Adventures In Revland

Protectionists

2013-05-15T11:06:00.001-04:00

In the current book I have been reading they used a phrase I have never heard before but I found quiet spot on. They referred to a group of church people as "protectionists" I wondered if they made it up. A Google search later I learned that protectionists is a noun that means "The advocacy system, or theory of protecting domestic producers by impeding or limiting, as by tariffs or quotas, the importation of foreign goods and services" It is a term used in economics.

The definition has some church similarities too. The way the author was using it was to describe those people within a congregation who protect certain church buildings, rooms, or other items. These are the people who are the protectors of the parlor, the defenders of the doilies, they protect the fine tablecloths from ternary, and they are the guardians of...well..."stuff".

These are the people, and every church has them, who don't want the good tablecloths used because children may spill juice on them (because older people never EVER spill anything!). They are the ones who want banners to stay on walls forever because they were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Legacy and they would roll over in their graves if they ever came down. They hold down the status quo and are road blocks for change.

Protectionists believe they are doing what is right for the church. They are protecting the church from what they deem as harmful and heresy. What they don't realize is in the midst of their protecting they are turning those items into idols. At some point tablecloths are more important than welcoming children. Couches in the parlor are too good to be used for a bride to get ready on. They are turning things into holy objects that are to be worshiped They are creating idols.

What is more important to a church, hospitality or clean tablecloths or couches? What looks more inviting, new carpet or the old 1970's green that has faded in the sunlight over these 40 years? Nothing should be more important than bringing people to Christ. No building nor the objects within them is more important then our mission to follow Jesus, make disciples and transform the world.

Protectionists out there...what are you protecting? Have you created your own golden calf?

My Struggle with Hate

2013-05-14T11:49:00.000-04:00

When I started this blog over six years ago I did so as a spiritual discipline during Lent. It was a time when I could sort through some thoughts, have some fun, and practicing writing. I had promised that I would be honest and open. Confession is said to be good for the soul and so let me confess. The silence on this blog for a while is because I have not been honest and open with what has been happening in my life. Today I feel like I need to cleanse the soul.

I know to some, as you read this, you will see this as petty. Some may see it as moronic or may come away reading, “welcome to the real world.” But, if I am to be open and honest I have to say that hate has gripped my heart for a while. It has seemed to pass now. The weight of this realization has help remove this ugly tumor from my heart. The writing of this post, this confession, this ugly truth, I hope will scrape off any remnant in order for me to move forward.

We have just moved into a new, beautiful parsonage and we are VERY happy. The happiness is just starting to sink in as my wife and I give ourselves permission to finally breathe. Our previous place of residence was the result of this darkness.

I understand the strength hate has as a word but I recognize now that it is exactly what I was dealing with. I hated my neighbors. There is a part of me that still does although we have moved 5 miles away from them. I still have to pass their house as I drop and pick up my son for school over these next 6 weeks. As I do, I can still feel that bile start to climb my throat. But I have learned to swallow hard and let it pass.

There were many factors that lead me to this hatred over the last 9 months. Day 1 of moving into the new parsonage our neighbor took my wife on a guided tour of the property lines. During this tour flash photography was not allowed but what she learned was a third of what seemed to the casual observer to be our backyard was actually not. Our neighbor owned it (see picture above) and she made it vitally clear this patch of grass was hers. It connected her house to her mother’s house (our neighbor on the other side of us). The parsonage, as I would come to learn, was simply a lawn ornament on THEIR block.

Every day there were part of the family, sisters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, would walk from their above ground pool to their mother/grandmother’s house. What looked like our backyard was simply an access road for the four wheelers, trucks, dirt bikes and golf carts to utilize. This road was less than 30 feet from our back door. Within a week or two of living there it became clear that we were welcome to use our patch of grass called our back yard but we will be watched and whispered about the whole time. Never really welcomed, merely put up with, tolerated because someone had to live in that lawn ornament.

The son is what really drove this nuisance to the point of hatred. On a nice winter afternoon our neighbor’s son decided to ride his dirt bike around the block. He would start in his grandmother’s yard, ride through our back/their side yard, through his backyard and then on the road around the rest of the block. Each lap got faster and faster. I am pretty sure dirt bikes are not made with mufflers, at least whatever model he was driving wasn’t. My three year old daughter had just lain down to take her afternoon nap, which she desperately needs or else she makes Regan MacNeil look calm. The loud noise of every rev of the motorcycle was keeping her up. My wife went outside and very nicely asked the son if he could do that somewhere else because our daughter is sleeping. He ignored her. She walked the 30 feet out to him and attempted to catch him on his lap by. He eventually acknowledged her but then told her off and informed her it was his property and he could do what he damn well pleased on it. My wife then walked to a building on the grandmother’s property that her daughter (the son’s mother) used as a place of business. She asked her if she could get her son to stop. She very reluctantly, and with all the attitude she could muster against my wife, she did.

This incident somehow gave permission for the son to start to do this on a regular basis. The dirt pile that was located right on our property lines was soon used by him and his buddies as a place to practice with their four wheelers and dirt bikes. When we would ask if they could take it somewhere else, we were put in our place quickly that we don’t own this piece of property and they can do what they like.

We had planned on selling the parsonage due to many factors, the major one being that it was sucking a ton of money out of the church. But on the afternoon in which we would make the decision to officially put it on the market or not I had it out with our neighbors. The bike riding was getting too much. I had asked them to take it somewhere else. They went away for a minute and then came right by. In a fit of a rage I screamed, “Why are you being such an asshole!” I regretted my verbal diarrhea but it got his attention. I walked over and showed him our property lines and informed him that to access this dirt pile, he and his friends insist on playing on, mean they have to drive over our property (about 7 feet) to get to their ‘access road’. I didn’t care that they walked back and forth. But this was too much and he needed to stop, if not I was going to call the sheriff. A deputy came out promptly and walked to the backyard with me. She informed our neighbor’s son that he needs to stop because if he would wreck on the church’s property our insurance would be liable. When our neighbor came over yelling and screaming about why the cops were called, the whole time echoing her son’s thoughts. “WE OWN THIS LAND and we can do whatever we damn well please. I can rev or make as much noise as I want as long as I am on my property.” The deputy informed her of the 24 hour noise ordinance in our town, which the son insisted only started at 11pm.

The next day there was a for sale sign in the front yard of the parsonage, 6 days later it sold for the full asking price.

In the process of moving out though, things didn’t settle down with the neighbors. They still did not respect us, or even acknowledge we lived there. One day, after another altercation over the four wheelers, our neighbor commanded that my wife, “Get the fuck back in your house!” I would catch the son talking on his cell phone on our driveway or I would find tire treads in the grass, only 10 feet from the house. Every time I heard him rev that stupid machine I would have thoughts of him getting hit by a car or hitting tree. He would ride it without a helmet and there was always a lot of cars, it could easily happen. These were comforting thoughts. They warmed my insides and gave me a sense of peace as my blood began to boil. These were the moments when I realized how hard my heart was getting.

When I stormed back into the house to call the sheriff that afternoon, I could hear God’s nagging voice, calming reminding me to ‘love you neighbor as yourself.’ As I paced late one evening listening to anger in my wife’s voice wondering what to do about a teenage bonfire party, I felt God’s nudge, “love your neighbor.” I joked with her later as we confessed these feelings of hate to each other, that I understood what Jesus was talking about but I wondered if Jesus really knew who our neighbors were! This, I confessed, is too hard. It is too much. Love your neighbor, love THESE neighbors.

As the weeks progressed and the meetings happened to sell our parsonage and then to actually move out, my temper got worse and my attitude towards people became hardened. My humor became dark, like The Cable Guy dark. Then in a moment of peace over dinner my wife looked at me and she said, “I cannot believe how hateful we have become.” She was dead on. Hate had entered my heart and was darkening and hardening it. This wasn’t me. People who know me know that I am not one who hates and works hard to love like Jesus commands, but this was too much.

Living surrounded by these people, my neighbors, these children of God, was like a noose being tightened around my neck. One of our friends said it would be cathartic to toss a paper bag of poop into their pool as we left. We didn’t but it was tempting. Yet, as we pulled away and left that lawn ornament behind relief started to fill my heart. Stress has melted away. Although the bile still creeps up my throat when I pass by, it is easier to swallow back down. But I still don’t quite know how to love them. If they were in need, I would help. I would use all my influence at church and in the city to help.

I have asked God to forgive my thoughts, those dark dreams and the moments when I stepped outside my normal self and possibly was an asshole myself. It has been two weeks since we moved and hate doesn’t have a tight grip around my heart as much. I can see it peek out here and there which tells me this may have lingering effects. I cannot simply blame ‘those people’ for causing this. Time, prayer, patience, and discipline will be the keys to getting my heart back.

I confess it was scary. I felt dirty and above all sinful. I pray that did not seep into my ministry and that I was able to compartmentalize that section of my life. However, I know I am forgiven and I will have to find a time to forgive myself as well.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” I understand that now and a burden it is, a heavy, smelly, dark burden. I’m sticking with love. Somehow, someway I’m sticking with love. As Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hate stirs up conflict, but love covers all offenses.” May it be so.

The Unseen Church Building

2013-05-09T11:39:00.002-04:00

There is a place that exists that many church members have never visited. There is place that is owned by the church that many don't even know where it is. This place is the most used building out of all of the church's facilities. It is used almost 16+ hours a day, and on some days all 24 hours. You may have guessed what building I am talking about by now, but if not, it is your church's parsonage.

Last week we moved into a new parsonage at my current appointment. We moved after ten short months after moving into the now "old parsonage." It is a task I have lived through as an associate 10 years ago as well. As we go through this process again, I am struck by a new realization. The parsonage is the most used, most occupied, most unseen of all church facilities.

I have lived in a church parsonage/manse since August of 2002. I have now lived in 6 church houses. What I have learned is that the church only knows what you tell them about the parsonage. It is almost at the whim of the pastor to either shed light on issues or let them go. What this translates to is the horrible option of having to "complain" about the condition of the house you and your family live in to people who don't. It is a unique and precarious place to dwell.

In a utopian appointment there would be a parsonage committee that met like they should. This committee would be just nosy enough to stay ahead of all the fixes a house needs but not TOO nosy that they bang on your door at 6am every other Saturday. There is a fine line but it is one that cannot be ignored.

Usually though (in my experience) it is ignored until something goes wrong or the pastor moves. In my last appointment we had probably the healthiest parsonage committee which met at the parsonage twice a year. One of those visits was the mandatory full inspection (this is in the United Methodist Church). In each one of these meetings we would make a list of the small repairs or hick-ups that were happening in the parsonage and make a plan of action to remedy these issues. Some chairs of the parsonage committee would be timely in fixing those; others not so much. BUT, what I found to be key, is that someone else knew what was happening within the walls of the parsonage.

With my 10+ years of living in 6 different parsonages/manses here are some rules I and my wife have come up with that we live by:

1. Leave the place better than you found it. This means the yard, the storage closet, the bathrooms, and everywhere else. If all ministers and their families lived this way, SO many problems would cease to exist during times of transitions.

2. Get permission to fix something before you do it because it really isn't yours. I dabble with DYI and I grew up with a father who had a rule, "If I can't fix it after three days of trying, then I'll call someone." But before I run off to the appliance repair shop to buy the $15 sensor to make the dryer work, I check with my parsonage chair or trustee chair. I do this not to annoy but to double check this is what they want me to do. That is the church's dryer, not mine and if they would rather pay a repair person to come out, it is their job to make that decision. Plus if something goes wrong, you have asked permission.

3. It is the Church’s house but our home. We make the place our own by putting up our art work, pictures, and using our furniture everywhere we can. But we also know it is the church’s house. We attempt to put good boundaries on what we do but also what we should not do. This especially true when it comes to our two cats.

4. Show the house off. I hate open houses but I do realize they are necessary. I realize the idea comes out of an older generation but it does serve a purpose. It gives the church confidence that you are taking care of your house but also enables the pastoral family to point out any flaws that need attention. For example, in our last parsonage, no one really believed our neighbors owned most of what looked like our backyard. Once they came out and saw the property lines they understood.

5. Be willing to get your hands dirty. I knew a pastor who told the Chair of Trustees that one of his jobs was to come over and change the air filters of the parsonage. I don’t think that is in the Discipline. Yes it is not your house, but be willing do plant flowers, change light bulbs, clean carpet after your pets and kids, and other things. The church is not a butler/maid service BUT when it comes to big ticket and permanent items, it is there responsibility.

(Warning…a small rant ahead)

I have not found a parishioner who understands what it is like to live in a parsonage, unless they were part of a clergy family at one time. Trying to explain to a person who owns their own home what it is like to committee approval to paint your kids bedroom is almost impossible. As people have looked at our conference’s parsonage guidelines many think we have it pretty sweet. Clergy families get a ‘free’ house to live in and all this furniture is provided. Laity, please listen, it is a blessing and a curse. It is really hard to make a house and neighborhood you didn’t choose your home. It takes skill, care, and patience. It can take a toll on relationships with children and spouses. Please don’t assume because the house is ‘free’ it doesn’t cost the clergy family anything! I have heard of people getting divorces and dealing will illnesses from the conditions pastors and their families have lived in/through.

Now I have found that the majority of my congregations truly care about the living conditions of their pastor and his/her family. They want us to feel like we are at home. I appreciate those people because they truly do care. There are others who could care less.

The fine line is that the parsonage is there (for those who don’t have a housing allowance) and it is a blessing and a curse. It is the most used facility of all the church buildings but one almost no one would recognize as a church building. Its invisibility can lead to decay and rot and at some moments peace and tranquility. The line those that live there have to walk can be tedious and precarious. However, out of all 6 I have lived in there is one thing in common. Like it or not, I have called each my home.

Why Worship Attendance Matters - Weems Video

2013-04-23T08:52:00.001-04:00

This is an interesting video from Lovett Weems and the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. I have been tracking worship attendance in Excel for almost 7 years now. I have never graphed it though and I'm looking forward to what that graph will tell me about attendance habits of my new appointment. Of course that means I have to wait at least another 6 months to get some good data.

