I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 04

Don't Give Up - Be Faithful

10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Luke 16:10

We live in a world that emphasizes, bigger is better, faster is better, the more you have the more successful you are etc….. The thought of starting small and growing an organization is diametrically opposed to the popular philosophies that encourage a sense of entitlement to everyone. You do not come into this world with anyone owing you anything. Everyone came into this world with nothing and will leave this world with nothing. The real question is what you will do with what you gain during your life. Will you share all that you have or will you are self centered and horde all that you gain?

Yes this is a daily life issue for Christians but it is also a leadership challenge to those who are leading a ministry, mission, choir, and committee or ministry team. This scripture speaks to the integrity of a leader which is the most essential quality in Christian leadership. It is more essential than the place in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the position title, visioning capabilities, charisma or communication skills.

Results are the product of leadership and as I have coached pastors many times in new church start settings, I have been able to observe and learn that results do not come on our project timetables, They come in God’s time.

The choir may not have more spirituality after one workshop. Don’t get discouraged, do not give up, be faithful.

The leaders may not catch the vision after 9, 12, 18 or 36 months of teaching and preaching. Do not get discouraged, do not give up, be faithful.

The trustees may not have a solution for every problem. Do not get discouraged, do not give up, be faithful.

People may not respond to your message the way that you think they should and in fact they criticize your every statement for grammar to the point they miss the blessing. Do not get discouraged, do not give up, be faithful.

Being patient and waiting on God for the fruit of your labor may not be easy but it is essential if you are going to reap a harvest of blessing.

If God has blessed you with a small ministry, or community faith based organization, it will be frustrating at times, it will get hard at times and the people will drive you crazy sometimes!

Don’t Give Up - Be Faithful

God called you and God will bless you in the ministry in His Season!

Wake Up

Luke 21:36
The Message

So, whatever you do, don't go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that's coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man."

Now is not the time for us to go to sleep
Now is the time for us to wake up and not continue in the complacency of our past

Now is not the time for us to go to sleep
Now is the time for us to wake up and proclaim to the world “Prepare ye the Way of the Lord!”

Now is not the time for us to go to sleep
Now is the time for us to reject the hypnotizing effects of the popular media culture and adopt a Kingdom mindset prepared to serve the least, left out and the lost in the name of Jesus

Now is not the time for us to go to sleep
Now is the time for us to wake up and educate the people that people are dying from the HIV/AIDS epidemic right here in Baltimore

Now is not the for us to go to sleep
Now is the time for us to wake up and let this community know that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Now is not the time for us to go to sleep
Now is the time for us to wake up and chart a vision for high impact personal ministry where you live

This is a wake up call for the world
This is a wake up call for the United States
This is a wake up call for the state of Maryland
This is a wake up call for the city of Baltimore
This is a wake up call for the West Baltimore community and especially for those of us who worship at the corner of Greenwich and Charring Crossing.

Wake up
Get up
Look up

Wake up and see the Magnificent Savior
Get up and share the Good News that Jesus Christ is coming
Look up to see the Star shining in the east that will lead you to the Savior

Wake up
Get up
Look up

Wake up to discover the plans that God has for you
Get up and be diligent in pursuing God’s purpose for your life
Look up for the faith to achieve God’s plan for you

Wake up
Get up
Look up

Wake up expect the fruit
Get up and enjoy the figs
Look up and embrace the faith that has brought us this far

William T Chaney Jr
Pastor
West Baltimore UMC

http://makingdisciples.spreadtheword.com

ENGAGE

ENGAGE!

On the bridge of the Starship Enterprise Captain Picard and Number One can discuss strategy and maneuvers, course headings and evasive maneuvers but nothing happens until the order is given – ENGAGE!  The planning is good, strategizing is important, research is necessary but too many people have brilliant ideas but they never engage the process of making it happen.  Great ideas with out action are fantasies with no power.  Ideas are only powerful when they are partnered with action.  

I find that there are a lot of people in the church who have dreams of doing various ministries from serving the homeless to tutoring at risk children and providing shoes for children in Jamaica. I encourage them to write out their vision, pray for guidance, partner with their pastors and build a team to see the dream fulfilled.  I will see these same people two to three years later and ask them about their ministry dream.  After they get over the shock that I actually remembered, their response usually is,”Pastor I really never began to move on the dream.” What holds people back from engaging their ideas and fulfilling their dreams?

• Fear – Fear of success and fear of failure.  The unknown cripples and maims people to the point of inertia.  Faith overcomes fear. Faith in your unique abilities and special insight.  Faith in God who gave you the vision to provide the provisions for success and faith in the power of the idea that you have. (2 Timothy 1:7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.)

