Every opportunity comes with opposition, and we must rely on God’s wisdom to proceed with any opportunity. This involves a careful examination of time and energy, which begs the question: Do you know your priorities?

Yes vs. No

Many of us wrestle with people-pleasing and a reluctance to say “no,” but sometimes it’s the only possible answer.

If you say yes to everything, you will spread yourself thin and perhaps miss truly beneficial opportunities while fulfilling less meaningful requests. You’ll see better opportunities come and go; with no margin available you’ll be trapped by foolish commitments.

On the other hand, if you don’t know your priorities you may never confidently commit to the work God’s called you to, out of fear that a better opportunity may come along. In other words, inaction and action can both be sinful.

Prepare Yourself for Action

Aligning your decision-making with a set of pre-determined priorities is critical. If your priorities aren’t defined up front, then when the opportunities come you’ll respond hastily—usually adding another plate to the pile.

“Yes” is the right decision sometimes, but how do you know? For starters, consider whether or not the opportunity compromises or enhances your priorities.

These Are Your Priorities

In its simplest form, the Christian’s priority list is:

1. Jesus
2. Spouse (if applicable)
3. Children (if applicable)
4. Ministry/Vocation

If you clarify your priorities ahead of time, you’ll be able to reject empty opportunities much faster and consider helpful opportunities more wisely. You may not do as much, but you will do it better.

Jamie Munson is the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. You can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and get the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.

Pastors are called to love, serve, and lead through the opportunities that lay in front of us. With so many paths to choose—and with opposition at every turn—every day becomes a complicated exercise in wisdom and discernment.


Go Ask God


Overwhelmed with the never-ending list of things I could do, I find myself often praying Solomon’s words in 1 Kings 3:8–10:

And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?

And also James 1:5: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives 
generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”


Be Desperate


If a ministry leader—or any Christian, for that matter—doesn’t find themselves in desperate 
need of God’s wisdom and discernment, I’d be really concerned. No human can wade through the opportunities in front of him or her without God’s wisdom. When we try, that’s usually when our proud hearts fall.

What Would Jesus Not Do?

When reading the Gospels I’m stunned at Jesus’ ability to listen to the Holy Spirit and wisely and perfectly say “no” to some needs and “yes” to others.

For instance, in Luke 4:42-44, Jesus clearly understands his call and the need to continue moving and preaching throughout all of Judea. He could have stayed there in Capernaum, set up shop, and spent the rest of his ministry helping and healing those who came to him. But he didn’t. Through wisdom he said “no” despite a long line of needy people pursuing him.

How desperately we need the same attentive heart to the Holy Spirit’s leading and the wisdom to say no when that’s the right answer, even though it may ruffle some feathers.

Jamie Munson is the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. You can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Religion Saves

Pastor Mark answers the top nine most-asked questions in Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions. Find out more.

One of the most difficult aspects of my work as a pastor is wading through the vast amount of ministry opportunities that seem to be never-ending.

Opportunity Is Everywhere

For church leaders, every day brings a barrage of ideas and decisions related to potential opportunities. They come from everywhere: God, the Bible, church staff, Sunday services, a restful vacation, the congregation, the web, the news, a walk down the street, and on and on.

I’ve found that every opportunity is fraught with some form of opposition.


Opportunity and Opposition


You don’t have to get far into the Bible to see the tension between opportunity and opposition. Our forefather Adam is created and given an enormous opportunity from God: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Those with an entrepreneurial bent get pretty excited when reading about an opportunity of such grandiose potential—being the first to inhabit the entire earth. Read a little further, however, and the opposition is readily apparent. In this case Adam and Eve are opposed and tempted by Satan, and they’re also opposed by their sinful desire to be like God, knowing good and evil.

Of course, our first parents do sin, and all future opportunities are forever changed by the curse upon humanity. For the man specifically, his work to “fill the earth and subdue it” is a lot harder now that the earth is at war against him, broken and fallen from its luscious garden state.

