Jonathan Herron:

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How to Navigate a Break-Up or Betrayal

I had a BLAST today at Life Church as we kicked off a new series based on Acts chapter 16, You Don't Have What It Takes. I believe this will be a powerful message series as we get raw and real about some of the heavy curveballs life throws our way.

Unfortunately we did not get an audio recording of today's message, so here is a quick summary:

- Paul and Barnabus part ways in Acts 15:35-38. If break-up and betrayal could happen to the Gospel All-Stars, it can and will happen to you and me!

- Followers of Jesus are not promised rainbows, skittles, and unicorns. You WILL have troubles and heartaches!

- You can't please everyone but you can keep reconciliation as your goal.

Step One in a Betrayal or Break-Up: Your REACTION determines your REACH.

- Jesus gives very practical instructions in Matthew 18:15-17 on how to deal with people who have hurt you: go to the person quickly, privately, and humbly!

- Verse 17 does NOT advocate shunning. Who Would Jesus Shun?

- "But they deserve to be shunned." Really? Even if everything you say about this person is true, are you treating them the way Jesus would treat them? If someone is acting like a pagan or tax collector, how would Jesus approach them...?

- Jesus always walked TOWARD people, not AWAY!

- If someone is taking shots at your children, I'm sorry, but that is demonic. You are never more like Satan than when you accuse and you are never more like Jesus than when you advocate and forgive!

- Ephesians 4:26-27 tells us to deal with our issues TODAY. Don't allow "little" beefs to get bottled up over time or you will explode like a volcano.

Step Two in a Betrayal or Break-Up: Nobody wins when you trash talk.

- Have a beef? Don't blab it on Facebook... go to the person and get it resolved!

- If you are a man or woman of God, you do NOT have permission to accuse or slander.

- If you are a son or daughter of the Most High, honor and integrity are your shield. Even if you are accused and innocent, it is not necessary to defend yourself in the public square (I am speaking from EXPERIENCE here!!).

- Ephesians 6:12 tells us that if they have flesh and blood, they are NOT our enemy! The Enemy is the enemy!!

Step Three in a Betrayal or Break-Up:

Moving on doesn't mean you've stopped caring; it means you can't change it.

- Always keep the door open for reconciliation but never for condemnation.

The personal story I shared was about how Amber and I lost our closest friends five years ago and how we've chosen to walk through that brutal break-up and betrayal by choosing forgiveness and open doors. We don't yet have a storybook ending to that story, but we continue to hope and pray.

Next week my good buddy Adam Downer will be sharing more from the life of Paul in Acts chapter 16. I'm really excited for our church family to hear Adam's story for the first time. He is an AWESOME worship leader, but more importantly a wise and experienced pastor who oozes with compassion.

In two weeks I'll return with the third message in this series. I would appreciate your prayers as I'll be opening up and sharing for the first time the story our family walked through two years ago. My prayer is that it will offer hope, healing, and encouragement to so many healing from past church wounds.

Sunday, July 14, 2013 at 04:40 PM in God, Life Church | Permalink

Live Q & A

I had a BLAST with our live Q&A at Life Church today. We let everyone text-in anonymous questions and attempted to answer as many as we could live on stage.

Wow, lots of great, honest questions. I love that we have a church that not only welcomes questions and doubts, but also provides an unfiltered, live avenue to wrestle through them as a community of faith.

We ran out of time to get to every question, so I thought I would answer the rest here on the blog! These are not meant to be exhaustive answers, just answers that give you enough to point you in the right direction.

Q: If children who are not baptized die, will they go to heaven?

A: Baptism doesn't get you into heaven; Jesus does. Baptism is a symbol of our faith but not the object of our faith. Jesus is the One who rescues and saves, not baptism. Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward faith. In the Bible, we see many examples of people who pass into eternity to be with Jesus without having been baptized. King David's infant son dies without having been baptized, but he knows he will see him again in heaven. On the Cross, a thief turns to Christ and dies without having been baptized, yet is received into Paradise.

