In this politically correct age, when Evangelicals are starting to gain more and more cultural traction as they gain more political, economic, and academic power it is becoming more tempting for Evangelicals to do away with some biblical beliefs that embarrass our public personas and impede acceptance by worldly power brokers in this so called “tolerant,” “multicultural,” and “diverse” society.
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Every church and/or organization has a corporate culture with norms, rules, and expectations that pressure participants to conform. Some cultures are good and some bad. That being said, there are particular attributes that characterize false religions or become the norm during religious decline in a true faith such as Christianity.
Text: Acts 8:1-8
Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him [Stephen] to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Many if not most scholars consider Apostle Paul the most important leader in the history of the church, with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ! Paul’s influence cannot be overstated in spite of him never having oversight of a megachurch (he started small house churches in about 30 cities); he wasn’t always very prosperous (often he spoke about being hungry, thirsty and naked as in 1 Corinthians 4:11); he wasn’t a celebrity leader (often he was met by mobs of angry people wanting to kill him as in Acts 9, 14:11, 19); he was not very well known during his lifetime outside the cities and regions in which he planted churches (his fame spread beyond these regions after his lifetime through his letters to the churches); and he was diminutive, not necessarily good looking, and may not have been a great orator (2 Corinthians 10:10).
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In 1999 the Spirit of God began to emphasize to me the recognition of the marketplace as part of the Kingdom of God, and since then many began to recognize the biblical mandate to disciple whole nations according to the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:19.
Through the five plus decades I have lived in NYC I have observed many kinds of people. For the sake of this article I will break these people down into two categories: those with a victim mentality and those with a victor mentality.
Those with the victim mindset interpret the world totally different from those with the victor mindset. The former views an obstacle as an unfair challenge and the latter view obstacles as an opportunity to overcome. You can also say that in American politics, candidates attempt to appeal to one group or the other. To the victims, they pledge their intervention and to the victors they promise opportunity without as much government intervention and rules.
The older and more mature in the Lord I become, the more I have learned to simplify my life and personal goals. Years ago my personal mission statement, vision statement, and goals were about two pages long. Now they are all one short sentence: “Love God and love people.”
One of the biggest challenges for contemporary leaders arises from the large amount of available information. We not only have the challenge of information overload, but too many options and opportunities to make our organizations, ministries, and lives more effective. Leaders must learn to streamline their focus in order to maximize their lives.
