Positives, Negatives, Neutrals

Every ministry leader needs to be a positive. They also need to know who the positives, negatives, and neutrals are both in official leadership and unofficial leadership in their ministry.

Positives
Positives are people who do gospel things in gospel ways for gospel reasons. They are trusting, supportive, and encouraging. They build bridges and mediate conflict. Positives bring organizational health, work for the good of the gospel over any single issue or cause, and are a blessing because they humbly want the gospel to win. Positives are prone to turn neutrals into positives, while they also work to neutralize negatives. In the Bible, positives are often referred to as shepherds.

Negatives
Negatives are people who do ungospel things in ungospel ways for ungospel reasons. They are distrusting, unsupportive, discouraging, and contentious. They burn bridges, are wounded by bitterness from past hurts, and are often the center of criticism and conflict. Negatives bring organizational sickness, division, and trouble because they are proudly more interested in their cause winning than the gospel and the good of the whole. Negatives tend to draw other negatives toward themselves as factions, and they also prey on neutrals in order to increase their own power and control. In the Bible, negatives are often referred to as wolves.

Neutrals
Neutrals are followers who are easily influenced. They are prone to being unsure, confused, and fearful. Neutrals are often caught in the middle when there is conflict between positives and negatives. A neutral becomes a positive or negative depending upon who their friends are, whom they listen to, what information they have access to, which books they read, and which teachers they look up to. In the Bible, neutrals are often referred to as sheep.
Sadly, in most ministries, the negatives are the most vocal, most exhausting, and most distracting, as well as the least likely to contribute to growth and health. Though they are few, they are often loud and difficult, spreading—as Paul says—like gangrene through the church body (2 Tim. 2:17). Practically, this means that even a few negatives working together can become quite difficult. The Bible reveals that negatives often pair up like two barrels on a gun, as was the case with Jannes and Jambres opposing Moses, Sanballat and Tobiah opposing Nehemiah, and Hymenaeus and Alexander opposing Paul.

How to Stay Positive
For a ministry to remain positive, three things need to occur.

First, the senior leader and the other official and unofficial leaders who wield the most influence must be positives. Further, they must be continually exhorted to remain positives. This means that even when they deal with negative things, they do so in a positive way for the glory of God and the good of his people.

Second, the negatives must not be allowed into leadership. If they are in leadership, official or unofficial, they must be rebuked. Titus 3:10–11 describes this rebuke: "As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned." Too often negatives are tolerated for too long; the longer their sin is tolerated, the more toxic the ministry culture becomes. Therefore, unrepentant negatives need to be brought through formal church discipline after their negativity has been documented and addressed; this process may end with their removal from the ministry, if needed. Ministry leaders are often reticent to deal so forthrightly with negatives; however, the longer they are tolerated, the more neutrals they infect with their gangrene.

Third, the neutrals need to be lovingly and patiently informed that they are in fact neutrals and that they need to take responsibility to not give in to negatives. Additionally, neutrals cannot be allowed into ministry leadership because they are prone to be influenced rather than be influencers. Sadly, neutrals are often nominated for and voted in to ministry leadership because they tend to be nice people who are likeable because they are amiable and easily influenced. But they are prone to work toward consensus rather than lead and are therefore not helpful for moving a ministry forward into innovation and growth. Change is controversial and requires someone who is a strong positive to build consensus for change and who is also able to neutralize the negatives rather than being influenced by them.

Excellence - Why don't we believe in it?

Over the past 18months or so i have been thinking about about the idea of 'Excellence in Ministry' and why in the church of the Nazarene we do not believe in it...well, at least we do not practice it.
I have attended many other churchs where they pay attention to every detail of ministry including the worship service, and how things look, feel, and 'communicate' to the people who are present.
Hillsong Conference is one example of many where excellence in ministry is something that is high on the agenda. They want to do everything they do the best they can with what they have. This means that timing, mood, feel, brand and 'presentation' is important in promoting the gospel. They also believe that when they 'do' ministry that they do it with excellence, excellence of attitude and spirit.
So why does the church of the Nazarene in Australia shy away from and in fact neglect this important aspect of ministry?
Why is it that we seek to do things 'on the cheap' every time?
Why do we not feel it is important to make sure we do everything with excellence?
Why do we feel that it is not important to do things right even if it cost us something?
my answers is this:
1. I think we continue to have an inward, brethren like mentlity where weare seeking to exclude ourselves from the reality fo a changing world and thus are in denial.
2. We shy away from things that cost money and thus alwasy skimp on prmoting the gospel with excellence.
3.We have never allowed ourselves to be 'taught' a better way, in reality we suffer from arrogance...thinking we really do have the best message and so the 'message' should be enough.
4. We are stuck in a time warp.
Maybe these are possible answers...no....maybe?

If we are to call ourselves a holiness people we must realise that a holy life is a deep life where we seek that Jesus be lifted high in all we do, where we want to do our best in all we do, where we want to shine the love of Christ and the good news in a way that glorifies God with our best not our second rate offerings.
It is time for us to evaluate the way we 'do' ministry and the way we use mediums such as the Web, facebook, twitter etc etc and get with the times.
I have passion for this and i pray we all would come to a place where we see excellence as more than a grade but a way of life for the church in service.
Peace

Emerging Nazarenes 'White Paper' (long but a GREAT read)

it is self explanatory when you read it...
http://ragingbhull.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/emerging-nazarenes-white-paper/
Peace

Should Nazarenes be 'allowed' to drink the dreaded 'A' word called Alcohol?

