In this session, we want to talk about crisis, potential, things that can happen in  house church, and how we as leaders deal with that. I call this session help. I'm  a leader. What I do when things get really, really tough, I will start with a  scripture. This really helped me over the years, and understanding leadership of  a house church and is really help me, because I've learned from the scripture  there are different ways to respond to different crisis situations, different ways  respond to different problems, different ways to respond to different people who  are different places on their journey spiritually with the Lord. The scriptures  found in I Thessalonians 5:14, and the scripture says this, Paul says, We urge  you, brothers number one, warn those who are idle. So people are idle, people  are simply not obeying God. Just you're not really all I forgot warn them. Tell  them you continue this. You can backslide. All these things could happen. Warn  them. Number two, encourage the timid. You don't warn the timid. Some people  just, they're bit fearful. They're timid, and I'm quite sure they they need some  encouragement to take a step of faith. So he says, encourage the timid. So we  have a careful you don't encourage the idle. You were in the idle, but you  encourage the timid. Then says, help the weak. Some people are weak, I  remember we had someone in our church, and I was a, you know, young pastor  and young house church. And this couple was convinced when they did lots of  drugs, they heard God more clearly, you know, and ages craziness, and then,  you know, this, and then this, one of the guys in the house church. He was  convinced that you have to really be married, because if you're involved sexually with a woman, then you are married. And just crazy stuff. I just kind of pulling out my hair there. What do we do? So went to a mentor of mine. I said, what I do  these kind of situations? And he gave very wise counsel. He said, Well, you  know, we need to be careful who we pour our time into. You know, some people  just want to argue and argue and argue and argue, and we need to deal with  some just maybe some discipline in their lives. But he said, you know, you pour  your time into faithful people. Then he said this, he's a Larry. You have to  understand, Jesus said, the poor you have with you always. It's not just always  those so poor, materially, position, poor, you know, in understanding other poor  and their judgment, or whatever. And so, you know, I had to learn that is, if  people had to decide, where these people idle, in this case, they were, they  need some warning with a timid, probably not. They were weaker, weak a bit,  but they're probably mostly need some some warning, but I need a not. Just  give them all my time. Jesus, you know, made some decision about who he  spends time with. He spent time with reproducing disciples. Remember, he gave the parable The Sower. He said that say, you know, in Mark 4, he said the word,  goes out, the seed goes out. And, you know, a hard soil and stony ground, and  with those weeds, and some grows up, and the thistles, and the sun comes  scorches that, and then some, he says, Sow in good soil, 30, 60, 100 fold. And  you know what I saw recently, I read that scripture that I need to make sure, and

I learned over the years I must spend most of my time with the soil that is  openness, those four, four different heart conditions of people. And so we can  spend all of our time getting burned out just because of people who have deep  issues in their lives. Some don't want to change anyway. Some do. Some do  not. We need discernment to know, but make sure we're giving time to keep  disciples. Jesus spent most of his time with John, James and John and Peter.  He spent time with the 12 and with the 70, and yes, he has some time with the  multitudes, but there's times he left the crowds, went to other side the lake, took  some time off. Why? Because he knew he needs to also be emotionally set free  and emotionally whole. So in the Scripture, we see number one warn the idle.  Number two, encourage the timid. Number three, help the weak. And then I love  this. Be patient with everyone. Patience is certainly virtue learning. Be patient  with everyone, and whatever they are they are going through. Now, what I'd like  to do in this session is get real specific with you. What are some specific areas  of leadership that you did you have that you'll be faced with something. So you  need to be aware of some crisis you might come into. And I sort of give you  some examples of things that have certainly been helpful for me and for us as  we've been involved in leadership for many years. So again, I'm calling this help. I'm a leader, and here's some things that we can do. The first thing I want to talk  about for a moment is people who struggle in the marriage. I understand that,  because many years ago, 40 years ago, I went through a short season my life,  but we struggled in our marriage, and we got help. We got counseling for that.  And so a couple things I say about that. I mean, I remember, I remember one  House Fellowship I was in. There's a couple gave them a call two in the morning that. House. Fellows of leaders call her to two o'clock the morning. Said, We are hurting in our marriage. And they came and they help them get set free at two  o'clock in the morning. Again, we're called to serve. No, it's not always like that,  but, but that's what they did. Now you have to understand you may not have in  your toolbox everything you need to see everybody set free, but there's  somebody who will. May not be somebody in your house church, maybe  somebody in another local church, maybe there's a counselor. Some people  need to get marriage counseling. Had we not gone to a marriage counselor, I  don't know if we'd have made it. I don't know if our marriage could have made it. So we need to realize we need to resource our weaknesses. You do not be  good at everything. You are not the answer person. Jesus is the answer. You  and I carry certain abilities for sharing truth and sharing our stories. If you have  had this experience in your life, let's say you're married, you have some issues  in your marriage, and you can give those stories that'll help set people free. It's  fantastic, but you may not. Maybe you're single, maybe you haven't had the  same kind of problem in your marriage. Well then you ask God to show you  somebody else. See often we're a bit like, like the Good Samaritan. I love the  story the Good Samaritan, because the Good Samaritan did not necessarily 

