Entreprenueral Church: Dealing With Uncertainty

By Michael Richards
Commentary on Chapter 1 of the First Book of Corinthians

(1:4-5) It is a nervous task for pastors and ministers to start any work for the Lord. This is because we humans live in a world of uncertainty. There are so many things which can go wrong that it is impossible for any pastor to prepare for them all. However, this is no reason to be discouraged when starting a new path for your church or ministry. In fact be encouraged that God has called you to lead.
When Paul starts his letters, he doesn't start by focusing on the problem. He starts by thanking the church of Corinth for all its successes. When looking at the future of your ministry, try to see where God has placed you. It is important to remember that the most uncertain thing of all for a pastor is God's will. This is because God is far more wiser than even the most experienced pastor. If God calls you to do something extraordinary, trust Him. You may not know what is going on, but He does.
If there is something to fix in the church, don't let it blind you and steal away all your hope. God has placed you there, even if you don't understand why.If you don't feel at least a little uncertain about the future of your church, then you are in trouble. Complacency breeds problems in the future.

(1:10-11) The most important thing for a church is to be of one accord. God has given His church leaders visions for what He expects from their church. Contention is born out of loss of vision. Don't deviate from God's vision with your own pet projects. These projects can overwhelm a pastor as they divert resources and time from more profitable ventures. A leader without a vision is like the blind leading the blind. Have a goal and stick to it.
This also important when deciding how to allocate church resources to your various ministries. Do your ministers effectively fulfill the goals that you have for your church? Do some of your ministries deviate from the goal? As the church entrepreneur allocating resources and personnel in the most profitable manner is the top priority. If a ministry is not useful for achieving the vision for the church, it may be better to scrap it and allow resources to be allocated where they are more productive.

(17-18) What happens when God tells you as a leader to do something that is not only seemingly impossible but ridiculous as well. David Wilkerson, founder of Teen Challenge, had a similar experience. God told him to go to New York to help young boys on trial for murder. After the trial, he failed to even talk to the boys and ended up gaining some unwanted media attention. He found himself in an embarrassing article all over the front page of local newspapers around the country. Needless to say, he was mortified. However, it was from this that local gangs in the area began to respect Wilkerson and he ended up saving a lot of souls who were lost in a cycle of violence and drugs. You can read more about Wilkerson's amazing journey in his book, "The Cross and the Switchblade"".
Remember, God's plans are uncertain to us because He knows so much more than we do. After all, Noah looked pretty foolish building his arc, but look how it turned out. He lived while everyone else drowned. If you try to rely solely on the wisdom of the world you too will drown in the uncertainty of life. Even in worldly things, that which seems foolish today may be genius tomorrow. Look at the airplane. Only 200 years ago the idea seemed out of reach, but today its an everyday part of our travel experience. Trust God, and you too can fly to new heights.

(1:29 and 31) God, does not want us to rely solely on our own strength. When all is said and done, don't brag like all this is your own achievement. Give God credit where credit is do. Without Him, there would be no Bible and no forgiveness. The Bible is a perfect example of how God deals with uncertainty. In the Bible, God set up a plan that spanned for over 1,000 years. Talk about great planning!!! Even today, God is still working out His plans. Any attempt to try to do God's work without Him is foolish. Businessmen know they are providing a good service through profits. A pastor knows that he is providing a good service in how much God is moving through his church.
However, unlike business people, money is not the way a pastor knows if he is succeeding in his ventures. Pastors do, however, have a way to measure if God is moving through his church. This will be explained more in later chapters.

Good News from China!!! :D

The Love Equation?

Why Lord?

Entrepreneurial Church

A Commentary of Entrepreneurship and Paul's First Letters to the Corinthians

By Michael Richards

The purpose of this and future articles is to discuss church leadership. A lot of people assume that church leaders, namely the pastor, are in need of some sort of management training. However, the pastor is not a manager of the church but the entrepreneur of the church. Those who are untrained in economics may not know the difference but a manager and entrepreneur are not the same thing. A manager is someone who deals with the day to day tasks of running an organization. An entrepreneur, on the other hand, is the one who must allocate resources in a world marked by uncertainty so that the organization may be successful.

The entrepreneur is one who owns the resources that are to be allocated, and must allocate them efficiently so that the organization may profit. Uncertainty means that an entrepreneur does not know that his plan will succeed with total certainty. He speculates as to which plans will make profit and which ones won't only knowing after the fact if the plan actually worked. Managers mainly look to the entrepreneurs for tasks which must be completed and thus know whether or not they will successfully complete their tasks beforehand.

