Building projects

So we are finally wrapping our deck around the house.  We have set aside 2 weeks to tear of the existing decking boards and build an extension on the existing structure to  wrap it from one end of our addition to the other.

There are so many similarities in re-building a deck and re-building a church. Some of the work is easier and other parts are more difficult. But, like the guy at the lumber yard said to us…when the project is done you want it to look like it was meant to be there all along.

To make it look like it is supposed to look this way you have to:

~ Tear out the old decking boards and examine them to determine which ones are salvageable and which ones need to be discarded.  Tearing away old programs and ideologies and keeping the ones that work with the new plan needs to be done.

~ Digging new post holes that will line up with the existing posts takes alot of preliminary measuring, marking, and re-checking so that the new deck will line up with the existing frame…hours of work with very little to show for it…just a bunch of holes.  Digging into minutes, creating new policies, setting up a structure to work along side some existing structures, lots and lots of work, with not a lot of visible results showing…sometimes,  just a bunch of holes.

It’s the preliminary work…that takes so much time with very little visibile results…but if it’s not done right,  the end result is a bad match.  But, if we continue to check the drawings and keep at the preliminary work, while keeping the end result in mind, one day we will enjoy the fruit of our labor…the holes filled with concrete will hold the new posts which will hold up the deck.  The holes found in ministry areas…will be filled with the right people to provide the  strength to build up  a congregation.

I’m excited to begin filling the holes… soon.

Do Not Stop Him!

Sometimes church people can be like the Apostle John.

Lord, we stopped this guy because he was not one of us. (my paraphrase of Mark 9:38).  I hear so many people say to others ‘STOP‘, you can’t do that…you’re not a Christian, part of our church, mature enough…or other words very similar.  Or they tell me as the pastor….so and so shouldn’t do this or that because they aren’t ….fill in the blank with the above phrases.

Jesus said “Do not stop him.”

“No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”

So, if I am following my leader Jesus then I have to say the same thing to the “churched” people.

I’m not stopping them….because whoever is not against us….is for us.

Now this doesn’t mean put them in positions of leadership or to teach…but if they want to go out and do good things for the kingdom….

Don’t stop them!!!

The Battlefield

I never thought that the little table in our office would be  such a battlefield.

As I think back over the past 2 years and that little table in our pastors office, I am amazed at the battles it has endured. There  have been battles of words, battles of egos, power struggles and battles for souls.

Words were spoken across that table that drew lines of division between people.  Other words have drawn lines between powers and principalities.  God’s word spoken and strongholds broken down, barriers broken through.  All of this around one little table.

As I sat with a mid 20 year old yesterday at the little table in our office and watched and prayed and counseled through a powerful  spiritual battle, I was privileged to observe the victory and the power of Jesus Christ.  The Name above all names.

And another name was added to the Book of Life.

The table stands, ready for the next battle it will provide space for.

Priest’s Pressure

I am in the thick of the Book of Leviticus.

Boy, it was tough to be a priest for God.

Leviticus 10:

1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command.
2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: “‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’” Aaron remained silent.

6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire.
7 Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said.

I found myself kind of mad at God this morning.  I read this and I hurt for Aaron.  His two oldest sons killed and he has to have his younger brother tell him “Hey God was serious here.  He will be honored, your kids broke the rules.”

If that is not hard enough, he is not allowed to mourn for them because he still has to be the priest.  He still has to perform the sacrifices.  He has to stay put because he has the anointing oil on him.

As I was wrestling through this I wondered what Aaron was thinking as he sat at the entrance of the tent of meeting.  I wondered how sad he must have been.  Then it was this little nudging…almost difficult to detect…it was a question…

“How do you think I felt?”

I can’t imagine how God felt or feels because I realize I still relate more to human emotion than to God’s emotions.  Once again, I am reminded how far God’s thoughts are from my thoughts.

There is a great deal of pressure to remain true to God when you are devastated by hard things and are commissioned to remain in his service.

God went on to tell Aaron

9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean,
11 and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses.”

Priests had to set apart the holy from the unholy and then teach others to obey.  Talk about pressure…

More great comments from first timers

We have had quite a few “first time ever in a church” guests over the past several weeks.  Wow is this ever an eye opening experience for me.  I am sooooooo churched it’s sickening sometimes.  I have to have someone from a completely different culture help me to speak or explain things I take for granted.  So here are the top 5 of the past few weeks, questions/comments.

1.  In our study group after reading a passage in the Book of Acts chapter 26.  “What are our 12 tribes?”  I answered,  “They are the 12 tribes of Israel.”  A couple of blinks and then  “Well ….this might be a dumb question but…who are the 12 tribes of Israel?’

2.  After a Scripture reading in church when John the Baptist said  “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  A woman walks up to me and says…”I don’t get it?”  Why would that guy John call Jesus a Lamb, I’m sure it means something?

3.  After the collection plate went by..and our worship pastor said “If you are a guest here today, please understand there is no obligation to give, this is for our members and regular attenders,”  a guest of one of our members asked her if she had to pay her membership dues every week.  He thought we were like the Rotary club.

3. Question asked after the service ” Do you have to stand up to sing?  Or is it so you can see the words on the wall from the power point”?

