An Intentional Interim does far more than just keep the doors of the church open and preach on Sunday morning. The Interim is intentional in helping the church grow spiritually in almost every possible dimension. Here is a look at many of the ways an Intentional Interim will bless a congregation.
Yesterday I was inspired with a thought from Ken Johnson’s Baccalaureate sermon at New Hope Christian College. Ken is Lead Pastor at Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. The thought below started during his message on Amazement, but carries my personal spin.
In Mark 6:1-6, changing amazement causes whiplash. As the NIV records the story, when Jesus preached at Nazareth, the people were amazed. Jesus is amazing! And when Jesus speaks to us, we are amazed.
But this audience quickly moved to offense, remembering that Jesus was just a home-grown boy. Pastor Johnson suggested that when we become too familiar with something, we lose our “amazability.” Not only does familiarity breed contempt, it sucks out our ability for 
amazement. The only cure is to constantly move beyond our familiar zone.
What struck me is that at the end of the story, Jesus is amazed at his hometown’s lack of faith. When a faith gathering is no longer amazed at Jesus, Jesus becomes amazed at their lack of faith.
Which leads me to this conclusion: after every worship service, someone is amazed. The question is, “who?” Are you amazed because you recognized Jesus in your presence? Or is Jesus amazed because he was present, and you didn’t recognize him?
Author of The Cross and the Switchblade and founder of Teen Challenge David Wilkerson 
died yesterday in a car wreck.
When I was in Junior High, I was fascinated with the story of Wilkerson who responded to the voice of God by venturing into New York City’s roughest neighborhoods. That story has always reminded me that God’s work grows fastest when we follow him out of our comfort zones.
In 2006, one of the young men I pastored received addiction treatment from a Teen Challenge center. For 53 years, Wilkerson ministered to the toughest challenges with firm grace.
As I sat in my LaZBoy, feeling the pain of a full day spent working the yard, I wondered why I felt so good. My muscles and joints do not feel good — they are complaining about getting back to work after a winter off.
But my soul feels a sweet sense of satisfaction.
Then I remembered: God’s first command to people was to manage the earth he entrusted to us. Today I was part of that “Prime Directive” in a very real way; and it feels good (except the lower back!).
I still like John 10:10: “I come that they might have life, and life abundantly.” However, what “abundance” (or “rich, satisfying”) means has changed over the years.
I used to equate “abundance” with lots of money, or undisturbed comfort. This always presented a problem though, because I know very few Christians who are either rich or comfortable.
Now I understand “abundance” to mean influence. It links up to John 15, where Jesus promises that if we live in him, we will bear much fruit for him.
I have seen this version of abundance lived out in the past six months. I do not ha
ve much of the riches or comfort, but God is expanding my influence by leading me into three part-time jobs/ministries.
The funny thing is that I have always complained about my inability to multi-task. God had a plan for that, too! He gave me three different ministries at once as the world’s best training in multii-tasking!
“We must learn to read the Bible at the level of the informed imagination (Michael Card in Luke: The Gospel of Amazement.)
Later on, Card explains that some people approach the Bible with just their “heads” — an intellectual curiosity. Others approach with just their “hearts” — a desire to connect with God. In order to get the most out of the Bible, we must use both our heads and our hearts. We must know the background of the book; but we must not be content to learn just the intent of the original author. We must sense the intent of the Divine author.
Others are so eager for experiencing God through scripture that they ignore all the wisdom gained in over 2000 of careful study. The danger is that they have an experience, but not from God.
“An informed imagination” — what a beautiful way to hold together much that makes Bible reading so dynamic!
Alban – Building Up Congregations and Their Leaders. I read this article about helping anxious churches. Since almost every church carries some level of anxiety, I figured these ideas would help in just about any church
Here’s the quote that impressed me the most today: “No one knows everything.”
That really struck me, which is scary. I should be humble enough to admit to not knowing everything. But somehow, I have the misguided impression that folks will stop following me the moment they discover I am not omniscient.
The person who made the statement went on to say, “This is hard for pastors to hear, because we are one of the last generalists — people responsible for leadership in several different fields.” This is no excuse; just a reason why the idol of false omniscience is so attractive to pastors.
How do pastors (and other know-it-alls) get past this temptation? Well . . . there’s one thing I don’t know, entirely. But our speaker went to suggest that asking others to perform certain functions at the church is one way. Forcing ourselves to listen more than we talk is another.
“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these great truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others (2 Timothy 2:2, NLT).”
This is the classic verse on discipleship — teaching people in such a way that they will be teach still others the gospel truths. My copy of the NLT slips an extra word in (without ancient manuscript support, unfortunately): great. Teach GREAT truths, which your students will teach to others.
How much consideration do you give to teaching and re-teaching the GREAT truths of the gospel? Some people spend so much time trying to tag onto society’s latest fad that they neglect the GREAT truths of the gospel. Personally, my distraction is my problem-solving orientation. Much of my teaching is a response to the personal and corporate problems people face.
I have met people who were discipled with Biblical trivia. They knew a few Biblical facts and fourteen ways to apply them. But they had no clue about the big themes of scripture. I want to be controlled by the big themes of scripture. I want my students to hear from me the GREAT truths of scripture — and I pray that they will teach others the GREAT truths of the gospel.
I played Trombone today in a worship band at the Eugene First Evangelical Church. It was the first time I’ve played my ‘bone in public for two years, and I enjoyed myself.
But I couldn’t miss an opportunity to wonder . . . wonder about what it takes to make worship “cook.” Every once in awhile, I get too radical for some of my friends and say “the worship leaders have to be top-notch musicians. Simply loving Jesus is not enough.” Today’s worship leader and worship band were all top notch (well, except the visiting trombonist!).
I would love it if all it took to lead God’s people into worship was loving Jesus. And I have to say, today’s good worship did not settle the argument for me. Because the leader was very intentional about making the worship band a band of believers and fellow faith-strugglers first.
