How to Measure Maturity?

I can remember clearly my first forays into the realm of comparing church successes and by analogy, pastoral leadership success. As a 30 year old volunteer campus minister I was invited to the monthly meetings of the local denominational gatherings with all the local ministers and various denominational officials. I was excited to be with these mature spiritual leaders.

I wanted to learn how to be a "real man of God" and I assumed that I could see them up close and personal here. I must admit that I was sorely disappointed. I discovered that almost all the talk was about numbers, noses and nickels. The number of baptisms, the noses that showed up at the various church meetings and then how many nickels the congregation had contributed to the church.

Whey did they do this? I am sure there are many reasons but the easiest and most direct ways are numbers, noses and nickels. Attendance, giving and commitments are the quickest and most "reliable" ways to communicate how well we are doing in the ministry. Let's face it, measuring spirituality is like catching mercury or measuring the humidity. We only see people at public meetings so we don't really know what people are doing in private.

And, the model of ministry most churches have chosen is preaching and teaching by the ministers. It is not related to the inner spiritual development of believers but the outer, easily counted things like giving and attendance.

Here I am over forty years later and I still do not see many Pastors with different ideas about how to measure maturity of their members. Take a look at the brief article by Dallas Willard to see what you think of his ideas about measuring maturity. I like it a lot and have spent a lot of my ministry trying to foster Christian maturity. But let me say quickly, it is not easy to do.

I mistakenly posted on this blog rather than my other one, Spiritual Healing and Growth. Take a look at it there as well if you wish.

I strongly urge you to read a great book, The Critical Journey, by Janet Hagberg on this topic. It is shown at the top of the page. You can purchase it at amazon.com

Three Doctors Graduating in 1975

 

From left to right are Gary sweeten, Dick Towner and Gary Penfield, all getting our Ed. D. Degree the same day in 1975. We worked together under Dr. Bill Nester and we were each involved at College Hill Presbyterian Church.

World Religions

While I am thinking about religion and it consequences, let me ruminate very briefly about the recent trend in the West to worship nature. There are essentially only four models of religion.

I. Secular Humanism-The notion that nothing spiritual or transcendent exists. We are locked in a closed system of space, time and energy. All things that occur can be explained as "Uniformity of causation in a closed system". There is no God, Spirit or intervening force outside us so there is no such thing as a conscience, morals, ethics, healing, etc except those we design ourselves.

II. Pantheism-This is the opposite of Secular Humanism. God is everywhere and in everything. The moon, stars, trees, dirt, bees, crickets and weeds are sacred. This view tends to worship Mather Earth. (Notice that the term is capitalized.)Eastern mysticism of Hinduism, Confucius, Buddhism, etc are Pantheistic.

III. Greek Dualism-There is a God and also nature but the two do not interact. Spiritual matters do not belong in daily life.

IV. Judah-Christian Holism- God created all things and humans in His image. In God we live and move and have our being. The Holy Spirit is with us and in us at all times.

I will post more here and upload some papers to my web page.

Gary Sweeten

Citizen Revolutions

For several years I have been advancing the notion that we are in the midst of The Fourth Great Awakening. Awakenings occur when revivals of spiritual life mature into a social, cultural movement.

The Sixties and Seventies saw a huge international revival. Millions came to faith in Christ and were deeply touched by the Holy Spirit in many streams of living water. These revivals were interdenominational, ethnic, various ages and explosive.

The people who came to faith almost immediately decided to live out their new spiritual desires in small groups, house meetings, choirs, quartets, communes para church gatherings and Bible studies. The primary emphasis was on individual and Small group responsibility to lea God's word and live them out every day.

These groups tended to be egalitarian, open to everyone and under no specific authority structure, denomination or theological tradition. I was Associate dean at University of Cincinnati and we saw a wave of kids who were touched by the Holy spirit and who wanted to live daily by God's truth, grace, love and power.

One of my student friends came to UC from Cleveland where he had attended a Roman Catholic high school. On a retreat with father Jim Tommy was brought to faith in Christ and was born again. He was also "Baptized into the Holy Spirit" and started to witness to his friends and spend hours in prayer, fellowship and worship.

That was the genesis of the Jesus Movement and the revival precursor to the Fourth Great Awakening we are experiencing today.