• Fatigue – When people are tired from constantly living life at full speed they can rarely slow down long to change direction and engage their life changing ideas.  In fact when they do slow down the first thing they do is sleep.  When they wake up it is time to get back on the tread mill of life. (22 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. 24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? Ecclesiastes 2:22-25)

• No Fervor – Without passion for moving forward, changing direction, improved circumstances or being sick and tired of being sick and tired people do not engage.  They have already told themselves why something will not work or why convinced themselves of who they can not meet.  The lack of fervor has killed many a dream and robbed many people of their greatness

So how do you ENGAGE?

Energize yourself – Exercise, Visualize and Mobilize.  No one will be more excited about your idea than you will be

Negotiate your schedule.  Make time to work on your God given ministry dream.  Just like an appointment with the doctor take time each week to systematically pursue the dream.  You will never have spare time so schedule the time

Gather research and best practices surrounding the idea.  Contact people in similar industries.  Go online, go to the library. You may have to dig but there is enough knowledge that is available and free that your ministry can be effective and you will not have to design it without a template

Anticipate – What are the possibilities, who will benefit from my idea, who would like to share the journey with me?  Anticipate everything from your possibilities to your potential obstacles

Gather your team – All great events in history were achieved by team work.  Sometime the team was behind the scene but there was always a team. Tell your story to friends, referred associates, Centers of influence and strategic partners.  Everyone will not listen but all you need is for your team members to catch the vision

Empower your plan by giving them to the Lord. Plan your ministry and get started. Move forward as soon as possible. Get an accountability partner to help keep you on track.  A body at rest tends to stay at rest but a body in motion tends to stay in motion - ( Proverbs 16:3 & 9 3 Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. 9 The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.)

Transformation Revivial In Progress

This week I had the unusual pleasure of speaking to thereof my clergy friends from around the US. We had opportunity to share about what God is doing in our ministries and in our lives. My buddy, who has been pastoring for about 7 years, shared with me a story that has captured my attention for the entire week.

Kevin shared that his church has been exploding this year and it was initiated by an unplanned and unscripted event that has changed the way they approach church. They have three services each Sunday and a man battling with drug addiction, which he had met earlier but the congregation did not know, burst into the early service on the first Sunday of the year proclaiming his need and desire for his life to change by the power of God. Kevin explained that instead of three services there was one long service with the move of the Spirit taking them from prayer to singing to messages and again to prayer. Kevin went on to explain that other people in the congregation have come forward to yield their lives to the transforming power of God. People who were previously more concerned with the proper way to do church, the order of worship and making sure that they had on the socially accepted church attire. In what appears from the outside to be an affluent neighborhood where no one has any problems now every week somebody comes down the aisles to have prayer seeking to have their life changed.

Three observations:

People are hurting even if they do not talk about it
People are wearing masks about their lives to protect themselves from being transparent and from being hurt
It only takes one person to take off their mask and talk about their pain who is willing to yield themselves to the power of God to change other people’s attitude about their situations.

Looking forward to the transformation revival

Be Adventurous !
Rev. William T Chaney Jr
Pastor
West Baltimore UMC
5130 Greenwich
Baltimore, MD 21229
(410) 945-8397
http://wtcreflects.blogspot.com
http://nugleadership.blogspot.com/

West Baltimore UMC is an Acts 2 church: Transforming the 40 West Corridor by Being and Making Disciples for Christ


Moving in the spiritual realm should be as much a part of a believer's routine as prayer, worship and reading Scripture. Yet all too often, Christians practice an intellectual faith, which lacks any supernatural punch. Healing, deliverance and signs and wonders are an inheritance for all followers of Jesus Christ. The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind teaches you how to remove the blinders of religious limitation to redeem the lost and transform communities. You too can tap into an abundance of miracle—working authority and unleash the power of God's glory.

To Purchase this Journal and Devotional Click Here

Rick Warren on HIV/AIDS

• Rick Warren, pastor at Saddleback Church, wrote an article on titled, "What your church can do to help eradicate HIV/AIDS." It is an excellent article that highlights the HIV/Aids epidemic and ways that congregations can actually do something rather than talking. One of his most powerful sentences says, "The love of Christ compels us to reach out and care for people who are suffer alone. Considerer this: 40 million women, children, and men worldwide have HIV/AIDS with more than 1 million in the United States! That means, statistically, someone in your church has HIV/AIDS."
  Pastor Warren lays out some practicle steps
  
  Care for and comfort the sick
• Handle testing and counseling
• Unleash a volunteer labor force
• Remove the stigma
• Champion healthy lifestyles
• Help with nutrition and medications

The burden of educating people, especially our African American women between 18 and 24 seems to be an overwhelming task. Informing and encouraging people especially men about testing seems to produce little fruit. Loving and supporting those who have HIV/AIDS and their families appears to have little effect on the social stigmas previously associated with HIV/AIDS. One of my challenges is that the church was a catalyst in developing some of the negative social stigmas. They began by calling it a gay white man's disease. It then was the plague to wipe out the unrighteous. The church, especially the evangelical church, recently has been apathetic to HIV/AIDS because is now viewed as a black disease and not really their problem.