You Are Cursed

The same call and the same curse that burdened Adam remain in place for all of us, which means that effectively evaluating opportunities is no easy task.

Three key filters can help separate fruitful opportunity from sinful distraction: wisdom, priorities, and cost. I’ll discuss these biblical principles in future posts.

Jamie Munson is the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. You can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

He gave a small fortune. She gave a few pennies.

From wealthy Theophilus to the poor widow, all of us fall somewhere on the spectrum and can learn from what these two have in common: a heart for Jesus. With the Generous Campaign well underway, I thought it would be worthwhile to draw on their example in order to remind us of the how and the why of giving.

Are you a Theophilus?

At the very beginning of the Luke series, we met Theophilus, whose name means “love of God.” The Gospel of Luke (and the book of Acts) is dedicated to Theophilus, who most likely funded Luke’s effort to chronicle the life of Jesus and the early church.

As Pastor Mark has pointed out, this represents hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and travel, research and writing. With the help of Theophilus’ contribution, Luke wrote the majority of the New Testament.

In our day, we hope to continue sharing the truth of Jesus with the world. Like Theophilus, are you willing to sacrifice a chunk of your fortune for the benefit of thousands of people waiting to hear about Jesus?

The Widow’s Offering

Though we can all sacrifice as Theophilus did, not everyone can give in substantial amounts. But Luke’s Gospel speaks to the poor as well.

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on’” (Luke 21:1–4).

Like the widow, are you willing to joyfully trust Jesus with your life, and, out of love for him, sacrifice more than just your abundance?

Means Don’t Matter

The ministry of Mars Hill Church requires money, but we ultimately rely on Jesus to sustain us, not individual donors. The Generous Campaign—and church giving in general—is about the heart, not the budget.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” Jesus said (Luke 12:34). We must all ask ourselves regularly where our heart is. Is your heart for you, or is it for Jesus—and does your giving align with your answer?

If you don’t know Jesus, take advantage of Theophilus’ gift. Study the Bible and learn about our good God. If you do know Jesus, we invite you to give cheerfully, sacrificially, and generously so that we can show everyone how good he is.

Find Pastor Jamie on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’ve benefited from the Resurgence, please consider giving so that we can continue our mission of training missional leaders. To do so, go to marshillchurch.org/give and give to the Global Fund.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Here at Mars Hill Church, we’re kicking off a major effort to raise funds for a number of local ministry needs and our global effort to see as many churches and disciples of Jesus as possible.

It’s called the Generous Campaign, and it’s modeled on the idea that since God has been generous to us, we ought to be a generous people (2 Cor. 9:11–12). In a previous post we’ve reflected on the numerous ways that God has blessed Mars Hill, Acts 29, and the Resurgence over this past year.

Be Generous

If you’ve been blessed by these free resources, we’re asking you to consider giving to the Mars Hill Global Fund to support these ministries. The Global Fund will go to starting new Mars Hill campuses, planting new churches with the Acts 29 Network, providing more free resources online, and training more leaders through the Resurgence.

Global Giving Match: $1 Million

Thanks to one particularly generous family at Mars Hill Church, all contributions to the Global Fund will be matched up to $1 million total. That means if we can raise $1 million during the next few weeks, $2 million will go to our worldwide effort to plant as many churches and make as many disciples of Jesus as possible (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 9:22–23).

It’s All About Jesus

Our desire to expand and build is not an effort to promote Mars Hill Church. It’s not about promoting the Resurgence, the blog, the books, the music, or the conferences. We’re training leaders, planting churches, and starting new campuses so that more people can meet Jesus. That’s it. God has blessed us with a finite number of days and resources, and we want to do our best to use all of it to tell everyone about Jesus.

If you’ve benefited from the Resurgence, please consider giving so that we can continue our mission of training missional leaders. To do so, go to marshillchurch.org/give and give to the Global Fund.

Find Pastor Jamie on Facebook and Twitter.

Death By Love

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears tackle some of the most serious redemptive aspects of Jesus' work in these twelve letters of counsel to individuals. Find out more.