Prayers for Russia

It is dangerous and difficult to live in Russia, especially if you are trying to make positive changes. I have enormous respect for my friends in Russia and keep them in my prayers. I am asking you to pray for them as well.

Although this story about the killing of people in Russia has nothing to do with our friends or with the church there, it is a reminder of the need to bring the good news of Christ into a dark and dangerous world. We in the USA are so blessed to live in a safe nation that, for the most part, protects its citizens.

Here is the story from Russia.

Just days after the kidnapping and murder of prominent human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, another civil rights activist in Russia has been buried after being found dead. The body of Andrei Kulagin, head of Spravedlivost ('Justice'), was discovered in a quarry on July 10, roughly 600 miles north of Moscow.

Please keep the Russian people in your prayers. The Believers there are doing their best to bring peace, love and joy as well as healing to the populace. It is a long hard road but in Christ still possible.

Legacy!

How do you want to be remembered? That question was asked of Jonas Salk several years after he had developed the Polio Vaccine. The answer he gave surprised me but it makes sense at the same time. He said, "I want to be remembered as a great ancestor."

Wow! That is heavy. I love his answer because that is my goal. I am a father of two kids and Grand Father of four. I want them to grow up with healthy lives, strong Christian family values and using all their gifts, talents and develop skills to add value to the well being of the world. I cannot control those things, of course, but I can plant seeds and develop systems that foster them.

This was the topic I spoke on tonight at the chapel service at Mason Christian Village. The scripture I chose was Hebrews 12:12-15

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

The writer starts out by giving us his goal of healing, peaceful relationships and holiness so we can see God at work in our lives. That is a very impressive set of goals. Overwhelming, in fact. How can it be done? What is required of us? How much education, money, hard work and striving is it going to take for these things to occur? See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

It will require God's Grace. Not Gary's striving but Christ's finished work and the power of the Holy Spirit. Now THAT'S good news.

Gov Palin's Special Child

As you may know, Sweeten Life Systems has been awarded a grant to research the needs of parents with kids who suffer from such things as Down syndrome, Autism, Fragile X syndrome, etc. We are interviewing twelve families and learning all about their struggles, victories, challenges and support systems.

In one of the first articles showing Gov. Palin in a positive manner, The Huffington Post, lays out the challenges in a well written essay. I heartily suggest you read it.

Go to our web to read more about out research.

A Giant Passes into Glory

Dr. Ralph winter, one of the most influential Christians in history and certainly in the modern era, went to meet Jesus face to face yesterday. Go to this site for a video and overview of his work.

Many years ago Karen, Julia, Timothy and I went to Pasadena where Dr. Winters was building The US Center for World Missions. They were just taking over the campus of an old Christian college in Pasadena that had been rented for some years by an Eastern Cult. The place was filled with evil spirits and I taught them how to clean the place up before moving all those studentsand leaders into the buildings.

Ralph and his wife Roberta were brilliant and cutting edge on ways to reach the world with a special emphasis on Unreached Peoples. Roberta is the very first person I ever saw who took a laptop with her to take notes at conferences and meetings. The story is that Ralph learned his theology lessons by reading and listening to roberta tell him what was said in class and she learned because she attended and did all the papers. That may be true or not but it would not shock me either way.

Missions

Preaching the gospel in Denmark is difficult. Well, not the preaching but the responses are low and church attendance is very low. The State Church in Denmark is Lutheran and I now know why our founders made sure we in American escaped from the horror of a state supported church.

But here is the good news. Creative and innovative church planters have discovered that many of the new immigrants to Denmark are very open to the good news. Over 450,000 new churches have been planted in Denmark in the past decade.


One of the reasons why our ministry of equipping is so critical in Europe lies here. They Christ Followers need good ministry skills and the new church leaders are under trained in practical skills of ministry. Please pray for a revival in Europe. There are more witches there than in Africa.

Gry Sweeten

Equipping Volunteers to Help

I just taught a group of thirty Christian leaders today about the importance of getting themselves and others ready to minister with love. Here is a very brief summary.

The acrostic that serves as a foundation for helping others can be seen in the word GREW.

Genuineness-This requires us to know ourselves and what motivates us to help others. I did an Doctorate in Counselor Education in 1975. My research showed me that the key to helping others was no my knowledge or beautiful advices but how I treated them when we interacted. In order for me to build trust and open communication, I had to come across as a real person not a fake.

