Category Archives: Church Life

The Incredible Abundance of God

Whenever I take the time to read briefly in the Deuterocanonical Books (Apocrypha) I find such wonderful nuggets. Sirach, reading like Proverbs, continues to reveal the richness of pursuing God’s wisdom.

26 If you want to find Wisdom,
then keep the commandments,
   and the Lord will supply her to you in
   vast quantities. (Sirach 1:26, CEB)

God doesn’t sprinkle the richness of his Kingdom on us. He pours out his abundance on us. Seek the Lord. Pursue his way and find an abundance of the Kingdom.

We need a taste for the richness of the Kingdom again. We’re satisfied with fake desserts and processed meat-like substances. We are missing the incredible feast of the Kingdom of God.

To My Pastor Friends

13 Jesus went up on a mountain and called those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve and called them apostles. He appointed them to be with him, to be sent out to preach, 15 and to have authority to throw out demons. (Mark 3:13-15, CEB)

There is a sacredness to our calling. We can get caught up in the “stuff” of ministry. We can be consumed by the expectations of others.

As I spoke with a worship leader a couple of weeks ago, he stated the painfully obvious temptation: “We have to put rear ends in the seats.”

The expectations and the temptations are huge. Others are running “big numbers” and you may not be in your ministry. You might “have numbers” but the pressures don’t go away.

There are times we simply need to remember the call of our Lord. The call to pastor is sacred and we need to return to those holy moments in our lives. They are precious.

The first call of Jesus to the ones he would call apostles is this: be with him. The other stuff will come. Just be with him.

Get his agenda. He knows what he wants to do with his church. Your calling is precious to him. Rekindle that incredible love and joy you sensed when the Lord pointed to you and said, “Let’s do this.”

Be with him. There is no greater priority.

Where Healing Dwells

Mark Chapter 2 has a series of stories that I think are summed up in Jesus’ little story of wineskins and new cloths:

21 “No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes; otherwise, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and makes a worse tear. 22 No one pours new wine into old leather wineskins; otherwise, the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost and the wineskins destroyed. But new wine is for new wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22, CEB)

I think Mark uses those words to describe the events around that encounter in Chapter 2. God is bringing something powerful to the people of God and they just aren’t ready for it. Their old systems aren’t going to handle it. It’s not a “new” thing, necessarily. It is a GOD thing.

One of the old systems had to do with “unclean.” When someone had a skin disease in the Old Testament they were quarantined. If the “clean” were to touch the “unclean,” the “unclean” would infect the “clean.” The solution was to separate the two for a time and allow the “unclean” to become “clean” again.

Religious leaders had then extended that to Gentiles and other people they didn’t like. You just don’t hang out with “that kind.”

Here comes Jesus calling “unclean” people like tax collectors and then going to their homes for dinner! To share a meal was a sign of acceptance. The religious leaders were furious!

Jesus’ answer was simple:

“Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.” (v. 17)

The Kingdom of God was reversing the Old Testament paradigm. NOW it is when the “clean” touches the “unclean” it is the UNCLEAN that gets “infected” with the clean. Healing dwells in the Kingdom of God. Healing dwells wherever the Kingdom of God moves. Healing dwells with the people of God.

When we choose to move out and “infect” our world with the power of the Kingdom, we will find our wineskins are adequate for the Kingdom of God.

Passage and Thoughts Challenging Me Lately

11 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. 12 His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ 13 until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. 15 Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, 16 who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does their part. (Eph. 4:11-12, CEB)

I need to get my mind wrapped around the call of ministry again. There are areas of ministry we are heading as a church where I need to clearly hear from God. We need to move in the power of the Spirit. Not our own power.

Consider These Numbers

The Super Bowl last week garnered a record number of viewers in the U.S. : 111.3 million.

Hundreds of players in the NFL train year round for the opportunity to square off on television’s biggest stage. Only two teams and few dozen players will make that stage. One team walks off the LOSER.

But they train like maniacs for months to get to that stage so that over one hundred million people can see them. They train for glory.

And the world population is around 6.8 billion.

These players put their bodies through a lot of discipline and 99.8% of the world will NOT see what they are doing. Yet, they do it willingly. It is the glory of the game. It is fleeting. Everyone knows the Giants won’t repeat next year. It’s the NFL. It’s rare to get to the Super Bowl even in back to back years, let alone win.

