Archive - February, 2007

Meeting People

February 28, 2007 in Church with 3 Comments

I have often wondered how pastors and people in closed Christian type circles meet people. I remember back in my early days of college being described as being “in a bubble”. That cannot be closer to the truth! I found myself having only Christian friends and going to Christian things with those same Christian friends. Back in those days there wasn’t much to do in this town (for the record, there still isn’t much to do and the town has grown by about 30 percent in that time). A common saying was, “I don’t know any non-Christian people.”

That really is a sad state of affairs for people who are going to college to learn how to tell people that don’t know Jesus about Jesus. Ironic, don’t ya think?

I have been reflecting on this for the past few days after talking to a bi-vocational pastor. Sometimes when you tell people that you are bi-vocational they kind of give you an odd look, thinking that your church is too small or too poor to afford to pay you. I’m not sure that is the case. Fact of the matter is, they meet more people being in the marketplace than anyone I have talked with.

I am not advocating for full time vs. part-time or anything else, I am simply thinking through some things for myself. While I would love to say that I work in a church full time, I know that I would not be able to interact with as many people who need to know about Jesus. It is tough to share the gospel with your pastor (even if he needs to hear it! haha!).

The more that I think about all of this for myself, the more that I feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. While I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like doing ministry related stuff, I do get to interact with a ton of people who sometimes just need a warm smile and an open ear. I just don’t want to be in the bubble.

I think about the friends that I have made over the years. During the time that I lived in FL I had exactly one Christian friend. The rest of them were not and it was awesome. I was myself and they were cool with it. If I started a church tomorrow, I can gaurantee that there would be about 10 people that I am friends with there coming through the doors.

Sorry for this long post…don’t really know what I am trying to say, but just had some thoughts that I needed to put down.

What I do

February 26, 2007 in Church with 1 Comment

I was talking with a new pastor friend earlier today who really challenged me. One of the things that we talked about was what makes me tick, what gets me up in the morning and keeps me up at night. My answer was, “That is a good question.” Over a good portion of the past year I have been the First Impressions Coach at Journey Church. I gotta say that hospitality really fires me up. I enjoy making people feel welcome, making sure their needs/wants are met. This really comes from how God has gifted me and also some of the vocational positions I have held. The other thing that I am passionate about is outreach. This takes a wide array of forms, but at its heart is relationship. I dig meeting people and just being in relationship with them ( I am going to write something about this in a different post because it doesn’t fit here, so look out for that!).

I am by no means an expert on the subject of First Impressions/Hospitality, so please don’t take it that way. Over time, I’ll be including some of the things that my team does at Journey and things that my team doesn’t do at Journey. Honestly, the things that we don’t do are more important than the things that we do. I am convinced that what goes on outside of the auditorium (sanctuary, gym, theater, insert your congregational gathering place here) is as important, if not more important, than what goes on inside.

So, I guess all that to say, be on the lookout for a series of postings that deal with this area. I hope what I have learned and experimented with will encourage some of you to look differently at the way your church does things or make them better. Stay tuned…

The Great Blizzard of 2007

February 25, 2007 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

snow.JPG

Just thought I would put up a shot from high up of the great blizzard we are having. This pic is shot with my Blackjack from about 8 stories up in the Gonda Building at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Just for the record, no one cleared the snow from the walkway near the dome. Heated sidewalks, baby! That is how we roll!

It doesn’t look like much from this view, but trust me…the wind is blowing about 30MPH and visibility is about a 1/4 mile. It is still snowing strong as of this posting. You people in the south who have seen sideways rain, that is what this looks like. Pretty sweet when it is snow, not so much when it is rain.

We have gotten about 10 or so inches in the last 24 hours with the prospect of another 10 or so inches in the next 24. It is a great time! It is always better in a Jeep!