meet all the needs of the man who is beside the road. He found him in  compassion. He took her to the innkeeper. He gave the innkeeper money. He  was the divine hinge that hinge, that guy along the side of the road with the  innkeeper, and then so he gets set free and whole because, you know, the Good Samaritan took off the next day he was gone. As we understand the understand  the story in the Scripture, but here's the divine hinge. You can be a divine hinge.  Maybe there's a book someone should read, maybe there's a podcast, maybe  there's a something on the internet. Maybe there's a certain person you know  that they can see to help them. You do not have to have all the answers. You're  free, but we are called by God to help people find connections and find answers  that would be a great blessing for them. So marriage, marriage struggles again.  You know the reason I would really encourage every house church leader to be  connected somewhere in the body of Christ to spiritual oversight, whether it's  through a pastor, a senior elder, leader of a Community Church, a mega church, whether it's through a house church network and to a team of apostolic leaders.  And then what we encourage in house church networks across our nation, the  nations that these these house church are working clusters together, and there's apostolic leadership who work with them. That way, there's someone to go to,  someone you can connect with, someone who can give you some answers and  and you can find that different places, but make sure you know where that is. So number one, marriage struggle. Secondly, handling financial needs. You know,  there's always financial issues in so many people's lives, and we want to again.  You heard the the old adage for many, many years. We're not just called to give, give them a fish, but teach them how to fish. And real, reality. Some people are  hurting. They need finance. And need finance now we encourage in house  churches put some money back. We call it deacons fund. Put the money back  so there is money there to help people who would go through some financial  struggles, if you're part of a network, sometimes the network or others, other  house church in the network can also help with those kind of needs. I know  house churches. I know a house church that bought a single mother a car  because they had a larger house church and she had a need, and they said,  We're going to help you. And they was amazing. They bought her car. Great.  Now, obviously, that kid always happened, but, Oh, nice. We need to be thinking through but don't just give money. Help them know how to have a path to get out of debt. If someone is in debt, perhaps they need to sit with someone, a  business person, somebody understands finance. You know, having to go  through financial peace, university, or whatever, is something to help them get  on the right track financially. So the trend is changing from going into the red to  going toward the black and into the black. So handling financial needs is a huge  deal, and every we can help them in the houses with that. Remember, you're not their source. The church is not their source. Jesus is the source, and we need to ultimately trust him. What about people go through discouragement? Well, the 