Here at Mars Hill Church, we’re kicking off a major effort to raise funds for a number of local ministry needs and our global effort to see as many churches and disciples of Jesus as possible.

Why? Because God has been generous to us.

As we’ve learned in the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, there’s a biblical pattern of God’s goodness and our response (see Mary’s song in Luke 1:46–55 and Zechariah’s prophecy in Luke 1:67–79):

• Historical – God acts in space and time, and people reflect on what he has done.
• Theological – God’s actions reveal his character to us. As we reflect on what God has done and what he has said about himself, we learn more about him.
• Biographical – What we learn about God changes how we live.
• Doxological – God’s actions, who he is, and how he has changed our lives lead us to respond in worship.

We’ve modeled the Generous Campaign after this pattern, and so as we begin I’d like to reflect on the incredible ways God has blessed Mars Hill Church, Acts 29, and the Resurgence in 2009.

Baptisms

As a church we baptized over 575 people in 2009. We saw fathers baptizing their sons and daughters, husbands baptizing their wives, drug dealers leaving lives of crime for Jesus, victims of abuse finding redemption in Christ, and men abandoning prolonged adolescence in order to follow Jesus.

New Campuses

We launched two new campuses and one new service location in September. With the addition of campuses in Federal Way and Albuquerque, and a new gathering at the University of Washington, what started in a living room with a small group of people has grown to nine campuses in two states.

Free Resources

Pastor Mark’s sermons were downloaded 4.4 million times in the last year. Every day we receive encouraging emails from around the globe—Australia, the UK, Africa, Brazil, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles almost daily. Jesus has used the internet to distribute the Bible preaching we enjoy every Sunday to millions of people worldwide.

New Church Plants

The Acts 29 Church Planting Network is averaging one church plant per week. God has been gracious to bring great men and leaders to the network to further its work. We’ve now planted almost 300 churches around the globe.

Acts 29 Boot Camps

We’ve trained thousands of pastors throughout America and beyond our borders, thanks to the help of Acts 29 and many generous churches within the network. Some of our Mars Hill pastors even got into the mix and helped train pastors in Ecuador.

Re:Train

This year marks the official start to our missional leadership school. An inaugural class of 75 men from around the country have been coming to learn from a top-notch faculty: Bruce Ware, John Piper, Gregg Allison, Bill Clem, Sam Storms, Rick Melson, Ed Stetzer, and Mark Driscoll. Each of the 75 men represents future church planters, pastors, and leaders. The global Church is important to us, and we want to train and raise up as many men as possible for the difficult task ahead.

Re:Lit & Re:Sound

This past year we’ve published a diverse batch of media, including the books Vintage Church and Religion Saves, the e-books Porn-Again Christian and Pastor Dad, and the Rain City Hymnal. God has blessed us with great ministry partners, editors, graphic designers, and musicians that we’re thankful to have at Mars Hill.

All of this is in addition to hundreds of marriages, new babies, restored relationships, and the thousands of little stories that we don’t even hear about.

We serve a hugely generous and wholly gracious God. As I look out over the scope and depth of what God has done and is doing, I can’t help but be completely humbled, thankful, and moved to worship. I hope you are too.

Find Pastor Jamie on Facebook and Twitter.

One way you can be generous to the Resurgence is by doing your Christmas shopping at Amazon through our Recommended Reading page.

Mars Hill Global

Serving the church and spreading the gospel. Help support this effort by giving to the Global Fund. More info at MarsHillGlobal.com.



Not to be dramatic, but a little dramatic. This is the overwhelming feeling I have when I’ve been working all day, had a few hours to connect with my family in the evening, and am now sitting at my desk reading a 480-page pdf document (book) on the church, or slugging away at a 25-page paper till the wee hours. Amazing stuff, but the feeling is a bit overwhelming as the proverbial Re:Train is barreling down the tracks, and I’m stuck in the middle, staring at the oncoming lights and deafened by the blaring horn. How do I escape the wrath?