For that very fleeting glory those men are willing to lay it on the line.

Meanwhile, millions of Christians have the opportunity to “play” for eternal glory. Not for the adoration of millions of viewers. It is for an audience of One. And it is not simply to be noticed by the One. It is the opportunity to lay it all on the line so that OTHERS can have the chance to see the One…

And we can’t get ourselves out of bed sometimes. We think about going to church for worship. We scramble to find our Bibles. We give our pocket change to missions.

Anything wrong with this picture?

24 Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. 25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. 26 So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing. 27 Rather I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others.(1 Cor. 9:24-27, CEB)

Pastors as Theologians

One of the topics I have wrestled with for quite some time is the idea of pastors as theologians, or theologians as pastors.

As a pastor, I have grown over the years in my ability to think theologically. I earned my Master’s 20 years after I finished my BA. I love pastoring.

What I have become more convinced of is the Church made the mistake centuries ago of separating the pastorate and the academy. We have a very tough time recovering from that drastic mistake. We now think that someone who is “intellectual” is destined for “academics,” and someone who isn’t quite that “intellectual” and more “practical” is therefore consigned to ministry.

Many great students I have talked to in recent years really feel that they want to pursue academic careers and will only reluctantly consider pastoring. It has reached a point where pastoring is something you get pulled into kicking and screaming, if you happen to love theology.

What I long for is a return of the two abilities. Brian over at Near Emmaus is processing the issue of the academy vs. the church and it is a very thoughtful post.

He quotes John Chrysostom, a great theologian and pastor. The earliest centuries of the Church, where the major discussion of the big foundational blocks of Christian theology were formed, were forged in the churches by pastors.

We need these gifts together again. I don’t think we’ll ever get away from having pure academics, but what we truly need to get away from is pastors who think, “I don’t need no stinkin’ ‘cemetery’ education!”

Lord, help us to think again. Think… with hearts on fire.

Abortion

I work hard to stay away from what may seem to be “political” statements on my blog. Facebook is different.

Yet, the whole blow up this week with Planned Parenthood and the Susan G. Komen Foundation has so crushed my spirit, I am going to take that risk.

I repent for not remembering Pro-Life Sunday (as well as MLK Sunday). I have let the politics of this fundamental issue dictate my silence… and I am wrong.

This issue is beyond abortion, in my opinion. It is not about “pro-life” or “pro-abortion.” It is about a bigger god that demands worship and when some small organization with a small amount of money came along to this beast and clipped its hangnail, the beast roared. The small organization then “got back in line” to not offend this raging god.

I can’t serve that god anymore through my silence. I just can’t. Hopefully I will be able to slide this post by without having a lot of angry posts, but if I do, I’m going to deal with it.

I pray to the Lord:

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.
I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.
I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
Today I commit myself
Never to be silent,
Never to be passive,
Never to be forgetful of the unborn.
I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Leading and Pastoring

There will always be the call to LEAD. It is not a matter of saying it’s either you pastor or you lead. But it is painfully clear that we are putting leadership on steroids these days in our cultural churches.

Pastors MUST lead. But in the church, and in being the pastor (or whatever you want to call it today) you can’t get around the injunction of Scripture as well: pastor the flock.

3 Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:3, CEB)

Blue Chips and Junk Bonds

David Brooks is one of my favorite columnists. This column discusses politics, but it reminds me of a conversation I had regarding ministry as well. Brooks’s contention is that liberals have allowed short term gains to cloud their vision for long term good.

The conversation I had regarding churches and ministry was much the same. American churches are investing in junk bonds instead of blue chips. We are going for “short term” gains that really mean nothing other than quick personal gain. We are doing things for the “quick pop” and not giving regard to long term results. Blue chip investing in the market would be looking to what is solid, what is long-term, what may sacrifice something up front to gain something later.

Junk bond investing tanked this economy. People invented investment tools made out of thin air that looked good inflated values and gave massive profits only to those who invented the smoke and mirrors then got out just in time.

Junk bond investing in the American church is trading off the long term gain of the Kingdom for the short term accolades that make us feel good, give us book deals, and allow us to speak on large stages.

Blue chip investing in the American church would be seeing the power of the Kingdom and insisting on the principles of the Kingdom to bring that power. Nothing short of that long term stability will do in blue chip ministry.