Some Pastoral Thoughts on the Shutdown Drama.

It is hard not to react this morning from my strongly held political views but God has been gracious in helping me hold my tongue. I did want to share a few thoughts on the government today since it seems to be on everyone’s mind. First of I am a citizen of the United States, I have consumed public services such as public school and universities. I preach freely from a pulpit regularly, something that has been delivered to me by the blood of patriots. So I am not a dispassionate third party, and I am sad. I am sad that the process seems to be broken. I don’t see a solution so I am not going to pretend to diagnose the broken piece; that is above my pay grade. Still I am sad because the process is broken.

On the other hand my greatest allegiance is to my King and his kingdom. Saint Paul reminds us of our Ambassadorship to this world and how our role is to live among this world as heralds of the message, namely “Jesus is Lord!” My sadness has not yet melted down into anxiety. My king still reigns supreme. Not a hair on my head has gone uncounted today. Not a sparrow has fallen from their nest outside his awareness. In his kingdom there will be not shutdowns. There will be no hunger, no tears, the work will not be toilsome, and there will be no death. Let me repeat that last one for anyone who is afraid of what might be on the horizon; in the Kingdom of God there is no death!

I will pray for the folks for whom this problem will mean hunger, financial instability, and any other unforeseen consequences. And as I pray I will also sing “when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.”

May the attendeth your way this fine Tuesday.

Cleaning the office is a bore!

My office has become a ministry escrow center, in other words everything is on the floor waiting to be used or has been but needs put up. It is like this every Tuesday! I take Mondays off but in my imagination that is when the escrow gnomes enter, vandalize, post on pinterest (Messy office selfie).  I don’t understand minimalists and the highly organized. I feel as though I run from one thing to the other many weeks with just enough time to grab the colorful basketball, hidden beneath a pile of Operation Christmas Child boxes, dig out a pen and run for the next Item.

My OCD pals, where do you find all this time to organize, and when you need something how do you locate it? Are you gps-ing every mission critical thing in your office?

When I first got out of college I though youth ministry could drive on me, a Bible and, the power of my personality. First thing God revealed is that my personality could not drive a Yugo (Shout out to the over 40 crowd). As for just a Bible, try reading the Gospel of John with no context to a room full of teen agers “’In the beginning was the word’, how does that make you feel?” (Insert blank stares and texting teens here). Now I know that Youth ministry requires several storage areas full of just in case, or maybe the next guy will want it materials.

In the mean time I am going to do a monthly office clean, it will look good for about 20 minutes until I need something, but I will post a picture of that soon.

We Start Here

What is your favorite John Wayne movie? I bet many don’t have an answer, once upon a time the Duke was everywhere, and people know which of his movies was their favorite movie. Mine is D-Day. I hate to be such a cliché, especially in a time where we are struggling as a country and we continually look to the forties as “the days of Glory.” It my favorite mostly because it’s the only one I was able to sit through (despite being 100 hours long).

There is a scene in the movie where the Army rangers realize that they are all alone on the wrong beach and they have no real option except to move forward and pursue their goals from where they are. “Well, we will start the war from here,” The commanding officer states. In his book on D-Day Steven Ambrose assures us that this line was never uttered but I like the sentiment. You have to start somewhere.

I have decided that the Freshman building of my local high school is where I want to make my stand for the youth in this community. “Well, we will start the war from here.” It is a unique opportunity; instead of the 2100 students of the High school building there are only 700 to remember. They are not so skeptical as high school aged folks.

Now I want to acknowledge that nothing “starts” there aside from my ministry strategy.  There are many youth workers and Christian teachers that have been praying for these kids long before I arrived in Hamilton a year ago. I am merely a partner to the work that God fearing people have been doing all along. My ministry starts there, it is my Omaha Beach, where I get a toe hold to begin to influence young people above and below the freshman building. 

Midnight Sabbath

It has been a weird week. I am so used to being rushed and needing to squeeze the juice out of every minute. When I was in school every minute I took for my self was a minute I would be taking away from school or worse yet from spending time with my family. This evening I fell asleep at 8:00 pm. I was feeling sicker than a dog and I decided to just rest and see what that did. It was great until 2:00 am. I woke up then and have not been able to fall back to sleep. I watched a few episodes of “The West Wing,” my favorite show and started to feel guilty that the time I spent in front of the TV was time I was trading from school and family. Then I realized I don't have any more school and the family is asleep (as any normal person should be).