4. From a college student who is looking for a moral compass…told to his friend who invited him to check out the church…after we gave him a coupon for a cup of coffee…”That just creeped me right out…why would the church want to give me something for free?”

5.  All time great comment to me to date was asked of me this afternoon…regarding  a reading from Joshua read in church this past Sunday when Joshua said “Choose this day whom you will serve”   a first time ever in a church person said to me  “Do you Christians have to be told who to follow, don’t you already know? “

I am so happy that we have first timers checking us out.  I am thrilled with the church for inviting them.  We truly want people to know we want them to come as they are so they don’t have to stay where they are!

The best part of this is that they are asking questions…they are telling us what they think and most importantly they are being told the greatest story ever told and they are listening.  I am praying for 5 people specifically to grab hold of  Jesus, because I know that Christ can change their lives.

So what kinds of questions are people asking you?

Why Audacious?

I have had quite a few people ask me why I use the term “audacious” pastor. I was pondering this the past few days as I limped and gimped my way through  ordination service Friday night and my MDIV graduation on Saturday afternoon.

I was not going to let a torn calf muscle keep me from kneeling down before the bishop for my commission or walking across the stage to receive my hood.  I had worked too hard; battled too long with prejudice, antagonism, mockers, exhaustion, Greek, the early Church Fathers, Wesleyan theology, and my own demons…who sometimes overtly, but mostly quietly, whispered doubt to me.

The word “audacious” was spoken at a bible study we were having over a year ago.  We were reading and discussing Jacob.  Jacob was a wrestler.  Jacob was wrestling with God, his family, his neighbors,  it seemed as if Jacob wrestled with almost everyone he came in contact with.  But this one particular wrestling match ended with Jacob  limping.  However,  Jacob would not let go until he received God’s blessing.  Now that is ‘audacious’, someone spoke up.

Audacious indeed.  Not letting go, not giving up until the blessing is received.  I’m not giving up.  Though I am walking with a limp still today, I have been touched, I have been blessed.  I intend to continue to press on until my last breath snatching people from the fire and bringing them towards the Kingdom of Heaven.

Audacious indeed!

Strategic Planning next steps

What a great time to be doing the business of God.  I love this stuff and I get to use all that I’ve learned plus how I’m wired to expand the Kingdom.

We polled our board and the pastors and now we are ready to bring in some passionate people from our congregation to help us look ahead and plan ahead for rapidly expanding the Kingdom of God in our community.

5 things emerged in our first set of surveys.

1. We all want to be God honoring in everything we do.

2. We will uphold Scripture.

3. We want people to know we care.

4. We want to do everything with excellence.

5. We want to share what we have with those who don’t have.

That’s some great values right off the bat.

I am excited to be part of a church that is forward thinking.  We added a strategic planning position on our Board and our Strategic Planning Leader is off to a great start. Now we bring more into the circle. Now we begin to put structure around our passion.  We will answer the questions.  How will this look?  How long will it take?  What do we need?  When will we begin?

An ever widening circle with Christ at the center, now this is how to do Church! 

I can’t wait to hear what he and his team come up with in the months ahead.

Second Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Year two of our Easter Egg hunt was colder, windier and wetter than year one.  I think the snow last year was better than high 30’s and wind and rain.  However, we showed up and the hunt was on! 

We made a few new friends and re-connected with some we made last year. 

A golden egg prize

2000 Eggs were scattered

eggs for the little ones!

I found lots of eggs!

One of 6 golden eggs!

Habits of Mind and new opportunities.

I just got back from a breakfast with our local school system.  The superintendents office sent an invitation and you should always accept an invitation from your local school superintendent! 

This breakfast’s subject was “Habits of Mind. “  Professor Arthur L. Costa’s definintion of Habits  of Mind :  “the characteristics of what intelligent people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolutions of which are not immediately apparent.”

He and his colleague Bena Kallick list 16 habits of mind which are all verbs.

As I sat with many of the members of the school board and we discussed at our table the importance of churches and schools working in the community to foster healthy habits of mind, I was excited to see new opportunities open to us as a congregation.   As I read through these,  (find them here http://www.habits-of-mind.net/whatare.htm ) I made the comment that we as a church could use the same terminology as the school to help reinforce their objective. 

The superintendent and I discussed how this is something we adults can learn to do also.  I especially liked the ”responding with wonderment and awe”  and “finding humor” components. 

What another great way to connect the church with the community. Go where the community is and work with them.  This helps us to excercise the final component of healthy habits of mind “remaining open to continuous learning.”

I look forward to future meetings with our local superintendent.

Developing our New Strategic Plan

We are in the midst of writing a new strategic plan for our church.  This is both exciting and painful at the same time. 

The exciting part is the A-team and the pastors are pretty much on the same page as far as our current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and barriers.   Another thing that is exciting is that we all have the same vision and mission regarding what we believe God has called us to do. 

Our core values, otherwise known as our non-negotiables are also very similar.  This is a cause for real celebration for us as we look forward to the next 3-5 years to begin implementing our plan.

The painful part is addressing our weaknesses and our barriers.  As we all shared what we see as our weaknesses the amazing part was that no one got defensive!  We all recognize that to go to the next level we need to strengthen what is currently weak and overcome some of our barriers.  Some of this is going to be tough, but we are all willing to take the next step!

What an exciting time to be part of God’s church. What an amazing group of leaders I get to minister with.