are three of the hottest of hot buttons for men. Number one for many guys is the almighty dollar. I guess it comes with the competitive nature with which many of us are born.

We drive hard, sell hard and perform hard, all to get a buck. When done right, driving, selling and performing are very good things. Those things make much of the world go around.

Money is good. Making it is good. In fact, Scripture talks about a day's work and the importance of work. I Thessalonians 5:12, Colossians 3:23, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 and Exodus 23:12 all talk about work, and that's just the tip of the scriptural iceberg on the topic. Further, it talks of a servant being worthy of his wages in both Luke 10:7 and 1 Timothy 5:18.

Can making money be bad? Only if a man allows it to control his life. Normally when you make it to give it, you control it, not the other way around. Along those lines, here are some things I've observed about money and giving over the years:

• Stingy people are really unhappy. No Scrooges smiling in everyday life at the ballpark or over the backyard barbeque.
• Generous people are really, really happy!
• Rich and poor alike can give.
• When a person gets the bug to give, it can begin to be what they live for. Not a bad thing!

Here's a good one I've always dreamed of. Imagine if you had $10 million dollars dropped in your lap out of the clear blue. How much fun would it be to not just give a ten spot or $100 gift to a worthy charity or your church, but to give a major, major gift of hundreds of thousands or a million dollars and beyond to start something good for your community or for ministry that would not happen without your gift? I have to tell you, that can trip your trigger!

Much has been written about a person's responsibility to give 10 percent of their income to the local church. Scripture is clear on that matter in Malachi 3:10 and Hebrews 7:5-9 for starters. For 30 years I have worked for two churches, one parachurch ministry, and a Bible college. During those years, never has there ever been a question in my mind where a man's tithe belongs. It belongs to the local church.

Here are questions and answers some men have about giving:

• Why should a person give the tithe? Scripture commands it. Keep in mind, it is the Lord's tithe, not our money. It belongs to Him. Be obedient. Then give because much has been given to you. Besides, its fun!
• What if I don't have enough money to give anything, let alone tithe? This is where faith comes in. When you follow the command of the Lord and give when you can't see where it comes from, the principle works. I have a pastor friend who tells his congregation he would tithe even if he were not a Christian because he knows the principle works.
• What if I don't like what my church does with my money? Give anyway to that church or change churches. Scripture doesn't build exclusions to tithing. It says to tithe. However, on very rare occasions there are churches that are not responsible with their money. Your responsibility is to give. The church's responsibility is to be a good steward of your money. When they don't do their part you may be forced to look elsewhere for your local church. However, this is never a decision to be made lightly.
• Why does my church ask me to give more than the tithe? That is called the offering. Offerings are those gifts which are above and beyond the tithe. Those gifts in most churches cover the important ministries of missions, building fund, etc. The tithes normally cover the general operation of the church. The church desires to grow and reach out beyond the four walls in your city. Offerings provide to that end.

Money! Wow, we love it and to give it away is one of the most fulfilling experiences for a man and his family. In poverty and in riches, relish all God has done for you. Give of yourself, work hard and give tithes and offerings. Do so and you will be glad you did. You can take that one to the bank!

Dick Hardy is the Founder and President of The Hardy Group, an Executive Consulting firm for senior pastors. Dick brings a wealth of experience to the table for pastors when dealing with the tough issues of the church relative to growth, organization, leadership, administration and change. His service as administrative pastor at two megachurches and vice president at a flagship denominational Bible college makes him a resource your church will want to retain.

Click here for the original article at men.ag.org.

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Original Page: http://www.charismamag.com/life/men/16837-tithing-why-give-money-to-the-church

Are You Trapped in Your Comfort Zone?

God wanted the disciples out of the comfort of Jerusalem so the gospel would spread.

Growing up on the famed Jersey Shore, I spent all my summers on the beach. Music, friends, hot dogs, french fries, fun and the ocean--I loved it all, especially the ocean. Even today--though I have much less opportunity because I live in Arizona--I could spend all day at the beach.

Consider the Christians of the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit performed signs, wonders and miracles among them. Fellowship and a sense of community arose quickly. People immediately were swept into the kingdom of God.

They had great revelation and teaching; they could worship like they never had before; they could give and receive prophecies; and they could be blessed, blessed, blessed.

That could've gone on forever! Kind of like living by the ocean and soaking up the music, food and fun--why would you want it to stop?

All of what those early believers had sounds great to me. But if that move of God had not eventually changed, it probably would have imploded, become very ingrown and weird--or simply dried up.

Why? Because God knew the human tendency--even of the early believers--would be to hang out in Jerusalem and just soak up the blessings.

But in Acts 7-8, everything seemed to change overnight. "At that time a great persecution arose against the church... and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles" (Acts 8:1, NKJV).

It looked like the party was over. It really wasn't--but the imperative from the King had changed. It would no longer just be about receiving from heaven; it would be about sharing heaven's life with the world.

Fortunately, the early believers did what God intended, even though the way His will came to them--through trouble and persecution--was not the means they would have chosen. But the results were terrific: "Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. And there was great joy in that city" (Acts 8:4,8).

Today we are plagued with violence, terror, an unstable economy and church scandals. Could it be that once more God is using the "stir stick" of adversity to get believers and the gospel beyond our Jerusalems and out where the lost and suffering live?

If you believe this is even remotely possible, then consider a simple three-word strategy drawn from Acts that will work for any Christian who will dare to think along these lines.

1. Saturate. Seek to immerse yourself in God's presence--be filled with the Holy Spirit, renewed through God's Word and walk every day in the Spirit. But don't stop there. Instead, saturate your home, school, workplace and neighborhood with prayer.

Try walking through your own neighborhood while praying. Where you live may become an attractive-looking mission field that calls for greater personal action from you.

2. Infiltrate. Go beyond your comfort zone. God wanted the disciples out of the comfort of Jerusalem so the gospel would spread throughout the earth. There is nothing wrong with being comfortable unless it keeps you from fully obeying the Lord.

Jesus likened His followers to light and salt. Both infiltrate. Light works best where the darkness is deepest. Salt works best on things that are tasteless (and it's of no use if it merely sits in a salt shaker or cupboard).

3. Proliferate. There was a great harvest on the day of Pentecost. More important, however, adding new people or members to Christ's body became an everyday occurrence.

I don't think the early church took the time to go to seminars (although today they do help). They just quickly began to declare the gospel and saw immediate results.

If you feel as if you might have spent a little too much time on "the beach" and have become spiritually waterlogged, then the best thing I can suggest for you is to get into action--now!

After all, who would want all the great things God is doing to end with us? They won't, if we spread the gospel everywhere we go.

Scott Hinkle is founder of Scott Hinkle Outreach Ministries in Phoenix. A veteran evangelist, he regularly leads street-ministry teams during Mardi Gras and other major events. He also sponsors evangelism-training conferences. Visit his Web site at www.scotthinkle.org for more information.

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Original Page: http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-growth/746-dont-get-comfortable

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