My life is not so important that these details should concern anybody who is not me, but I am just curious, there is so much work do be done on behalf of the Gospel. Not to mention that he who spoke the universe into creation from nothing is accessible at any moment in prayer. What is a healthy amount of down time doing nothing and at what point am I legitimately resting my body and when am I robbing myself of the opportunity to commune with and work on behalf of the creator?

I am not allergic to Sabbath. The body was designed to be at rest for certain periods. God models this for us by resting and enjoying his new creation on the seventh day. The chief end of man is to Glorify God and enjoy him forever. At what point is our rest to his Glory and when does it become sloth? Just shooting these thoughts out to the world wide web, that bastion of truth (insert ironic tone). Good morning for now I hope you have a restful labor day.

Initial Seminary Thoughts

I just finished seminary not even a week ago and I have started the process of stepping away and reflecting on it, I wanted to share some of those thoughts with you. The first one is self-starting. I am a person who likes management. I like being told what I need to accomplish to say that this, that or the other is complete. It had been a real problem for me when I was working in para-church ministry. I was in an “office” alone and would have trouble knowing when to start a project and how to prioritize. It only took one quarter of school to expose bad habits and to begin to deal with them. I had a teacher once tell me not to teach my best subject or I will lack compassion for those who struggle. Well if anyone wants lessons on self-starting I am pretty sure you will get nothing but empathy from me, but also hope that there can be victory.

While in Seminary I also gained new respect for those who travel to a brick and mortar school. I have not travel time in my classes except the time it took to boot my computer. Those of you who spent or are spending hours in a car getting back and forth you have my deepest respect. Know this, as lucky as it may seem for me that I did not travel the tradeoff was never meeting fellow seminarians and sharing the experience of this great journey with them.

For the end of this post let me say something about weekly planning, most military folks will tell you that the first casualty of war is the plan. I found this to be true. No matter how well I had a week planned it never seemed to work out how I had hoped. This does not mean I gave up planning. I heard once that you plan to fail not fail to plan. As much as I hate pithy bumper sticker sayings I went ahead and followed this advice. If I had not I do not know that I would have finished as strong. Not only that but in two and half years I have never pulled an all-nighter.

Finally I need to say a few thank you:

Grace UMC- Thank you for crossing the finish line with me. I think we have had a great 14 months but at times it lacked some polish due to a split attention. You now have my full attention.

Central UMC- The things I learned as a part of this community, especially in friendship with Paul Risler and Jim Jennings.

J.C. Collins- Your mentorship at the end is what helped me finish a couple of times where I had all but given up.

Liberty Baptist Seminary- This could not have happened if you had not offered something so affordable and accessible.

Nathan Cantu- Thanks for turning me on to L.B.S.

My Dad- for helping me financially through the process.

The good people at Amazon for the Kindle- you have no idea how awesome that search feature is when you are taking an open book exam on the imprecatory Psalms.

Finally to Heather and Isabel Costa- For late nights grading papers, for my constant absences, especially when I was absent yet in the room. For tolerating my grumpiness. Sweetie if you had not been praying for me, taking care of me, crying with me, reading my papers this could just not have happened. I love you.

Church on Purpose.

I think what I find most challenging about this Job is all the little things that I am consuming all the time. I bet that is a challenge in many jobs. There are so many little things to keep sorted in our minds. Is this the result of technology? Is it that we now have the ability to have our fingers in so many pies? Hopefully we keep so many projects open because we believe that they have life changing potential. I believe in the programs we run, that the Holy Spirit can use them the change hearts.

Summers off is a very arbitrary thing. Schools where established that way so that Kids where in school in the slowest months for agriculture and back home helping when they were most needed. The church follows this calendar, as do many organizations, out of convenience.

What do the two above paragraphs have in common? I’ll tell you. Should we at Grace UMC rework our programs to have more of a 12 month consistency, or should we take summers to rest and refit, to reexamine? Should we still take the break a or move the break. I am starting to land on Advent being the season of rest, were the church should prepare for a new year of Kingdom work. Usually Advent is a really busy time of year. Thanksgiving, Christmas Prep, end of the year giving campaigns. 