Worship attendance has a cycle and I agree with Weems that we need to understand that cycle in our current congregation. If we don't then we miss out on opportunities. We are thinking from the inside out instead of outside in. Gone are the days when churches simply opened the doors and people came. In our current reality there are too many other options out there in the world. Crunching the worship numbers is not focusing on 'numbers for the sake of numbers' but is learning your community and seeing ways, even small ways, to encourage people to connect to God through worship.

Take the time and watch the video...it is worth your time.

John 10:22-30 - Sermon - Hear My Voice

2013-04-18T12:00:00.002-04:00

John 10:22-30

Hear My Voice

GOD, did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? GOD, instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't you just keep the ones you have now? GOD, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay? GOD, what does it mean you are a Jealous God? I thought you had everything. GOD, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. These are questions that children have asked God. They are funny and to look into a child’s mind is always entertaining. But we all have asked God questions at one time or another during our life.

In today’s text we receive another story of people asking Jesus something. There seems to be a tread that we can follow in these questions or better yet in the people who are asking these questions. You can place the people into three different categories: sincerity, entrapment or mistaken assumptions. As one looks at the people who sit there and ask Jesus questions, they fit into these three different categories.

In the third chapter of John we receive a story of a Pharisee Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night to ask him questions. Nicodemus asks Jesus how someone can be born again. He asks this question out of sincerity. He honestly is looking for the answers. He knew that Jesus was a teacher who came from God and wanted to know more, so Jesus answered him with care and compassion. Jesus lead him down a gentle path full of love and grace. The answer given befuddled Nicodemus, there was not a huge light that came on that shows us that he understood what Jesus meant by being born again. But the point is that Nicodemus’ heart was sincere in the asking.

That is not the case for some of the other Pharisees in the Jesus’ life. You don’t have to look too far to see that they try to entrap Jesus in order to bring charges against him. Take Matthew’s recount in chapter 22, this is a text many of you are familiar with. In this story the Pharisees use one of their disciples to go and ask Jesus if they should pay taxes or not. Verse 18 it states, But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." Jesus doesn’t answer them in the same tone as he does Nicodemus. Here you can tell that he is a little shorter with his answer, a little more poignant, and you can sense the tension.

Then you have the mistaken assumption questions. People ask Jesus questions but frame it in the wrong context or make assumptions about Jesus that they shouldn’t, and we all know what kind of trouble you can get into if you assume things. This is the type of tone that today’s question comes in. The people asking Jesus a question are not sincere and they are not looking to entrap him, well not quite yet. Within this question they assume a lot and are mistaken in their assumptions.

First of all who is asking the question? John tells us that the Jews gathered around him. Something that we have to remember is that the author of John’s gospel does not mean the whole Jewish race. Traditionally when you see the phrase “the Jews” in the Gospel of John it is in reference to the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The picture we receive now is one of the religious leaders cornering Jesus while he was in the temple. The first verse of this section tells us why Jesus is in the temple. It states that it was the Feast of Dedication, or the Feast of Remembrance. It was a winter Feast and since it was probably a little chilly Jesus found shelter in the south end of the second temple area called Solomon’s Colonnade or porch.

What happened was the religious leaders may have gotten caught up in all the celebrating. The Feast of Remembrance is a time when they would look back at their history and see their forefather’s victories over huge threats. This might have got the religious leaders blood going and they wanted to have history repeat itself by getting rid of their biggest threat, Jesus. In order to do so they needed to get some things strait, they needed more information. They cornered him in the temple and asked him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

The thing is with Jesus is that he can see into our hearts, he knows our souls; therefore he knew why they were asking him what they did. One of the commentaries I read restated the question as this, Jesus, do fit into our criteria of what the messiah looks like? When they asked this they were demanding that Jesus answer them on their terms. They wanted the Son of God to tell them a yes or no answer if he was the Messiah. Since Jesus saw into their hearts though he knew the reason why they were asking was not a yes or no answer, it was much more complicated than that. Jesus always gives the answers that the people really need, which may not be what they were looking for. The main point we need to know is that the religious leaders were trying to push Jesus into a box. We do this a lot with God. We expect God to be the God we want and desire.

I have stumbled on a blog called Letters from Leavers. This site is dedicated to the rants of people who are fed up with the church. They are so tired of God, ministers, and church people in their lives that they want to leave organized religion all together. As I have read through some of these posts I am convinced that many of these people suffer from the same thing that these religious leaders did, trying to fit God into their own little box they created.

Listen to one of these letters. I have had enough. I am leaving for good this time. I have always grown up in the church, going to Sunday School, and attending worship. Recently I went through a tragedy and neither God nor the church was there for me. I prayed to God but God did not answer. I reached out for help and all I got was a cold shoulder. I am fed up with this so called God. I always thought God was there to protect you. God is there make sure bad things don’t happen to the people that believe in him. That was not the case though and so I am out. God is dead to me. And then the letter goes on to rant about the church and the people in it.

Is it God’s fault that bad things were happening to this person? No, we live in a fallen world and Jesus never made the promise that nothing bad would ever happen to us, that is a huge misconception about God.

This person and so many more on this site all seem to be asking Jesus questions like, are you the God that will do things my way? Are you the God who will shed riches upon me if I follow you? Are you the God who will let nothing wrong ever happen to me again? When Jesus hears these questions his answer is, Am I the Christ YOU are expecting, definitely not.

But why not? Why cannot God be the God that we design? The easiest answer is because we are not the designer, we are the designed, we are the created, we are the children who cannot create the Father. Add on top of that, that we are humans, fallen creatures who have a limited ability to fathom the awesomeness of God. God is the only one who can tell us what God is like and he does in the second half of this text.

In this part we receive wave after wave after wave of grace from our Lord and Savior. It shows us that although the Pharisees expected one thing out of Jesus, Jesus offers them grace, care, and love for his sheep. Once again in the tenth chapter of John we get a picture of Jesus as a Shepherd and we are his lambs. This is a common theme in John’s gospel and throughout the Bible. That is the picture we receive from God. Jesus, or God, is a shepherd and we are his sheep.

What do you picture when you think of sheep. For me I get the picture of the only place that I have seen a ton of sheep, England. As Alycia and I lived over in England for a year we saw a lot of sheep in a lot of different areas. The town we lived in was right next to the Moors, a barren and unlivable place for humans, but a great place for sheep to roam free. As we would drive around these moors we would always have to be on the lookout for sheep in the road. With all the grass that is in the moors, some very intelligent sheep would find the grass nearest to the fast moving machines known as cars to be the tastiest. Inevitably we would see that one of these fast moving machines would collide with one of this not so intelligent creatures and the loser would always be the sheep.

It got me thinking about this image of sheep and shepherd that we get so much of in the Bible. I looked at this dead sheep on the road and I would think to myself, I don’t know if I want to be God’s sheep. I know like a sheep I will be sheared tonight but I hope I don’t smell as bad as they do. I hope I have a little more intelligence, no much but a little bit more than they do. I hope that I don’t just follow God because I don’t know any better. All of a sudden this analogy was not working for in my 21^st century mind. The truth is it might not work in many of your minds too because of your experience with these animals.

As I looked back on this analogy I came to a realization. I am doing it again. I am making it about me.

I am making it about us, instead of making it about God and learning something about God within this illustration. What do we learn about God as the shepherd instead of us as sheep. Verse 27 says, My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. In the text it states that Jesus is the kind of shepherd that knows each one of his sheep. He loves his sheep so much that he gets to know them personally. God is a God that is personal and wants to have that personal relationship with you. It also states that if we are Jesus’ sheep then we know his voice. We know when Jesus is calling us. That tells us that Jesus is talking to us. This means that our shepherd is active in our lives and cares so much about us, that he wants to talk to us, call out to us.

What is it though that the shepherd offers his sheep? Eternal life. Verse 28 states I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. Jesus is the type of shepherd that offers such an amazing gift to his followers. He is so loving, so generous that he wants his sheep to be with him forever. He offers us a gift that no one else can give us. He gives us eternity, a piece of eternity that no one can take away. We worship one loving God.

Can you see the waves of grace now? Can you see the loving care, compassion, and joy that Christ offers to his sheep? Even though the idea of being a smelly creature like sheep may be a little outdated, we can understand the care that Jesus offers. We can understand a little bit better who our shepherd is. In this text God is telling us who God is and I don’t know about you all but I like what I see.

God is telling his followers that we do not have to worry about eternity. We can loss the fear of the future. All we have to do is follow the shepherd. If we do then we will have eternal life. The thing is though many of us don’t truly believe that in our hearts. We have been tricked before in life. We know that people fail to live up their promises. We have been hurt, lied to, and our hearts have been ripped out and stomped on. What makes us trust God then?

We can trust God because God has never let us down. God promised to never flood the world again and sends the rainbows to remind us of that, and God has lived up to that promise. God promised that when the time was right he would makes things right again between us and him. He would send his Son to die our death in order that we may have eternal life. Jesus came to defeat death by rising again on the third day. We are in the Easter season, a time when we joyfully proclaim that God did exactly what God said he would do. God has always lived up to his promises. There has never, in this history of the world, been a time when God has messed up or failed to do what was promised.

This must mean that if verse 30 is true. If Jesus and the Father are one, if they and the Holy Spirit make up the 3 in 1 God that we worship and they have never failed in the past, then we can rest assured that they will never fail in the future. All of God’s energy, strength and love was put into the sacrifice that was made on the cross. God did not fail and God never fails us. This means that the promise of an eternal life with God must be true. This means that the Good Shepherd never leaves our side and is always with us through our life.

We see this in the 23^rd Psalm, the second most memorized section of the Bible. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, your shepherd’s crook they comfort me. God’s grace keeps washing over us.

It is alright to ask God questions, that is how we understand who God is. Asking God to be our image of God will always create a God who fails in some way. This means that we need to have God tell us who God is. Once we do so we need to rest assured that God will live up to his promises. Jesus, in this text promises to give his sheep eternal life. No matter who tries to take that away from us they cannot because it is God’s grace to give out not ours. It is our job to accept that grace. It is our job to hear that voice of hope and love; that voice of salvation and simply say thank you. Then live a life knowing that Jesus is there with us all along the way. Live knowing that you are wrapped up in the hands of God no matter what happens. That is the voice that calls to each of us. That is God we worship here today.

AMEN

Assess Your Leadership

2013-04-16T09:23:00.001-04:00

In 2008 I wrote a post after reading a book by John Maxwell. In the book, Developing the Leaders Around You, he gives 25 questions to assess the leadership around you. As I am approaching the 4th quarter of my first year of this appointment, I stumbled on this post. It is worth a read because it gives some keys to identifying great leaders verses emerging leaders.

Too often in the local church we place emerging leaders in places where great leaders are needed. Emerging leaders have passion and a lot of heart but may not have all the skills needed to follow through with a project or task. Especially in the UM system which demands working within a structure/polity, it may be too much for emerging leaders to tackle.

The ability to name where leaders are in their growth is beneficial because it provides a way to name the abilities of your leadership. There is nothing wrong with emerging leaders, but they need coaching. Great leaders and even good leaders can be left alone to use their talents and gifts but guidance is needed for those honing their leadership abilities.

As Chairpersons of the Nominations Committees of our churches, leadership assessment tools are great assets to have in our tool box. Please read (link above) it can be enlightening.

How to Spot an Insider

2013-04-11T14:58:00.002-04:00

In the book by John Flowers and Karen Vannoy, 10 Temptations of Church: Why Churches Decline & What to Do About it, they write about how to spot insiders within the church. Those who love the church and have been embedded for years there. I think it is important to notice who the insiders are within a congregation because insiders will set up the most resistance to change and to open a congregation up you have to open the insider up.

Here is their list (in a Jeff Foxworthian style)

You know you are in insider if....

You know the names of a significant percentage of the people in your worshiping congregation.
Your table is the first table that fills up at all the church.
You can recite the linear history of your congregation for the past two decades.
You were around prior to the last building campaign.
You are a carrier of "institutional memory."
You have received direct benefits of long-term membership

I am sure there are others. I had one parishioner introduce himself to me as, "I'm the oldest rat in the barn." I should have seen the huge flashing sign over his head that read, "INSIDER!!!"

Insiders are not 'bad' but they can get in the way of opening a congregation up to change and moving forward to be the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God in this world.

How to talk to someone after a suicide...RevGalBlogPals

2013-04-10T10:06:00.000-04:00

Below is a great article on how to talk to someone who has experienced and is living with suicide With the death of Rick Warren's son this will probably be a hot topic in many circles. This article does a great job give advice on how to talk, interact, and offer support to those who are dealing with the suicide of a loved one.

In one of my files I have a great sermon that a minister preached at the funeral of one of his church members who died of suicide. In it he says, "In that moment _________ lost sight of the promise that was made by God at his baptism, but today we can rest assured that God has never forgotten." That has always stuck with me and if or when I am called upon to do a service like that, I will be quoting that exact phrase.

All pastors should be prepared and ready for when this happens in our congregations. Chances are it will if it hasn't already.

http://revgalblogpals.blogspot.com/2013/04/wednesday-extra-how-to-talk-with.html

7 Ways to Support Your Pastor on Sunday

2013-03-05T16:21:00.001-05:00

Ministry Matters™ | Blog | 7 Ways to Support Your Pastor on Sunday

Above is a great article I wish all my parishioners would read and I am sure your pastor wishes the same. Sunday morning is a whirlwind, nuts, crazy and chaotic all wrapped up into one. Plus it is supposed to be uplifting, holy, and when things are good, inspiring and grace filled. No pressure!