Genuineness means that:

I know my own thoughts and feelings
I can name my thoughts and feelings
I can manage my thoughts and feelings
I can share my thoughts and feelings

So, if I am nervous when I talk with others I need to recognize the feelings and know from where they arise in my thought promise. I cannot be very helpful unless I am aware of my onw needs and temptations.

It has been my personal experience that 75% or more of the men and women who want to be trained as Helpers do so because of fleshly, selfishly drives. Unless the training helps students understand the genesis of those selfish desires, the Helper will spread more trouble rather than facilitate health. (See my web page for more information.)


Gary Sweeten
Enjoying the frozen beaches of Tjome, Norway

Helping Special Children Grow

We recently received a grant from the Hatton Foundation to research the needs of families with special needs children and develop models for meeting those needs. This is a huge and exciting venture.

One of our dear friends and former students in Denmark is Kirsten Callesen. She left her former position to get a Masters and Doctorate with specialties in Special Education. Kirsten took the materials she had learned in the

Apples and RCT classes and developed her unique approach for helping kids with Aspergers.

You can see her work at the CAT Kit web site.

It is very exciting to see Seasoned Believers take on such large challenges, especially when they are doing a great job.

Take a lool at this video on how they are working with kids.

Pray that we will be able to develop ministries that are as great as my friends in Denmark. I will visit with Kirsten in March when I go there to teach.

Gary Sweeten

Needed: Entrepreneurs

Christians must stop thinking like those in Sixteenth Century European villages. The focus back then was to raise up a few educated Priests and Pastors who would tell the village what to think, what to do and what to eat.

The situation has completely changed since the Dark Ages and the Protestant Reformation. It is time we started thinking about how to raise up thousands of Spirit filled entrepreneurs to fill the seats of science, education, medicine, politics and business. Gone are the days when a local Priest was the only person who could read and write or who had travelled outside the village walls.

Take a look at the video on leadership by the Washington Post. It clearly lays out a model for us to follow and I am expecting the Seasoned Believers of the world to lead the race.

Gary Sweeten

A Joke in Danish

Pardon my weird sense of humor. I posted in Danish that I cannot read as a way to get some attention. Here in English about my upcoming trip back to Scandinavia.

The Lord took me to Kenya, East Africa in 1983 to meet Jens-Petter Jorgensen, one of the founders and leaders of the Holy Spirit renewal in Norway. We became friends and he invited me to speak at a conference for Pastors, Missionaries and Church Leaders in 1986. I along with Larry Chrouch, Ellen Chrouch, Steve Griebling and Hal Schell traveled to Oslo for a conference on healing, counseling and love in the church. God showed up in a very powerful and life changing manner.

That small beginning led Jens-Petter and his organization, OASE (Oasis) to invite us back for leadership training retreats. We met annually at Vats, a ski center high in the mountains of Norway for worship, teaching, small groups and great skiing. Leaders from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland came for healing and growth.

One of the Danish Leaders was Peder Paulsen. We became friends and he took our materials back home where I visited many times and now Peder is doing family healing and bringing renewal to the nation.

Here we are over twenty years later and I am returning to Norway and Denmark to see my friends, experience God's presence and share what it means to be a healing community filled with the Spirit's truth, power and love. I will also focus on following God as a Seasoned Believer.

Pray for my trip and our gatherings. I arrive in Oslo March 9 and will be ministering there for a week before going on to Denmark and back to the USA on March 19.

I injured both shoulders on the last trip to Russia and I need God's healing grace to take luggage on this trip. Also pray for the necessary financial support.

Thanks,

Gary Sweeten

Speaking of Change

A man was being tailgated by a stressed- out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did
the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, 'I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him.' I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do bumper sticker,the 'Choose Life' license plate holder,the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker,and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk.Naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car."

Ouch!

Leaders Speak

Two great communicators together: Rick Warren and Barack Obama

Any church or business that is growing is led by a good communicator. We can see from recent elections that the ability to speak clearly and persuasively is critical to one's political success. Mr. Bush is a fine man but he is a terrible communicator and McCain is not much better. Mr. Obama is untried and untested but he is a great communicator.

Sarah Palin surprised all of us with her tremendous ability to connect with people. I will be interested to see where she goes from here.