Whatever the culture of Grace UMC becomes , Summer Break, Winter Break or a Twelve month church, we should be doing it on Purpose.  Churches stuck in ruts, rarely are acting on purpose. Like the humans who staff them they become creatures of habit.  It is time to break the habit. More later… Peace. 

A Valentines Day for all!

Well it is Valentine’s Day, or for my single friends, “Singles Awareness Day.” I thought it would be a good chance to say a few things about love. In both secular culture and in the church we throw around this word “love” like it has ultimate meaning. Yet words that are undefined don’t mean anything except what the receiver wants them to.

Here is a for example. Pastors “beat the sheep” with phrases like “Jesus calls us to love the poor.” I absolutely believe this is what our savior requires of us, except that if we let love go undefined we can scrub it of meaning so that in loving the poor we don’t actually have to do anything.

Then let us do the work of giving love some sort of definition. First of love is not infinite except in the hands of our God, I do not except the premise that love is undefinable because it is too big. Secondly we can look to Christ on the Cross as our gold standard of love. What was he doing up there? Well to rip off John Piper, he was suffering on behalf of others that they may experience full satisfaction in God.

The ultimate expression of Love for God was not warm fuzzies. This is good, years of having my emotions manipulated by Hollywood and advertising has left me skeptical of warm fuzzies to the point that I only really feel them for Heather and Isabel (wife and daughter). I take comfort in knowing that even in these conditions I can still love. I can still suffer and work in order that others would enjoy satisfaction in God.

What will I celebrate today? Well first off I will attempt in my maleness to show my wife some amount of romantic love. Secondly I will celebrate Jesus love through suffering. I will try and emulate it. Ill pray that his cause becomes my cause. That my heart turned to stone through sin can be melted by grace so that I would be able to set aside my kingdom to suffer on behalf of his.

Happy Valentine’s Day friends, may you always know both romantic and Agape love. 

Mother Raises Kids without God

It is not surprising or even shocking that we find this article about a mom who raises her kids without God. I am also not surprised that CNN.com would publish it like its news. I clicked on it and I am sure that both believers and skeptics alike took time to read it. Their advertisers must be thrilled.

In the mean time I wanted to respond to the author who is described this way in the producers note, “TXBlue08, a mother of two teenagers in Texas, blogs about raising her children without religion. She said she shared this essay on CNN iReport because 'I just felt there is not a voice out there for women/moms like me. I think people misunderstand or are fearful of people who don’t believe in God.’ I am positive that only my few faithful will look at this but it is okay I had a few things I thought were worth noting.

She starts out asking the question that has been asked throughout the ages. Not why can a good God allow evil to prosper, although it comes up later, she asks about disease and birth defects. I will not pretend to have an answer. I will reject that it disproves God and is cause for reverting back to a purely evolutionary philosophy. I do believe the sick and weak among the animals are either eaten by their own species so as not to be protein for a competitor or left behind to be eaten as the healthy animals flee to safety. Instead my kids will know that just as they have in them the stamped image of God and are precious so do those who do not share their mobility, cognitive function or health. In fact I will tell them it is their duty as followers of Christ to be his healing hands to these populations that are so often marginalized.

She then critiques that a moral code based on fear of a higher power is not healthy and that a moral code must be internally structured. I am not sure what humans she hangs around with and how they have managed without God to create a moral fiber that is not based on their own desires. They must be a great bunch, in the mean time I am going to recognize my own depravity, what John Calvin calls “the smolder of sin” that is alive within me and look to God for moral guidance, lest I justify my own base sloth and gluttony. My kids will know that they are not God and cannot create God. That is what we do when we create a frame work for the universe with ourselves at the center. We create God and therefore become God every time we reject any one of his Biblical Tenants on the basis of disagreeing with it. Who is the person in charge if you got to choose what part of God’s law you followed.

I may respond more later in the week but let me finish with this thought. The accusation that God teaches narcissism was a surprise. She didn’t want her kids to feel like out of all the matter in the universe they are somehow special. They are just part of the big machine called the universe that at any point can snuff out their meaningless existence with the right earthquake, meteor, or morally self-justifying totalitarian tyrant. The Costa’s will continue to be flattered, humbled, in awe of God caring for them. “What is man that you are mindful of him?”