I like these seven hits. Read the full article but here is their list of seven ways to support your Pastor on Sunday:
1. Pray
2. Don't Critique
3. Don't Share Something You Want Us to Remember [AMEN!! - my emphasis]
4.Be Kingdom Minded
5. Volunteer
6. Introduce Us to Visitors
7. Pray

Pilgrimage Sermon Series - Entering God's Promised Land - Philippians 2:1-11

2013-02-10T15:58:00.000-05:00

Pilgrimage

Entering God’s Promised Land

Philippians 2:1-11

02/10/13

Today we are on the last leg of this Pilgrimage. If you remember six weeks back, on Epiphany, we started this journey towards God’s Promised Land. Over the weeks we have learned and discussed a lot here in worship and in the Bible Study on Monday nights. As we enter into this last sermon, let me recap very quickly where we have been before we can get to where we are going.

The first week, which seems so long ago, we talked about Jesus praying for us in the garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus gives us the vision and mission of his disciples. His mission for his disciples, US, is that we are sent out into the world as representatives of God’s love and in the love of God. This never changes, is always the same, and is always constant. Jesus’ vision is that we are united with his heart, have joy which is found in his love, and grow and be formed by the truth.

In the second week we talked about Israelites hearing the reports from the 12 spies. 10 said that the Promise Land was full of giants and they shared with everyone a vision of perceived reality, one based and found in fear. Caleb and Joshua gave a report from an envisioned reality, or a reality based on faith in God. Then we talked about overcoming the giants in the land. We have to have faith that God can get us through anything. Two weeks ago I preached about asking the right questions and that we need to be asking questions that lead us to God’s Promised Land and not to boost our own agendas. Last week we discussed the invitations of Jesus which move us beyond ourselves and beyond our own walls to the people out there that need to know God.

Today we take the final leg of our Pilgrimage. Today we will be talking about Entering God’s Promised Land. What is interesting is in the story of Moses and the Israelites, Moses never enters the Promise Land. He brings them to the edge and they decided to follow the reality of the ten spies. They show lack of faith in God and because of that, they are sent into the wilderness for 40 years. 40 years later they come back to the edge of the Promise Land. As the waters part in the Jordan the God’s chosen people enter the land he promised to give them. Moses is on a mountain top watching and that is where he dies. He sees the promise land, he watches his people enter it but never does.

Why? Why does Moses, a man of God, who has followed God’s call to lead his people not enter the promise land? That story goes back to Numbers 20. They are in the Desert of Zin and Miriam, Moses’ older sister who watched him in the basket on the river from the reeds, has just died. The people of Israel are thirsty, so very thirsty. They once again grumble against Moses and Aaron and blame them for their situation. Moses and Aaron go to the Tent where God’s presence is and fall down on their faces. God tells them to gather the people and water will spout out of a rock so everyone will have enough to drink. Moses does this and strikes the rock twice and when he does water comes out. Then God tells Moses “You did not trust in me enough to honor me. You did not honor me as the holy God in front of the people of Israel. So you will not bring this community into the land I am giving them.” (Numbers 20:12)

Moses did not trust God enough. Moses lost sight of God’s grace and power. Moses isn’t the only one who battles with this. There are countless people in the Bible that do not trust God and end up paying the consequences. Jonah thinks he knows better than God and attempts to run away but instead he finds himself in the belly of a fish and spat out three days later. Peter is walking on water with Jesus and then sinks as he sees the wind and waves. The early churches all struggle with their faith in God and they seek help from Paul, who writes to them to encourage and build them up.

That is where we get the message today. The churches in Philippi are the first churches in Europe. They are the congregations that made it possible for us to be here today. But in Paul’s absence others were seeking to push their own agendas and so Paul writes them to make sure they understand their purpose and their calling as a congregation of Disciples of Jesus Christ. We see this envisioned reality named by Paul in the first four verses, “Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other. Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others.”

Once again we hear the echo of Jesus’ second invitation we talked about last week. We are to die to self for the sake of the Kingdom of God. If we want to enter the Promise Land of God then we need to forget about ourselves, our agendas, our desires and concentrate on others. We have to have this type of attitude as individuals and as a congregation to be able to enter the Promised Land God is calling us into.

When I was in High School my Sunday School teacher, Dave, was one of the coolest guys around. He had a Jeep Wrangler AND a Mazda Miata. He had a house on Lake Norman and worked in the South Park area making a 6 digit salary. To a High School youth, he was living the life we had all dreamed of and wanted. Then in my senior year we learned he was giving it all up. Over the years he had started a ministry called, “Operation Warm Up.” It took winter clothes that were donated in Charlotte up to the hollers of West Virginia. Youth would pack up into teams of mini vans and head into the mountains passing out free clothes. My senior year we learned that he was giving up his life here in Charlotte and moving to Gary, WV to live and work with McDowell Missions. He would work for free. This astonished us youth because he was living the life we thought we all desired but in reality he was giving up one life for the one we should really desire. Dave had a better understanding of what God’s Promised Land looked like and it led him to the cold mountains of West Virginia, to one of the poorest places in the United States.

Daniel Fogarty is another person who decided God was asking him to leave his job as a political campaign manager and to pursue another path. The other path led him to a couple of men who decided they wanted to help poor people in Charlotte. They had come across families who could not afford furniture. These families would spend all their money on rent and utilities so they would have a roof over their heads but nothing to sleep on. These men found out that kids were sleeping on piles of clothes and that the only dresser they had to store their clothes in were plastic garbage bags. Now he runs a ministry called “Beds for Kids.” They take gently used furniture and furnish families houses with them. The cost to the family is only $30 but the results from the children actually sleeping on a bed instead of the floor is amazing. The majority of them increase their grades by one letter grade only a couple months after sleeping on their own bed, some for the first time in their lives.

The Apostle Paul was also understood too well what it meant to live into this attitude of Christ. Paul lived a life that mirrored Christ’s dedication and love. When he writes to the Philippians in verses 5-11 he gives them the attitude of Jesus. Verse 7-8 says, “But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings. When he found himself in the form of a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Paul understood this all too well because he was writing this letter to the churches in Philippi while he was in prison. Paul was in prison because he was awaiting trial for preaching the gospel of Christ. Paul is taking the second invitation of Jesus seriously and is willing to do whatever it takes to build up the Kingdom of God.

Philippians 2:5-11 is known as the kenosis [Ken-o-sis] hymn. Kenosis is the Greek word that means self-empting, which makes this the self-empting hymn. It is important to remember this hymn because it is the blueprint for what we as Jesus’ disciples are supposed to live out but also what we as a church are to strive for as the Body of Christ. Jesus made a deliberate choice to walk down the path to the cross. He didn’t have to but his love for us truly gave him one option. Now we are to let our love for him overpower our agendas, desires and ideas and model that same love for the world.

But it is hard to empty one’s self when there is so much pain involved. It is hard to move beyond a past that can consume us, burden us, and hold us back. Moses was held back by his struggles with his leadership abilities. He always doubted, in the back of his head, that he could not live up to what God was asking him to do. That is probably part of the reason that he was not let into that Promise Land. He lacked the faith in God. The thing is God believed in him, God knew he made the right choice when he talked to Moses in the burning bush, and God was going to give him what he needed to succeed. It still meant that he had to work hard, but God was behind him all the way.

We have some things in our past to get over. As the Bible Study meets on Monday nights we have been talking about such things. We have discovered that in our past there has been dysfunction, conflict, and distrust. If you need proof let me show you something. (hold up pictures of what the new church was projected to look like)

What is this? The way some of you are moving right now it is a source of discomfort and it is emotional. This was the plan for a new church project. It was done five years ago. Five years ago this place had two services that averaged about what we have here. Things were hopping and moving forward. People were excited and energized. Then the bottom fell out of the economy and so did the wind in the sails of this vision. I am not showing you this to point fingers. I’m not placing blame, I am only naming a reality in our past we will have to get over. This is a picture that many believed was our congregation’s Promised Land, but we didn’t make it.

Does that mean we give up? Does that mean we stare at this giant in our way and simply go back to Egypt? No, we have to name our currently reality, look to the past and then move beyond it. Here is the good thing (flip board over). What does this look like?

To me this is the picture of God’s Promised Land for us here at Indian Trail UMC. It is full of potential and the sky is the limit for what it could turn out to be. What it is, is not yet revealed. It is not drawn out for us yet. I believe though that there is something God is calling us towards. There is something that can come to light on this board. This is the future of our congregation. All we need to do is simply have faith God can bring it into being and work hard to make it happen.

We have giants to face. We have debt to take care of, a parsonage that needs drastic attention, a fellowship hall that isn’t much better, and many other issues. We are going in the right direction. People are excited. But we need to be in constant prayer with God to figure out what that future should look like. How are we as a congregation living into the mission and vision of our Savoir? What is our mission and vision for us as a congregation? What are our goals? What is our being called to do for Jesus Christ in Indian Trail?

Paul celebrated his struggles because he knew he was living into the Promise Land God was calling him to. When we have an answer all those questions I just mentioned, we will be living into that Promised Land as well. Our journey is not over today, but the hard work is just beginning. The only way we will enter is if we have faith in the one who has brought us this far; the one who emptied himself for our sake, and only demands we do the same for him.

And all God’s people said…Amen.

Pilgrimage Sermon Series - Beyond and Within - Mark 8:34-37

2013-02-08T15:59:00.001-05:00

Pilgrimage

Beyond and Within

Mark 8: 34-37

02/03/13

I hope this sermon series has been a little eye opening for you. Next week we will finish this Pilgrimage Journey as we then go into the holy season of Lent. I hope that you have learned some things, I know I have. This series has been eye opening for me to preach and teach. I too have learned some things along the way.

One of those things is that Jesus really gives two invitations to his disciples. I had heard and knew both of these passages but never really connected the dots until this week. The first invitation that Jesus gives his disciples is found in Mark 1:16-20. It says, “As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. After going a little farther, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers.”

Many of us have heard that phrase in this scripture, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Another translation which is not gender inclusive says, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” This is Jesus’ first invitation. All the disciples drop everything they are doing and follow Jesus. It is the beginning of their journey. It is the start of this three year pilgrimage which will lead them from being disciples to apostles; from learning the faith to growing it and sharing it with the world. In the terms of Wesleyan theology this was a moment of Justifying Grace. It was a time when Simon and Andrew, James and John, agreed in their hearts to follow Christ. Here in the south it may be referred to as “being saved.”

We have similar moments in our Christian walk. I can still remember when I was in 16 and in high school I was attending a Lay Witness Mission at my church. We had mapped out our walk with God on paper and I could see right there in front of me the Prevenient Grace of God in my life. I could see where God had reached out to me, desired me to follow and where I turned away. We were in an outdoor chapel and at the end I knew I had to commit my life to God. I made a determined walk from the outdoor chapel, through the education building, and to the prayer rail in the sanctuary. It is there, on my knees, with tears flowing that I prayed to God and I told him I was ready to follow him. That was my moment of Justifying Grace, or the moment I felt God’s grace work inside of me.

As Jesus walked the shores of Galilee he offered this opportunity to Simon and Andrew, James and John. They all dropped what they were doing and decided to follow him. This first invitation of Jesus changed their lives. But the second invitation would be a little harder for them and to be honest it is the one that hardest for me and maybe you.

Haywood UMC is part of Central UMC in Asheville, NC. They are doing some amazing ministry to the people of that town. What they are doing really lives into Jesus’ second invitation. What this video about them and you may see why.

[video]

As the disciples are following Jesus and they are deep into their ministry together Jesus realizes that the realities of their ministry are changing. This is when he offers them the second invitation which is today’s text, Mark 8:34-37. Here Jesus tells his disciples, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.”

This is the second invitation of Jesus. Once again we hear the familiar words, “follow me.” The first time it was on a journey, on an adventure to fish for people! This second invitation to follow Jesus doesn’t sound as exciting. First invitation, a bunch of fishermen agree to go fish for people. Seems to be right in their wheelhouse doesn’t it. This second invitation isn’t in anyone’s wheel house. We are supposed to lose ourselves, carry OUR cross, lose our lives for the sake of Jesus and the good news? This sounds very self-sacrificing and the opposite of what our culture tells us to do. I bet there are no Super Bowl commercials on tonight that tell us if we want happiness, if we want satisfaction, if we want purpose, than we need to forget about ourselves and follow Jesus. Nope, they will probably say this can all be found in a can of Budweiser or on GoDaddy.com.

There is a story of a church in a fast growing suburban community. They were running out of room and needed more parking. They did a Capital Campaign and raised enough funds to purchase a piece of land and create a new parking lot. When it was finished the parking lot was warm and inviting. It wasn’t just inviting to the people who came to worship but also the local teenage skate boarders. The fresh pavement was too much for them to pass up and soon they would gather to skate on the new parking lot. Like a good UMC a Trustee meeting was called to deal with the problem. They all cried out “What! Skateboarders on the new pavement!” What are we to do?” They did have some options. They could put up NO Trespassing sings to hopefully keep the youth off the pavement. They could set up patrols to make sure the parking lot was secure at all hours. How were they going to protect THEIR church?

One of the Trustees was a retired, lifelong athlete. He said he would talk to the skaters and see what came up. One day he approached them and had a conversation with them. The result from the parking lot conversation was interesting. Instead of the church shunning this group, they welcomed them. A weekly Bible study was started that included time to skate on the new pavement. Later on the group took trips to different skating locations around the area and bam, a youth ministry was born.

There is a biblical principle entitled Beyond and Within. What this idea is revolves around the two invitation with Jesus. The first one is an invitation to build yourself up from within. To understand, feel and agree to follow Jesus. The second invitation is to go beyond yourself, to give yourself up, for the sake of Christ and the Good News. We are to move beyond ourselves and focus outside instead of inside. We are to lose ourselves or die to self in order for people to come to know the God we worship. We look at our current reality and we know if we want it to change, if we want to be transformed into the mission and vision that Jesus has for us than we have to move beyond a vision that focuses inward and one that moves us beyond and within; Beyond the walls and within the lives of those out there.