Re:Train has been a significant investment of time and energy, but it’s an investment that has been extremely beneficial and filled with the grace of God. This weekend was another testament to that as Dr. Gregg Allison lectured and answered questions for two days regarding ecclesiology and the missional church.  

An ecclesiological man among boys

His wisdom, humility and love for the church was inspiring. He is a seasoned pastor, well-studied theologian, faithful husband, father and grandfather, elder in an Acts 29 church, and his daughter and son-in-law attend Mars Hill Bellevue. After a few moments with the Allisons, my wife said, “Wow, that’s the type of couple everyone wants in their church. Godly, stable, wise, humble, and encouraging.” As Pastor Tim Smith put it on Twitter, “Gregg Allision is an ecclesiological man among boys.”  Here are a few takeaways that have left me pondering further.



These are a few reflections from Re:Train with Dr. Allison. The full impact of his teaching and friendship will have a long and sustained impact on the church planting taking place through Mars Hill and Acts 29.


1. Ask good questions before you leave your church.


Dr. Allison loves the local church, and he did a good job of distinguishing between true and false churches as well as less pure and more pure churches among those that are true. He had some good words and questions to ask yourself before moving from one true church to another:

1. Have I expended all of my opportunities to effect change in this church?
2. Will continued participation in this church exert a negative impact on my relationship with and worship of God, my ministry for Jesus Christ, the use of my spiritual gifts, etc.?
3. Do I have to compromise too much—essential doctrines and practices, a lifestyle in accordance with biblical values and principles—in order to remain in this church?
4. Do I have a legitimate reason for leaving?  In a culture where church-hopping and shopping is the norm, I felt these were timely words for Christians to ask themselves before leaving their church so that we don’t flippantly move on from a place God may want us to persevere in.

2. Have something in your life you can finish.


Pastors and those in ministry need to have some outlet in their life that allows them to finish something.  Ministry is never finished, and the pile of work continually grows. Paul told Titus to “put what remained into order” (Titus 1:5).  Based on my experience, I don’t think Titus ever finished getting everything in order.  As he appointed elders, it meant more training and leadership; as new people met Jesus, it meant more teaching and discipleship; as the church grew, it meant new systems and structures.  The church is alive and therefore never finished.

This is why Dr. Allison recommended having something you can finish.  It might be writing a book, refinishing your basement, or some other outlet for bringing something to full completion so that you can enjoy the work and rest upon its completion.  He wasn’t legalistic about it, and didn’t attempt to prooftext any verses to support this position--it was just a piece of pastoral advice from a seasoned pastor.


3. Fight for unity.


The church begins at a place of unity.  In Ephesians 4:3, Paul says, “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Wow, the church is unified because of the Spirit’s work, yet our sins of pride, envy, gossip, jealousy, dissention, and the like are actively working to destroy the unity of the Church.

Dr. Allison pointed out from Ephesians 4:2 that unity is maintained and achieved through the attitudes of gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love.  He challenged all of us to dig deep into the places where we and our churches are not unified and accurately diagnose the root issue, which is nearly always sin of some sort.  One of his closing lines on this topic was profound: “The will to maintain unity can overcome significant differences.”



For more from Dr. Allison, read his posts on Missional Ecclesiology on the Resurgence.



You can follow Pastor Jamie on Twitter at twitter.com/jamiemunson.

Total Church

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis present a vision for churches centered on gospel community. Find out more.

Church leadership is complicated. It must start with deference to Jesus as the Chief Shepherd and ultimate head of the body (Eph 5:23). He’s in charge, and we need to submit our plans and leadership to him.

Human Leadership: Elders

In addition, the Holy Spirit appoints human overseers who must follow Jesus’ leading (Acts 20:28). The highest office of leadership in a church is that of elder (1 Tim 3:1–7).

The elders must fulfill a wide range of responsibilities and address a variety of issues which grow in complexity as a church grows in size. The law of the land, for example, is extraordinarily complicated for large churches, and the elders must ensure that operations remain in compliance (2 Cor 8:20–21).

