Scott Cheatham’s Weblog

I was talking with a pastor friend of mine about my thoughts on the blog this week when he shared an awesome vision for his church. He didn’t even realize he’d done it but I got excited just hearing him talk from his heart about his burden for the work and where he could see it going. The problem is, would others even buy into it? That’s a big question.

Building a culture in your church is an investment of time. Sometimes it takes years before you’re ready to make that bold move. It just depends on people. As I’ve shared this week about the cost of following Jesus and why it should be a joy for us, I’m painfully aware that sometimes, that isn’t the case. People don’t always buy in. They criticize the dream. They tell others and can potentially shipwreck any voyage into the depths of God’s amazing blessing. These “vision villains” can be anyone, including your family. They can really stifle your dreams if you let them.

I encouraged my friend to write down his vision and do it while it was fresh in his mind. Patience is the key in many instances. When we model a life of sacrifice to others, some will get on board. As others see the numbers increase, their influence will also increase and your “dream team” takes root. Jesus started with 12 disciples and left them to evangelize the world. It can happen!

When we understand the reality of the gospel and internalize it. When we make a bold stand for the Lord and strive to follow only Him. When we really pull up anchor and not look back. When all these things stir our hearts, then God can begin to work. He just calls us to a step of faith. A step that has no guarantees. It’s excited, scary, and refreshing all at the same time. Do it and you’ll never be the same.

Follow God boldly where he leads. You might be surprised just how far He’ll take you!

Be blessed this weekend.

Today’s church has many stresses placed on it by a culture of expectation. More than ever before, church planters are facing an ever higher mountain to climb in order to reach others with the gospel. The stress to have ready made teams to work in a variety of areas at the start, a large cash budget to pay for the many “things” that will attract others, and the basic need of trying to raise funds to support the team members themselves all put tremendous pressure on the team to succeed coming out of the box.  The established church isn’t immune either. It’s pressures might be a bit different in scope but the problem is the same. We build a church culture around performance but not spiritual expectation. What do I mean?

Look at it this way. You want to come to church expecting God to show up. I know I do. Many times though, the work can get stifled when we are so focused on other items, programs, and “things”, that we forget that the reason we gather to worship is not just to be taught, but to be challenged to expand beyond our limits to reach others with the life giving message of Christ. Is this the driving force of your worship? Author Neil Cole is asking many of these same questions on his blog recently.  His new book, Church 3.0 (pictured at right) is a manifesto of what he feels is the next wave of church life. It is due to be released next spring and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Some have criticized Cole for his ideas but I for one find them refreshing. In a sea of books awash with the latest fads, Cole is asking for a resurgence of the basic things that made the church great. You can do this in the context of modern culture but it takes work. Cole has overseen the planting of hundreds of churches so he speaks from a position of execution and not just theory. That makes a big difference.

It doesn’t matter the size of demographic makeup of your church. What I want to know is why we gather? What is our purpose in mission? Are we seeking Christ or self gratification? All good questions to ask at midweek as we ponder the weekend. Are you making a sacrifice for God’s church so that others might be saved? In life, we teach our children to make the sacrifice of getting up early to go to school, working hard and making something of themselves. This is sacrifice. We do this in every aspect of our lives so should our service to Christ and his church be different? Only when it costs us something, can we really feel fulfilled in our spiritual walk. God does incredible things with people who live a sacrificial life. I encourage you to search the scriptures, see how many times we are told to love others, and then challenge yourself to take action! Your life, and your church, will never be the same!

The Bible - It's Electric!

I recently challenged myself to increase my intake of scripture. No, I’m not eating the pages of my bible, just making time to take in more of God’s Word.  As a pastor, there are so many schools of thought on how we should use the bible.  There’s our devotional time, our study time, and our reading time.  Study time can consist primarily of sermon preparation but also can include bible studies you lead.  So some pastors try to get by with reading a few chapters a day and preparing their sermons.

While sermon prep time can be rewarding, actually reading the bible has its own benefits.  Devotional time usually includes a few chapters and that’s it.  I enjoy my quiet times in the morning with my coffee and my journal but I wanted more, much more.  I recently purchased the Bible translation I use on MP3 discs and transferred them to my MP3 player that I use when I walk or travel in the car.  I primarily listen to music and audio books on the player but I decided to include bible time as well.  In fact, I set aside time in my mid-day to listen to an entire book if I can and take notes if I’m able.  This week, I’ve listened to First John 3 times already.  I’ve made some notes for potential sermons, but I’ve also begun to grasp some overall concepts that perhaps I’ve missed in the past.  I also have my bible on my Sony Reader eBook device so I can read several chapers if I’m found to have some time I wasn’t counting on (late appointment, waiting in line, etc..).