John Wesley organized his movement into classes and bands all throughout England. They are exactly what many churches now call life groups or small groups. Within these groups John Wesley had two focuses, personal holiness and social holiness. Personal Holiness was the act of sanctifying grace, the work that God does through you to become more Christ like in this world. He also believed in Social Holiness too. Actually he said you cannot have one without the other. He believed that Christians could not have authentic personal holiness without social holiness. In other words, unless you accept the second invitation of Christ, the one that moves us beyond and within, you may not be as faithful as you think.

On Haywood Street in Asheville, people give of themselves, open themselves up to reach out to the least of these in their community. They welcome the smelly, addicted, and funny looking homeless people to worship on a Wednesday. They feed them, know them, pray with them and for them. They are transformed themselves by this interaction and sharing of love. The church that opened their freshly paved parking lot to skateboards did the same thing. Instead of seeing them as ‘one of those’ they opened their hearts to be transformed by accepting them, making room for them, and letting themselves be changed because of them.

Too many times we think church is for us. Unless we like the music; feel connected to the sermon; are greeted by the right people; acknowledged when we feel we should be, we feel like church was a bad experience. Then when change happens, when new people come and start to make suggestions. Or when you get older and new people come into leadership and they don’t do what was always done, things don’t feel quite right. What we are doing though is making these few hours a week that we come together about us. It is all about my experience, my class, my pew, my seat, my friends. Yet worship is not supposed to be anything about us. We aren’t here to prop each other up and pat each other on the back. We are here to praise God, glorify the creator, worship the savoir and be touched by the Holy Spirit. Have you done that yet this morning?

On my first Sunday I passed out those index cards and asked you to tell me what your hope and dreams are for this church. Almost 90% of them came back and said you wanted Indian Trail UMC to grow. There will only be one way that truly happens. If we really, REALLY want to see growth in this church we need to make sure we are doing it for the right reasons. It can’t be that if we bring in more people we will have more money. It can’t be so our choir may get bigger or that we will have more volunteers. The only way we will see growth is if we truly feel, in every fiber of our body, that we want to grow because there are too many people in this world that need Jesus.

Our focus has to be on the second invitation of Christ. We have to be transformed by the principle of Beyond and Within. We have to realize it is not about us. There is nothing in the being a disciple of Jesus Christ that says it is about us. Listen to the scripture again today, “After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives?”

You want this congregation to be transformed and enter the Promised Land of God? Then you come down during communion and you knee before him and ask, “What can I do? How can I lose myself for your sake Lord Jesus?” Only if we take this second invitation seriously will we get to that promise land. Only if we are ready to die to self, take up our cross and truly follow Christ will we find the life we hope for, dream of, and desire deep in our hearts.

And all God’s people said…Amen.

NC Pastor's post receives interesting comments

2013-01-29T16:11:00.000-05:00

Talbot Davis, minister of Good Shepherd (a UM Congregation) in Charlotte, NC, ran a post on his blog entitled, Top Five Things I Don't Really Believe. It was picked up by the United Methodist Reporter's Facebook page. His #1 Thing is on Infant Baptism. The methopherse has been in an uproar since. What is really interesting are the comments, both on his blog and on the UMR's Facebook page.

Here is what Davis wrote on his blog; (go to the link above for full version)

1.  God Does The Baptizing. In seminary and beyond, I heard teaching on the subject of infant baptism that grounded the practice in the confidence that "God does the baptizing."  The logic goes something like this:  "The reason we Methodists can baptize babies is because we put the emphasis on God in the sacraments. The reason Baptists don't is because they think sacraments are more about people."  Sounds good, doesn't it? Makes our tribe a bit more erudite and theological than our immersion-happy brethren. You can baptize an infant because even though the baby doesn't know what's happening, he or she now has a divine, moist seal of approval. I was taught it, I believed it, I spoke it, and that settled it. My own children (now 23 & 20) were even baptized as infants.
Here's the problem:  God doesn't baptize.  God saves. We respond by getting baptized.
Nowhere in the New Testament do we read the words or even intuit the concept that God baptizes.
Whether it's Peter's emphatic "Repent and be baptized" in Acts 2:38 or the wandering Ephesians who get re-baptized in Acts 19:1-7 or even Paul's subtle yet unmistakable picture of baptism-by-immersion in Romans 6:3-5, the New Testament is consistent and clear: people choose their own baptism. They come to faith and then to make that faith public, they get wet.
It's not complicated, it's not a spiritual birthmark, it's not a naming ceremony, it's not even the New Testament equivalent of circumcision. It's death to the old life and resurrection to the new. And babies don't have old lives to die to.
And . . . best of all the practices I've learned from some of our non-denominational friends . . . in the context of a church gathering parents can baptize their own children and friends can do the same for folks they have led to faith.
That may not be very Methodist but it sure is contagious.

The comments that are range from support to utter shock that Davis is United Methodist. There are critiques that since Good Shepherd is one of the top 100 largest United Methodist Congregations that the DS and Bishop turn a blind eye (see comments on Facebook). Others are glad to see him profess this openly and are proud of the work he is doing.

I will confess it made my blood curdle a little bit but this is not the first time that I have seen Davis come out like this on infant baptism. I have questioned him on his stance in other posts of his on blog in the past. Is this theologically controversial, yes. But it leads to good questions and dialogue.

Whether you agree that Davis is in alignment with UMC theology or not, it does demonstrate the basic value of the UMC. As we attempt to hold down the extreme center we will have people we disagree with theologically, practically, politically, and personally. That will happen and I think that is a great image of the Kingdom of God. We should have open and honest conversations about what we believe and what we disagree with when it comes the theology of the UMC. God knows I don't agree with 100% of what the Discipline says too.

Through conversation we grow deeper in our understanding of and relationship with God.

All I Need to Know about Church Leadership I Learned from My Massage Therapist - Part II

2013-01-29T12:05:00.001-05:00

Many times in church leadership I have run into a problem where the symptom is different than the cause. Someone is upset, frustrated, or concerned about an issue but the way it comes out or is expressed (the symptom) is very different from the true reason (the cause). Another word for this is passive aggressiveness. It is an art form in some people but a royal pain to people in leadership as they try to root out the cause while having to deal with the symptoms.

Massage Therapy has a couple of terms for this as well, trigger points and pain referrals. By definition, active trigger points are tender to touch and have a signature referral pain pattern. This referral pattern explains why the pain is often in a location removed from the trigger point. Where it hurts is not always where the problem is. Each muscle has its own pattern of pain referral. Knowing these patterns is essential to troubleshooting soft tissue pain. Referral pattern knowledge also helps distinguish between the cause and the symptom.

For example, I suffer from seated chair victim. Since I end up sitting at a desk for hours at a time my hamstrings shorten. They become shortened because my legs are bent, which is the natural position they are in when you sit with your feet on the floor in a chair. After a while those muscles are naturally shortened, or tightened, because of this position. What happens is these tightened muscles then add pressure or pain to my lower back. The cause is my shortened hamstrings and the symptoms is lower back pain. Do you know of anyone who suffers from lower back pain and sits in front a computer screen for hours a day? To learn more on Seated Chair Victim clickhere.

A keen and knowledgeable Massage Therapist will work the cause of the problem not only the symptom. When my massage therapist works on my hamstrings it hurts and it is not a relaxing massage BUT my lower back pain diminishes. If she only worked on my lower back, the pain would return soon enough. Knowing the trigger point and its pain referrals allows massage therapists to diagnose the cause of the soft tissue pain to gain a longer and more permanent solution for the client.

There are books and books about trigger points and pain referrals because they do have a set pattern. The key to those in church leadership positions is to learn the trigger points and pain referrals of their congregations. Although there is no book on this subject specific to your congregation, there usually are patterns that evolve which can be diagnosed over time.

For example, Mrs. Betsy doesn’t show up for worship any more. She attends her Sunday School class but then goes home instead of to worship. She doesn’t attend any of the meetings of the committee she serves on either. It seems, to the pastor, that she has given up on her church except for her Sunday School class. She assumes the cause is because of something she said or did. Her lack of attendance and participation are her pain referrals or symptoms. As the pastor sits down with Mrs. Betsy and gets her to open up about why she has pulled away, the pastor learns that she is truly upset. With more digging the cause is revealed. It seems that in a grocery store months ago, another church member was very rude to her. Something happened and an argument broke out. This fellow lay person sits in her section at worship and sits on the same committee as she does.

Finally the true caused is understood and discovered. Now the pastor can spend time dealing with the cause of the problem, mending the relationship, and working through this conflict. Whether that will heal that relationship or not may still be up in the air but at least the cause was addressed and not only the symptoms. Plus the pastor learns it is not about her, which relieves some pressure and worry in her own soul.

It is hard work, pain staking work at times, to get to the root cause of an issue. It is especially difficult if people do not want to tell you the true cause of their frustrations. Once those causes are flushed out good Church Leaders will recognize the referral patterns and start to think ahead. They will recognize situations or decisions that may cause these trigger points to flare and work hard to lessen the blow. The important thing is not to get so caught in the web of symptoms that the cause is forgotten or ignored. If the cause is ignored the problem will not go away. Just as a good Massage Therapist, a pastor has to work the cause to build a healthy and vibrant Body of Christ.

Pilgrimage Sermon Series - Asking the Right Questions - Sermon

2013-01-29T12:00:00.001-05:00

Mark 9:30-35

Pilgrimage – Asking the Right Questions

01/27/13

In the Gospel of Mark there are a lot of questions. Jesus himself asks 47 questions. We received one of those 47 here in the passage today. As the disciples are traveling from Galilee to Capernaum they start to argue about who is the greatest among them. Jesus asks them “”What were you arguing about during the journey?” In another translation the question is stated, “What were you discussing on the way?” Either way the question is a reflection of the conversation between the 12 as they journeyed.

Jesus’ questions are not the only questions in Mark’s gospel. There are twelve different questions that come from the religious leaders, seven that come from a crowd or an individual, five that come from Pilate, and two that come from unclean spirits. The whole gospel is filled with questions. The first one in Mark’s gospel is actually from an unclean spirit. Jesus is in the same area, Capernaum, in a synagogue teaching when a person with an unclean spirit walks in and questions him. The evil spirit screams “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”

This differs from the other first questions in the other gospels. In Matthew the first question comes from the magi. They ask, “Where is the child born King of Jews?” In Luke the question comes from Zechariah as he learns that Elizabeth is pregnant with their son who will be known as John the Baptist. He asks the angel, “How can I be sure of this?” In John the religious rulers ask the first question to John the Baptist. They ask him, “Who are you?” In Matthew, Luke and John the first questions reflect a need to understand and searching. But in Mark, as in most of the questions in this gospel, the question the unclean spirit asks is an attempt to question Jesus’ authority and power.

Remember the question the evil spirit screams? “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” With that simple question about coming to destroy the spirit is attempting to corner Jesus’ power as one who is coming to destroy but in reality Jesus has come to redeem. How a question is asked is important because how we ask will lead to how we are answered.

If you have ever asked the question, “So, how was school?”, what was the normal response? (Fine.) This is what as a closed-ended question. Too easily students learn they can give a one word response to their parent’s question. When the parents are seeking to find out what happened in their child’s life at school all they usually get is fine, good, okay. That is if they get any words at all and not just a smirk and shrug of the shoulders. Instead of asking a closed-ended question, how would the response change if you asked an open-ended question? A type of question that would lead to more than one word response? What would happen if you asked a question like, “Can you tell me about your day?” or “What was the topic of your English class today?” These lead to a conversation because they demand more than one word.

What type of questions we ask are extremely important for our own faith and journey to grow as individuals and as a congregation? There are right questions and there are wrong questions to ask. The wrong questions to ask are ones that lead to accusations, labeling and destruction of community and relationships. The evil spirit was looking to peg Jesus as a destroyer not a redeemer. There was a purpose behind the closed-ended question he asked. Jesus did not take the bait though and cast the spirit out. No matter how clever we think we are, we can never trap Jesus in a corner.

Here is another example of a wrong question. When Campbell was two years old I walked into our living room to find her jumping on our recliner. Now this could go bad in many ways. The recliner was right next to a class French door, so if she fell off she could go through the window. She could go the other way which would lead to her head hitting a coffee table. I was concerned with her safety. Plus I was attempting to teach her the rules of the house which are you don’t jump on furniture. Being the wise father I am I raised my voice and asked her, “What are you doing?” She stopped jumping and looked at me, “I’m looking for trouble.”

I know a minister who is a senior minister of a very large church and has many staff people under his leadership. It came out that two of his staff people where having an affair with one another. He invited them into his office to sit down and talk out the ramifications of this affair. As he discussed their termination and other consequences they were confused about why this was happening. The minister looked at them and asked, “How did you think this was going to work out well for either of you?” This was a far better question to ask in this situation because it was more of an open-ended question that could lead to dialogue and understanding. My question was more closed-minded, or the wrong question to ask at that moment. This pastor did a better job asking the right question.

A right question is one that leads to a conversation, to a deeper understanding, and strengthening of a community or a relationship. It is something that will build up rather than tear down. Many of the questions in Mark’s gospel vary from right questions and wrong questions. One of the questions the religious rulers ask of Jesus is to question his authority. In the second chapter of Mark, Jesus is once again in Capernaum and a paralyzed man is brought to him and Jesus forgives him of his sins. The legal experts see this and the question they ask is, “Why does he speak this way?” They were questioning his authority, his power to forgive sins. They demanded an answer and so Jesus answers them with a couple questions of his own. He asks them, “Why do you fill your minds with these questions? Which is easier – to say to a paralyzed person, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’? But so you will know that the Human One has authority on the earth to forgive sins” – he said to the man who was paralyzed – “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

The legal experts questioned Jesus authority and there was a power struggle going on. The legal experts wanted to make sure the power of their society rested with them. But if Jesus was walking around forgiving sins, healing people, their power was threatened. The same was true for the first question in Mark’s gospel from the evil spirit. The spirit’s power was threatened and he wanted to know if Jesus was here to destroy. But Jesus came to earth not to destroy but to redeem. He came not to limit us to the law but for us to be free from it. He came to forgive sins, to heal the broken, and to take the sins of the world upon himself.

