Thoughts from Joe Champion on Spiritual Gifts in the Church
Here are some more notes from the incredible conference I had the opportunity to attend last week; The Association of Related Churches NW Pastor’s Gathering at New Beginnings Church in Gresham, OR:
A pastor’s wife had asked a question about what to do about a “sweet lady” in their church who does something very distracting and embarrassing each weekend during their Sunday morning services.
Here are some of the powerful thoughts that emerged from the mind of Pastor Joe Champion of Celebration Church in Austin, Texas in regards to that question.
Worshipers in a public worship service- especially where unbelievers may be present- must see their public acts of worship as an interstate; meaning they must merge with the flow of worship of the rest of the congregation. If they do something extreme compared to others (i.e. running, falling to their face in the front, waving flags, playing tambourines, etc…) they will simply become a distraction and others will think that the entire experience is weird and may not allow themselves to encounter God.
Leaders must confront those worshipers who are going against the flow of worship traffic in order to be sensitive to the others there- especially the unbeliever so that they may encounter God.
Leaders mustn’t be afraid of offending that one person because that one person may be hurting everyone else.
As the pastor and leader of your church and its services, you make the call as to what is out of order in the service.
If you want to know what kind of spirit is behind the extreme (or bizarre) displays of worship, confront the person. If they respond with humility and sorrow for disrupting the service, they have the right spirit. If they respond with offense and anger, they have allowed the enemy to use them to hijack your services and the spirit behind their extreme displays of worship was evil.
Champion made this statement;” God is more concerned about your stewardship than He is your friendship.” In other words, you can’t be afraid of offending your friends when it comes to leadership decisions at your church. You must be more concerned for the spread of the Gospel and the advancement of the Kingdom. This is what God cares about, not whether or not you offend your friends.
And through all of this, the people who leave your church, are the people who think that church is about them- not Christ and others.
The other people in your church are waiting to see if you are a true leader who will confront the problems in your church. They are trying and waiting to see if they can trust you to not allow someone to hijack the church service that they want to be a part of and that they want to invite their friends to. If they can trust you, THEN they will invite their friends.
A final statement that ties all of these thoughts together so well: Your greatest strength (loving people) can also be your biggest weakness (people pleasing). If you love people so much that you are overly concerned with pleasing them and not ruffling any feathers, your ministry and your life WILL suffer for it.
In Kindergarten I was officially voted 'Most Inquisitive'.
I have been asking questions ever since as I believe that they are the catalyst to discovering the world all around us.
The answers to these questions have led me into an everlasting committed relationship with Jesus Christ, into a marriage with the love of my life, and into being the father of the two most beautiful children on earth.
It is my personal mission to glorify God with my life, advance His Kingdom through my ministry, and to love my family with everything I have.
I am the Pastor at Fellowship Church in Salem, Oregon and these are my thoughts on life.
Might have to disagree with Mr. Champion on a few items. Sounds a little like the very words David’s wife issued when he danced before the Lord. As a worship leader and someone who teaches worship we handled dance, banners and flags (mentioned in scripture) very effectively in our corporate gatherings for an even larger expression of worship. It was well organized and effective. The reason for this is that the leadership was provided by the worship leader during the worship services and not the pastor simply because the pastors “gifting” didn’t overlap into that time of the corporate gathering, it was strictly the role of the worship leader to handle this period of time. One reason there can be problems during a worship service is because very little time is given to teaching worship, which is rather strange considering it’s what God created us to do and is what we will be doing eternally. It isn’t that the student doesn’t learn, it’s that the teacher doesn’t teach. A kid won’t do what a kid don’t know.