This does not mean that a manager cannot be creative and give advice to an entrepreneur. In the end, however, it is the entrepreneur who has the final decision in how resources are to be allocated. In this case a pastor may delegate to someone else the duty of entrepreneurship. But for the purpose of this commentary, a pastor is synonymous with an entrepreneur.

This in no way means that the church does not belong to God. God appoints His pastors to be entrepreneurs for Him. Meaning, He has given the pastor authority over the resources of the Church. If the pastor excepts this responsibility, then he is an entrepreneur and owner of those resources. Thus the pastor owns the resources and God owns the pastor.

Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians provides the best example of how a pastor should run his church most effectively. This commentary will mix some economic theory from Peter Klein's book, The Capitalist and the Entrepreneur, with sound biblical doctrine so that pastors in the U.S and the world can obtain a better understanding as to their role in the church. This commentary will also focus on the individual church in its role as a member of the Universal Body of Christ.

Chapters will be organized based upon the chapters in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. Further, no direct quote will be taken so that the reader may use his or her own Bible to follow. Citations of verses will be made available for the reader so they know exactly which part of the letter will be focused on. If there is a quotation it will be from the King James Version and will only be used in case I cannot find a better way to convey Paul's message. This commentary will hopefully not require the reader to have his Bible, but it is strongly recommended so the reader may gauge for himself the authenticity of this work.

I thank you for reading this and hope that you enjoy my commentary.

Entrepreneurial Church by Michael Richards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Now hope...

WSTK-ITV- Its Supernatural 1 With Mary Catherine Baxter

WSTK-ITV- It's Supernatural: Retha MCPherson

Why Atheists Shouldn't Go to Hell?

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By Michael Richards

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I have had my share of conversations with many atheists in my time and their critique of Christians are not very flattering. “Christians are a bunch of hypocrites,” says the average atheist. “They go around telling others that they are going to hell and yet they are no holy angels themselves. Why I met this one holier-than-thou Christian, whose past is anything but holy. Why don't these Christians just keep their mouth shut and let us live on in peace.” If you are an atheist (or someone who does not like Christians in general), I hope this accurately represents your views of us because I want to show you why you are wrong.

The reason we tell you that you are a sinner and will go to Hell is not because that's what we want for you; its because we want you to go to heaven with us. Its like telling someone not to put their hands on a burning stove. One tells the person not because they want them to get burned, they tell them so that they don't get burned.

Now the argument may continue, “Well if your God is so loving why does He send people to Hell? Why can't everyone go to Heaven? Also, I heard God was rough to people in the Old Testament.” Valid questions indeed and none of these have passed my notice. God does not want people to go to Hell, it is our sin that convicts us. In fact, let Him speak for Himself, "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord GOD, and not that he should return from his ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23 NKJV) “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11 KJV) Although God is patient and kind, He is also a God of Justice as well. Look at some of the things that people did in the Old Testament and ask yourself how you would feel constantly seeing and hearing the one's you love torment each other in the ways they did. All the lies and deceit constantly ringing in your ears. God can't stand sin as His nature is pure and thus is compelled to eliminate sin however He can. Its not that He hates sinners, but He is compelled to hate sin due to His pure nature.

You see, God made us in His image and when we sin we do not live up to the standards that God want's us to live up to. “Well how does one not sin? Even your Bible claims that all are sinners? How do you or I or anyone else for that matter get to Heaven?” Good Question and I am glad that this question comes up in my conversations. You see it is impossible for us to wash away all of our sins. However, in God all things are possible. I am sure you heard of this guy named Jesus. Yeah that one. Did you know that He is God in flesh? Yes God made Himself man and came down to be born on earth to live as a human being.

See Jesus, also came to die and act as a sacrifice for our sins. He lived a perfect life, free from sin and was nailed to a cross. He died there, still loving His tormentors, and asking His Father to forgive those who did that to Him. When He died, He took all of the sins of those who confess that they believe in him and threw them in Hell. He rose on the third day and conquered death (which is the penalty of sin). All one has to do is confess with their mouth that they are a sinner, and believe that Christ died on the cross for their sins, rose again on the third day, and is now seated next to His father in Heaven.