ABC News recently did an excellent job with a Primetime special 'Out of Control: AIDS in Black America'. One of the points that Terry Moran discusses is the lack of the black church to use their considerable social and political clout bring the disease to the forefront and start their communities of faith to discuss the ways to mobilize rather than criticize and alienate those with HIV/AIDS. I am thankful for Rick Warren's article and his personal investment to engage the Christian Community I am hoping that there are some African American Pastors with the courage and vision to also speak out and live out the call of Jesus to "love our neighbors as ourselves." Those with HIV/AIDS are our neighbors. It is time that the church starts to act like it.

Praying for a Cure

Be Adventurous !

Rev. William T Chaney Jr

Pastor West Baltimore UMC

5130 Greenwich Baltimore, MD 21229

(410) 945-8397

http://wtcreflects.blogspot.com

http://nugleadership.blogspot.com/

West Baltimore UMC: Transforming the 40 West Corridor by Being and Making Disciples for Christ

Prophetically Proclaiming a Reformation

Jesus was sent to earth with a mission to reconstruct the religious world. The Law was over bearing and no one was keeping the law. The religious institutions of the day had created oppressive rules and regulations upon The Law which keep people enslaved to perpetual rituals that were not worshipping or honoring God.

The Jews were on the watch for their Messiah to also deliver them from the oppression of the Romans just as God had delivered them from Pharaoh. After Jesus had been on earth for 30 years he began his public ministry and instead of the religious leaders welcoming him they began to criticize him. The conflict was the first recorded reformation of religion and church fight.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were invested in keeping the rituals Jesus was invested in relationships. The religious leaders were more concerned with form and fashion and Jesus was more consumed with substance. The Ruling Jewish Council knew about the hurting, the sick and the lame but Jesus reached out and touched the hurting, the sick and the lame. The entire Jewish nation was comfortable with the purity of their religion but Jesus challenged them that until the worshipped with a pure heart their religion was unacceptable to God. The Pharisees, Sadducees, religious leaders and Ruling Council thought that Jesus was attempting to break The Law and Jesus was really coming to fulfill the law.

The keepers of the law attempted to trick Jesus in this text

Matthew 22:34-40
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to him, " "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Jesus not only understood the hidden intent but he produced a brilliant answer that summarized the 10 Commandments in two sentences.

Lesson – The church is in need of reformation today. Churches all over the United States and Canada are dying, in the process of dying or are dead and do not even know it. They are Lutheran churches, Baptist Churches, Methodist Churches, AME Churches, Disciple of Christ Churches and even non denominational churches. Most of these churches are rooted in grounded in solid theology and 1950s, 60’s and 70’s paradigms of being and doing church. The fear of moving into the 21st Century is the same fear that holds them back from being engaged in fruitful ministry.
Church people still rebel against reform because they are comfortable with where they are. Many do not see the big picture of the churches demise. Until the church is released from religion we are going to be in bondage.

People inside the church and outside of the church are hurting because of broken relationships with God and broken relationships with other people. We can not have healthy relationships with other people as long as our relationship with God is anemic, weak and malnourished. God’s design to pass on perfect love (agape love) is through those who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord. These are the people who have been saved from apathy of a broken church and saved to the joy of a reformed church that worships God in Spirit and in Truth.

Prophetically Proclaiming a Reformation

Rev. William T Chaney Jr
Senior Servant Leader
West Baltimore UMC
5130 Greenwich
Baltimore, MD 21229
(410) 945-8397
http://wtcreflects.blogspot.com/
West Baltimore UMC: Transforming the 40 West Corridor by Being and Making Disciples for Christ

New Book

Copyright Interpretation Jul 2006
House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity by Roger W. Gehring Hendrickson, Peabody, 2004. 408 pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 1-56563-812-3.

FROM THE RISE OF Christianity to about 150 C.E., Christians exclusively met in private homes in dwelling rooms that were also used for other domestic purposes. The household model thus strongly influenced the social life, the organizational and leadership structures, and the ecclesiological concepts of early Christians, as well as their missionary outreach. Roger Gehring's book, which is both exegetical-theologically and sociohistorically oriented, gives an excellent and erudite survey of the past and current scholarship on early Christian house churches.

