I’m Steve Lawes
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Meet Steve Lawes
Steve Lawes is a Certified Church Consultant. He has been the lead Pastor of Keys Vineyard Church in Big Pine Key since 1992. He has a Bachelors Degree in Bible and Theology from Berean University and Masters and PhD Degrees from Atlantic Coast Theological Seminary. He lead the Cuba Missions Team for Vineyard Missions from 1995-2005 and traveled to Cuba more than twenty times helping to plant churches and build up local leaders. He served as the South Florida Area Leader for the Association of Vineyard Churches for ten years. He also founded the Jesus Moment Bible Institute and Seminary in 2014 which has a student enrollment of over 2000. He has written three devotional books, Daily Psalt Intake, Daily Sage Intake and Daily Strength Training which are now out of print but are currently available as free e-books.
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Recent Posts from Church Consultant
Kingdom Revealed Part 10
This week we are wrapping up our series called “Kingdom Revealed,” but before we move on to our next series, “Kingdom Rebellion,” we need to introduce the elohim into the story.
Before God created us, His human family, he created a spiritual family. We often think of them as the angels. But this spiritual family is actually more than angels. The Bible calls them “sons of God” or the elohim.
Job 38:4-7 (NIV)
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels (elohim – sons of God) shouted for joy?
God’s heart is to live with his divine and human family on earth. God wanted the whole earth to be a place where heaven and earth met, where humanity could enjoy the divine, and where the divine could enjoy earth and humanity. And, the beginning of the problem, where the conflict comes from, is that some of this spiritual or divine family, don’t want to add this human family.
The word elohim refers to any inhabitant of the heavenly realm. The Bible clearly distinguishes God from all other gods in other ways, not by using the word elohim. For instance, the Bible commands the gods to worship the God of the Bible.
Psalm 29:1-2 (NIV)
1 Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
God is unlike any other elohim. He is their creator and King; no one compares to God.
Psalm 89:6-7 (NIV)
6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? 7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.
God has no equal, but the “council of the holy ones” is a real thing. We will be looking at this council and the question of why evil exists in the world at Keys Vineyard Church this weekend so be sure to join us in person or online.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
Kingdom Revealed Part 9
We are in a series called Kingdom Revealed and looking deeply into the first two chapters of Genesis. We discussed the cosmic temple, imagers, trees, mountains, and rivers. This week, we will discuss the ‘Spirit of God’. After Jesus was raised from the dead, we read in John 7:37-39 that He sent the Spirit into his followers.
John 7:37–39 (NIV)
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Back in Genesis 1, we are introduced to the “Spirit of God” or “Holy Spirit”.
Genesis 1:1–2 (NIV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
On the first page of the Bible, the world before creation is presented as a realm of darkness and chaos. Yet, above this tumult, the Spirit of God is portrayed as hovering, poised to instill life, order, and beauty. This Spirit represents God’s personal presence, referred to in Hebrew as ‘ruakh’.
As the narrative of the Bible progresses, we observe that God’s ‘ruakh’ imparts unique empowerment to individuals for particular missions. Joseph is the first character in the Bible to experience this divine empowerment.
Genesis 41:38 (NIV)
38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”
God’s Spirit enables Joseph to understand and interpret dreams. In Exodus, we see this Spirit empowerment happen again.
Exodus 31:1–3 (NIV)
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2“See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—
God’s Spirit empowers Bezalel to make the beautiful things in the tabernacle. We further learn that God’s ruakh endows the prophets with power. The prophets proclaimed that the Spirit would emerge to impose order out of chaos, similar to the events of Genesis 1. However, this time, its purpose is to transform the human heart, enabling people to love God and others genuinely.
Isaiah 11:1–3 (NIV)
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— 3and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;
Ezekiel 36:26–27 (NIV)
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel 37:14 (NIV)
14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
We will dig into all of this and how the Holy Spirit empowers believers today at Keys Vineyard Church this weekend. Please make plans to join us in person or online.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
Kingdom Revealed Part 8
This week, we are returning to our series called “Kingdom Revealed,” where we look deeply into Genesis 1 and 2. This seemed like a good week for a little review, as we have spent the last six weeks in Advent.
Genesis 1:1–5 (NIV)
1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
We initially looked at this idea of the Kingdom Revealed in Sword Sharpening. We established that we needed to know about Creation, Heaven / Earth (cosmic temple), the human family (imagers), and the Elohim.
Genesis 1 introduces us to God’s ideal for creation. We looked at how Genesis 1 describes the creation of a cosmic temple. A place where heaven and earth connect. This Cosmic Temple is God’s heart for being with His human family on the planet He created.
Genesis 2 introduces the characters who will be given the chance to live out that ideal.
Genesis 2:4 (NIV)
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
We discussed that Genesis 2 does not follow chronologically with Chapter 1. There seems to be a different order of things. This is an excellent place to have a think. Some people believe Chapter 2 is building on Day 6; some think it is building out Day 3 or some combination of Day 3 and Day 6, but there are problems with all those ideas. Perhaps it is a more detailed description of what is actually happening in the garden. Perhaps Genesis 1 is the ideal, and Genesis 2 is more of the reality.
Then, we looked at the concept of Imagers.
Genesis 2:5–7 (NIV)
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Another way to understand what it means to be an imager is that we are a royal priesthood. This is what the Apostle Peter was saying in 1 Peter 2:9
1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
The royal part is our vocation. God wants us to partner with Him to steward the creation, to make the planet like Eden. The priesthood part is us reflecting the image of God to one another and the world.
As part of our review, we will also be looking at the two trees, mountains, and rivers at Keys Vineyard Church this weekend, so make plans to join us in person or online.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
Testimonials
“Steve and his team at Keys Vineyard Church have built a church that has done an inspiring job reaching their community. Steve is a treasure trove of experience and has continued to prioritize learning and growth throughout his more than 30 years of ministry in a way few pastors have. You’ll get a lot out of connecting with him!”
“I watched first hand as Steve experienced the devastation of hurricane Irma in his town of Big Pine Key, Florida. The town was destroyed, the church building rendered unusable and the staff impacted personally. I watched a leader rise to the need of his community and minister in a situation that not very many could. He has a powerful voice of experience and wisdom earned the hard way.”
“Steve Lawes is a valuable coach/ mentor. I’ve watched Steve over the last thirty years build a substantial outward focused church with disciples who do what Jesus did. He has inspired leaders of churches with simple/tested ideas to develop leaders and grow churches.
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“Steve Lawes is an outstanding coach. He is authentic, creative, and personable. He has more cutting edge ideas than any pastor I know in regard to evangelism and meeting the needs of people in his community.”
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One of the greatest questions Jesus asked was “Do You Want to Get Well?”
I t would seem that the answer was obvious. But getting well for the man who had been not well for a very long time meant that he would have to do something different. It is not easy to change, but it always starts with a first step.
Take that first step now by sceduling your no obligation, free thirty (30) minute Zoom meeting with us today. You have nothing to lose and it may be your first step to a new and healthy way of doing and being the church.
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