Steve Murrell's Blog, page 25

That’s Not Fair

Church: Victory

Meeting Together Matters

Does meeting together face-to-face matter?

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul expresses his desire to be with the church in Thessalonica and the importance of meeting together in person.

I hope that we, to the best of our ability, make the effort to intentionally meet together and see what God will do in us and through us.

Healing the Paralyzed Man

Church: Victory

The Message

Over my years in ministry, I have had countless conversations with pastors of church plants. In the early stages, it is important for leaders to craft a mission statement, codify values, and/or develop a strategic plan for their city and campus.

All organizations need clarity and focus to operate well. But there is something even more important and foundational to church planting than a mission statement or a compelling vision: the gospel.

Sometimes, we get so caught up in what we can do to help a campus, city, or nation—that we forget what God will do for a campus, city, or nation when we preach the simple, foundational truth of the gospel.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we see why we need to stay focused on the gospel. The gospel, not our vision and values, must be our central message because it is the only power for salvation.

The Goodness of God

Just like real life in ministry, Psalm 90 begins well and ends well, but all was not well throughout. The middle was muddled.

Most leaders, when they are honest, often feel this way. What do we do in the times when we’re in the middle and when things do not seem to be going well? What do we do when God’s blessing, favor, and presence seem absent?

This psalm gives us a way to understand those seasons of life. If we understand two words that describe God, we can usually make sense of the middle:

TranscendenceImmanence

No matter what season we are in, God is transcendent and immanent. More in today’s message.

The Power of Together

Two weeks ago, I gathered with the Every Nation Apostolic Council, Global Team, and Oversight Team in Istanbul, Turkey, for our Global Governance Summit. We prayed together, laughed together, ate together, debated doctrine and strategy together, and made some good decisions together.

Getting our global leaders face-to-face once a year costs time, money, and jet lag, but something happens when we are physically together that cannot be replicated with Zoom.

Today’s message is about the power of together from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.

Psalm 86: A Pattern for Prayer

As a pastor for decades now, I have received and heard many prayer requests. Most of these requests fall into three categories: physical health, finances, and relationships.

With the physical, we are asking God for healing or protection from illness. With the financial, we are asking for relief from financial hardship or for specific needs. With the relational, we are asking God for wisdom to navigate complicated relational situations with family, friends, colleagues, etc.

These are all important needs. But there is another type of prayer that we offer to God that is more important than any of the others—one that we see modeled by David in Psalm 86. This is a prayer about our hearts. And when we get our hearts in the right place before God, it has the potential to impact the physical, financial, and relational needs as well.

When we pray like David, we are praying for God’s grace, our hearts, and his strength. More in today’s message.

What Does It Mean to be Apostolic?

What does the word “apostolic” really mean? What are we trying to say when we use it?

If you have been around ministry long enough, you have probably heard it used as a way to exert authority over others.

But just because it has sometimes been wrongly used does not mean that we should avoid it altogether.

Every Nation believes in the spiritual gifts, which include apostolic leadership. In Luke 9 and 10, Jesus gives his twelve disciples a description of what apostolic leadership looks like.

Let’s talk about that description and how we can apply it as leaders.

Apostolic leaders are:

Called togetherEmpowered to healSent to preach

What Is Christian Leadership?

Turn on the news, scroll through social media, or read a book, and it won’t take long to encounter someone’s opinion on what Christian leadership should look like. Whether people know the Bible or not, most individuals have a clear view—whether correct or incorrect—of what a Christian leader should say, act, or think.

Truthfully, each of us has an idea in our minds of how the “exemplary” Christian leader should behave as well. But often our leadership ideas are the opposite of Jesus’ teachings and example. 

Mark 10:35–45 records a conversation between Jesus and his disciples that clarifies how we should think about leadership from a Christian perspective. Let’s discuss that conversation today and the leadership principles that we can learn from it.

Structures for Expansion

Throughout church history, we have seen contractions (the church grows smaller whether through persecution, cultural pressures, geographical shifts, etc.) followed by expansions (the church grows larger, usually to a much greater size than before the contraction).

To navigate these inevitable contractions and expansions well, leaders need to prepare and proactively create flexible structures.

Today we look at Mark 2:18–22 and talk about some critical points in understanding how to create flexible structures.