Loving Father Approach

So, yeah, I have been away, back, started new series here at FRC all over the past 10 days! Got to visit my sister and go to an awesome conference lead by Reggie Joiner and the Northpoint team. The conference focused on encouraging and empowering preschool, children and student pastors and leadership. So many God-things happened on this trip, in my world and ministry over the past 10 days. I will do my best to blog about them all. The conference had awesome key speakers including, Louie Giglio, Andy Stanley and Francis Chan. I wanted to share the key points of Reggie Joiner's message on the first night. The title of his message was:

Prodigal Generation

His first question was what drives some churches to be different?

Was it: strategy, truth or message, community, leadership, family, creativity, Holy Spirit

He answered, No to all of the above.

He said what makes a church distinctively different is do they treat every prodigal the way a loving father would treat his own son.

He read from Luke 15:11-31 and he also emphasized verses 1&2 in Chapter 15 that read: "this man welcomes sinners and eats with them"

2 Different approaches to sin (lost son)

1. Approach of Jesus and the Loving Father OR 2. Approach of Pharisees and older brother

Loving Father approach

1. Pre-occupied with who is missing

Want church to not be about who we want to keep, but about who we want to reach.

2. Operate from a context of forgiveness

We live in a generation that wants to feel better about doing bad stuff, let's teach them to understand change and forgiveness

3. Throw parties - smart dads know how to build ministry around forgiveness and celebration

4. Confront Older brother thinking

5. Keep the lights on for as long as it takes

Older brother approach

1. Pre-occupied with themselves

2. Operate from a context of shame

3. Throw fits - % of church has people mad about something

4. Criticize loving Fathers thinking

5. Shut the door and turn off the lights

Build people that decide to treat every prodigal like a loving Father.

Why?

1. Jesus made it a priority

2. Because you are a model and need to lead it.

3. Because you know a prodigal

Before we even ask the question about what kind of church do we attend, how about what kind of thinking do we tend to move towards personally, loving Father or older brother? We all can take steps to be more like Jesus!