Well here it is people, another biggie. Hopefully this will stimulate some discussion amoung us.
What are your thoughts relating to this?
Is it time for this issue to be brought out into the public spotlight and debated/discussed/worked through? What are our congregations view towards drinking alcohol?
Should we change our position as a church? Should we decide as a denomination to be more 'biblical' when it comes to alcohol consumption? Feed me some points of view...
Which view should we hold:
1. Prohibitionsist and teach that all 'drinking' is a sin and that alcohol is an 'evil'?
2. Abstentionist and teach that drinking is not sinful but christians should avoid it out of Love for others and a desire not to cause anyone to stumble, is this 100% biblical?
3. Moderationists and teach that drinking alcohol is not a sin and that each person must let christian concience guide them without judging others, for 'wine' is neutral and can be used in both good and bad ways.

If i was to recieve an honest response from people in our church across Australia, i would bet (if is was a betting man) that we would see and average of at least 30-35% or 1/3 of our people have consumed alcohol of some sort in the past 12 months. Is that a fair call? what do you think the figure would be?
So what does this mean for us? How do we respond to this issue? Does it mean these people are no longer 'holiness' people?
I am interested in some honest and up front discussion here....anyone?
look forward to your responses.
Peace

What is the role of Art in our Nazarene Churches in the 21st Century?

What is the role of art in our churches?
I would like to think that we have many talented people in our church across australia. Unfortunately i believe we have not tapped into this talent in ways that could provide greater faith amoung our people.
Sally and i recently visited St Mary Cathedral in Sydney, WOW!
What an amazing church building, what amazing artworks depicting the final hours of Jesus life on earth. Sure, we could easily fall into the temptation of worshiping art, but really i found that the art in St Marys Church evoked/inspired a deeper faith and awe of God.
The artwork in St Marys may be of more of an 'ancient flavour', but i think there can be an immense power in images, sounds, or 'art' that we could use to provde opportunity for thought, dialogue, conversation with others about spiritual things and ultimately Jesus.
We have lost alot from our desire to be seperate from 'catholics' or anything that is not 'evangelical'. Can we recapture the use of art in our ministry, worship, evangelism in expressing things that cannot be communicated with words? Is there any place for 'art' in our Nazarene churches or is it too far removed? Can art seriously help our faith? Can art help us to live the life of holiness?
Your thoughts, ideas, rebuking is valued
Peace

What does it mean to be a 'holiness people' in Australia in the 21st Century?

Let me start by stating that i believe 100% in the message of heart holiness and am committed to finding the best ways to communicate it to the 'next generation'.

My problem is this:
Our current models of communicating holiness to our people (at least in my australian experiences) are outdated, often unbiblical, wrapped up in language and old 'jargon' that many theology students struggle to articulate and understand and frankly, focus too much on the 'personal experience' and individual 'discovery' without communicating the social responsibilty(tell us what you really think caine!).

Is Holiness just about me and the Holy Spirit having a supernatural connection that gives me a 'clean' feeling and turn from sin? or does that very experience also require my social justice eyes to open up, my frustration at gossip and slander eyes to open up, my legalistic desires to fall away, my focus on Jesus to narrow and my awareness of the mission of God to broaden?

See, my problem is not with God or Holiness, my problem is we have often (not always) not fully and in my opinion correctly articulated what the Holy life looks like and looks like in a 21st century culture.
It is no longer about whether one has a tattoo or drinks a beer occasionally (i am sure this will fire some of you up!), it is no longer about whether we go to the movies or have fun dancing. It is no longer about these little things (yes i admit for some these could be issues for individuals to work through), because the mission of God is far greater than the 'issues'.

Holiness is not something we deserve or can demand, it is a way of life.
Is it wrapped up in an experience of the past? or a continual experience of what it means to be 'awakened' to the things of God and have his love 'flood us, forgive us, cleanse us'?
Is Holiness just for our own personal enjoyment? Is it the empowerment of our lives so we can serve Jesus and be his hands and feet?

What does it mean for us to be a holiness people in Australia?

We can no longer hide ourselves in our little denmoination called the church of the nazarene anymore. The banter of being the 'cream of the crop' is sinful and frankly an arrogant way of dissmissing the lack of impact into our churches local communities and thus the lack of growth in our churches (tell us what you really think caine!).

In my opinion, to be a holiness people in australia means to be SALT and LIGHT to the world around us, it means to work TOGETHER with other churches in the greater mission, it means releasing our people to DO the work God is calling them too and not judging them cause they have friends and collegues who are not 'Christian' or heaven forbid not 'Nazarene'. It means having these types of discussion on blogs, over coffee, at district assemblies, at meetings anyway we can. We are in this together and have an AMAZING message to communicate!

what are your thoughts? Let's journey together on this or am i ramling alone?
I want to know peoples passions and views about holiness and what it will look like in n21st century OZ.
Let us dream a new dream for what our 'holiness' denomination in Australia will look like in this 21st century society and stop trying to make it what it was and embrace what where God may be leading....

I have gone on enough. :)

The soap box is now free...who wants to step up?