Great leaders get help so they can improve their communication. They need to communicate well in writing, interpersonal relationships and public speaking. Even Tiger Woods gets additional coaching and he is the best golfer ever. Great Pastors and Great Leaders have coaches as well.

Lloyd Ogilve was a famous Presbyterian Minister in Hollywood before taking the position as Senate Chaplain. Every sermon he gave was analyzed and discussed by a special speaking coach. The content was not discussed, that was the Preacher's job. However, the delivery, timing, pacing and tone were all fair game. That is how an expert gets better.

Who is coaching you?

Take a look at a great blog on communication. It has the top ten best and worst communicators of 2008. ( I am not on either list.)

Gary Sweeten

www.sweetenlife.com

Start 2009 off and be Fine

“Christ enables us to keep the First, Second and Third Commandments. In this way, we came to trust and have faith in God as our Father. We began to praise Him with a cheerful heart and regard His name as holy.

Where did all this kindness come from? We certainly didn’t do anything to deserve it. None of our good works performed in obedience to God’s law earned it. Instead, it came from being enlightened by the Holy Spirit, being renewed by the Word of God, and having faith in Christ. Through these, we have received a new spirit that makes God’s Word and God’s laws a pleasure to obey.

Now we find joy in trusting God above everything else…The undeserved kindness that Christ has given us through faith makes the First Commandment a pleasure to obey.” Martin Luther, By Faith Alone

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable. Paul Tillich

The church is the only human organization that requires its members to be unworthy in order to join. Gary Sweeten

Gary Sweeten
www.sweetenlife.com

Memories

I enjoy hearing from friends with who I have ministered over the years. One of the many blessings of being in the same area is seeing friends with who we have shared so much of God's love and power together.

Steve Griebling and I began working together in 1982 when he was at Upper Arlington Lutheran and I was at College Hill Presbyterian. It was a match made in heaven. Our interests and theologies were similar and we had a mutually up building relationship back then.

When I was invited to minister in Norway I asked Steve to accompany me along with Hal Schell and Larry and Ellen Chrouch. It was a divine team that God used to touch lives in a wonderful way.

As a result of our partnership Steve recruited some of his Teleios Workers and we traveled together to Scandinavia and other parts of the USA and the world. Yesterday I heard from Diane, one of Steve's team members. She is still using the Renewed Thinking skills she learned in the Eighties and they continue to "work" as she keeps her thoughts on Jesus.

Thanks Diane. I have many good memories of you, Marcie, Gail, Mary, Jim, Steve, etc on our trips to share the good news. Keep it up!

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

A lifetime of great relationships

A Growing Influence

After the resurrection of Jesus, His acension and outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, there was a powerful movement of Christian growth as people came to faith and passed the word from household to household and person to person. In the Book of Acts we can see how God used a few committed believers to spread the gospel.

The strategy of Jesus was simple, send the best trained leaders out from Jerusalem to various cities and preach the good news then disciple or equip them to reproduce themselves in that region. It proved to be a remarkably successful approach. In about 300 years the Roman Empire was afire with Christians despite persecution and oppression.

What is generally overlooked by modern Christians is how slow but steady that method proved to be. We truly love a quick fix. We want to preach a few sermons, preferably on radio and TV, and let the newly converted babies rear themselves. That approach in Russia and Eastern Europe has proved disasterous. Many of the new churches planted by this method after Perestroika have closed and others are very weak.

Our approach is different. First, we do not plant new churches but support the churches and leaders already here. They know the culture, spiritual needs and the best ways to share the gospel and follow up with discipleship. It is a slow bu powerful model much like that Jesus suggested.

In this part of the world, almost eveyone has been traumatized and, as a result, suffers from emotional and relational problems. Addictive behavior has been rampant ever since Peter The Great promoted alcohol as an essential part of government. The Soviets exacerbated that problem and cigarrettes have become a partner to alcohol as an agent of death, destruction and depression.

We have introduced the 12 Step Groups here and find that when they are cobined with prayer, scripture and worship they provide a wonderful process for getting and staying sober. As many as 75 to 80% of all men are alcoholics! Read Isaiah 28 for the reasons why.

The 12 Steps are a wonderful summary of basic Christianity. The local Christians have added several "Group Rules" that assist in training the people to listen, care and break the patterns of co-dependency. Pray for the leaders. Next week some of them will travel to cities far from Moscow to train more leaders. They are literally "Going into all the world and making disciples" by "teaching them to do everything that Jesus did."