antidote, I mean, the answer, is encouragement. Encourage means to pour  courage into the place. Put courage into a man. Is so important. In Hebrews 3,  there speaks about courage you want another day after day. So we don't get  hardened in our hearts. And encouragement goes such a long way. I encourage  you, where leaders are called to speak life and encouragement to the people  whom they serve. And you know, we can just get an understanding of who we  are in Christ I have a friend whose name is Steve Prokopchak, Steve and Mary  Prokopchak wrote this book called together. It's a great pre and post marital  counseling manual, fantastic. But he also put all these scriptures together. It's  called who I am in Christ. And you can do this yourself. He put together all this  page. It's who we are in Christ and who God is in us. And often I'll wake up in  the morning. I can do all things through Christ today, because he gives me  strength. Greater is He who lives in me than he who lives in. In the world and on and on, just quoting the Word of God, because faith comes by hearing, hearing  by the word, we're helping people enter house church learn how to do that, get  them free from discouragement and walk in the encouragement of the Lord. I  find, yeah, I find, most crisis situations the people are in. You know what really  is? It's an opportunity for God to move. It's a testimony in the making. If we can  see it like that, we have that perspective. That's the perspective of  encouragement, because all things still work together for good to those who love God. Romans 8:28, those are called according to His purpose. If people can see whatever they're walking through, discouragement, crisis, whatever God, God  will use this. God will give them authority in this area where they come through  it. It'll be a sword in their hand against the powers of darkness. They'll have  authority to help other people going through the same thing that they never  would have had before. Some people hidden agendas. Here's another one.  They have a hidden agenda. You know, people, they'll come to your be involved  in their house church. They have hidden agenda. Maybe they have, you know,  they maybe they have a it is some something they want to sell to people. Here's  an opportunity to build relationship, to sell products to people, or, you know, or  whatever that would be. And also, some people have a hidden agenda. They  need to talk. And they can't do that in a Sunday morning meeting of 1000  people, but they can do it, they think, in the house church. So what do you do?  Somebody talks and talk, you know, they're insecure, and they go on and on  and on and on. Let me tell you what I learned about that I learned sounds funny,  but I've learned that everybody has to breathe sometimes. So when someone's  going I've done this many times as I've led house churches, some goes on and  on and on, when it breathe and say, Thank you for sharing that. Let's talk more  about that. After the meeting, we were other people opportunities to share  something here. It really it works, because we need to, those of us in leadership, we need to only allow to happen in a house church that which builds people up  and somebody talking on and on and on in insecurity, it's not building people up,

it's tearing people down. So we need, again, we need to give clear leadership,  and again, that's the blessing of leadership. How about emotional dependency,  or codependency? You know, a simple definition of emotional dependency is,  this is it's meeting our own needs by drawing life from others. That's really,  basically what it is. It's meeting something inside or trying to meet something  inside. Earn these by drawing life from other people. And here's the deal, Jesus  knew who he was. He wasn't emotional dependent. He knew in John 13, knew  where he came from, knew he was he knew where he's going. And he was  certainly not emotionally dependent, because he had a clear understanding as  to what the Father was doing in him and was doing through him. And you know,  I found that sometimes people it can be emotionally dependent. We had, we had someone in our life and involved in our church, and she was being discipled by  my wife, Laverne, and one day she said, You're spending too much time with  your children and not enough time with me. And all once the flags went up, we  realized there's an issue. We had to get someone in to help us with that, and  other people in leadership to help us with that. So she could be free, and she is  free today. And so my wife, Laverne could be free because there's the possibility of emotional dependency that was coming in there. So it's really important that  we understand that God has called us to be secure in who we are. And you  know you're not the Holy Spirit. There's only one Holy Spirit. It's not you, it's not  me, and we need to trust him. See, Jesus had boundaries in his life. Jesus didn't make a deal with the Pharisees when they came. Came against Him because  He had certain boundaries in his life. We need to have healthy boundaries in our lives. In the same way I always found interesting. Remember the guy who was  at the pool of Bethesda, and he said to Jesus, these are nobody to put me in the pool. When they see trouble the water is no one to put me the pool. We see this  in John 5, he said, For 38 years. And Jesus said to him, do you want to be made whole? Why would he say that? Do I be made whole? Who wouldn't want to be  made whole. I think he was saying something deeper. I was thinking. I think he  was saying, if you're made whole, you're gonna have to get a job. You've been  here for 38 years, people taking care of you, but you're gonna have to get a job.  And sometimes people really do not want to be made whole. And sorry to say  this, but it's reality is true. I want to be real with you as we talk about leadership  in crisis. And there's times that we can be careful we don't meet their needs,  because it'll simply make it worse and make it worse, make it worse. We had a  lady who's, uh, who's struggling with a husband, and she was just always,  always putting her husband down, always saying how terrible he was. She had  deep back problems and and we finally encouraged her that she really needs to  learn to speak life to her husband, and she is wasn't really willing to do that  when she's always asking for finance as for money. And one day, we realize we  need to give her a project, something to do, we know, have her pray with some  people, hold her accountable, start speaking life to her husband. And you know, 

