Lenten Relationship

As I read through several texts today, I was struck by God's great desire for relationship with us. He doesn't want sacrifice or discipline just for their sake alone. His desire is that through sacrifice and discipline we would continue to engage in authentic relationship with Him (read Psalm 50 as an example).

During this season of Lent I typically engage in various spiritual disciplines, including writing in this blog. But I wonder, is my relationship more with these disciplines, or do they drive me deeper into relationship with the One who invites me to the disciplines? I realize there are times when we just muscle our way through the spiritual disciplines, after all, that's why they are called disciplines! But I hope I never forget that these are simply tools that the Spirit can use in my life to help me relate to the Lord of all life.

Lord, thank you for using the disciplines of Lent to help me live in covenant relationship with You.

Lenten Blessings

Lenten Suffering

So I find myself at the ER with some friends tonight. It seems like an almost fitting end to a bizarre day.

This morning I spent some time with another friend whose mom had been in a pretty serious car accident. She lives in another town, so for a few hours he didn't know what was happening. This afternoon I visited three people from our congregation who have recently experienced time in the hospital, or were still there. Now I am sitting in the waiting room while my other friends are in the back with their baby.

As I sit here and look around at all the other sick people in here waiting to be seen, I am reminded of a principle of ministry I learned a long time ago - sometimes the greatest thing we can do is simply be with people. We can offer them our prayers, and maybe some words of encouragement, but what we really offer them is our friendship and the Presence of Christ among us.

And there is the beauty of Lent. We use this season to remember that Christ came to our world to become one of us and to identify with our suffering, our pain, our anguish. His willingness to come and experience life like us, in turn allows Him the privilege of entering into our suffering with us. He meets us in the midst of our suffering and offers us the ministry of His Presence.

Lenten Blessings

Men of God

On Sunday mornings, I come to the church early to unlock everything, turn on the lights, and make sure the heat/air is on. Most Sundays I am out of the house and at the church before any of the rest of my family is out of bed.

Last night Shaw told me he wanted to come with me this morning, because he wanted to "see what I do." We have had the best time together!

One of the discussion we had centered around Shaw's desire to be like David. He just thinks he was a cool guy. That of course got me talking about why he wanted to be like him, and how I thought that even with all of David's failures and triumphs, he was a great person to emulate, mainly because he was a man whose heart beat after God's heart. The conversation progressed enough that I even showed him Psalm 51 for him to read. Needless to say, I have cherished these moments together!

But that has me thinking on this First Sunday of Lent - isn't that what this season is actually all about? Our willingness to come before God in pure honesty and openness, and asking Him to create within us clean hearts before Him - hearts that beat after His.

This Lent, I want to be like Shaw too.

Lenten Blessings

Raw Honesty

So my sermon for this week centers on the next Beatitude:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

One of the things God has helped me to see in studying this small, but powerful phrase is that purity in heart isn't about my ability to be pure, but in my willingness to be completely raw and honest before God.

Isn't that the essence of what Lent is all about?

Lenten blessings.

Lent

After a stress-filled Ash Wednesday, and leading a small Ash Wednesday gathering for some of our folks last night, I logged in this morning and discovered that one of my old friends has taken up the discipline of writing for Lent. That was inspirational to me, so I have decided to try and follow suit.

I posted a small comment on his blog to commend him for his discipline, and as I was preparing to sign off my comment, I was struck with a thought...what kind of greetings do you bring someone during the season of Lent? It doesn't really seem appropriate to wish someone, "Happy Lent" since this is not really supposed to be a season of joy and frivolity.

I decided to just wish him, "Lenten Blessings" which may seem like a similar moniker to "Happy Lent," but I see it very differently. If we are really willing to embrace the ideas of repentance and discipline during this season, there is a sense in which we can discover blessing in the discipline.

One of the passages we read together last night at the Ash Wednesday Service was from Hebrews 12:1-14. In this text, the writer expresses the sentiment that our Heavenly Father offers us discipline because He loves us as His children. He acknowledges that no discipline is pleasant at the time, but later can be seen as a source of growth and blessing in our lives. Perhaps there is even a way for us to see the beauty and blessing in the midst of Lent, simply because the discipline we may be receiving from our Heavenly Father is coming to us from His pure heart of love for us, His children! What a blessing to be so considered God's child that we are recipients of his discipline!

Lenten Blessings!

The Keys to 21st Century Church Leadership

I have felt for a long time like the things I am learning here in my present crucible of ministry are lessons so valuable that they need to be shared with others. I have had thoughts of writing a book perhaps, or of somehow going out and sharing my ideas, but it always seemed like a monumental task - one that was relatively unattainable. Or it was an elephant that was so big that I know you're supposed to eat it one bite at a time, but where do you start?

