Posts by Jimi Williams
The Status Quo is Impossible
Last week, as I was beginning my daily workout ofrunning 3 miles on the treadmill, an interesting thought occurred to me. I’ve been running 3 miles a day for over a year and half. When I first started running again, it felt like my body was falling apart. Everything hurt and I could feel every step all the way to my head. But after a few weeks, I noticed that the running was becoming easier. Besides becoming lighter in weight, my body was adjusting to the stress.
I have continued my 40 minute 3 mile workout ever since. After a year and half, I would have thought that the routine would become much easier. But that’s not the case. The workout is still as hard as it was after only 3 months.
Why?
I’m sure there’s a physiological reason for this, but my thought is that it’s really hard to maintain the status quo. The only way that the 3 mile run is going to get easier is to push myself to run 4 then 5 miles. Or challenge myself with a different workout that forces me to use different muscle groups.
There’s a spiritual lesson here. Paul said to “run (the race) in such a way as to get the prize”. Whenever we decide to coast spiritually, to be satisfied with where we are, we will begin to slip. The only way to keep our faith growing is to accept greater challenges, to trust God more, to become more like Christ.
Becoming satisfied with our spiritual maturity only proves our spiritual immaturity.
Read MoreWhen Is Enough Enough?
In the last day, 2 different things have brought this question to my mind.
First, our family watched the movie “The Blind Side”, which is about an affluent white family who adopts a teenage black boy. The unconditional love and provision provided by the family altered the course of the young man’s life and quite possibly the course of many lives as their story is retold.
Secondly, I committed Christian (my son) and I to a Guatemala mission trip next June. While reading up on Guatemala, I found that the average income per year is around $2,500 and the illiteracy rate is the highest in central America.
As Christians, we tend to error in one of two ways regarding wealth:
1. By believing it is wrong for any Christian to accumulate wealth and that we should take a vow of poverty. We cite Jesus’ words in Matthew 19 where he tells the rich guy to “go sell all that you have and give to the poor”. Yet, Jesus had no beef with Zacchaeus who voluntarily vowed to give away only half of his net worth. Seems that Jesus is more concerned with the state of our hearts instead of the state of our bank accounts.
2. By believing that we are “off the hook” if we tithe (10%) to our church and give other money away on occasion. We cite passages in the Old Testament of Abraham, King Solomon and Lot who were blessed by God with great wealth. We also cite passages in Proverbs saying it’s wise to save for unexpected circumstances. Yet, Jesus says that if we see someone in need and have the resources to meet that need, we should.
At the root of both of these extremes is a wrong heart attitude. We must recognize that all we have belongs to God. We are wealth managers, not wealth owners. When we separate ourselves emotionally from our wealth, it’s easier to make good spending decisions.
The family who took Michael Orr into their home decided to use their wealth for good. Choosing to go on a mission trip to serve the poor is a good use of wealth.
God is not anti-wealth. If fact, the ability to make wealth is a gift from God. But he does want us to remember that it’s all His, not ours. And when he says “give”, our obedience will result in great joy.
Read MoreBig Blessing – Big Responsibility
We have been seeing God do great things at the Bridge this summer. Heading into the fall, I am full of anticipation. However, I am also challenged with Scripture about what God expects from those in church leadership.
From Luke 12:42-43 and 48…
The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Jesus is speaking to Peter, the future leader of his church. And his words are a challenge to us as church leaders today – that God will expect us to be “faithful and wise managers” that are ”in charge of his servants”. We will be held accountable for how we applied the abundant blessings God has lavished upon us.
Let us live and serve with urgency and dedication to the Gospel.
Read MoreMyths About Vocational Ministry
I first started leading worship in 1995 at a really, really small church that was near our home. I had few skills, but they needed someone who could sing on key and was willing to pick out three or four songs each week for the Sunday morning and evening services. So I agreed to take it on.
I continued to lead worship for several years and eventually ended up in youth ministry leading a full band of students and adults for a pretty large church in the area. My heart for worship grew and God was working in powerful ways during our worship times. I began to wonder if perhaps God was calling me into vocational music ministry.
Let me pause there. At this point in my life, I was all passion and little brains. God knew this of course and he helped me along. But as I processed this “call”, I had ideas that existed in my mind, but were not rooted in reality. Don’t get me wrong, I am a believer in vocational ministry and I don’t want to discourage anyone who is, or is planning to be, a vocational minister. But there was a wide expanse between what I thought vocational ministry would look like and what it actually turned out to be.
Myth #1 – I can give more time to the Kingdom and advancing the Gospel. My idea of vocational ministry was hanging out at the local coffee shop for hours on end until I knew every worker and customer who came in. Eventually they would all relinquish their caffeine addictions and accept the Lord. In reality, I spent most of my time running errands, handling paperwork and in meetings. Plus, since leaving my regular job, I had entered a Christian bubble and had very little contact with the unsaved.
Myth #2 – Our church worship will be so much better if I have more time for planning and creativity. Most vocational music ministers spend a huge chunk of their time doing stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with music. “Can we have music at the art and craft fair next week?” I found in the end that I was spending about the same amount of time planning worship as when I was working a regular job.
Myth #3 – I will feel more spiritual and have more joy if I’m working for the Lord full-time. Not so. In fact, most vocational ministers experience a heavy dose of spiritual dryness, discouragement and even depression. Vocational ministry is NOT the easy life.
Please hear my heart. I DO NOT want to discourage anyone from pursuing vocational ministry. But vocational ministry is not the pinnacle of our relationship with God. We need spirit-filled believers in all walks of life: moms, dentists, office workers, business people. You can be a full-time minister for the Lord without ever getting paid for it.
Read MoreAn Inside Look at Discipleship
After Josh’s message a few weeks back on the need for personal discipleship, I was contacted by a couple of young guys in the church who wanted me to disciple them. It was pretty cool that the Holy Spirit had already bought these guys to my mind as I’d been thinking and praying about it the week before. Even though I didn’t really know how to disciple someone, I said “yes” since God was obviously leading.
So now, here we are a few weeks in and I’ve learned a few things already that might be helpful to some of you who are thinking about discipling or being discipled by someone:
1. Be transparent. I decided beforehand that I wasn’t going to pretend like I had all the answers. I try to be completely honest about my struggles and victories.
2. Have a plan. We decided to read a book together and discuss a chapter each week. While we may stray from the book during our time, at least we have a road map to follow.
3. Pick a time and place. We decided on a weekly meeting in the morning at a local coffee shop.
4. Stay the course. Inevitably, there will be schedule conflicts that prevent you from meeting. Don’t give up. Stay in touch by email or phone on the week’s when you can’t meet.
5. Trust the Holy Spirit. God is all over discipleship. Trust that He will do so much more than you would expect or do on your own.
Okay, that’s it so far. I’ll follow up with another post in a few weeks and let you know if my guys have ditched me yet 
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