The point is, I’m spending more time listening to what God is telling me. The audio bible has benefits I never thought it would.  While I still read devotionally and spend time in sermon prep, I now have increased my intake of God’s Word by 30-to-50 chapters a week simply by listening to it as well.  My prayers are more fulfilling, my spiritual walk has improved, and I believe it’s helped my sermons I present each week.

I understand how hard it can be for someone who’s never read the bible to start picking it up and reading it daily but really, it’s the only way to spiritual growth.  Habits can be made and priorities changed if our desire is in the right places.  When I was working 50-60+ hours a week in radio, I still found time to read each day because it was THAT important to me.  Think about it.  How much time do we waste watching meaningless television shows and yet, we cannot find the time to read 30 chapters of scripture each week?  This would take less than a half hour each day and yet, I’m always amazed at the people I talk to who feel powerless in their Christian walk but do not read the bible daily.  They cannot see the connection between growing in Christ and reading His Word.

So how much is too much for you?  Is it worth the investment for meaningful life change?  I think so and I hope you do too.

There’s not much for me to write about today..  In the past few hours I’ve had some interesting conversations about church.

When a church isn’t growing is it the pastor’s fault? If it grows, should he get all the accolades?  Surely the Pastor must LEAD.  He has to.  But in the same vein, people have to be willing to get their hands dirty.  Real growth comes from real sowing.

When a church baptizes more folks than they average in attendance in a month, is it really growth? Where they really changed?  I was asked my thoughts about a real situation involving a pastor.  For the sake of discussion I will use a hypothetical.  Pastor Whizbang averages 75 in service but yet he claims to be baptizing 15-20 a month when he meets with other pastors.  The question then becomes, why isn’t his average attendance climbing by AT LEAST half of that?  Are these people coming to worship?  Or are they just notches on a bible belt?  My take on this and this is what I told my friend…I don’t consider it a “conversion” of any kind until that person has shown by his or her fruit that they are committed.  I’ve baptized many folks but many of them fizzle out and aren’t involved.  Are they really converted?

Should we play secular “rock” music in our worship service? This one’s a hot button topic I’ve heard recently.  Some churches use a secular song with a message that ties to the message series or message itself.  Is it right or wrong?  Ah, the buttons that could be pressed.  I see it this way…I have about 20-22 minutes of music each week.  I want that music focused on the Cross and on Jesus Christ.  And more than that, I want the music focused on what HE has done for us and our response to that, not about ME or I or anything self-centered.  You can tie in songs to work with your message or series if you take a little time.  I know others will disagree with me on this one, but I figure those that want to hear Green Day or U2 will tune it in on their car radios when they leave worship.  We only have a few minutes to get their attention and focus on the main thing.  Maybe I’m old fashioned…

I had a good friend who reads here regularly comment to me that I might give off the impression I’m being negative and critical of others.  I respected his words and have taken them into account here.  I have in no way meant to be critical of these practices..but I do believe we can question them.  That’s what real learning is about right?  These are my convictions.  Your mileage may vary!

Now on to the rest of my day…I wonder what conversations lie in store next.

Glaspey's Latest Book

One of my favorite authors has written a handy little guide to get people to start reading their bibles again (or maybe for the very first time!).  Terry Glaspey and Harvest House Publishers have hit a home run with their “One Minute Bible Guide”.  While this might be a little too light for pastors and very serious students of scripture, the “One Minute Bible Guide” is a great resource for the laymen just getting started in the habit of learning to use their bible.  In a few short pages, Glaspey lays out good reasons for beginning the daily habit of scripture reading, provides a great overview to the bible, and also presents a nice 90-day reading plan to cover all the major themes of the bible.  

Other features of this guide include short introductions to each book of the bible; quite handy once you start reading God’s Word book-by-book, famous quotations about scripture, and a reference of other works to help you in your spiritual growth.  The “One Minute Bible Guide” is a well written, to the point, reference book that can go with you as you take your bible to church, the coffee shop, work, or the park.  It’s small size makes it easy to transport and keep with you.  There isn’t a lot of fluff here due to the size so that makes the book that much better.

Glaspey’s works on C.S. Lewis, Prayer, and Great Books of the Christian Tradtion (still available used!) are some of my favorites.  When I worked in radio, I featured him several times on my talk show and he always impressed me with his solid scholarship and good humor.  He has definitely seen the need of a usable guide to the bible that’s not so deep as to scare off the average reader yet gives enough depth for this book to be profitable for a church that wants the bible to be front and center with it’s people.  I am currently looking into ways we can feature this work as part of our overall discipleship program at the church I now lead.

If you buy the book at your local bookstore, it’s only $5.99 so why not pick one up and check it out.  When you’re done with it, share it with a friend!  Bible reading today has reached epidemic lows, even among church going Christians.  If we are going to stem the tide of biblical illiteracy, we need to find ways to get the bible back in the hands of our people and actually help them READ IT!  Glaspey’s book will go a long way to helping in this endeavor.  I recommend it highly to you.

