Monthly Archives: October 2019

Is Ninevah your Waterloo?

Life in Christ

The story of Jonah is one of the more widely known stories of the Bible. Even those with little Bible knowledge have heard of “Jonah and the Whale.” What even many Christians haven’t paid enough attention to is what the story is about. We popularly say it is about the “reluctant” prophet. Sometimes we turn it into a cautionary tale about obeying God when He tells you to do something. Neither of these are the point of the story.

First, Jonah wasn’t reluctant, he was downright unwilling. He did not want to go to Ninevah because he didn’t want there to be any chance that they might be delivered from God’s judgment. He tells us this in Jonah 4:2 “…in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”

Second, the tale is not presented as a lesson on obedience (although you could take that lesson from the story). Instead, the story is not about Jonah’s actions, but about both Jonah’s and God’s hearts. Chapter four finds the story coming to a climax with Ninevah repenting, God relenting, and Jonah fuming because he wanted to see Ninevah destroyed. Ninevah was a major city of Assyria, which two of Jonah’s fellow prophets had predicted would overthrow Israel. Jonah is a patriot and is more interested in saving his country than saving the people of Ninevah. The book ends with God expressing His own compassion on the city of pagan unbelievers.

God gave us the book of Jonah to ask us that same question. To challenge us to face our Ninevah. Too often many find more common cause with Jonah than we might care to admit. We are eager for the defeat of our enemies and more interested in saving the interests of ourselves and those around us than the enemies that threaten us. When you have a pagan, threatening enemy, compassion is rarely your go-to thought.

So there’s the challenge. Will Ninevah defeat you like it defeated Jonah. Will whoever you see as your enemy be the thing that reveals your lack of understanding of the compassion of God? Whether your Ninevah is someone from the other political party, (or all of “them”), someone from a different faith (or someone without any faith), or just a person in your life that seems set against you, do you see your Ninevah like God or like Jonah?

Tweet
Share23
23 Shares

Successful Failure

Life in Christ, Perils of Shepherds, Personal

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas A. Edison

Yesterday’s blog post detailed one of the ways I tend to fail. Specifically how I tend to fail when I’m afraid I’m going to fail. It’s quite a cute little conundrum which I really hate about myself. Nevertheless, there it is, a truth about me. As I near a big milestone birthday and reflect back, I realize how much I have learned and am learning from my failures. I have to admit that it is true that I have learned far more from the failures, the mistakes, the hard times, and the weaknesses than I have learned from my successes and wins.

What has really been interesting to discover is how much others need my failures. This is harder for me than learning from my own failures. For others to learn from my failures means I need to share my failures with them, allow others to see my failures and not defend or excuse my failures. That is asking a lot!

The largest area where I have found this to be true is in raising my children. Especially as they have entered the teen years, I have found that it is vital that I be open, honest, and forthcoming about my weaknesses and failures. These messy areas of my life are hard to hide from my kids anyway since they live with me, and being honest and open about these untidy areas of my life allow me to speak into their lives and help them deal with things in their own lives in a more honest and hopefully preemptive way.

Church is the same way. As a pastor, rather than trying to portray a flawless, perfect man who has it all together, I need to be honest and transparent about my failures and weaknesses, because that can benefit many. This is true not just of pastors, but all of us. We need to be honest and open about our failures. We will learn far more from this very normal part of our earthly lives. It is very destructive to pride, but perhaps it takes a lot of pressure off of all of us. It is a key for us to not Keep Up Appearances.

Tweet
Share54
54 Shares

Weak Pastor, Strong Church

Personal

Time for another blow to the old pride! This will be a very personal post.