Jesus had told the disciples about this task in the early part of our scripture today. He told them that he would be crucified and would die. In verse 31 it says, “He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be handed over to men. They will kill him. After three days he will rise from the dead.” He told this to the disciples but they did not understand. What question did they ask to get clarification on what he told them? They didn’t. The scripture says, “But they didn’t understand this kind of talk, and they were afraid to ask him.” What questions are you afraid to ask Christ because you don’t understand or you really don’t want to know the answers to?

Power is extremely important to people. People love to have power. It could only be the power to change the channel on the TV so they hoard the remote. Or it could be they want to be the one in charge, the director of what is going on. There is a story I read in a book called Ten Temptations of Church: Why Churches Decline and What to Do about It. It is a story about a declining church. It had been losing its members and worship attendance. As it did leaders came up and started to fill in roles that needed to be filled. They got so use to those roles they kept them for years, decades even. In the story the authors focus in on Bill. Bill was the head of trustees and the head usher. He sat on the finance committee and memorial committee. His family had donated a lot of the art work for the church and they had been there for three generations. If the doors were opened Bill was there. Members of that church said, “Bill is the face of our church; nothing gets past him. It’s been that way as long as I can remember!” The pastor the church then asked the right question, “How long has the church been in decline?” A church member asks, “As long as I can remember.”

The point of the story isn’t to point at Bill and say that he is the source of the church’s decline. No, that isn’t right. But there is a hidden benefit to Bill to keep his church in decline. The more his church declines the more it will depend on him. The more power he ends up having. This probably happened completely by accident and without Bill really knowing it. The truth in this story though is that it will be really hard on Bill as the church moves out of decline because as they do he will have less power, less control. How will Bill react to this?

As churches decline and seek to be revived there is a thought that only through death can a resurrection happen. Now this is true. Jesus had to die to be able to rise again. But how did Jesus die? Well that may be the wrong question to ask at this moment. A better question would be, “Why did Jesus die?” The disciples struggle with this a lot as they follow Jesus. In Mark 8 Jesus asks another, very vulnerable question. He asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am.” Peter answers correctly by saying, “You are the Christ.” Then Jesus starts to teach them about his death. He says, “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the leaders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” Peter doesn’t like this and scolded him. Jesus has none of this and says, “Get behind me Satan.”

When faced with reality that Jesus had to die Peter decided to control Jesus, or have power over him, and told him differently. Yet if Jesus is going to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, he will have to die. God knew this when he sent him to grow in Mary’s womb. But the disciples had a hard time with this but this is because they hadn’t figured out the lesson that Jesus is attempting to teach them once again in verse 35; “Whoever wants to be first must be least of all and the servant to all.”

Bill was a servant to that church as it declined but as it would be resurrected would he be fine losing some of that power? Would he be okay with the fact he would have to step out of the lime light, away from some of his leadership roles to let other people move in with possibly new ways of doing things and new ideas? That is hard to do when you have been the one people look to for the decisions of a church for so many years, but if the church is not going the way it should maybe the right question to ask is “am I getting in the way of this church growing?”

To go back to Jesus’ original question, “What were you arguing about during the journey?” The disciples were arguing about who had the most power. Throughout the whole journey from Galilee to Capernaum they argued about who was the greatest. In Galilee they heard once again Jesus predict his death and resurrection. They could have been talking about that. They could have been trying to figure out what that has to do with being a disciple but instead they argued about who was the greatest, who had the most power.

Many church keep asking the same question and it is one that we here at Indian Trail UMC must have to face as well, “Do we have a future?” Are we going to stand around and argue about who has the most power, who the greatest is, or are we going to follow Jesus instead? Are we willing to be a servant to all and the least of all for the greatest of all, Jesus Christ?

I am glad to know that some of you are taking the reading through the New Testament seriously and are doing well with it. I know this because some of you have emailed me questions about what some of the scriptures mean. I enjoy that, so keep them coming. But as I wrote this sermon this week one of those questions came back to me and it fights right into Jesus’ calling for his disciples, his calling to us. Matthew 10:29 says, “Those who find their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives because of me will find them.” The person who asked this question was wondering what it meant. It echoes just what Jesus says here, “Whoever wants to be first must be least of all and the servant of all.” We must follow Jesus’ example which leads to the cross.

If we are truly wanting to live into that mission and that vision that Jesus calls us to in John 17, then we will have to be comfortable with being the least and the servant. “Why did Jesus go to the cross?” He went because he loved us so much that he took our sins upon himself and died for our sake. Yes he rose again. Yes we love Easter but to get there we have to be willing to go through Good Friday. The question we have to ask ourselves is, “Am I willing to die to self in order for God to be glorified?” “Am I willing to put God’s will above my own?” “Am I willing to serve no matter where or when in order to do the will God has laid out for this church?” “Am I willing to do what it takes, even if it leads to my own cross, if that is what God’s will demands?”

The last question in the gospel of Mark is asked by Mary Magdalene as she approaches the tomb she laid Jesus in a few days before. She asks, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” The difference between that question and the first question from the evil spirit is remarkable. To quote the book I am using for this series, “The first question by the unclean spirit is an attempt to confine the power of the Holy One of God. The last question asked on Easter morning opens our lives to the reality of the empty tomb and the power of the Holy One.” Mary’s question was the right question because it opened her up to the power and truth of the God she loves. Are we asking the right questions that open us up or are we asking the wrong questions which will simply lead to death?

And all God’s people said...Amen.

Attention Young Clergy

2013-01-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

I need some help and I need some opinion from some Young Clergy (Elders, Deacons, Candidates, whoever!). For those of YC who accepted a call into the ministry in High School or College please leave me a comment or contact me via email at revjimparsons at gmail dot com.

Here are the questions I need help flushing out.

- Who helped you realize you were called into ministry? Pastor? Associate Pastor? Youth Minister? Friend? Crazy street corner lady? Angel from God? Parents?

- During your High School and College years, what kind of support did you get exploring your call to ministry?

- Is there something that would have helped you more during those formative years? A mentor? A group of peers exploring their call as well? Internships to get hands on experience in ministry?

- What event/person/experience solidified your calling and gave you the strength/patience/fortitude to continue or go through the ordination process?

Any feed back would be very helpful and thanks for your help.

All I Need to Know about Church Leadership I Learned from My Massage Therapist - Part I

2013-01-25T08:17:00.000-05:00

My wife, Alycia, is a very talented and gifted Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist (check out her Facebook page). She knows the muscles of a human body more than anyone I know. Just as a brief testimony, during our recent move I did something to my back. I literally could not stand up straight and almost couldn't walk. An hour later I got off her table and felt much better. The pain had subsided and I could move again. Is she a miracle worker? That day I would have said YES!

I recently was on her table again getting some work done on my shoulders and neck when I realized the link between Massage Therapy and Church Leadership. These series of posts will demonstrate some links between the two professions and what we, as Church Leaders, can learn from Massage Therapy.

Quick stop on my soapbox: The profession of License Massage and Bodywork Therapists (LMBTs) gets linked to the sex trade very easily because of the ‘massage parlors’ around the world that offer ‘happy endings’. My wife is not a sex worker, nor are the vast majority of LMBTs. But a few rotten apples always ruin the reputation of every apple. She takes her profession, her calling, very seriously and handles her business with the utmost professionalism. Please leave all gutter thoughts in the gutter. We can be grown ups and move beyond the thought that whenever a human being touches another human being it always leads to sex. These posts have nothing to do with any of that and the mere mention is truly offensive. This profession has worked very hard to move beyond that notion, let’s help them continue to move forward.

With that said, my first post on “All I Need to Know about Church Leadership I Learned from My Massage Therapist” has to do with letting go. As Alycia worked my neck muscles, trying to loosen up the knots, she kept giving me instructions to ‘let go’. As she held my head in her hand and manipulated it side to side to access the right muscles I kept trying to control it without realizing it. The best way for her to tilt my head in the right angle would be to simple relax all the muscles in my neck and let her do the work. By ‘letting go’, I enabled her to do the work she needed to do.

Many of us in the ministry have a problem with control. We like it and we don’t want to give it up. This fact can have implications in either direction. It is a good thing because we can help steer a church or committee in the direction we see fit. It can be bad because we take away the power from the laity to do the work they need to do, not to mention taking power away from God. The art of Church Leadership is found in knowing when to lead from the front and when to lead from behind. When do we allow others to do the work and when do we step forward? How we answer that question tells us a lot about our leadership skills and mindset. But to walk that line and know when to do one verse the other is tough. Then there are the other times where we need to get out of the way all together.

“Let Go!” As my wife’s voice echoed in my ears as she stretched my head towards my shoulders I was reminded that I am not the savior to my church. My congregation already has a savior. My leadership, my vision, my pride, my desires are not the things to be concerned with. Let go. God has placed a calling upon this congregation and that is what I need to be searching for, that is what I need the people of my congregation searching for. We need to remove the I, me, my, we, our, out of the conversation and listen to God instead. We need to let go. I need to let go.

When we let go and enable ourselves to be pushed, stretched, and manipulated by the hands of God we open ourselves up to true discipleship, transformation, and sanctification. Even the smallest notion that we can do it on our own removes our full faith in God. We need to let go more as Church Leaders. We need to let go the ideas we hold dear in our minds because we want to build ourselves up, seek credit and accolades, or look good to our bosses. We need to let go and rest our hearts, our ideas, our trust in the hands of God. Let God lead us to where we need to be and stop attempting to tell God how it should be done.

We can see the process of letting go and then attempting to take control back in the people of Israel. They would follow God and then slip away, be called back and then slip away. Letting go of our power and relying on God is a process. Letting go is a journey towards holiness and to be made Christ-like. May you be able to let go in your ministry and in your walk with God.

Pilgrimage Sermon Series - Overcoming Giants - Numbers 13:30-14:9

2013-01-23T16:27:00.000-05:00

Numbers 13:25-14:9

Pilgrimage – Overcoming Giants

01/20/13

I can still remember, in vivid detail, being in 9^th grade English class at Ranson Middle School. We were reading through one of Shakespeare plays, I’m not sure which. I had dodged reading aloud for a couple of days. I would slink behind the person in front of me to be missed by the teacher’s eye, but not that day. Nope, I was caught in her sights and given one of the main characters to read. My fear had become a reality. I had stumbled through the class reading my part to the best of my ability. I missed words. I mispronounced others. The whole time I was in a cold sweat and my heart was pounding. I hated reading in public, still do. That was one of my giants in life. It took me a long while to get comfortable talking in front of a crowd. God and I had long talks as I went through college and seminary. I told him I would be willing to do anything but be behind a pulpit. But here I am. Not by my own choice, but by God’s will.

What I have found is as I have followed God’s calling in my personal life my giant has become smaller. I am still nervous almost every Sunday. Being the one heard, the one speaking, the one preaching was never my dream but it is my calling. The giant I had to face was my fear of speaking in front of people, reading in front of people, messing up words, or saying the wrong thing. But through lots of practice and mainly because of the grace of God, I stand behind this pulpit today to bring you this message God has laid on my heart. Anything is possible with God.

The scripture I read today is the last half of the scripture I read last week. The reason we are covering it twice is because it is so important to understanding how we as individuals and us as a congregation can move forward into God’s Promised Land. What we hear today is the ten spies describing to the people who lived in the Promise Land. They tell them they are giants. This is the “Grasshopper Report.” The reason they give this report is because of fear or, as we called it last week, perceived reality. The task of going into the promise land, a land full of milk and honey, seemed too much. There were too many people and too many fortified cities. All they could see was death ahead of them. In verse, 14:3 is says, “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to fall by the sword?” For the ten spies and for the community of Israel the future looked too bleak, too difficult.

For Caleb and Joshua though they had what is called “remembering encouragement.” They looked back and they had seen what God has brought them through and they were convinced God would be able to do the same. They came from a place of faith in God, or envisioned reality. They believed God would bring them into the Promise Land because that is what God had promised.

What is interesting is that Caleb and Joshua never went against the idea of the giants. They never argued that there weren’t giants in the land. Instead they simply said that God could get them through it, no matter what. They realized there were some big hurdles that lay ahead of them. They saw fortified cities and people who have lived in this land for generations, but their faith told them that anything was possible with God.

What giants do we face? What huge hurdles do we have to get over in order to be in the Promised Land of God? How can we live into that mission and vision that Jesus prayed for us back in John 17? To do so will take lots of work and also recognizing the giants that will have to come down in the process.

There are two basic giants in our world, the general and the specific. First let’s talk about general giants. These are the giants that everyone faces in our culture. We share them as a nation and a society. There is no escaping them because they are what they are. The book I am using defines these general giants are worldviews, technology, and expectations. Let’s start with the worldviews. They quote Walter Wink’s book, The Powers that Be, who says there are five major worldviews to define God and the created order through humanity’s history.

1.      Ancient Worldview – This view of the world links the spiritual world and the physical world together. These two realities mirror one another. We can see this in Genesis where humanity is made in God’s image. If something happens on earth it is in relation to what happens on the spiritual realm.
2.      Spiritualist Worldview – This worldview separates the spiritual and earthly realities.   It states that anything spiritual is good and anything earthly is bad. It completely separated the two and attempted to keep them separate. Think of monasteries. These were places where people would attempt to shake off the physical world and live in a spiritual world, thus shaking off the bad and putting on the good.
3.      Materialist Worldview – This world view became popular during the Age of Enlightenment. This worldview ignored the spiritual realm and only concentrated on the physical. It stated that the spiritual realm is simply an illusion and life is only a process of chemical reactions and made up of atoms. It concentrated on science as the source of truth.
4.      Theological Worldview – This worldview attempted to counter the Materialist. It stated that the earthly reality could be defined by science but theology defined the spiritual realm and could not be proven through science. One of their more famous quotes to describe the physical and spiritual realities is “Science tells us how the world was created and religion tells us why.”
5.      Integral Worldview – This view is currently emerging. It states that everything has an inner and outer aspect. Heaven and earth are the inner and outer aspects of the same reality. There is no separation between the spirit and the flesh, the spirit is the inner aspect and the flesh is the outer.