If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I’m all ears, all eyes before you. 
(Psalms 143:8 MSG)

The demands of life sometimes put us in a place where we can feel isolated or at least a distance away from God’s hand.  In our intertwined work/personal life balancing act, the rush of inputs never stops and the furious pace at which we manage them can drain the life right out of us.  That’s why Jesus modeled a life for us that included times of solitude and quiet.  Times to get away from all of it and listen to God.

Let’s face it, if you are a pastor and reading this, you’ve been to that place where you are managing others’ lives better than your own.  You know better but yet, you feel obligated to do it because you love people and you love the Lord.  I do too and I’m blessed with a congregation that at times will tell me that I need to re-charge.  In business, you manage many others’ projects and have to keep a strong communication line open to your superiors.  What gets lost many times is your own soul as you balance the tension between your subordinates and your superiors.  Then there’s the parental responsibilities (if you have kids) of managing your kids’ lives while at the same time giving them life skills to make the decisions themselves, sometimes leaving little time for yourself.  If you have an aging parent or parents, then you’ve added another layer of responsibility to the mix.

Recently, I hit one of those cylces where I felt overwhelmed.  In my early years (when I was in my 20’s), I could rush headlong into it thinking I could outwork it until my fuse hit the powderkeg underneath and I just blew up.  Today, I understand the signs better.  It still doesn’t make managing them any easier but I know when I need to hit the off button, thus my lack of blogging last week in the midst of turning some things off for a bit.  I’ve written before about my dog, Buddy, and how he and I enjoy each other’s company in the early mornings when we are the only two awake.  I believe God knows our needs even in selecting pets.  Buddy is the perfect friend and I find in him a peace that God offers to me.  When I take him for a morning walk, his only compulsion is to explore and find new things.  He chases the squirrels, whimpers at other dogs, and excitedly follows the turning wheels of another car approaching as we make our way around the block.  At times, he points his nose skyward, sniffing out a new scent and trying to make out it’s origin and purpose.  It’s almost as if he looks heavenward and says, “What is this new thing God?”  He delights when whatever it is he was seeking shows itself to him.  Usually, as he goes through all of this motion, I’m quietly praying to God for direction and strength.  As the Psalm above says, “Point out the road I must travel; I’m all ears, all eyes before you”.  Much like my friend Buddy who’s all eyes and ears, I must find that place where I can excitedly find and explore new areas that God shows me.  In the midst of managing task lists, personal items, kids, and the church, I sometimes miss the scents, the sights, and the sounds of what it is God is showing me.  It is in those times, where God can strengthen me and give me courage for the coming journey.  To miss those things because of my own mismanagement is to miss out on the power of the Holy Spirit working in my life.

I do my best to take rest in God regularly so I can continue in what it is he calls me to.  I love God today more than I ever have.  Sometimes though, I wonder if I please him when I neglect the times of solitude he requires of me?  This is something I must get better in.  I thank my dog for showing me a better way!  God, take those times of quiet and use them to point out that road I MUST travel.  Give me your light to guide me.  Give me your courage to strengthen me.  And give me your love so I can give it to others.

Have a great week!

This past weekend, the church I pastor met in my home.  Yep, you heard right.  IN MY HOME.  Without taking too long to explain, it was something that happened quite accidentally with the city in which we are located.  Our group is fine and we are doing nothing wrong but to be safe and within our legal boundaries, we elected to play it safe until we discussed the issue with the city.  Today, it appears we are okay.  The city says we should be back in our building this coming Sunday.  I will pray that is so..

Regardless, we had the pleasure of hosting all who would come in our home.  I went and grabbed our coffee like I always do.  My wife elected to bake cinnamon rolls that made the house smell tremendous.  I was pleasantly surprised that all but a few of our families came.  The children went downstairs for their lesson and my worship leader played music in our kitchen as the church assembled in a collection of dining room chairs, lawn furniture, and two recliners!  The atmosphere was amazing.

When the music ended, I was sitting on a bench near our picture window and I began to speak from the book of Acts.  I had already planned to speak from this passage but I was taken that in this time, we were meeting as the early believers did over 2000 years ago in homes, praising God, sharing a good meal, and being taught from the Word.  The message was more interactive due to our small space.  A few people stopped to ask questions.  In the end, we gathered and held hands as we prayed to close our time together.  75 minutes had passed and afterwards, we elected to travel to the local steakhouse to enjoy lunch together.

We worshipped

We worshipped in my home

We worshipped in my home with gladness

When it was over and my wife and I returned home to take up the chairs, she complimented my message but for me, the message had occurred  as we gathered to pray.  It felt different but good.  I was grateful for the experience.  What Satan had intended for bad, God used for good.  I believe we grew stronger yesterday.  People gave praise reports..several of them.  All left smiling, hugging and happy.