However, early this morning it seems like the seed of an idea began to crystalize in my mind - there is not one key to church leadership in the 21st century, there are several. What if I began to write and document those keys here as a way to try and help my own mind begin to crystalize these ideas further? Perhaps it is a whole series of short, reader friendly books that a person could get and read in byte-size chunks? Maybe that is something that better fits our 21st century minds anyway as we constantly switch from one byte of information to another at the speed of light?

So in an attempt to allow the crystalization process to begin, I offer this initial post.

Honoring the Past

Much has already been written and communicated about us living in the postmodern world right now. Everyone seems to agree that we aren't in the modern realm anymore, but we don't really know what is actually coming next, so we are living in the post-modern world - the world right after modernity, but before . . . ? Since that is true, we have to understand that one of the keys to postmodern church leadership is honoring the past.

We live in a world where many of the modern people who helped create what exists today, are still here! Too many times we forget that we are standing on the shoulders of the giants who have come before us and that many of those giants, are still here! The people who have built our churches and laid foundations of leadership in our lives, are still here!

Those of us who are in the new era of postmodern leadership often act as if we know exactly what needs to happen as we move forward into the days ahead, and in many ways that is very true. But often we forget that we are here today because others have blazed a trail before us. These leaders have successfully navigated the church through the era of modernity so well, that we are now able to help lead the Bride of Christ into this new era.

Good, holistic, healthy leadership in the 21st century recognizes that past and is willing to honor and celebrate it. In fact, I think we could actually say that we must be willing to embrace it in many ways. We don't need to buy into the modern mindset or thinking because it won't help us in the new world, but we do need to understand that if we want to get where we are going, we must be willing to honor the past as we go. Here's why:

• There is still viable ministry left among these giants. If we are willing to embrace them and allow them some of the same space and freedom to worship and live in relationship with God that we so desperately want, we will discover there is wonderful vibrancy there. And since I am getting older and grayer myself, one of the things I hope happens in my life is that the leaders I am trying to help raise up will help me finish well when they are the new leaders.

• There are still people in this modern world who don't know Jesus. In our rush to get moving into postmodernity, we can't forget that God so loved the whole world. Sure it may be true that generally they don't have as long to live, but since when did God ever care about that? I could be dead from a car crash this afternoon, but that doesn't stop God from still reaching to me with his love and grace.

• These modern giants have a heart for God's Church. They would not have invested the blood, sweat and tears they did over the years, if their hearts weren't in it. And that hasn't changed. A passion to see God's Church not just survive, but thrive, still burns deep within many of them! If we are willing to honor them, and embrace that passion, we can actually tap into it as a source of great power and encouragement for us.

• There's a lot of bankroll in their pockets. Now that may seem crass at first, but sometimes the truth can sting. One of the characteristics of the postmodern worldview which seems to get a lot of attention is how passionate they can be toward their causes, so if you can get them on board with your cause, you've got some great champions. The problem is, sometimes their causes are so niche focused, that if your deal doesn't hit them just in the right spot, they are really not that generous of spirit. Not so with the giants of our past. It's true that everyone is willing to give of their resources to something they believe in (and we aren't just talking about money here). But I think the modern world helped to create a more general atmosphere of generosity. We would do well to not only tap into that generosity as we move forward, but to learn from it and discover how to help it spread in the postmodern world too.

So there it is. My first cognitive dump to try and unload all of these thoughts swirling around in my head and my heart.

Is it finished?

Nope.

But it's begun.

Worthwhile

This week we are studying the life of Moses and considering the discovery he went on throughout his life to find worth.

One of the first things that intrigues me about his story is his name.  Pharaoh's daughter named him Moses because that sounded a lot like "drew out" because she drew him out of the water.  The intriguing thing to me about that is initially he was also drawn out from among his people, and brought into the privilege of the Pharaoh and all his world had to offer.  That was something that God used to rescue him from death, but did that also lead to great confusion about who he was during the early years of his life?

I also think it's interesting that Moses is observing his people from a distance.  He was a Hebrew, but he was living in the Egyptian world.  In many ways it seems like perhaps he was a man without an identity.  He isn't a full participant in the Hebrew community, and he is ousted by the Pharaoh when the murder is discovered.  Could this be another issue that caused confusion about who he was and where he fit in the world?  Maybe he was confused about where real worth comes from in his life?

Moses then goes away and ends up marrying Zipporah and they have a son and name him Gershom.  They name him that because  Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for "an alien there," because he felt like an alien there in a foreign land.  Once again he seems to be confused about his identity.  Could this theme of confusion be a contributing factor to him not knowing where he gets his worth?

As Moses and God are talking by the burning bush, Moses keeps referring to the Hebrews in the third person (the Hebrew people, the Israelites, etc.).  It's only after he has gone through all of his excuses and God has gotten angry at him, and then he goes back to talk to Jethro that he says, "I want to go back to my people."  Does this mean that Moses didn't really find his identity until he had personally encountered God?  Does it mean he didn't find his true worth in life until he had gotten to the end of himself and found his value in God?

How does this relate to us finding our worth in life?  What impact does this have on our learning to live worthwhile lives?