Category Archives: Spiritual Thoughts

Leadership, Spiritual Thoughts, Theology

Manna is only good for that day

November 24, 2016 Mark Edwards 2 Comments

In Exodus 16 we have the story of the ‘Manna’ coming down from the sky as a miraculous provision from God. This wonderful bread like substance was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. The interesting aspect of this story is that Moses told the people “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

It did not matter how much the people gathered, they had enough. God provided enough sustenance for them for that day. If they did not use what had been given for the day, try to store it, it went bad. Except on the Sabbath where miraculously the substance was preserved.

There is a real application for me in the above story. As a general principle God provides enough spiritual nourishment for the day, for the season. He speaks, he works, he challenges, he inspires. With what we need for that season.

The problem comes when we try to store up spiritual provision and hold onto it for the next day. It was good then, so I want to keep that, stay with that. The problem is that God provided for that moment, in that moment. And now, that moment has passed. Gods provision in the past provides hope for the future that He will provide when we need it next. But our relationship and ministry is always in need of provision for that day, because yesterdays wont suffice, unless we are stuck in yesterday.

Creativity comes and flows out of challenge. Some of the most creative people I know are those who don’t have much. They need to be creative, so they make out of the little they have.

My application is this, what God provides is to be used in that season. I often sense and receive words and thoughts flowing from creativity and a desire to hear from God. The temptation for me is to store those gifts from God up, to keep them. Sometimes, I confess, because I don’t trust that the next ‘manna’ is going to come. It is only as I use that which God provides for this season that I make room for that which God is going to provide for the next season.

Church, Leadership, Spiritual Thoughts

Spontaneous Baptism

November 22, 2016 Mark Edwards 1 Comment

On the Sunday just gone we had a Baptismal service at Inglewood Church.

Two months ago our pastoral team set a date for Baptism and said if we get one baptism, we will do it. One person came and said they wanted to be baptised so we started advertising the date. We had a further 4 people come and say they wanted to be baptised.

On the night before the Sunday I had someone ring me and we chatted and they too wanted to be baptised, so that made 6.

The service was amazing, a real sense of joy and God active in peoples hearts. After I had baptised the last person I felt really convicted to ask if there was anyone else who wished to be baptised. Two more people, on the spot said yes they wanted to be. I asked them to come forward and they shared their testimony. It was amazing.

I also said to people that we still have the baptismal (we hire a spa) and if anyone wanted to be baptised at our evening service, come and let me know. Two people did. Their stories were authentic and wonderful. So at our evening service I baptised them.

It was an incredible, spirit filled day. Probably one of the best in my 23 year Pastoral ministry at Inglewood Community Church.

Spiritual Thoughts

I want to sense it

November 7, 2016 Mark Edwards Leave a comment

Pictured here are two coffee cups.

One of them is a double walled coffee cup, not cheap, which is made for coffee. It has a serviceable handle but more importantly is designed so the heat from the coffee does not scald your hand.

The other is a simple glass, strong, but not insulated. Which would you prefer. Now the reality is that we all want a good tasting coffee. A scalding hot coffee will not be the best tasting one. Here

So the need for a double walled glass is actually superfluous. If you have a well made coffee, you don’t need it. In terms of enjoyment, I want to feel the warmth from the glass as I sip on my double shot macchiato or whatever I’m drinking.

Its the same with my faith. I want to feel what is happening. Those who argue for a purely rational faith, based entirely on the mind, are ignoring the reality of how God has made us. With emotion. And experts tell us many of our decisions are based on our emotions. Those emotions can often determine how we interpret the situations we are confronted with, and therefore how we behave.

Feeling compassion drives us to implement justice, sensing awe drives us to worship, empathy drives us to listen. For some Christians I wonder if the overriding aspect in their faith is actually fear. They fear how they truly feel, and how truly being open to God would make them feel, and therefore behave. Which is not to say we should be tossed in the wind, influenced by how something feels. But how we feel should be part of the discussion, and there should be no shame in that.

Church, Leadership, Spiritual Thoughts, Theology

So many church plants

October 31, 2016 Mark Edwards Leave a comment

There is a plethora of church plants occurring in Perth at the moment. It seems like every week on Facebook there is a new shiny church springing up at a community centre or high school near you. The websites look good, the worship team seems fully formed and the pastors are passionate about reaching our city for Jesus.

Studies tell us that percentage wise more people become Christians during the formative years of a church than at any other time. So perhaps this is a good thing.

Some in church leadership have the gifting and the charisma to be effective in church growth. One easy measure of effectiveness in ministry is people on pews. This measure is not to be disregarded. Generally speaking we count what is valuable to us. Indeed the early church was well aware of the number of people who came to know Jesus on a particular day (Acts2.41).

New churches springing up is something we should celebrate, just as we mourn the passing and closing down of churches. Unfortunately in a dying churches history they have moved from vision and growth to management. Once a church has moved away from the upward scale of mission they plateau and move into the downward cycle of maintenance. Creatives move from such churches and are naturally attracted to the new, the fresh. They take their energy with them. Those who stay in dying churches decry this but only have themselves to blame. For them, the pain of change is too much to bear, so they choose the pain of slow painful death. Without change, a church will die. And the life will go elsewhere.

Likewise though, we cannot only keep moving from the new thing to the next new thing. That is exhausting and a waste of hard gained resource. Instead, somehow, the vision and the mission must be kept in the drivers seat. Creativity and passion must be stoked.

Character is actually the answer for balance. Character will cause you to make decisions which are contextual and yet have the same result. In some case, new life must rise from the ashes. In other cases strength will push new life out in new ways. In other cases the little strength you have will be able to be harnessed through deep painful change.

Church, Spiritual Thoughts

Joy and Dance

September 30, 2016 Mark Edwards Leave a comment

God has made us all unique with different gifts.

