Who Influences You and Who Do You Influence?

Influence is the measure of your ability to persuade others to take an action.

I read this line and started thinking about influence. Influence is one of those abstract concepts that affects every one of us each and every day however it is incredibly difficult to measure and quantify. Through reading a piece of written work such as this blog you yourself will be influenced - however each person that reads this may be influenced in a different way. Our ability to influence people is not just dependent on the things that we say and/or do, but it is also dependent on where those who we influence are in their lives at the time we come into contact with them.

Let's take a simple way that people can be influenced. Have you ever tried a recipe for a meal that you had at someone's house? Well, you were influenced. The meal you had was so good that you went out, bought the ingredients and attempted to recreate the meal yourself. If we can be influenced in simple things like sharing recipes then how can we influence people into the Kingdom?

Maybe it is easier than many of us think. I watch my kids and I see things that I do or that my wife does being mimicked by them. We have influenced them. I see them do things that their friends in pre-school do. They have been influenced. I wonder if by just living our lives we actually have the ability to influence people towards the Kingdom. Could it really be that simple? For many of us when we think about introducing people to a relationship with Jesus it seems so difficult. It seems to us that we need to know the right things to say and the right things to do all the time and to be ready for that special moment. I wonder if it isn't a lot simpler than that. I wonder if we just live our lives unashamedly will people see what we do and be influenced?

I heard a story this evening of how we have influenced people in another state. This week there is a group of young people camping at their church and going into their community to reach out to those in need in a StreetReach venture in Pennsylvania. Dione's brother in law is a youth pastor at his church and he was so influenced by what he heard that we had done here that he is in the middle of their first StreetReach Mission week.

That got me excited ... and to be honest a little frightened. If we can have such a strong influence for good then that is great. It scares me though that I may have had an equally strong negative influence on someone somewhere.

"The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret."
Salvador Dali

How Young Do You Need to Be to Change a City?

I haven't written in a couple of weeks. There are two reasons for this: last week was vacation. A vacation from the computer, from the internet, from the phone. A time to spend with my wonderful family - uninterrupted time.

The week before that was spent with a fabulous group of missionaries taking time each day to reach out to a hurting city through practical acts of kindness. On Sunday July 12th a group of 40 young people assembled together, set up camp and prepared for a week of service projects at homes in what to many could be considered as a wealthy, middle class city. What is not as readily apparent to most people is that behind the shiny veneer that many people put up, behind the front doors of many of the homes in this city are untold stories of pain, and heartache, and disease and death. This city did not take long to travel to for most of our team, in fact, for 95% of the team this city is where they call home. July 12th - 18th was our 2nd annual StreetReach mission week into our own city. We set up camp, real tents, organized work crews and for the entire week we served, served, served. we worked in 40 different homes during the week from small jobs like planting trees, to complete yard transformations and removal of fallen trees. Our team worked their hearts out. They smiled as they worked, they sang as they worked and they even prayed as they worked. Throughout the entire week they showed the people of our city that God loves them.

The whole point of StreetReach is to take the love of Jesus out to a hurting world and to show people through acts of kindness that they are special in the eyes of God and that He loves them.

I think that through the week I was most impressed with the attitude of our team. They just got up each day and set themselves to serving. They rarely grumbled, they rarely argued. There were an increasing number of water breaks taken as the week progressed, but they served their hearts out.

I think that the thing that caused me most concern through the week was that we still did not seem to engage the adult church much. Sure there were a large amount of youth that were engaged, but I was struck by the lack of adults who came out to serve for a even just one day. There were a few, but most days the adults could be counted on one hand. Maybe I just need to accept that people have limited vacation days and taking one to help out on StreetReach just is not a priority. Or maybe the adults don't know how much they are actually needed. This year we were very limited in terms of our adult (over 18 yrs) volunteers. We had 4 who were there every day. we even had to ask one of our adult youth leaders to sleep in the camp and then go to work each day because we needed an adult female to stay in the camp. We only had 3 people old enough to drive the vans we were donated, thankfully we only had three vans. It became very apparent to me that we need more adult help for next year. If we grow next year to the same extent that we did this year then we have to have more adults.

How do we engage people over the age of 25 to get involved? How do we get this demographic to join the youth and truly have the whole church actively involved in reaching our city with the love of Jesus? Over the next few weeks I need to consider how to reach the adults in our church to engage them to reach out with the youth.

Do You Want Fries With That?

I dont know how much time you spend thinking about your church. I spend a lot of my thought time contemplating how we can continue to transform our church into an effective function body of believers who have a heart for the poor and the lost and who are willing to step outside of their comfort zones to reach their city. This can be a very disheartening endeavor but it can also be a very rewarding endeavor.

Recently I have had a few people write to me or contact me with suggestions as to how we can improve our Sunday morning services. Now dont get me wrong, I am open to hear people's opinions and ideas, but having weighed the suggestions that I receive from everyone with what I believe God would have us do on a Sunday morning I make decisions and set our services up. I dont pretend to get everything right all the time and I am very much aware of the responsibility that I carry and the judgment that awaits in heaven for those in leadership.

I think the thing that has recently frustrated me is the attitude of some to 'have it their way' with regards to our worship services. We have become a society that has everything our way and that is it. When Burger King was looking for a way to carve out a little more of the fast food burger market from McDonalds they decided to give their customer choice. Now you go to a fast food burger chain and get your burger without pickle and tomato. McDonalds kept making burgers the way they always did, and the customer had to remove the pickles and tomatoes themselves. In the church across America, and also to a degree here in Mt Oak, it seems that we are developing an attitude of 'Want it your way'.

When 300+ people gather together there are going to be differences in style and taste, especially in things like music, or message content or message length. Yet at what point do we trust our leadership? At what point do we trust that those whom God has placed in leadership might have a good sense of how our services should run? I dont think that the leadership should be left to their own devices and not be willing to hear suggestions, but I do think that when those decisions have been considered in light of all of the other factors that leaders hold in tension and decisions are made where some people dont get it their way then there should be some willingness of the people to trust and follow those in the lead.

Can you imagine how our Sunday services would look if we did everything that everyone wanted to do. If we became the Burger King of churches where everyone got their Sunday services how they wanted then I doubt we would be very effective. God has called us to be a body with Jesus as our head. can you imagine the confusion if your left arm wanted McDonalds, your right arm wanted Burger King, your left leg wanted Subway and your right leg wanted Chik-fil-a? YOu would end up paralyzed as each part pulled in its own direction. The same thing can happen to a church. We can be paralyzed as each group pulls in its own direction.

Is it time to follow the leaders and trust that they are doing their best to stay in step with the Lord?

I think so.