If you can support one of the Russian leaders, let us know.

Gary Sweeten

My last letter from Moscow this trip

A Great Time In Russia

As I travel around the world and experience the stresses of economic uncertainty, family trauma and relational pain I am reminded of the assessments of experts such as Dr. Roberta Gilbert, an MD Psychitrist. She joins many others who think we are experiencing a time of societal regression in many nations. Societal regression occurs when there is an increase in all the negative aspects of life and a decrese in the positive aspects.
Negative Aspects: Violence, family breakups, family abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, interpersonal clashes, depression, anxiety, increased greed, leaders abuse power, sexual predators are commion, etc.
Positive Aspects: Family harmony, economic growth and basic needs are met, mutual caring, attendance at religious services, traditions are remembered and kept, parents are honored, children are desired, sexual relationships are monogamous, character is desired over beauty, peace and harmony are widespread.

Despite the widespread growth of the negative factors in many nations, we are seeing the development of powerful, loving Christian communities in numerous cities. (See above photo)Building a community that swims upstream against the tide of dysfunction is not easy but with faith in God and an open spirit to His guidance and power it can be done. These communities are light houses that offer hope, love and healing in a very dark culture.

The Russian people are reeling from many wars, the reign of an evil socialist empire for Seventy years and the death/destruction of numeorus good people. Entire families were wiped out by the Bolsheviks and 92,000 Orthodox Priests were killed for no reason other than they stood for love and mercy. Protestant Ministers and ther churches were also destroyed in a bllody attempt to replace love with evil.

The Russian churches and its people are recovering and working hard to rebuild the society based on godly principles. It is a long hard battle ans will take the prayers and support of Believers around the world.

Last night I visited with about fifty men and women who are deeply involved in the Recovery programs of Liferoute. There was an open and quite lively discussion about how to best relate to family and friends in a healthy and upbuilding manner. Such discussions were prohibited by the Communists and if the militant Atheists in America have their way it will be stopped in our own nation. Research from all over the world shows that Christianity produces health and wealth in any nation that comes to faith in large numbers. Here is Russia we can see what happens when the state viciously attacks our faith.

So, pray for our friends here. They are making progress despite great odds.

Gary Sweeten

What's Going On?

Human Resources for Good

Many of you may wonder why I have photos of books on my blog. Here is the reason. Each of them represents an issue that I find important.

The Fourth Great Awakening was written by Robert Fogel who contends that we are now in the midst of a giant spiritual event. Dr. Fogel won the Nobel Prize for his ideas about the economic and political impact of revivals and awakenings yet most of us have never heard of him.

Fogel indicates that the First Great Awakening resulted in the American Revolution; the second in the Emancipation of Slaves and the third in the United States Government's adopting many social safety nets. In the past an awakening was focused on distributing economic and political resources to those previously left out of the main stream. The Fourth s different.

The current situation in Europe and America finds us with many needs but most are not economic or political since we have achieved equal opportunities for all our citizens in those two areas. However, there is one huge arena where resources are not distributed equally. That is in the spiritual or non-material realm.

Fogel says the issues and concerns of this Awakening are the corruption of materialist ideas, the rise of a pro life ethic, interest in values to school curricula, a re-emphasis upon personal morality and values, strengthening family life, etc. All of these we are seeing played out today in our personal, social and political lives. There is a concern about the bureaucratic nature of government systems and the need to return to personal responsibility.

Fogel indicates that the Fourth Great Awakening began with the Sixties Jesus Revolution and will continue as those men and women grow and mature and are mobilized into social and spiritual action. This is one of the reasons I am mobilizing Seasoned Believers to get involved in the issues of today.



Here we are at the intersection of one of the greatest spiritual moments in history. Now what will we do with it? Contact me if you are interested in discussing your role in the Fourth Great Awakening. Maybe you can be a Paul Revere whose primary role was to ride all over the New England area warning the residents that, "The Redcoats are coming!"

Maybe you will preach about spiritual issues or take a role in helping families live bette rlives with God. God has prepared His people for just such a time in history. Let's roll!

Support us at:

Gary Sweeten

Sweeten Life Systems

P.O. Box 498455

Cincinnati, Ohio 45249

gary@sweetenlife.com