I love some of the joyful and passionate songs coming out of the heart of the global church at the moment. Songs with a beat, songs to dance to. Songs to play loud.
God has made us to dance, to be filled with exuberance.
I can imagine David dancing to these two…..

Leadership, Spiritual Thoughts

And the haters you will always have with you….

September 17, 2016 Mark Edwards 2 Comments

It is natural we will be attracted to those speakers and leaders whose way of looking at the world is symbiotic with our own. That is why it is wise to read from a wide variety of sources, even ones that grate our natural tendencies.

I watch and listen to a wide variety of preachers. A recent addition to my play list is John Gray. He is a passionate communicator, and brings emotion and vibrancy to a room. He is also overtly positive about our faith and loves using scriptural stories to speak into people’s lives. Recently he preached a message on David and Saul at Elevation Church conference. I really enjoyed the message. Then the critique started. One in particular got to me. It was a very well done mash up of Gray and Matt Chandler, a well known and great communicator. They perhaps unfairly (to both speakers) contrasted their views on David and Saul. In context Gray was absolutely saying that we can relate to David in that without the persecution of Saul, David would not have been the King he was. I could not speak to Chandlers context, apart from saying that in the video they used the line he did say, ‘you are not David, nor are you any of the characters in the Bible”.

Can we place ourselves into the scriptural narrative? Recently I did this with a message based around John 12. I asked the question, why type of worshipper are you? Contrasting different personality and gifting types. Lazarus the grateful worshipper, Martha the serving worshipper and Mary the extravagant worshipper. It is natural as we are human, to see and relate to the human characteristics we see in the characters in the Bible. Even Jesus. Of course I would say that is why story is so powerful, and why indeed there are so many stories of people in the Bible.

But lets take it a step further than just relating to the characters. How far can we take it? Can we be empowered like David? Can we relate to His life and apply it to ourselves? Can we in fact do the miracles of Jesus, or even pray the prayers of Elijah?

Should we put ourselves in the place of David, as John Gray suggests? Well Jesus said we should. In Matthew 12 Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about the Sabbath. He uses David and Davids interaction with the Sabbath as an illustration of how we should live our lives. Of course we relate to David, and his interaction with Saul and the lessons he learns speak to us know.

I want to go a step further even than that and highlight two scriptures. There are plenty more, but this post is getting long.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14.12 KJV)

Truly truly, I say to you. If you believe in Jesus, you will do greater works than He did. Thats hard to believe. I find that hard to believe. But then, I need the faith of a mustard seed.

This next one is a favourite and perhaps even more clear. Surely, some might say, we should not compare ourselves to an Old Testament prophet, and believe we are like them, and can see God’s power flow through us as it did through them? Because, are they not special, is it not egocentric to think this? Perhaps not.

“¹⁶Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. ¹⁷Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! ¹⁸Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.” (James 5:16-18)

There have always been those who doubt God. There have always been those of audacious faith. Read your bible. Believe that the stories you read in your bible can be your story. Thats why you have been given it.

Church, Leadership, Spiritual Thoughts

The Pressure on Pastors

September 13, 2016 Mark Edwards Leave a comment

Ever since Bill Hybels said that church leadership was the hardest form of leadership the question of how much pressure there is on Pastors has been brought to light.

On Sunday night I was chatting with someone who has been in and around pastoral ministry all her life. She told me the story of how when she was a teenager there was a discussion at a church meeting which revolved around the Pastors salary. One man stood up and said that the pastors salary needed to be low because he could not be allowed to earn any more than anyone in the church. They discussed how the Pastor needed to be a humble servant, like Jesus. If they earnt more than someone else in the church there might be resentment or even worse, pride in the heart of the pastor.

Now this post is not about a pastors salary. It is about the pressure on the pastor. In those days the pastor was expected to visit everyone in the church, to be involved wholeheartedly in their lives. Things have changed. The pressure comes at a different point.

The pressure is now on the pastor is to be overseeing a large growing church. To be, and here is the contentious word, succesful. Along with the wonderful resource that the internet and media has brought us has also come examples world-wide of your pastors failing. How come the worship is not as inspiring as Hillsong? How come the preaching is not as stirring as Furtick or as deep as Ortberg? How come we are not growing like Saddleback or Willow Creek?

Even pressure to be like the church down the road. The worst words a Pastor hears on a Monday is, ‘this church is just not meeting our needs”. As the family you have cared for takes themself off the roster and moves on to the shiny building down the road your heart sinks.

Reality is that success also brings pressure. To continue to grow, to make each year bigger than the last. And more people with more needs and their own desire to be successful are attracted to you. It can also cover up the need for character. All is forgiven if the pastor is successful. We eat on the fat of success and forgive character flaws because of it.

Everyone has pressure in their work. Everyone. And how could I as a pastor know what pressure there is being something else? From the CEO caring for multiple employees to the nurse caring for grumpy patients to the teacher trying to impart knowledge to disinterested teenagers. Perhaps a unique challenge in being a pastor is that everyone who calls themself a Christian really truly deeply care about their faith, their spirituality, their children’s faith.

And a pastor who is worth their salt will care about that too. There should be pressure on us. We are leading what is meant to be the primary organisation in the world. If Apple corporation does not get the next iPhone right they might fail financially. If the Church does not get its role right, the world will be in even more pain than it is.

So I suppose I am calling for a radical middle. A radical balance. No one wants a pastor who doesn’t care about their church and their community. Who isn’t aiming to be effective, skilled and fruitful. But equally, no one wants a pastor who fails, drops out, burns out and is rendered ineffective. Perhaps what a Pastor needs is grace. Grace to do their ministry, grace when they mess up, grace when they are not as good as the pastor down the road. Grace which resources.

And this is something we can all relate to.