When I’m not sure what to do, I have a hard time planning or implementing a plan. If I know how to figure something out, great, I jump on it and can execute well, but one of my great weaknesses is that when I am uncertain and insecure about what to do, I can become discouraged to the point of paralysis. This is a tendency that I hate in myself and that brings embarrassment and shame to me. It was over a decade into our marriage before I finally was able to admit to Sarah that this is why I don’t get some things done. Not only don’t I know what to do, but I don’t know how to even start to proceed, and that fear causes me to just stop in my tracks. Admitting this here is only by the strength of God’s work in my life; to be this honest. (Side note, this is why God sent me an Administrative Assistant and an Administrative Pastor. Beth & Cody supply the missing piece in me to help me move past the blocks at church).

As fall came upon us, I needed to get the next supply of wood for this winter and next. Suddenly I was offered wood, but it was quite a ways away and was not cut up yet. So I needed help, a truck, someone to cut it up, plus figuring out when to get all these pieces together to make it work. I put out a plea on FB and got some responses but didn’t know what to do about it. (see? embarrassing). I did try to push through, but not knowing what to do and the feeling that I couldn’t make this work began to rise up and smother me. The weights began to pile up in my head. I didn’t want to disappoint the person who wanted to bless me with the gift of the wood, I felt it was wrong to try to martial resources from church to help because the church doesn’t exist to help me, I wasn’t confident I would have the time and ability to work up the wood since it was getting so late, and my daughter kept asking if we were going to be getting wood. Classic Ira trap.

Why am I sharing such a sad, weak picture of myself? Not because I want to, but because it matters to what happened next and demonstrates the goodness of God which comes as grace and mercy, not as a reward for our goodness.

This Sunday, I sat at church trying to grab some late lunch before Bible study after a busy morning and early afternoon, when my wife called and asked me to come home right away because, she said cryptically, “there are people in the yard.” So home I go, very confused and figuring probably some unexpected relative that I haven’t seen in a while dropped by unexpectedly. What I found was cars parked all along the edge of the road and my driveway and backyard filled with people from church working up and stacking wood. It was pouring rain, but they had a big tent set up to work under.

I. Was. Shocked. I didn’t have words to express what it means. I still don’t feel like I can adequately express what it meant for me. This blog post is an attempt.

It wasn’t merely that they took care of my wood for probably two years. It was that they stepped into an area where I was lost and failing and just FIXED it. The weight off my shoulders psychologically is hard to quantify. I didn’t deserve it. They shouldn’t have done it. And I could not possibly be more humbled, more grateful, more touched. How to put into words such powerful feelings of wanting to cry and laugh at the same time. I hate to need help and to need to be rescued and yet it feels so good to have been helped and rescued. It is embarrassing that I couldn’t do it on my own and oh so freeing to not have had to do it on my own.

I think that sums up all of us as we face coming to Christ or not. To come to Christ is to admit our utter failure and incompetence. It is demeaning, embarrassing, humiliating to have to face the fact that you can’t do it and you need to be rescued. On the other hand, there is no greater joy than to be loved undeservedly, delivered fully, and freed from trying to do something you know you can’t do.

I failed but was handed success by my church. I sinned and was handed righteousness by my God. In both cases I am deeply humbled, brought to tears and filled with joy. As I said to some of the workers that afternoon. “I thought it might be a relative, but it turned out to be family.” I am so thankful for everyone who had even a small part in this special gift of grace.

Tweet
Share98
98 Shares

1, 2, 3, 4, I Declare a Flame War!

Life in Christ

In these days of hyper-polarization and strong partisanship, when we are all busy fighting our political enemies, we have new tools to help us speak. The digital age has handed each of us a megaphone (or several megaphones) with which to speak. We can post all number of memes, rants, reviews, reflections, and reactions to the news of the day and call out all the people who need (in our humble opinion) to be called out. In previous eras, we might sit and speak to a couple of friends at work, or at the store, but now we can broadcast our thoughts and reactions across the world electronically. We can make sure everyone knows how stupid and bad we think other people are. We can mock and decry all the people who are WRONG! We can call out the Dems, the Trumpists, own the Libs, mock little girls who give environmental speeches, and anyone else who has crossed our ideologies.