The Costa’s will love God. Love will not be some emotional sentiment that comes and goes with chemical responses in the brain. It will be the laying aside of our own kingdoms to serve and build the Kingdom of God. We will love God in public, not in private. We will proclaim his goodness to the ends of the earth. We will look forward to our forever lives in the New Heavens and New Earth where every knee will bow and ever tongue confess to the Glory of God the father. Amen. 

Engaging the Changing.

The other day I gathered with some fellow youth pastor friends to talk about how Christianity engages the questions of culture. The four of us were all over the map as far as the “how to” part although we all seemed to agree on what truths our faith has for the people around us. In my opinion the ability to engage and change the culture around us is one of our most important activities as believers. St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that we are ambassadors. Ambassadors are not from the country they reside in, they dwell there hoping to impact the place they are stationed with their home country’s values.

My fear is the amount of time we spend impacting the culture in our already believing congregations that we run out of steam to go and impact our communities. Culture is asking hard questions that the Gospel has answers to. The economy, morality, the place of government, educations, violent conflict, tragedies both human and natural all keep our secular friends awake at night. They don’t think our faith has the answers or they would show up in droves.

These observations are nothing new. I am only spouting what the literature has been telling us for years. The next step is experimentation. Trying new things or retrying old things and recognizing that it is better to try and fail then to sit on the side lines waiting for a solution to hit us over the head.

For Grace UMC it means a youth group that will remain flexible. Certain aspects will look like the traditional Youth Ministries of our parents and some of it will not. One thing I enjoy about the Christian faith is that when it is practiced Biblically it is not a cultural phenomenon. As culture changes so can the application of faith. I think we went to sleep one day and woke up to a changed culture. Like many other times in history the application must change. Not for change sake, but for the souls of men (and women).

Peace!

Should Mondays really be so tough?

If we truly see Sundays as a day of Sabbath rest why are we so exhausted on Mondays. For me it was because I was up late watching the premier to Downton Abby (worth it). Although I am a little groggy I try and start my Mondays shooting out of the gate. I look to Sundays as a restful preparation to the rest of the week.

God has given us great work to do but he has also given us limitations. In the Gospel of Luke it says that after Jesus was tempted by the devil, “the angels ministered to him.” There must have been some level of exhaustion for his human nature that was so extreme it took the ministry of God’s angels to help him in recovery.

 It is my hope as a pastor to draw boundaries, to know myself. What brings me life, what drains me? How can I interact with my family so that they are not constantly getting the leftovers of my emotional energy? My first step is to trust the sovereignty of God. My rest will not thwart his plan for salvation history. Whatever your opinion on the strength of sovereignty versus the strength of our freedom I do not think we can thwart the final glorification of God and the arrival of his Kingdom here.

Rest well friends, you are designed for it. Conquer a morning so that you can capture your evening for real restful play and relaxation. It is one of the Ten Commandments.

It is Monday so back to work for me, wish me a productive morning. 

Delegating and trusting God.

Last night I did something that I was quite proud of. I let go and I trusted dear friends. Let me explain, I am charged with the spiritual health of both our children and our youth at Grace UMC. For the past five months I had been eat, breathe, sleeping youth ministry. It was time that I step out and give my attention to the children in our community. This means that as much as I love giving the lesson at our weekly meeting I had to entrust that great honor to others so that I could be with our youngest members.

In 2 Timothy 2:2 St. Paul charges his disciple Timothy to entrust the message to faithful men. I am sure that in the spirit of gender neutrality we could translate it to faithful women as well. I have these three women volunteers who are terrific. Last night I handed them the lesson and stepped out of the room. What ever happened behind that door was done by them empowered by the Holy Spirit.

This is the only way the modern church can hope to survive. With giving going down in churches coupled with the increased expense of staff less staff has to do more. This means delegation. Delegation requires relinquishing control to trusted people. Last night I feel like a new chapter opened, one were we bring on board volunteers to do the big work of ministry like teaching the good news of Jesus Christ. No longer do we saddle people with the less fun work of hospitality and clean up.

Have a great week!