What makes these five worldviews giants is explained by a quote from Walter Wink. “The important point here is that we may be the first generation in the history of the world that can make a conscious choice between these worldviews.” For the first time in history we can choose which ones of these worldviews to believe, follow and frame the way we view the world around us. Which one we choose will tell us a lot about how close we will get to the Promised Land.

One other general giant is technology. It is that dreaded thing we love and can hate all at the same time. It allows us to do so much more than past generations. Now we can communicate and stay in touch with anyone and everyone around the world. On my Facebook page this week I watch status updates from friends all over North Carolina getting ready for snow while at the same time some friends who live in England do the same thing. Technology has shrunk our world but it also has increased the speed of it. Now once you purchase a new cell phone it almost automatically goes out of date. Technology is always changing and it does so at an ever increasing pace. The struggle is to keep up with it in order to stay relevant.

Anyone heard of Moore’s Law? “Moore’s law is the observation that over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximnately every two years.”[1] This means that around every two years technology doubles its abilities. So in two years our cell phones and computers will have twice the amount of memory and be twice as fast. Two years after that it will be twice as fast as that year. What Moore’s Law demonstrates is that the speed at which technology changes and changes our culture happens at an extremely fast rate. This is a huge giant in our culture because it is always changing and we are becoming more reliant on it as a culture.

The last general giant is the Giant of Expectation. As technology changes it promises, whether out front and honestly or in our own minds, to make life easier, create more meaning and add purpose. Beyond that we all have expectations about how life is supposed to go and where we are to find purpose and meaning. There are generational differences. What is important to an older generation may not have as much relevance to a younger generation. There are institutional expectations. Our District Superintendent has some expectations on what I am to do as a pastor for this congregation and he has some expectations for you all as a congregation within the Metro District. Add all those to the expectations Christ has for us. If we look back to John 17 we understand a little better what those expectations are, to go out into the world, be representatives for God’s love, and go in God’s love. We all have expectations on where we will find meaning and purpose in our lives and how, where, and why are all huge giants.

These are three general giants in our current reality that we face as a society, as a church, and as individuals. We all share them. But there are some giants that are more specific. Let’s talk a little bit about Indian Trail. If you open your bulletin you can see some of the statistics about our fair town. Here are some of the realities we are living with at the moment. We are the largest populated town in Union County. Yes, we have more people than Monroe. In 1990 there were just under 2000 people living in Indian Trail. Now there are over 38,000. In the next ten years, we are predicted to have over 60,000 people. If we had 60,000 people in Indian Trail today, that would make us the 15^th largest city in the state. Currently we are the 25^th. Let that sink in for a second.

What is happening in our town is that we are moving from a country, rural part of North Carolina into a major suburb of Charlotte. We are the fastest growing city in North Carolina and that doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon. The giant that we face as a town is how are we going to make that transition. If we truly wanted to get really specific, how are we as a church going to survive that transition as well? What will we have to do stay relevant, up-to-date and accessible to an ever change community?

Another giant we will face is how we, as a congregation, are going to survive. We have aging buildings, financial issues, and an average worship that the conference states is not sustainable. The conference states that a church needs to average 125 in worship on a Sunday to be able to pay all their bills, pension, healthcare, and apportionments with money left over to make an impact through missions in their community. An average of 125 in worship. I am filling out End of the Year reports and the average I have for this year in our worship is 80. We need to increase our Sunday Worship Attendance average by 45 to be sustainable. That is a huge giant that we face.

There are others. We were able to pay $8,000 of our pension and healthcare costs for 2012. That still left us $16,000 short for the year. When you add that to the amount we owed from 2011, which was around $18,000, we are in a fiscal hole to the tune of $34,000. There are some ideas that the Finance Committee is coming up with to help us cut into that debt but we have a ways to go. There are other giants that we need to face and we will be naming some of them tomorrow night in our Bible Study, which I would love for everyone to come to.

We are right there with the Israelites, right on the edge of the promise land. As we name the general and specific giants we cannot forget who brought us here. We have to take the perspective of Caleb and Joshua. We have to interpret our current reality with the eyes of an envisioned reality. If we do we have a future. If not we will be pushed out into the wilderness for 40 years.

I told you the story of me being afraid to read in public because it is my personal testimony to God’s power and grace. I am sure I can ask some of you to tell me the story of your lives and we can hear even more stories of God getting us through things in life, defeating the giants that are in front of us and bringing us to the Promise Land. Our future is bright when it is found in the light of Christ, the source of truth and hope. But that doesn’t mean we won’t face giants. They are out there and whether they are real or imaginary we will have to battle with them.

I am reminded of a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. He once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” What does our future look like? I don’t know yet. Will God guide us there and see us through, helping us to defeat our giants? I believe what Caleb and Joshua said, "If the Lord is pleased with us, he'll bring us into this land and give it to us. It's a land that's full of milk and honey."

If you need more proof, hear again what the youth sung to open our worship this morning.

Oh what I would do to have the kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant

With just a sling and a stone.

Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors shaking in their armor

Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand

But the giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me

Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed

The giant keeps on telling me time and time again.

“Boy you’ll never win! You will never win”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story

The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”

And the voice of truth says, “This is for My glory.”

Out of all the voices calling out to me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.

And all God’s people said…Amen.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

Pilgrimage Sermon Series - What Reality Do You Choose - Numbers 13:17-14:9

2013-01-13T07:27:00.000-05:00

Pilgrimage

Numbers 13:17-14:9

What Reality Do You Choose?

01-13-13

We live in a very affluent society when you look at the rest of the world or even to the not so distant past of our own. One of the dreaded questions I know our family faces daily, and the same may be true for your family, is this question; “What is for dinner?” Back in the 1800s I have a feeling this was an easy questions to answer in Indian Trail. You ate whatever was available. You ate whatever meat, baked goods and home grown vegetables. “What’s for dinner?” wasn’t a hard question because there weren’t a lot of options.

Skip to today and that question gets a little harder. Now in our refrigerators, freezers, and pantries there are probably a half a dozen meals that could possibly be made. Now which one do you want to make becomes a little harder. Then there is the option if you don’t eat at home. If you go out where will go? Do you go to one of the umpteen fast food chains, or the local restaurants, or the ones in Monroe, or Waxhaw or Matthews? Instead of one option now there are actually hundreds and so the question gets even harder when we are asked daily, “What’s for dinner?”

Think about it another way. If someone asked you to pick them up some shampoo at the store what would you pick up? There may have been two or three options 70 years ago, but not there are whole isles in the grocery store that give you 30 some odd options for shampoo, let alone conditioner. Does the person want one that smells fruity or like coconut? Do they want one boosts the volume of their hair, helps fight dandruff, or leaves a nice shine. You couldn’t even say, “Could you pick me up some Pantene because there are about 12 different varieties of Pantene on the store shelves. With the amount of choices we have in our society it is a challenge if not a nuisance to make decisions.

It is always nerve racking meeting a new church for the first time. You don’t know who you are meeting. You don’t know what agendas you are going to be met with. You don’t know the truth about a lot of the situation before you get there and dive in. A friend of mine received a call from her DS and was told that she was going to her next appointment. After trying to figure out where that church was and where the town was, she asked about the church situation. The DS informed her that they have had a couple of interim pastors until they could appointment her there. This peaked her interested and she asked more about why they needed two interim pastors. The DS told her that the pastor had been sick.

Some weeks later she met with the Pastor Parish Relations Committee Chair and the Lay Member to Annual Conference. During the conversation she asked them about their recent history and why they needed two interim pastors. They looked at each other and then at me and they looked embarrassed. She told me she was thinking to herself, what is there to be embarrassed by your pastor getting sick? But then they finally opened up a little and shared their story. Come to find out their pastor had an affair with the music director. The pastor confessed everything to their DS the right before Christmas. The church was rocked to their core and had been dealing with all the feelings that come with a pastor being removed from their appointment, spending Christmas with no pastor, and then two interim pastors who came in to lead the congregation until she was appointed. As this pastor moved into this appointment reality started to sink in as she talked with key leaders and other laity.

What was interesting was finding out later that they still do not like talking about that incident. They feel ashamed and scared to admit what had happened. It wasn’t their fault, they didn’t do anything. It was something that the pastor and the music director did but the congregation members were the casualties. As the PPRC Chair stood to read a letter from their now former pastor the Sunday of Christmas Eve and the congregation was faced with a new reality they had a choice to make. They could have folded up, melted down, and ran or they could pull together as the Body of Christ and rise above the fray.

In today’s scripture we have a major decision happening. The Hebrew people had left Egypt and they have traveled from Egypt, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness to the edge of the Promise Land. They are camped on the outskirts and ask 12 spies to venture in and see what they can see. He asks them to , “inspect the land. What is like? Are the people who live in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the land in which they live good or bad? Are the towns in which they live camps or fortresses? Is the land rich or poor? Are there trees in it or not?” Moses is walking with over a million people and he wants to make sure things are okay when they decided to move into the land that God promises. They are right there but they had to do some research first.

So the 12 spies go in and explore for 40 days. They see a fertile land and plenty of grapes growing. They take a cluster with them on their journey to prove how nice the land is. When they come back all 12 spies agree that this land is full of milk and honey and show the fruit as proof. They are honest about the people they saw too and the huge fortified cities. They list the clans they saw and the areas they lived in. Worry starts to creep through the people and people start to panic.

Put yourself in the shoes of the people. They follow Moses out of slavery in Egypt and through this strange land to the place where their leaders promised was from God. When they get there they find it full of people but also potential. Now they are faced with a decision to make and two options come up. Ten of the spies, give one option and two of them give another.

How we define reality is extremely important. The spies did a great job when they first returned. They named the land correctly saying it was full of milk and honey and people in fortified cities. They named their current reality well. The church I spoke about earlier had to name the reality that their congregation when through a hard time and went through trauma. When we are faced with choices or those moments in our lives when we know a decision has to be made, naming the reality we live in is extremely important. All 12 spies do an excellent job in this.

The problem arises when they interpret that reality in light of the decision they have to make. There are two options available to the Hebrew people. They can run away from the promised land because they task seems to big or they can move forward into what God has promised. They can make this decision from two places, out of fear or out of faith. Ten of the spies give their recommendation from a place of fear or perceived reality. This perceived reality leads them to give us Numbers 13:33, “We saw ourselves as grasshoppers, and that’s how we appeared to them.” The task of going into the Promise Land was so big that the people living there turned into giants. The ten spies said they were grasshoppers when compared to them. Fear got a hold of their reality and turned normal people into giants.

The “Grasshopper report” came out of a place of fear. The fortified cities, the population that already existed, the Hittites, Jubusites, Amorites and Canaanites were all too much and so the rumors were spread that these people were giants. You can start to get a sense of the fear involved. The other thing involved was the murmuring. “Murmuring is the language of perceived reality.”[1] God’s chosen people love to murmur. That is true today as it was back in Moses’ time. It didn’t take them long to start either. They had just left Egypt, just walked across the dry ground through the Red Sea. They were simply three days into their journey when Exodus 15:24 records their first account of murmuring, “the people murmured against Moses.” When things get scary the people of God complain, whisper, gossip. But this is all the language of perceived reality, the reality defined by fear.

“Murmuring is the word that describes life in churches that allow fears of the present and future to be coupled with a desire to cling to the past.” Focus is moved from hope in the future to fears of the future. The ‘what ifs’ creep in and taint the dream or callings God is laying on the people. This is when the “Back to Egypt Committees” rear their heads. When things got bad for the Hebrew people they suggested that they leave Moses and go back to Egypt. At least there they knew where they would get their food and where they would sleep. This is true but they tended to forget that this is also when they were being brutally oppressed as slaves. But that is the issue with perceived reality, the past, even though it may not be as good as the present, still looks better than the unknown future.

Now that things are getting tough again, “the entire community raised their voice and the people wept that night.” They laid all the blame at their leaders feet. It is all Moses and Aaron’s fault! “Let’s pick a leader and let’s go back to Egypt.” Now I am sure this never happens in modern day congregations. I am sure there has never been people who blamed the pastor, the Chair of a Committee, or a Committee as a whole as being the source of their problems. I am quite certain that never has happened here at Indian Trail United Methodist Church. I am certain you all understand sarcasm. It is really easy to place blame on leaders or on the pastor. But once again that is a symptom of perceived reality or of a murmuring congregation. As the book I’m using for this sermon series says, “People live out the behavior pattern of murmuring as they cling to the perceived security of the past even when the past has the power to enslave them in the present.”

Now if perceived reality is bad what is the better way to interpret the reality we are in? For that we go to Caleb and Joshua. They are the two spies that spoke up and gave a different perspective. How they interpreted reality is called Envisioned Reality. Do you remember what they reported to Moses and Aaron. We find this in Numbers 14:7-9. They say, “The land we crossed through to explore is an exceptionally good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, he’ll bring us into this land and give it to us. It’s a land that’s full of milk and honey. Only don’t rebel against the Lord and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are our prey. Their defense has deserted them, but the Lord is with us. So don’t be afraid of them.” They came from a place of faith in God not of fear. They realized that if God brought them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, provided for them during their journey, guided them with pillars of fire and smoke, they why wouldn’t God lead them triumphantly into the Promise Land like God promised?

That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be hard. To defeat the current inhabitants and take over the land would be very difficult. Yet, Caleb and Joshua encouraged the congregation of Israel to face the giants without fear. The other ten spies had a “Grasshopper sized” perception of reality whereas Caleb and Joshua had a “God sized” perception. They made their recommendation from a place of faith in God instead of fear. They knew that if the vision of the future, the calling of God, is real then the people will succeed no matter how great the task.