This presents a real danger for those who profess to follow Christ. We may be students of the Bible and have a clear sense of right and wrong from it, and this gives us a sense that we need to rail against others using this sense. The thing to stop and consider, especially when we remember that our social media is the public square, is what the Bible says to those of us who honor it about our speech, our language, and our approach. There is not enough space in one blog post to cover all the different passages in Scripture that instruct the follower of Christ in how they should speak, but let’s hit just a couple.

There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise brings healing.

(Proverbs 12:18)

Does our speaking cause wounds or bring healing? That is the very simple formulation of this verse. We tend to feel that the people we mock deserve it, but that is very much not the point. As a father of young children, I have never condoned one child being mean or verbally abusive to a sibling even when the sibling was also out of line. One sin doesn’t give permission for another sin.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

(Romans 12:14)

bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

(Luke 6:28)

Facebook, Twitter, or other social media does not suddenly negate the clear command of Jesus. As fun as it is to let loose with scorn and derision against those we don’t like, don’t agree with, or feel mean us harm, the Bible comes out pretty strongly against it. Also consider that when we treat those we consider “enemies” like that, we are not acting any different than the world. As Jesus pointed out, even the wicked love their friends. Our opportunity is to be like Jesus, who did not rail against his accusers but instead, even when being murdered, asked that God forgive them.
One last note. Part of delighting in flaming against others is our strong sense of being in the right and proudly proclaiming that we are justified in our judgments; proudly so. Proverbs again instructs us,

He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles.

“Proud,” “Haughty,” “Scoffer,” are his names, Who acts with insolent pride.

(Proverbs 21:23-24)

Let us stop and consider our next thrust of the sword. Our next desire to mock, belittle, insult and demean. The question is not whether they deserve it, or whether you are more right, smarter, or more righteous. The question is, are you blessing, guarding your tongue, and bringing healing rather than adding flames to a world on fire.

Tweet
Share196
196 Shares

A Failing Church

Church on Mission, Perils of Shepherds

There are people who believe that their spiritual gift is “Church Critic.” They have a fun ministry of pointing out to others all the areas that we need to “fix.” Pastors oftentimes really struggle with people with this particular gifting, not only because its generally pretty discouraging, but also because most pastors desperately want to fix each of these things and when a Critic is expressing their gift, the pastor often adds pressure to himself.

A few years ago I was approached by someone with the gift who opened the discussion with, “do you know about the problem with this church?” My response was, “Yes, and I’ll bet my list is longer than yours. It’s actually worse than you think!” The Critic didn’t quite know what to say. I had out-gifted them! Rather than defend and try to explain the fact that we were failing in some area, or feel defeated, I was just honest. Our church is very far from perfect and has many areas that need work.

At the heart of the issue is the feeling by some that our goal is to achieve as much perfection as possible. We should seek to do things well, and we should continually work on areas where we are weak, but the goal of the church is to proclaim the grace and mercy of God and His love expressed through the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross. As fallen human beings we continually demonstrate that we “fall short of the glory of God.” The fix is not to try to be perfect, but to again rest in and proclaim the grace and mercy of God.

When someone approaches me and tells me they are unhappy with an aspect of our church, I can easily find common cause with them. There are always areas that I am unhappy with as well. I ask them if they thought that the goal was to make us happy? My happiness is not a goal, nor do I make it a goal to try to please each person who attends. Instead, my goal is to proclaim, share, and show the love, mercy, and grace of Jesus, and sometimes my own and the churches own failures help communicate that.

So if you come to our church, you will observe a failing church with failing people. We have this treasure in clay pots. If we are who we’ve been called to be, our weakness and failings will provide a showcase of the power of God who saves sinners and is kind to evil and ungrateful people.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

(2 Corinthians 12:9)
Tweet
Share3
3 Shares

Kanye or Notye

Personal

Note: This post does not review the newly released album “Jesus is King” by Kanye West.