As most previous studies of the topic have begun with the Pauline mission, Gehring's new contribution lies primarily in his focus upon the time prior to and immediately after Easter, on household structures as a framework for the ministry and mission of Jesus and his disciples as well as of the primitive church of Jerusalem. He thereby relies heavily on the alleged historical accuracy of the historian Luke, as his Tubingen doctoral mentors do. Gehring then proceeds to the missionary outreach of the "Hellenists" and of the church at Antioch before he discusses the Pauline and post-Pauline churches as well as 2 and 3 John.

The appendix contains five floor plans; three three-dimensional reconstructions; indices of modern authors, subjects, and ancient sources; and an extensive bibliography. This fine book ends in a hermeneutical application, illuminating the importance of home groups and house churches for the church today.

[Author Affiliation]
PETER LAMPE
UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG
HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

New Movie Preview

Living in Hope

Great is our LORD, and mighty in power; HIS understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147:5


Watching the news I understand that the difficulties of life that I experience are insignificant to the challenges some other people have. A mother lost her child in a drive by shooting in DC. People in North Carolina and Virginia are experiencing the fury of hurricane Ernesto. Victims of hurricane Katrina are still trying to rebuild their lives and the list goes on and on. Even though I see other people facing the challenge I do not find hope in their sorrow.

I find hope in knowing that the Lord our God is great and mighty in power. I can face my situations with God because I know that there is know barrier that I will face that He can not handle. I can handle the temporary discomfort knowing that He will be there with me through the challenges. Knowing that I will make it through with God comforts me in a way that no human council can comfort me. I do not have to rejoice in the sorrow, challenges or suffering of others to experience how wonderful God is. He not only knows what we are going through but he also understands.

I often have to explain different emotions to my daughter as she is navigating the inquisitive stage of life. It is often a challenge to explain emotions like exhilarating, exacerbated and exuberated. For a four year to attempt to comprehend the sadness of losing a relative, understand the adventure of mountain climbing and share the anticipation of the first weekend of college football can be a daunting task. What ever the range of your emotions to a given event in life God understands. To understand me and be with me through the turbulence of life is an awesome gift from God. This is why in the middle of the madness I can still have hope.

Living in Hope

Rev. William T Chaney Jr
Senior Servant Leader
West Baltimore UMC
5130 Greenwich
Baltimore, MD 21229
(410) 945-8397
http://wtcreflects.blogspot.com/
West Baltimore UMC: Transforming the 40 West Corridor by Being and Making Disciples for Christ

Rev. William T Chaney Jr appointed as New Pastor of West Baltimore UMC

For immediate release August 31, 2006

Media contact: Erik Alsgaard (410) 309-3425
________________________________________________________________________

CHANEY APPOINTED AS NEW PASTOR AT WEST BALTIMORE UMC


The Rev. William T. Chaney Jr. has been appointed as pastor of the West Baltimore United Methodist Church by resident Bishop John R. Schol of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Rev. William T Chaney Jr began his pastoral duties at West Baltimore July 1. The church is located at 5130 Greenwich in Baltimore, on the city’s historic “40 West” corridor.

Rev. Chaney, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, was formerly senior partner for Chaney and Associates, LLC a firm he created with his wife, to guide congregations through change and transformation.

A natural, dynamic speaker, William has also served churches in Georgia, Ohio and Maryland since 1990, prior to coming to Baltimore. William has a passion for youth which was demonstrated while he served The Youth Theological Initiative at Emory University , the Youth Hope Builders Academy at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County. He has also been a featured speaker with Monster.com’s “Making it Count” program to provide students with templates for success in high school, college and beyond.

“My main objective at West Baltimore UMC will be to move the church into becoming a fruit-bearing, disciple-making, Acts 2 congregation,” said Pastor Chaney about his appointment. “I have a vision of a healthy, vibrant church that functions through team ministry to provide opportunities for people’s lives to be transformed. We will be a house of prayer for the entire community.”

Chaney is married to Rev. Michelle Holmes Chaney, and they have one daughter, Courtney Elizabeth. His educational background includes degrees in communication from the University of Cincinnati and Georgia State University. He obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Georgia.

The Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church is comprised of 694 congregations with nearly 200,000 members. It is the home of Methodism in America, with the founding of the denomination at Lovely Lane Chapel in 1784.