A Trinity of Complexity

The complexity must be dealt with in order to ensure a healthy and fruitful church. Therefore, the elders must organize in order to properly govern, manage, and shepherd the church as an organization and as a people. Every church needs these three functions to develop in concert:

• Govern: An overseeing body must ensure that proper systems and controls are in place to promote wise stewardship of all the resources entrusted to the organization’s care. Resources include the mission, leaders, finances, and people.
• Manage: Delegated leadership is responsible for day-to-day decision-making and operations oversight.
• Shepherd: Pastoral care includes preaching, teaching, counseling, and discipling the people of the church.

Case in Point

Here is how this plays out at Mars Hill: our Board of Directors is responsible for the governance of the church; our executive elders, department heads, and campus pastors are responsible for the management of different components of the church; and our shepherding is led by the campus pastors and their elder teams.

Specialized

As a church organization grows, leaders become more and more specialized. Each elder at Mars Hill has a general obligation to govern, manage, and shepherd, but typically specializes in one of these three areas (Rom 12:4).

Our aim as church leaders is to build an organization under the authority of Jesus and his Word, governed diligently, managed faithfully, and shepherded with great care for its people.

Jamie Munson is Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. Find him on Twitter and Facebook:

• twitter.com/jamiemunson
• facebook.com/jamiemunson

Re:Train

We are launching The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) to prepare leaders for ministry locally and around the world. Additional details and downloadable application form here.

I was born again in the Disneyland of churches.

It hasn’t been all roller coasters, cotton candy, and laughter, but I feel like I’ve experienced a lifetime of grace in the 12 years since I became a Christian at Mars Hill. This church is where I was baptized, where I met my wife, where we’re raising our four kids, and where I’ve served on staff for ten years (read my story on the Mars Hill Blog).

My Job: Lead Pastor

Today, I serve as the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. That may not seem readily apparent to those of you that follow our church and the ministry of Mark Driscoll, so allow me to explain.

Two years ago, after working on staff for many years, I took on the responsibility of leading Mars Hill: day-to-day operations, staff oversight, casting vision, organizational strategy, etc. This change allowed Pastor Mark to focus the majority of his time using his leadership and communication gifts that we all benefit from.

Obviously, Mark still serves as a significant influencer of Mars Hill—and Acts 29 and The Resurgence. One of the things I admire most about Mark is that he really isn’t motivated by titles and positions but rather using his influence to glorify Jesus for as much Gospel fruit as possible.

5 Men, 3 Movements

I love my job. I get to work with some of the best men I’ve ever met: the Mars Hill Executive Elders. Together, the five of us lead, oversee, and shepherd everything we’re doing:

• Mark Driscoll
• Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Network Director
• Rick Melson, MHC Campus Network Director & Re:Train Director
• Tim Beltz, Executive Pastor

The Executive Elder team is where the leadership of three unique yet related movements converge:

• Mars Hill Church: Starting new campuses, providing free resources, and serving as the local church.
• Acts 29 Network: Starting new churches and providing brotherhood for pastors around the world.
• The Resurgence: Training leaders, providing resources and events, and publishing books and music for the benefit of the greater church.

Mars Hill Global

Each of these entities is a work of God in its own right, and each has a unique, bold vision. So how does Mars Hill Global fit in?

We unveiled Mars Hill Global on Easter Sunday this year, and the new website features the logos of Mars Hill Church, Acts 29, and Resurgence.

Mars Hill Global is a platform to serve these three movements by sharing stories of Jesus' work and generating support to build and continue the collective effort. We want to use the influence and favor that God has given us to bless as many others as possible.

Pride Must Die

Our pride would like to take credit for the fruit we enjoy, but we don’t deserve any acclaim. Jesus is the head of the church (1 Peter 5:4), Jesus changes lives (Eph. 2:8), and Jesus causes the church to grow (Matt. 16:18). “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16).

This is Jesus’ work, and we gladly share in it with the rest of his body.

Find Pastor Jamie on Facebook and Twitter.