Apparently Kanye’s new album is a big deal. I have never been a fan, mostly because I don’t follow most popular music, being partial to indie Christian, folk, classical, and show tunes. As a result, I might not even have known that a new album was coming out were it not for the extra exposure I got from Christian friends on social media and the news due to Kanye’s purported conversion, and release of a praise & worship album.

Color me cautious. I am certainly hopeful that Mr. West has truly found Jesus in a real, not a publicity-seeking, way and that he is connecting to mature believers who can disciple him and help him truly grow in Christ. If this album becomes a trail marker on a road of new life and fruit of the Spirit, then I’ll be delighted. At the moment, what we have is a lot of reasons to be cautious and reticent. Kanye has had a pretty unstable history of wide swings of positions and mood, signs of mental health struggles, and sinful indulgence. This past does not mean that his current album isn’t real, or heart-felt, or the start of something new, but as Christians, we are often so eager for a big turn-around story that we latch on and elevate people before we know what the story truly is.

Our society is a celebrity-based society. We have a reality-show star for president, an Instagram influencer culture, and a strong tendency to admire and follow those who have succeeded in the media/follower arena. This is true even within the Christian culture as we tend to most follow, admire, listen to teachers/preachers who have big churches or good media platforms. This makes Kanye very irresistible for many Christians. A worldly rogue, colorful anti-hero who is so popular he can both go by only one name and can even change that name (from Kanye to Yeezus, Yeezy, or Ye). Now he’s found Jesus and dedicated an album to him! Perfect!

I’ll be happy to wait and see. At some point I will probably find out what the album is about, and over time we’ll see if this is real, not just another zig-zag on the road of earthly fame and fortune. I urge my brothers and sisters in the meantime to keep their powder dry, pray for this man, his health, his spiritual journey, and those around him including his family. Our own testimony is strengthened when we are careful and wise instead of jumping on every bandwagon that rolls by, no matter how tempting.

Tweet
Share175
175 Shares

Socialized Church

Church on Mission, Perils of Shepherds

You don’t the term “Church Social” much anymore. It is a term of our past. Now we have fellowship times or, in the case of Bean’s Corner, Koinonia which is just another word for fellowship. No matter what form getting together takes or what name we give it, coming together as a group is a social activity and like any gathering of people, there can be pressure to conform.

Social pressure to conform has perhaps gotten slightly magnified in our current culture. As our political climate has become more divided and heated, we expect people to align within our group. We tend to want to hang out with our “own kind” more and we seek out people with whom we feel most comfortable. This is human nature, but there is a dark side to it. We tend to call it peer pressure, and it can affect any group, from kids through all adult stages of life.

The most dangerous part of this kind of socialization is when it takes the place of the transformation that is supposed to characterize a person who has put their faith in Jesus. Too often our churches have actually created and wielded socialization as a tool to affect change in people’s lives. It starts with the youth group as we have rules of speech, dress, and conduct that must be observed in order to be considered a “good” kid and a member of good standing in the youth program. If you don’t conform, you will be excluded from your social group.

Too often churches have done the same with the adults. You are expected to look a certain way, sound a certain way, act a certain way, or you will not “fit in” and will be under pressure to conform. This can seem like a good and appropriate thing to keep people in line if it didn’t fly in the face of what the Bible says about the change that should take place. We are not to conform (an act of our own volition) to this world, but instead, be transformed (an act by an outside force) by the renewing of our minds. In other words, we are to be changed by what we learn, not change ourselves based on social pressure. This is a crucial difference. Jesus didn’t come to change our behavior, He came to change our hearts through His work, and a changed heart will result in changed behavior.

The goal is the heart, with the behavior being a result, not the primary goal. This is why the Bible refers to our outward behavior sometimes as fruit. Remembering that the behavior is a result of a heart issue, we should focus less on trying to change people’s behavior or enforcing behavioral conformity, but instead use the behavior as a window into the heart and focus on bringing hearts to Jesus. If we focus first and foremost on getting outward conformity, we will often end up creating people with a form of godliness but no power, and Pharisees that follow the rules well but are dead inside. We will also create a culture of concealment rather than a culture of confession.