Q: Where do people who have never heard the gospel go when they die?

A: Jesus explains in Luke chapter 16 there are only two domains in the afterlife: Paradise and Hades. Romans 1:16 explains that the gospel "is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes." Later in Romans we are told that faith and salvation come from hearing the Good News that Jesus rescues. So if you haven't heard the gospel, you are still in need of salvation.

That said, God doesn't just leave us in the dark. He reveals Himself to humanity through the light of creation and the light of conscience (scholars call this "general revelation") so that "people are without excuse" (Romans 1:20). If you see God in nature or feel God's weight in your heart, you are experiencing general revelation. If this leads you to pursue God - BOOM! - you will find Him!

Q: If someone is already in hell is there a chance of getting to heaven?

A: Sadly, no. Jesus explains this in Luke chapter 16.

Q: What is the difference between fathers, pastors, reverends, etc?

A: The only thing they have in common is that none of these titles is found in the Bible! That doesn't make them wrong, just that the terms came later in church history.

"Father" is the term for a Catholic priest. Being protestants, we're not excited about this term. Neither was Jesus. "Pastor" is a translation for the term "undershepherd" found in 1 Peter 5. It is synonymous with "elder" and "bishop" in the New Testament. At Life Church, we're cool with this term. "Reverend" is a title given to a pastor who has been ordained. At the end of the day, we're not hyper about titles at Life Church. We are respectful toward our leaders and leaders at other churches, but honestly, if someone's going around with the title "Bishop" on their business card, I'm going to be snickering at them.

Sunday, July 07, 2013 at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

VIDEO: The President with My Grandpa at Air Force One

Every July 4th reminds me of my late grandfather.

Almost exactly five years ago, on June 25, 2008, he was personally honored by the President of the United States on the steps of Air Force One.

I've written about that day with the President and my Grandpa previously here.

Today I uploaded the video of local new coverage. Enjoy:

Thursday, July 04, 2013 at 05:45 PM in Family | Permalink

Thank You, Converge!

A year and one month ago, I had the pleasure of announcing our church start-up's new partnership with Converge Worldwide. Converge is one of the leading and innovative networks in the church-planting movement sweeping across North America. Dr. Ed Stetzer calls Converge “one of the leading church planting organizations in the United States.” Converge is a movement of about 1,200 churches with a strong reproducing church-planting focus. Over the past 20 years, Converge has doubled the size of their network solely through church start-ups!

I can't say enough good things about Converge. They completed a very careful and complete 360 assessment of Amber and I, walked alongside us with great care and grace, and even went the extra mile in meeting with our previous church's board to thoroughly ensure we were launching Life Church above-board with complete honor and integrity. Converge believes in Life Church.

And they didn't stop there. Putting their money where their mouth is, Converge generously offered us a matching grant: every dollar raised for Life Church would be doubled by Converge. Unbelievable! They gave us two years to raise the funds... and this past week, we did it.

Actually, you did it. If you've given anything to Life Church over the past year, whether it was five bucks or five thousand bucks, Converge matched it. This enabled us to launch strong this past March with fantastic rental facilities, bring one of the top worship pastors in the nation on staff full-time at Life, and see 30 people respond to the gospel and 13 go public via baptismin our first 100 Days (FYI - we have another seven people already signed up for baptisms this Fall!).

All of this is because of the robust generosity of you and our friends at Converge. Thank you for believing in our church start-up, for trusting that God is a God of second chances, and for being passionate about engaging people far from God with new life in Christ!

What we are seeing at Life Church is rare and special. We don't take this for granted and can't believe we get to be part of this new movement. Because of this solid foundation from Converge, I believe that the best is yet to come and we continue to appreciate your faithful generosity and support toward Life Church Michigan.

Wednesday, July 03, 2013 at 08:36 AM in Church Start-Up | Permalink