God inhabits the praises of His people…

Indeed!

One night I was up late and having problems getting to sleep.  After getting an update on the evening sports scores I began surfing the channels and a familiar infomercial came on featuring the super absorbent “Sham Wow” and the hawker selling them (at right).  If you care enough to look for the product online, you can view the same infomerical I did and watch this guy quickly fast talk his way through a bottle of soda spilled on a carpet and how just one of the “Sham Wow” towels picked it all up even to the padding underneath.

How a spiritual illustration came to me during that time I’ll never know but I began to wonder how many people were picking up their phones to order after this demonstration?  The hawker claims to have made good money on the product (he owns it).  So much so, he’s now also hawking some chopper that you can hit with your fist to make mounds of salsa (he owns that product too)!

Anyway, my thought was this: When we talk about Jesus to our friends and people who ask, are we pitching Him just like the sham wow guy?  Look at the similarities.  This guy makes a mess and tells us his answer will quickly fix it down to the very pad.  In our anxiousness to see people come to the Lord, do we sometimes take their lives and spill it out like the cola on the pad and then claim that Jesus can come and fix it all, sopping up our mess right down to the pad?  Oh there may be a rough spot, even the sham wow guy has to flip the towel and give it a few hits of the hand to soak up the last ounces of cola.  But look, the sham wow picked it up in seconds.  Perhaps we “turn the towel” when our friends bring up this objection or that objection.  We get so focused on the decision, we forget that life’s messes don’t quite clean up like the sham wow.

Does that mean Jesus isn’t worth the decision?  Absolutely not.  But when we get so worried about the decision rather than the heart condition of the person making that choice, we risk damaging them for eternity.  Sure Jesus forgives our sin when we accept him.  But that doesn’t mean he’ll clean up the messiness of consequences after forgiving us.  Besides, if were truly repentant, the consequence would mean little compared to the gift of eternal life.  Accepting Jesus was the best decision I have ever made.  I’ve still lost jobs, been hurt by “church” people, watched friends die lost, and have watched my mother suffer excruciating pain over these past few months as she recovers from yet another illness.  Do I still believe?  Yes.  Do I still trust in the Lord knowing that his greatness will see me through?  Absolutely.  Do I understand all that God is doing around and in me?  NO.  I struggle with anger, sadness, and the flesh warring against the Holy Spirit that dwells within me.  To paraphrase the apostle Paul’s writings, why is that sin seems to be within easy reach and holiness can at times feel like a constant struggle?

We deny our friends the sweetness that comes in the good times when we deny that the bad times stink and can really, REALLY hurt.  When we tell them about Jesus, we only want to focus on the good.  It’s in the discipleship that we must, MUST focus on the bad.  The sham wow isn’t coming along to sop up the mess and make it all go away.  Our good actions in thankfulness to God will eventually help us but we must wade through the bad things sometimes.  When we get past the clouds and the sun is shining again, then we can look to the heavens with our fist clenched high and praise God for his goodness.  As Job wrote: “Though he slay me, I will give him praise” (Again, my paraphrase).

Thanks sham wow guy.  Thank you for clarifying my vision of witnessing to the people I care about.

Good night!

I have tried and participated in many things as a small group member, teacher, and now church pastor.  I started out years ago with a standard quarterly  curriculum in a Sunday School class that studied books of the bible.  This was good but after a time, we switched over to topical material (finances, marriage, etc.)  This led to a “singles” class for those not married who couldn’t benefit from the marriage curriculum.  Then we tried splitting off groups to discuss various topics each week with each person having the option to change groups each week.

I’ve read countless books on “free-market” groups that encourage more social gatherings along with the standard bible study offerings.  I’ve looked at “semester” based groups as opposed to “quarterly”.  Most recently, I’ve examined the “sermon-based” small group that is championed in the book “Sticky Church”. 

So what works for you?  Do you like quarterly or semester time schedules?  Sermon based, bible books, or topical?  Do you suspend your groups over the summer months or do you keep on going even if only a handful show up?

Many questions.  I’d love to discuss with some of you about this.  Please comment if you’re inclined and let’s have a dialog about this topic.

I was honored this month to have one of my articles printed in our denominational magazine, “ONE”.  It was a short article dealing with “active discipleship”.  I believe learning to be an “active” disciple is fundamental to any success we can have as pastors and church leaders.

My daughter also had one of her articles printed to go along with mine.  You can read it here.  I’m quite proud of her and her contributions to the church plant here!

Our denominational magazine is a great publication and publishes every article online for each issue.  It’s a great way to keep up with what is happening across the country and across the globe.  Mine is the only church plant in Denver and one of only five in the entire state of Colorado so I like keeping up with old friends.

If you get a chance, read the article and let me know your thoughts!