- 30 -

Giving Thanks

34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 35 Cry out, "Save us, O God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, that we may glory in your praise." 36 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting
I Chronicles 16:34-36

Giving thanks to the Lord in good times is easy. Giving thanks in the bad times is really hard. Developing a hear of gratitude for the many acts that God has done in our live can not be limited to circumstances but must be a conscience reflection of God’s continual blessings large and small.

Giving thanks for the activity of our bodies can not be limited to only the times when we are not in pain. Giving thanks for our significant relationships can not be limited to only the times that you are agreeing on everything. Giving thanks must be more than a response for receiving an extraordinary blessing but it must be a way of life.

Being grateful to God in all things teaches us to be thankful to the people around us for all things. Thanking a co-worker for a smile or thanking your boss for their encouragement can change the entire atmosphere in your workplace. Thanking a waitress for their good service and sharing a double tip to express your gratitude will win you unbelievable service on your next visit.

During your quiet time today make a list of all of the blessings that you would like to thank God for on one side of the paper. On the other side reflect on the people who have blessed you over the last week and send them an email, a card or give them a call to encourage them. Let me know about the responses people give you.

Giving Thanks

William T Chaney Jr
Senior Servant Leader
West Baltimore UMC

Wondering About Faith

Faith is one of the most underutilized spiritual tools that believers have available to them. Trusting in God beyond what is rational and beyond what is comfortable is not popular. In fact most people try developing their own solutions before trusting God. Instead of being the first choice God becomes their last resort.

Changing the behavior comes from changing the values. IF we truly value God as the source of our strength, our Creator and the all powerful One who loves us, then our attitude toward trusting God changes. One way to change the attitude is to change the resources that we depend on.

I was a Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy junkie for years and then I met Les Brown, The Motivator. I feasted off of their motivational, sales, and self empowerment messages almost daily. I actually sought their advice and compared it to what Oprah would say. I was challenged to start reading my Bible in equal proportion to my motivational material consumption.

This is where the change took place. The more that I learned about God, the people of the Bible, how Jesus lived among sinners and was compassionate to the needy, the more I saw the error of the self improvement gospel. The self improvement gospel eliminates Gods principals from the equation of “living well”.

Should people be emotionally balanced, yes. Should people have goals, yes. Should people have a purpose, yes. I just believe that all of this must come from trusting in God not in ourselves. For without faith it is impossible to please God – not self motivation.

Wondering About Faith


Rev. William T Chaney Jr
Senior Servant Leader
West Baltimore UMC
5130 Greenwich
Baltimore, MD 21229
(410) 945-8397
http://blog.myspace.com/pastorchaney

West Baltimore UMC: Transforming the 40 West Corridor by Being and Making Disciples for Christ

Advocate for True Worship

Worship is about individuals experiencing God while gathered as a group. Most people have been trained and conditioned to experience God through a group of sacred rituals that have become community traditions that are directly related to their culture. When rituals, culture, and traditions become more important to the community rather than experiencing the presence, power and protection of the Lord we find churches that are unresponsive to the ever changing needs of the community around them.

Corporate worship has four basic elements.  Prayer, group singing, scripture reading and the sermon are the essentials of worship.  I believe every sermon demands a response but other than it does not matter where the flowers are placed, the style of music, whether the pastor has on a robe or not or if the worship leaders do everything just right.

God is looking for true worshippers not true traditionalist.

Advocate for True Worship (ATW)

Rev William T Chaney Jr
Senior Servant Leader
West Baltimore UMC

Is there Hope

Is there Hope!

How is the church to be an oasis of hope in a world of such hopelessness? There is war in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Israel, Genocide in Rwanda, Dakar and in the Sudan. Worldwide hunger, poverty and HIV/Aids are rising rather than declining. The abuse of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and global warming seem to be overwhelming to the people who congregate weekly and believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior.

Churches seem to caught up in the latest worship and the hot new slogans but rarely in engaging the real world.  People all around us are trying to cope with the lack of adequate healthcare, rising old prices, violence in our streets and the church seems to be hiding their heads like turtles in their shell.  What can the church do to turn this travesty around?

Churches must begin to equip their people to live lives of significance.  When the people of the church begin to realize that they are important to the ecology of hope vs hopelessness then the balance will change.

sig·nif·i·cance  n. – The quality of being important  

If every church adopted on social issue to tackle that was important to their community most communities would improve the quality of life for their community with a mighty impact. Drug dealers would be scared out of business, domestic violence would cease, obesity would get a run for its money.  

As long as churches are content to worship and are not willing to engage the community we will continue to experience the decline in mainline churches and the pimping of men and women intoxicated with the prosperity gospel.

There is hope – Search for your personal significance.

Creating an Oasis of Hope

Pastor William T Chaney Jr
Senior Servant Leader
West Baltimore UMC