Living in the Kingdom of God

February 24, 2007 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Lately, I have been doing a lot of reading. To be honest, not as much in the Word as I would like, but I have been reading just a ton of other stuff. I am thinking a lot about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I am not talking about some be a good person and go to church kind of life. What if we were living like we are already living in the Kingdom of God? The Word tells us that the Kingdom of God is both the already and the not yet. It is already here but it is also to come. One of those things that kind of blows your mind when you try to fully understand it.

I gotta say that I am becoming more and more convinced that the way much of the world has come to know Christianity is wrong. Everyone knows what Christians are against. If we lived as if the Kingdom of God was present and we are already citizens of that Kingdom, how much different would our outlook and outcome of life be? I propose that people would actually know what we are for. That we love people. That we care for the sick, the needy, the widows, the orphans. We practice what we preach. We wash smelly feet. We take time to listen. We smell the roses. We want to cure AIDS/HIV. We want children not to die from hunger when I throw more food away in a day than they eat in a week. I want to be known for loving people particularly when they are unlovable.

What does this mean? It means that your life isn’t about you. My life isn’t about me. Our lives aren’t about us. I am honestly busting at the stinkin seams because I wish that others would get this idea. I know that there are people all around the country that are getting it. I kinda feel like there is this murmuring, this trembling that is rising up from the depths that will surface eventurally, but it has got to build up underground first. Strange, I know.

The Uprising has begun. Revolt.

The Dump

February 22, 2007 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

Several things going through my mind:

  • My world is being challenged and changed by what I am chewing on. I am currently reading several books that are revolutionizing the way I am viewing things. This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God by Rick McKinley is a fantastic book that is revolutionizing my worldview.
  • In one of my recent posts I talked about Churchianity. I was all riled up earlier in the day ready to go off on some people in my sphere for several reasons. I realized that we all, no matter how much we say we aren’t old school church dudes, have baggage from those days. I just dream so much bigger than what has been practiced in so much of church. It is funny that even churches who are “out of the box” filter things through those old glasses.
  • Your biggest fans are also your biggest critics. The same people who fan your ego stab you in the back.
  • I am currently taking a class that is on Personal and Spiritual Formation. Had several classes like this in the old days, but I gotta say that this one is head and shoulders above those. Doesn’t hurt that one of the books is by Richard Foster and the other is basically Dallas Willard for Dummies (John Ortberg’s Life You Always Wanted). Those two dudes are cut from a different cloth and I have sat at their feet in a number of ways for years. If you want to read about and then put into practice some spiritual discipline in your life, check either of them out.
  • 23 Weeks and 5 Days. Sophia Ann is growing and healthy. Her mommy is growing and healthy, too! The prospect of a daughter scared the daylights out of me awhile back. It is growing on me. My aunt sent Sophia some new duds…little girls are just too dang cute. Sophia will be able to do pretty much whatever she wants when she is with daddy. I was listening to Perry Noble, pastor of New Spring Church in Anderson, SC the other day. He and his wife are about going through the gestation period as well with a baby girl. Perry mentioned that they finally decided that their daughter could date when she is 15. She just can’t use deodorant or shave any part of her body until she is 35 (or something, I don’t remember the last age).
  • I decided to use a camo diaper bag (Mossy Oak Shadowgrass for you camo nerds out there). Nothing says hardcore dad like camo.
  • “Following Jesus simply means learning from him how to arrange my life around that enable me to live life in the fruit of the Spirit.” John Ortberg
  • I’m graduating college this spring. Had a little roadblock last week involving my internship credits, but thanks to the hard work of my dedicated Crown College representative, they all got moved out of the way. Not only do I not have to take the internship class, I don’t have to do a credit for prior learning paper. My peeps got a petition to go through to accept my other internship class from Northwestern College. Thanks for saving me about a thousand dollars, Dana! “Lots of people go to college for seven years. Yeah, they are called Doctors.” 1997-2002, 2005-2007…just in case you were wondering the chronology of it all.
  • The internet is both a blessing and a curse. I have met, talked with and learned from some solid pastors from around the world. That has for sure been a blessing. The curse is that I want to move to each of those places and jump in and help out with what they have going on. Don’t get me wrong, God is doing some awesome stuff here in Rochester, MN. I am glad that God has chosen to use me in whatever way he chooses here. But on the other hand, I feel like the world is my oyster. It is funny, though. I am very comfortable here. I don’t really feel right about that. I have a good job, a couple of burgeoning business and a ministry that I love. I keep waiting for the proverbial crap to hit the fan. Guess that is coming in the way of a daughter! I won’t be as comfortable in my lifestyle on one full time income. God willing, my wife won’t have to have a job outside of the home. I’ve pledged to her that I will do whatever it takes to make that a reality.
  • Joined the health club facility at the world famous Mayo Clinic yesterday. 10 bucks a month for some sweet facilities, can’t beat that with a stick! For those that are tracking the progress, I have effectively managed to lose a little over three gallons of milk in about three months. Not bad for really doing little except one simple exercise: Put the frickin fork down! I have done some supplementation, but that didn’t involve a fork, so that fits.