What we are faced as a congregation journeying towards the Promise Land is where we will make decisions from, perceived reality or envisioned reality? Will we make decisions from a place of fear or a place of faith? Here is an important question we need to consider, “The question a local church must answer as it plans its ministries is the following: will we plan our ministries based on memories of the past, or will we plan ministries formed by the promises of Jesus Christ?”

We know that both reports regarding the Promised Land became true. The people decided to first follow the words of the ten and because of their lack of faith God sent them to spend 40 years in the wilderness. He said no one from that generation would get the privilege to enter the land he promised. When we do not have faith in God and what God promises there are consequences and there is judgment. When we live and make decisions through faith we experience and envisioned reality. A reality that is filled with God’s grace and love. It doesn’t promise to be easy but it is the Promised Land. So the question we are left with today and the one we will discuss tomorrow night is this: “As we consider the Promised Land Jesus envisioned (last week’s sermon), what vision of reality will we choose to live into?”

And all God’s people said…Amen.

[1] Does Your Church Have a Prayer?, Participant’s Workbook, p. 23

Pilgrimage Sermon Series - Jesus Prayed for You - John 17:1-5-13-26

2013-01-07T08:42:00.003-05:00

John 17:1-5, 13-26

Jesus Prayed for You

01-06-13

Today we start this Pilgrimage to God’s Promised Land. Like I have stated in the newsletter, a pilgrimage is a journey or search for some sort of spiritual significance or sacred place. In the first six weeks of 2013, Indian Trail UMC will be taking a pilgrimage to discover how and where God is calling us. I hope this happens on two levels. On a personal level I hope you will be asking God to give you personal direction, a personal Promised Land. I hope you will pray and ask God to shed light on where God is calling you. We are not all called to professional ministry, although some of you may be, but we are all called to be ministers of Jesus Christ’s love in this world. We are all called, as followers of Jesus, as Christians, to go out into the world and be the love of Christ. But how that is to be lived out is as individual as each of us. But we all are called and I hope you will take time to pray and listen for God to answer.

The other level is on a congregational level. I want to help us, Indian Trail UMC, figure out where God is calling us. I know God is calling this congregation to do something for this community. I know there is a Promised Land for us as a congregation but I don’t know what it looks like. I have some ideas of how God is asking me to lead and directions to go, but I have learned that I’m not the only one that receives ideas from God about. Some of the best things I have done in ministry was hearing God’s calling through other people and taking that and running with it. That is how a renovation happened at one church and a third floor mostly used for storage was turned into a quality space for youth and young adults. That is how a congregation came together to make meals for hungry children in Kenya and then two people actually traveled over there themselves. Those ideas were not mine. They weren’t the pastor’s. They came from the laity who were simply shared, “I think God is calling us to do this.”

Through the weekly sermons and the Bible Study I pray that God will reveal what he has in store for us as a congregation, through you and me. The only way we can get to the Promise Land is if we share a common vision and mission. If it only comes from one person, it won’t get far at all. We will need to work together, pray together, listen together. That is what this Pilgrimage is all about. So with that said, who is ready for the journey?

When I was a youth I went through this 36 hour spiritual retreat called Chrysalis. It is the youth version of Walk to Emmaus. If you have never heard of these Spiritual Retreats, let me tell you they can be life changing. They are deep, emotional, and fulfilling weekends. There is a Walk to Emmaus and Chrysalis community in our area so if you are interested I would encourage you to go on a walk or flight and I would be happy to make that happen for you. In Chrysalis each table gets to make up their own name. I sat the table of the Out-of-tuned Mashed Potatoes. (Remember we are youth) There are many memories that come to mind when I think about that weekend but on in particular is receiving letters from all over about people praying for us while we were on this spiritual journey. For some reason one that sticks out the most is an Emmaus group from Alaska that sent us a letter and a drawing to hang in our room that said, we are praying for you. I think it stuck out in my head because I remembered thinking, Alaska? There are people praying for me, by name, in Alaska?

Prayer is a powerful tool and what is amazing is that it can be felt. When we were doing the 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations series I remember reading about a church who had prayer pagers. I know PAGERS. But what they would do would be to give out these pagers to people in their congregation who needed prayer. They would publish the who had what pager number and people in the congregation would pray for that person. When they would pray for them they would then call the pager. The pager would go off and all the person knew was that at that moment someone was praying for them. How amazing would that feel to know you were being prayed for?

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you, and for me and for this congregation? It is right there in the scripture I read. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a time of prayer that is enshrined in many stain glass windows. Usually we think of the other gospels though. We think of the Jesus’ prayer from Matthew, ““My Father, if it’s possible, take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.” But in John we get another side of Jesus. In John Jesus is thinking about his disciples, those that will come after him that believe in what he is doing. He is praying for his disciples, his followers. Jesus is praying for us. In his last prayer before his crucifixion he is praying for you and he is praying for me. He has us on his mind in the moments before he is taken to be killed for our sins. WOW!

When we think of it that way we start to feel the weight of prayer on our shoulders. What does it feel like to think of Jesus praying for you and your faith journey? Jesus wants his followers, his disciples to understand the vision and mission of what he is doing in his crucifixion and resurrection. He is praying that the twelve that are following him and all those that follow, even us gathered here this morning, will ‘get it.’

But what should we get? Let’s break down a little bit of this prayer. But let me define for you a little bit more what the difference between a mission and a vision is. In leadership and church circles this can get very confusing about which is which. Is the vision that drives the mission or the mission that drives the vision? Which one stays the same and which ones changes?

The mission always stays the same. A mission statement is the driving force behind the purpose of a group. It is what we rely on to push us forward. A vision is what the future can look like if we follow through with the mission. A vision changes to adapt to the current realities we face. A mission stays the same.

So what is the mission that Jesus lays out in this prayer for us. There are three major foundations to this mission. Verse 18 says, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” The first foundation is that we are sent into the world. Our mission is not confined to this sanctuary but out there. Jesus sends us out into the world just as he was sent out. There was something in our church culture, something in the past that has trained generations of people to think that the church is here for them. The Church is like a gym membership where you hope to get the most out of what you pay in. But Jesus doesn’t pray that we will get our needs filled or the use of the fellowship hall at a decent price. No he says, “so I have sent them into the world.”

The second foundations comes out of verses 22-23; “I’ve given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me.” “The second foundation is Jesus’s disciples living as witnesses of God’s love so that the world may believe that God sent Jesus through the lives of Jesus’ disciples.”[1] We represent God’s love to the world. That is huge to think about. When people think about or experience God’s love it comes from us. You are a representative of God’s love to the world. The way we love the world is the way people will know why God sent Jesus. Think about the way you live out your daily life and think that everything you do demonstrates God’s love. When you shower an elementary school with angel tree gifts that shows God’s love. When you are cut off on 74 and you demonstrate your appreciation with the one finger salute that shows God’s love. Because you are a follower of Jesus, everything you do represents God’s love for the world.

The third foundation is found in verse 25 and 26. “Righteous Father, even the world didn’t know you, but I’ve known you, and these believers know that you sent me. I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them.” This foundation states that we are people “sent in the same sending love that led Jesus to the cross.”[2] You are sent out into the world with the same love that sent Jesus down to earth and to the cross.

Those are the foundations of Jesus’ mission for his followers. We are sent out into the world, representatives of God’s love, and in the love of God. This never changes, is always the same, and is always constant.

Jesus’ vision for us is laid out in the earlier parts of the prayer. Once again it has three foundations. The first foundation is found in verse 17 and 19; “Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth. 19 I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy in the truth.” Jesus’ vision is us to growing and being formed in the truth of God. This truth is found and revealed in Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus that we know the truth, experience the truth, and understand the truth.

“The second foundation is a vision of joy as Jesus’ disciples focus their lives on the love that guided Jesus to the cross.”[3] It is found in verse 13; “Now I’m coming to you and I say these things while I’m in the world so that they can share completely in my joy.” Jesus wants us to be joyful as we bask in God’s love. Joy moves beyond happy. Joy moves us from this place to a sacred place. It moves us outside just feeling good to a place where we have inner peace and understanding of God’s love being ever present in our lives. That is what Jesus wishes and envisions for all of us.

Verses 20-21; “I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word. I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.” This is the third and final foundation of Jesus’ vision for his disciples, that we are united in God’s love revealed through Jesus. Jesus wants us to all be one, the body of Christ, the Church. United together and united in God’s heart. He wants all of our hearts to be one with his own. If we are one with God we will have joy and we can grow and be formed by the truth. This is Jesus’ vision for us, his followers.

It is in the mission and vision of Jesus that we start this pilgrimage. We start this journey towards the promise land by reminding ourselves what Jesus’ prayer is for us. He wants us to be united with his heart, have joy which is found in his love, and grow and be formed by the truth. We can achieve that vision if we follow his mission. The mission is to go out into the world as representatives of God’s love and sent by that same love. This is empowering, moving and a great reminder that no matter where we are on this journey, this pilgrimage, God is with us, sends us, and sustains us.

We find that in the meal we are about to receive. We feel it as we partake in the body and blood of Christ. As you feast at this heavenly meal may you be reminded of the vision Jesus has for us and the mission we are put on. May this meal sustain you as the Holy Spirit works through you to spread, share, and be God’s love for the world.

And all God’s people said…Amen.

[1] Brown, Marc, Merry, Kathy, & Briggs, John. Does Your Church Have a Prayer? Discipleship Resources, Nashville, 2009, p.110.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid, p.109.

Good Reads of the Day

2013-01-03T15:34:00.000-05:00

Ministry Matters does it again with another great article. Dyton Owens gives some great insight to what truly kills ministry.
Allan Bevere has a great write up about The Culture of the Offended. Got me thinking about how much time I spend dealing with the adolscents of adults. There is a reason I never want to go back to Middle School and all the nonscence drama. Little did I know the Church is full of it.
I am doing a new sermon series called Pilgrimage, based off the book Does Your Church have a Prayer? Marc Brown, one of the authors, is coaching me through the first little bit of my new appointment. What I love is the very Biblical perspective he (and the other authors) take on church turn arounds and getting congregations to the Promised Land. This is a great quote about preaching I thought I would share...

"Preaching is an act of faith. Painting on the canvas of scripture, preachers tell the story of sin and redemption, tragedy and hope, death and resurrection. Within the rich colors and hues of the Christian faith, preachers connect Jesus' present generation of disciples with the ongoing story of God's love. Interwoven in this fabric of divine hope preachers have the sacred responsibility of sharing the message of salvation. As Paul describes this task: For since, in the wisdom of GOd, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who belive. (1 Corinthians 1:21)" p.108

Luke 1:39-45 - Sermon - Leaping for Joy

2012-12-21T08:57:00.001-05:00

Luke 1:39-45
Leaping for Joy
12-23-12

Theodore Baker translated the lyrics from a 15th century carol. His German to English translation is just what we sung.

“Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

Sure this is not as Christmasy as you may have liked on this Fourth Sunday of Advent and maybe Holy Night was more of what you were hoping for this Sunday. But it isn’t Christmas yet. Tomorrow night we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and then for 12 days we keep celebrating it. Next week in worship we will walk through the Old Testament and New Testament texts to hear of the promise of the Messiah and then the Messiah’s arrival. We will listen to 9 scripture lessons and we will sing 9 Christmas Carols. All the good ones.

But not today, today we are still in preparation mode. We are making that last ditch effort to ready ourselves, ready our souls, ready our hearts for the gift that comes on Christmas morn, or as they hymn put it, “when half spent was the night.” So instead of ringing Christmas fully in this Sunday, we get this simple and nice text about two relatives coming together celebrating the fact that they are both pregnant.

I am sure, since they were family, they had discussions in the past about Elizabeth not being able to conceive. As the women would gather at any family function, talk would happen and although Mary was still young and not married she would be invited into those conversations because soon she would be. Mary probably understood the pain and disappointment that Elizabeth, a preacher’s wife, couldn’t conceive children. In every synagogue all the members simply wanted to see Elizabeth pregnant as much as possible. A pregnant preacher’s wife is like catnip to church ladies. I am sure the rumors of why she couldn’t were being placed back upon Zachariah. But now they had been visited by angels and Zack still had his doubts. So the Angel Gabriel strikes him mute until their baby is born. Can you imagine that parsonage; a mute rabbi and a pregnant rabbi’s wife expecting their first child in their older years.

Meanwhile in Nazareth, the Lord’s angel also appears to a virgin named Mary who was engaged to a man named Joseph. She was probably just a teenager when the angel came and told her that God had picked her to bear his Son. It was in her womb that the Christ Child, the God-man, would be born. She is taking this all in, trying to understand her, when the angel tells her that her Elizabeth is pregnant as well. After the angel leaves Mary runs off to the mountains to spend time with Elizabeth and make sense of all that is happening.

Growing up with three sisters there is only one thing that comes to mind when two pregnant women of the same family get together for the first time. I have seen it happen with my own eyes. I have seen it when sorority sisters see each other for the first time in a while. Or best friends who have been gone forever come back to see each other. They all use that high pitched scream they used to have anytime they saw a picture of teen heartthrob. It starts off a normal human pitch, but still loud, and eventually it moves into a noise that only dogs can hear. Somehow that is all I can think of when Mary shows up at Elizabeth’s house, both pregnant, both visited by angels, both told of the great thing their sons will do for this world. All I can picture is…AHHHHHH, OHHH MY YAHWEH!!!!!! Yes this is the small gift here on Christmas Adam, a sorority sister yell.

As they meet for the first time the baby inside Elizabeth gives a wallop of a kick. Even John the Baptist in utero understands the wonderful thing that is happening in this moment. The one who is to pave the way is in one belly, while the one who is to come, is still an embryo in the other. The holy moment of confirmation of God’s plan to save the world was understood by all of those involved.