Let us, especially if we are leaders in our churches, move away from trying to enforce outward conformity, but instead encourage people to meet, accept, and submit to Christ who will transform us.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

(Philippians 3:20-21)
Tweet
Share8
8 Shares

Keeping Up Appearances

Church on Mission, Life in Christ, Perils of Shepherds
Hyacinth & Richard Bucket from “Keeping Up Appearances”

Having grown up watching British comedies with my parents, we always enjoyed the antics of Hyacinth Bucket (which she insisted was pronounced Bouquet) as she tried to aspire to a higher social class than she was really in. Each week her attempts to seem high brow would go terribly awry, often at the hands of her family who were quite common. Her efforts to put on a good act and her distress as the wheels came off made the show very funny and it was very popular.

Often times our approach to church can look very similar to this. Church is where we are supposed to bring our best, look our best, be our best. Such pressure is tough to legitimately maintain. It would be nice if we were truly always at our best, but life rarely allows us to consistently operate in “best” mode. We have setbacks, interpersonal struggles, sin that so easily entangles us, and just general weakness. Yet when its time for church we put on our Sunday best: nice clothes, nice smile, spiritual answers, and praise the Lord together. Like Hyacinth, this can result in some unintended comedic situations (that would be funny if they weren’t so tragic). We fight with spouse or kids before we leave, even on the way with a stressful car ride, but then emerge from the car as a well adjusted spiritually thankful family. The tension will wait for us in the car for the ride home. We also may act out worship and devotion when we really don’t feel particularly close to God and may be spiritually dry or struggling. For the hour or two of church, we are able to appear to be what we want to be or at least think we’re supposed to be.

For too long we’ve allowed and encouraged this kind of culture in our churches. The cost, the disapproval, the whispers, or even judgement of not being “ok” has convinced us that we need to make our best effort to “keep up appearances.” I call this a culture of concealment when what we need is a culture of confession.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

(James 5:16)

We are called to have a culture of confession, not concealment. We need to realize that it is our natural state to struggle, to be weak, to be in the midst of battle against our flesh and worst impulses. If we would be honest with one another and no feel the need to keep up a good appearance, perhaps we would all grow more and also find more people in the world who were willing to find solutions with us in Christ as well. We need to worry less about if we all measure up and realize that all have sinned and fall short, and the good that we would do we do not do. We are all in daily need of the grace and mercy of God and we experience that grace and mercy the most when we give it to each other as we confess our sins and failings to each other.

If you are part of a church, can you help transform the culture into one that is less about keeping up appearances and more about letting Christ appear in the midst of our weakness? Can you resolve to quit the performance and pressure of trying to live up to something you haven’t achieved and instead be a community that cares for sinners. I’m thankful that we are working on being that kind of community at Bean’s Corner. This imperfect struggling man has found grace and mercy from Christ and His Body, the Church.

Tweet
Share184
184 Shares

My Undefeated Team

Life in Christ, Perils of Shepherds

I love my team because they are undefeated. There have been many times that people thought they were on the verge of defeat and even elimination, but each time it turned out that victory was just around the corner. I’m not talking about the Patriots, so if you started this article thinking this would be boasting about the Pat’s current record (which I am also enjoying) I apologize. The team I’m talking about is the Church.

The pattern for victory began with our founder, Jesus, who came and lived with us and showed us what the Kingdom looked like. He cared for the powerless and forgotten. He reached out to the rejected and the weak & sick. He called people to move beyond the power politics of the human world and embrace being servants and slaves. He told us to act pretty much opposite every human self-interest impulse. This message was so threatening, that the powers that were decided He needed to die and kill Him they did.