Anyway..just some random thoughts.

Out With the Old

February 20, 2007 in Uncategorized with 3 Comments

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The old has passed away. Deceased. Dead. Gone. Muerte. Finito. One of the ideas that I have been mulling over lately comes from the book I am reading, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. One of the ideas that he talks about is that in Christ we are new people. The old person is dead and if we revisit our old ways we are choosing to live as dead people.

I don’t know about you, but that is the way that I feel when I go back to some part of my old life. When I am selfish, when I am unloving and unlovable. I am literally a dead man walking. That is a pretty understandable in light of the truth that Paul states so clearly in this verse. The way I see it there are two choices: 1.) We can choose to live the full, abundant life that Christ freely gives us as the new creations that we are or 2.) We can choose to “live” as the old, dead men we once were.

We can have total freedom in Christ or we can be what boils down to zombies. I know what I am choosing, what are you choosing?

In Christ YOU are a NEW CREATION. You past is your past and it should stay there. If we are truly free and truly new, we should be living like it! The OLD is GONE! Can I get an AMEN up in here? I don’t know about you, but I have done more things wrong than I care to admit. I don’t want to rehash them and live in them because I have seen too many movies about zombies…they NEVER win! The good guys always find a way to “kill” the zombies.

Blessings…

Stirring in my Soul

February 15, 2007 in Church with 3 Comments

Over the past several months there has been a stirring in my soul. This stirring really has to do with what God is doing in me and my views of who He really is and what He wants us to be about. Some of this stirring is really coming into focus in my mind.

  • There needs to be a shift from creeds to deeds. People don’t give a hoot what we say. They want to know that we put our money where our mouth is and that we smoke what we sell. People know what we believe, probably even better than we do. We need to get dirty, touch lepers, offend pharisees…all in the name of love.
  • I am becoming more and more convinced that this whole thing we call Christianity is at its very root, Love. God sent His son out of love. Jesus died because of love. We respond to God and others out of love. Not gushy sentiment, although there is a place for that. Selfless, but intelligent love.
  • People are hopelessly lost without God. They are “out there” searching for cosmic significance while we sit in our pews and committees and conferences and seminaries holding the key to their search on a chain around our neck.

I am finished with Churchianity (one of the titles for a book I’d love to write is Churchianity and other made up words). I am finished with piety. I am finished with trying to look/act/smell/talk the part. It really is a matter of being me. I cannot please everyone and I am sick of hearing about people trying.

People are begging for authenticity. Church people think it is a good idea, but their version of authenticity still misses the mark. Speaking of SHAPE: Be who God created YOU to be, don’t be someone else or who someone else thinks that you should be. If the number one way to burn out of life and ministry is working outside of your giftedness for extended periods of time, the number two reason is trying to be someone you aren’t.

Sorry to get a little fired up…just really dreaming about what this movement can become and who I can become. Your life isn’t about you, so stop living it that way.

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