When Alycia was pregnant with Dean two of our friends were also pregnant and due the same time. All three of their due dates were only days apart. So they would chat on the phone here and there and compare where they were in the process of baking a human. They would compare doctor check-ups, progress reports, different pains and cravings. They would talk about the inability to sleep, swelling in places that never were swollen. The list would go on and on. I say this as the husband and the father of the soon-to-be born. As a man I don’t understand what it is like to hold life inside me. I thought, after a bad burrito, I was close, but I was soon told differently. My ears would go deaf to some of those things that Alycia and her pregnant friends would discuss but I could not relate. But all three of them could because they were going through the same thing at the same time.

Mary and Elizabeth get together and they have three months of this shared experience. Mary can see into her future and prepare for what life will be like at 9 months pregnant. The scripture says that when she came to visit Elizabeth was six months pregnant and Mary visited for three months. She left in the final weeks before birth. I wonder if she did because that is how pregnant she would be when she would be wandering the streets of Bethlehem looking for a place to give birth to her son? Mary gained first hand experience on what was awaiting her and it was a vital connection she probably needed.

Someone once asked me what to expect when you have children. I told them that what they should do is write down what their life looks like now on a piece of paper. Write down what you and your spouse love to do and what your favorite hobbies are. Write down the moments of joy you have in life to. Then get in your car and drive down a highway you can get up to at least 70 miles an hour on. Then when you are cruising at 70 miles an hour, take that piece of paper and ball it up and chuck it out the window. That is what is like when you have a baby. It changes absolutely everything but what is so amazing is that you never truly want that piece of paper back because what you have now is so much better.

I am sure there were moments with all of you who were expecting your first child that you needed to get ready for it. I am sure they are different for everyone, both mothers and fathers. What moment was it for you? Was it when the nursery was finally all painted and all the furniture was in? Was it when you had to child proof your house and you realized it would take you a second or two to get into any drawer or toilet in your house? Was it when you had to install that car seat for the first time and you wondered what deranged person invented such a horribly complicated device?

I think we witness Mary’s moment right here in the scripture. Elizabeth is so happy to see Mary and so elated about how her baby jumps when she comes that she says this to Mary, “With a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.” I love the last part of that verse, “Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.”

With this Mary breaks out into song, which is referred to as the Magnificat. This song of praise starts with Mary, moves up to God’s people, then the rest of the world and then to God. It is a song of praise and thanks giving that seems just to erupt from Mary’s soul. The honor, the joy, the hope, the peace, the love that will be coming from her body, her baby, is overwhelming. Here is what she says;

Mary said,

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
47     In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
48 He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
49         because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
50     He shows mercy to everyone,
        from one generation to the next,
        who honors him as God.
51 He has shown strength with his arm.
    He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
52     He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
        and lifted up the lowly.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty-handed.
54 He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
        remembering his mercy,
55     just as he promised to our ancestors,
        to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.”

We don’t know much about the rest of their pregnancies. This is the only peek we get into the both Mary and Elizabeth’s baking process. For the other six months they are isolated from connection for all we know, but for these three months they spend it with each other. This is their big connection to community, to ready themselves for what is to come.

Why are you here this morning? Why did you feel that today, the fourth Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday of winter, was a good day to come to church? Are you here because you were hoping to get a sense of Christmas? Are you here because of the darkness that invades your life this time of year and you needed some light? Are you here because this time of year you desperately seek some sort of connection to make sense of it all? What brings you here this morning?

My hope is this is not the last time we will worship together before Christmas morning. I truly hope you will come to one of the Christmas Eve services in order for us to truly celebrate the birth of Christ. It isn’t Christmas yet, but it is right there. We can almost feel the birth pains starting. The baby’s kicks are getting harder and we can tell there isn’t much room in the womb. God’s promise will be fulfilled.

Elizabeth tells Mary, “Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.” God’s promise will be fulfilled. This Christmas seems darker than others. Maybe it is just me, maybe it is just darker in my own eyes. All I know is I cannot wait to see the light.

Our final hymn today is another Christmas Carol but it is still dark and somber. In the Bleak Midwinter was written by Christina Rossetti as a Christmas poem for an American magazine in 1872. She imagined the Nativity in a snowy Northern landscape and what it would have been like if Christ came into the world she knew. In the early 1900s it was put to the familiar music that we know it by. I love this carol but what I love is that in the somber tune, the quiet melody there is a hope and joy. It feels distant. It still feels far off but it is there. Listen to the words of the second verse,

Our God, heaven cannot hold him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When he comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

The light is coming and tomorrow night we will welcome him. But today, this morning we celebrate the fact that we are happy because we believe that Lord will fulfill his promise. God will live up to what God says. Light will come to eradicate the darkness. This is why we gather together on this fourth Sunday of Advent, on this last day of preparation. We come to ready ourselves, remind ourselves, in the midst of this community we love that we will find the hope, peace, joy and love in the babe in Mary’s womb.

And all God’s people said. Amen.

Response to Sandy Hook Tragedy

2012-12-17T16:40:00.002-05:00

Below is a question I received from one of my Facebook Friends. I was going to answer this question within FB’s messages but thought others may want to know my response. I am simply sharing this, with the permission of my anonymous friend, in hopes that my answers will help you grapple with Friday’s events.

My friends question was this: I have been struggling with wanting to address a post by our neighbor (a good friend & an atheist) who said "Why has god forsaken us?" Well, I know that God has not forsaken us and that His heart breaks when things like this happen. But we also recognize that America has repeatedly asked Him to leave our schools. But I sense that is not the right thing to say to her. Maybe nothing is the best thing to say here. Any thoughts?

I hear a number of questions within this paragraph and to answer it clearly I will need to break it down. The questions I hear are as follows:

1. Did God forsake us? Behind that is, How can a just and loving God let this happen?

2. Where is God in tragedy?

3. Should God be put back into public school?

4. How do you talk with someone who believe different than you and be respectful?

1. Did God forsake us? The quick answer is no. The story of Christmas, the birth of God’s son, points to the fact that we are not forsaken but forgiven, freed, and reclaimed as God’s own. Christmas marks the start of our Jesus’ salvation journey for our sake. A God who would give up his only Son, for the sake of us, does not forsake us.

I think a question behind this question is one commonly asked; How can a just and loving God let this happen? As a United Methodist pastor, brought up in and taught Wesleyan theology, I believe we have free will. Each of us is given the ability to choose right or wrong, to believe or not to believe. Also, we have to recognize we live in a very fallen world, drenched in sin. If we go back to the original sin, the one Adam and Eve committed we can see what sin is truly about. If you read Genesis 3, you will see the serpent tempt Adam and Eve (Adam was there by the way, read closely) with this phrase. “’You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Gen. 3:4-5) The reason they ate the forbidden fruit was because they wanted to be like God. If you look at all sin, it all goes back to being like God. When people take guns into schools they want to demonstrate their power of life and death. They want to be godlike. If you look at the sins we commit we can usually track back to the fact that we want to be God or we don’t trust God enough.

With that said, God didn’t let Friday’s event take place. It was a decision by Adam Lanza to take lives of too many young and innocent people into his hands. He wanted to play God that morning but thank the Lord he isn’t. God’s heart was the first to break when the events started to unfold. Just like God’s heart breaks every time we sin and that space between humanity and God feels emptier. Humanity is concentrated on making ourselves into “Big Deals” and individuals who stand above others. This is not the way God neither wanted nor originally created the world we live in. And through the gift of his Son, we won’t have to stay this way forever.

2. Where is God in tragedy? Matthew 28:20 (Jesus’ last words on earth in this gospel) “Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” Where was God? God was there, in the hallways, in the closets, in the offices, in the classrooms, in the fire station, in the churches, in the town. God was there and everywhere, because God is God. Jesus promises that he will be with us always and I think we lose sight of that. God is right there, with you, right now. It is us, humanity, which has to change our eyes to see God in our midst. God was active in the principals, administrators, and teachers who ran towards the bullets instead of away. God was active in the first responders who provided safety. God was active in the clergy and counselors who provided shoulders, ears, and hugs. God’s presence in tragedy is always overwhelming when we have the right eyes to see God at work.

3. Should God be put back into public school? Once again, using the argument above, God never left. How prideful are we, as humans, to think that through some act of government legislation we can remove God from anything. Once again, this directs us back to original sin, when we think we can be God. Yes, officially teachers cannot lead students in a required prayer every morning, but I bet prayers are said every time they are required to take a test. Prayers are said all the time when courage is being mustarded up to talk to that girl or guy. Prayers are said in sporting events, recitals, and in offices before teacher/parent conferences. God is not absent. God is there. Nothing we can do can kick God out of school because, once again, we aren’t god.

4. How do you talk with someone who believes differently than you while being respectful and understanding? I have found that people are put off by those who have overly bearing and dramatic stances on really anything. Okay, maybe not everyone, but I am, so I try to approach every conversation in that respect. I am not going to wad Jesus up and stuff him down someone’s throat because I don’t wanted to be treated that way. I try to truly live into the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39). If that doesn’t take I go to the golden rule; “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) If we do not see each other as God sees each of us, than we cannot have any type of quality conversation or relationship.

With that said, if I was to have a conversation with my atheist neighbor, and he said, “Why has god forsaken us?” I would simply say, “I don’t believe God has.” Then let the neighbor ask why. Then I would politely lay out my reasons. One, very appropriate to the season, is why Jesus came into this world. Why do we truly celebrate Christmas? We celebrate because God came into this world to restore, forgive and make right what went wrong. Wrong stuff will still happen, really wrong, evil, horrible stuff from nature and humanity. But then I hear the words of Paul in my head; “I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.” (Romans 8:38-39) No matter how much we play god in our lives, nothing we can do can separate us from God, the God that I worship, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

During the best times here on earth and in the midst of unspeakable evil, God is with us. That is what I hold onto. That is where I find my hope; where I find my peace; where I find my joy; where I come in contact with God’s love.

Peace be with you all,

Jim

What Your Pastor Really Wants for Christmas

2012-12-12T12:05:00.001-05:00

Ministry Matters™ | Articles | What Your Pastor Really Wants for Christmas

The above link is an interesting article from Ministry Matters. Being my first Christmas with this congregation I am not sure what to expect. Every church is different and have their own ways of saying thank you or not.

What would be on my Christmas list?

Folding machine would be awesome; so would a new office chair. A vacation to Maui or Bora Bora would be beyond awesome! Then there is the list at the parsonage, which is way to long. I am not sure what I would REALLY like for Christmas as a pastor.

If I had to make a Christmas prayer, this is what it would be for my congregation. I pray that we, as congregation and minister, work together to hear God's call for this church and then strive together, as one body, to work towards that calling. I pray through that experience we can transform ourselves, our church, and our community into a dedicated and devoted group of Christ followers.

That is not too much to ask is it?

Advent Devotion - Dec. 12

2012-12-12T11:59:00.002-05:00

Matthew 1:18-24 ;

18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly. 20 As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all of this took place so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled:

23 Look! A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son,
And they will call him, Emmanuel.[a]

(Emmanuel means “God with us.”)

24 When Joseph woke up, he did just as an angel from God commanded and took Mary as his wife.

To find good husbands these days it is rare. There are those who love their wives and kids and are very active in their lives. Then there are those who see their job as the sole income earner and concentrate only on that. There are those husbands who abuse their wife and children and those who run off and have nothing to do with them. Husbands run the gambit and we can find all kinds in the bible and in our pews.

We don’t know much about much about Mary’s fiancé. We know his name is Joseph and that he was a carpenter. We know he respected and cared for Mary because he was willing “to call off the engagement quietly.” That says a lot about his character and his compassion for this young women who was pregnant with God’s son.

Although we don’t know much about Joseph we can still glean some things from how he lived his life in the pieces of information we do have. We can see that although it was probably socially damning to him, he followed God’s will and kept Mary as his bride-to-be. He took care of his step-son Jesus and passed down his craft to him. We can see that he was a loving man of God and who sought first to do what God asks of him in his life. That is something all men, husbands, fathers, step-fathers can strive for in our own lives.

Advent Devotion - Dec. 11

2012-12-11T10:42:00.000-05:00

Malachi 3:1-4 ;

3 Look, I am sending my messenger who will clear the path before me;

suddenly the Lord whom you are seeking will come to his temple.

The messenger of the covenant in whom you take delight is coming,

says the Lord of heavenly forces.

2 Who can endure the day of his coming?

Who can withstand his appearance?

He is like the refiner’s fire or the cleaner’s soap.

3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.

He will purify the Levites

and refine them like gold and silver.

They will belong to the Lord,

presenting a righteous offering.

4 The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord

as in ancient days and in former years.

In our current society the worst thing you can say to people is that they are not perfect. Many children are growing up today with the ideas that what they are in that moment, what they can do at this time, is all they need to succeed in this world. While that is a happy thought that may wrap warm fuzzies around some as they nestle into bed, it is a bold face lie. I’m not saying we should stomp on our children’s self-esteem but reality is if you want to be great at something you have to work really hard at it.

Professionals at all levels work hard to hone their craft. From professional athletes who push their bodies to the limit during the off season or who take the same shot over and over again to lawyers and preachers who work on the art of rhetoric to improve their skills. Architects, CEOs, doctors and engineers are always learning new procedures and looking into new ways to do things. Professional musicians and singers have to practice, practice, practice. The skills we have as children do not make us great but they are the foundation of greatness that will come with hard work. We simply cannot stop growing when we are 13 or even 18, we have to continue to process throughout life.

Here in Malachi we get nervous when we read of being purified or refined. We think pain and punishment but reality is different. Instead I think of this as moving us from where we are to greatness or even holiness. The refining and purifying process removes dirty material, imperfections, and defects and creates something wonderful. Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit works on all of our hearts to move the dirt, defects and imperfections out in order for us to be made great in Christ. As we grow as followers of Christ we have to be willing to always be changing, always refined, always purified. If we are satisfied with where we are, we are merely lukewarm Christians. We should seek and welcome God's refining process no matter where we are in our walk.