how can we continue to help her financially, or just continue to. Pray and pray  and pray. Well, of course, we pray because we care that we keep doing that  when she was simply codependent, when she was simply again, she was kind  of milking the whole house church to meet her own needs. And, you know, we  found that really works, and nice people need a project, and that will help them  in this situation going along. There's more in the notes on that. What about  dissolving a house church. You know, he dissolved a house church. That's why I support you part of a network, because the leadership of the network can help  you with the process. Because if a house church is dissolved, these are  precious people were caring about. We want to be sure that the people in the  house church are plugged in another part of the body of Christ. When I was in I  was leadership of a house church network for a season, and a few years ago,  and one of the house churches was dissolving, and we, my wife and I sat down  with all the people in the house, church and help them connect to another part in the body of Christ, some other house churches, some community churches, we  want to make sure they weren't lost in that shuffle. We love people, we care  about people, and that's why, when I dissolves, it's good to have people to help  us do that and be properly, properly connected. What about people who are  struggling with change? Yeah, I find most people don't like change that many  people like myself. Maybe you are a leader. You say, I like change. You know,  the truth is, we like change when we're making the change. But I ask people this all the world is, how many like change? And they raise their hand, then they say, How many of you like change? When somebody else makes a change, you're  stuck with their change in their hands come down. See, none of us really like  change, but other people change things that we don't like. Very few of us like  change. So here's the key to change is communicate. Communicate.  Communicate. Keep people involved in the process as much as is possible.  When I was a pastor of a mega church, and we went through a change, and one church became eight churches in 1996 we took about two years to process that  with God's people, and still didn't work perfectly. But the process is often more  important than the end result, and that's why God is the God of the process.  What about divisiveness in a house church? Two division, two visions, and one  church is division, and that's why we need to be following the leadership. If you  have a different vision, maybe God's calling you to start another house church.  But do it right. Do it with a sense of God's grace in your life. Do with affirmation  of the present leadership that's there, and do it with apostolic leadership that's  helping you in the process church discipline. There's times when people were  living in sin. We had to walk it through. Matthew 18 was very clear. Someone's a sin. Go talk to them alone. They don't receive it. Take somebody else. It brings  protection, both to you and brings protection to them. If they don't receive it,  then, then you take it to the church. And we've had times where we have say,  Look, we have to release you from this church for the protection that that this 

church gives you through Christ, because you're simply choosing to continue  living immorality, or whatever it is. And we've seen, if it's done in love and done  in grace, we've seen great blessing through that. Another crisis for many leaders is burnout, and you know, burnout often comes from lack of delegation.  Delegate, delegate, delegate as much as you can in your house, church.  Delegate to others. They won't do it perfectly, but we don't always do it perfectly  either, but we learned. We learned to delegate. And you know, there's all kinds  of potential crisis like death and illness and hospitalization, change of jobs and  people move houses. You know, we helped so many people move over the  years, when I pastored the church of 2000 people, we couldn't help everybody  move, but we can help people in the House Fellowship move. And I want you to  know that that we work together practically with people in that way, it builds  family and it builds us together for Kingdom advancement. So God, may God  give you great grace as a leader, and may you find your help is in him and your  help is in the spiritual mothers and fathers He placed in your life. And that's why  it's important to be connected to others who can help us when we work through  these kinds of situations. Why? Because we want to be good Samaritans, Holy  Ghost hinges, connecting people with needs to Jesus and to others who have  grace from the Lord to help them to see those needs met 



Última modificación: lunes, 16 de septiembre de 2024, 15:55