At least that’s what they thought they did. As it turned out, He didn’t lose His life, he laid it down and after three days, picked it right back up and walked back out of the grave. What had looked like a sure defeat was the biggest victory there was. That was only the beginning. His death founded His Church and He told us that the gates of death (often translated hell, but more fittingly death) wouldn’t overcome it. Since that time, man has repeatedly tried to wipe out the team. Rome tried for a while, and later empires have also tried. Jesus’ words have proven very true and today His Church is growing the fastest in places where man is trying hardest to eliminate it.

If you are an American Christian, you might be forgiven if you didn’t realize your team was undefeated. There are many earthly leaders in the USA these days that are working to convince us that we are teetering on the verge of defeat. To listen to their fear, we are just a couple of elections or legislative moves away from an existential crisis. I’m getting tired of these so-called leaders, even inside of the church preaching such fear when Jesus told me not to fear. I’m tired of listening to them bemoan possible rejection by society when Jesus told me to “count it all joy when you encounter various trials.” I’m weary of the shock and outrage these leaders try to instill in me when His Word tells me not to be surprised when the world hates me and to not act as if some strange thing was happening to me.

My team is undefeated. The gates of hell/death will not prevail. God’s Word will never fail. God’s Kingdom is here in one sense (Christians) and is coming with no chance that any act of man or even devil will be able to derail or delay His plan. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the World.

Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; He will maintain his cause in judgment. For he will never be shaken; The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is upheld, he will not fear, Until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.

(Psalms 112:4-8)

The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes.

(Psalms 118:6-9)

Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED,

(1 Peter 3:13-14)
Tweet
Share134
134 Shares

On the 7th Day, God Went to Church

Church on Mission, Life in Christ, Perils of Shepherds

This will seem like an odd admission from a pastor, but we’ve never forced our kids to go to church. Likewise, we have never forced them to go visit their grandparents. We have just gone and they have come with us because we enjoy it and it is a good thing for us to do. Now my kids are getting big, the oldest having turned 16 this summer. Still, my kids are not forced to go to church. Quite the contrary. Now that we have two services, I have to leave early to get over to church before 8 am for the first service. My wife comes later to help with Children’s ministry and attend the second service. The kids could sleep in a bit, or just hang out at home, but No, they rush around to make sure they get to leave with me. They want to be “at church.”

Ok, now we need to unpack that. Culturally, we call what happens Sunday morning AND where it happens “Church.” Neither of these uses is strictly accurate by New Testament usage since the Church in the New Testament is the body of believers in any and all places. We ARE commanded to make sure we get together, but the Bible does not specify where and when. Sunday morning in the big white building is a choice we’ve made.

I love to gather on Sunday in the big white building, but not because I go to “God’s House” Some people like to quote, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” ” (Psalms 122:1) . This is talking about the Temple which is not now pictured by our “Church” buildings but rather by Us. We are the Temple of God now. (1 Corinthians 3:16). I love to attend on Sunday morning because I love to gather with my fellow believers and be One Another together. My kids like to come for the same reason. This is also why I love going to 3 o’clock Study, Choir Practice, Men’s Breakfast, Young Married Men’s Study, and pretty much anything else. I love fellowshipping with the Body, the Group of Believers.

These days, I find that not everyone can always make Sunday morning. I miss them when they are not there and it makes me sad when I have to go a week or two without fellowshipping with some of the One Anothers. They are my brothers and sisters and I long to be with them often. I am excited when the ones that I don’t get to connect with on a Sunday morning choose a different time or even place to make sure we still connect as One Another in a group. That is what we are called to. Not to forsake fellowshipping and connecting as a Group, as the One Another.

I still feel that for now, Sunday morning is one (not the only) of the best times for everyone to try to come together to experience the One Another, to join our individual temples together into a time of doing God’s calling together, but no matter how you gather together any given week, just realize that it is a good thing. I am glad my kids have learned to want it, because no one can force anyone to love the one another, it is something you have to learn and desire as a part of God’s family.

Tweet
Share18
18 Shares