It is only your sins that are keeping you away from Heaven and your disbelief in God. We tell you this for the same reason anyone who loved someone would tell them not to put their hand on a burning stove. Now some Christians are judgmental, believe me I know. But this isn't about them, its about you. So ask Jesus to forgive your sins, read the Bible ( Book of John is a great place to start), join a church and repent of those sins. You may walk away from this not believing. However, this plea is for you. The bible says to love others as I love myself. If I didn't care for you, I wouldn't take my time to write this. If you still don't believe, at least I hope you understand and I pray that one day you will come to the Lord. If you are a Christian, I hope this will act as a good tool for helping non-Christians you know to come to know Christ.

The 40 Day Challenge for skeptics

Skeptical about there being true freedom in Jesus? Take the 40 day challenge! We challenge you to take the leap of faith!

• Fast delightful foods for 40 days like Daniel did. (google Daniel fast) 
• Read the bible for 15mins a day during the whole 40 days (bible gateway.com New testament) 
• Attend church service on the weekends to hear the word of  God. (find a church you can tell  preaches from the bible) 
• Tune in to Christian radio for clean music and bible teachings. Read Christian literature. (remember you need to be focused on God the whole time)
• Pray to Jesus. Ask him to point the way in your life everyday ask for stronger faith, healing and forgiveness
• Show gratitude, thank God for the little things. Like breathing, and so on. 

If you don't acknowledge that walking with God is better than living and dying with sin by the end of this challenge; you get your doubt back guaranteed! 

What do you think?

Who would've guessed that I would be the unique, thinking, person I am. Would my parents? No, it was a wait and see game for them. Would my grandparents, they could only tell after meeting me. My great grand parents? They never lived to meet me. Would it be me. No because I didn't come from myself and I sure have no memory of my preexistence. Then who? Who thought of me before there was a me. Who put me together like this? What do you think?

Send this to all of your unsaved friends on facebook and see what happens!

Treasures Untold: FINDING MY IDENTITY

Treasures Untold: FINDING MY IDENTITY: "So, today I have started to make the decision that I will have to make everyday for the rest of my life... I choose LIFE & GOOD, not DEA..."

Are You a Good Person?

The Great Water Debate: Jesus Christ and Bruce Lee

By Michael Richards

One day I was reading a book by Erasmus title: A Manual for a Christian Knight and came across a passage “be like a spirit”. This reminded me of a saying made by famous movie star and martial artist Bruce Lee. The saying goes, "Be formless... shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash! Be water, my friend..."

Jesus Christ however spoke of His own type of water. He spoke of a living water. “If you knew the gift of God...you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. (John 4:10 NIV) Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them [the living water] will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”(John 4:13-14 NIV)

The water that Bruce Lee is talking about is the water of the world, which Jesus claims that “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again”. Lee speaks of the earthly water as being formless and how when it enters into a vessel it “becomes” or conforms to that vessel's shape. To be like that water would mean that one would simply be shaped by what it is contained in.

However, the living water is different. As Jesus states “the water that I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. Unlike the world's water, the living water given to us by Jesus is not shaped by its container. In fact, the living water shapes its container into something else, something better. It grants the container eternal life with Him in Heaven. The living water which comes from Jesus washes away all sins and makes its vessel move from glory to glory. This type of water does not go into cups or bottles. It only is given to those people who give their lives to Jesus and ask Him to wipe away all of their sins.

Both waters can “flow, or creep or drip or crash!”. However, the world's water can only do this to physical objects, while the living water can do this for the spirit. If you are a vessel of living water already (meaning you have excepted Christ already) do not hesitate to create a splash and share this with others. Be like living water and spread the Gospel of Jesus to those who have a thirsty spirit. Join a ministry, talk with friends about Jesus, and ask the Holy Spirit how can your talents be used to help spread the word of Jesus Christ.

If you have not excepted Jesus but want this living water then simply recite this prayer;

Lord Jesus, I am in a spiritual dessert.

I have come to ask for your living water so that my spirit will never again thirst.

I confess to you all my sins and ask you to forgive me.

I hereby grant my life to you as a believer in your Gospel.

I confess with my mouth that you gave your life to forgive my sins on the Cross

rose on the third day and ascended to heaven and are now seated next to the Father.

Amen

Once you have prayed this prayer find a local church and read His Word in the Holy Bible. Why not start with the Book of John where the verses used in this article came from?