Just the right words.

Stories I'd like to hear---

Headed to the annual pastor's conference of the South Carolina Baptist Convention later today I'm wondering what the scuttle-butt will be this year. Sure, as people of the Book we know about gossip and slander and dissensions, etc. But, we're also  aware that healthy speculations keep the exhibit area buzzing and give us church staffers some fodder for the rumor mills that happen in little circles around the building. So, what's the deal this time around?

Well, at the SBC level there's plenty. I mean, the recent retirement announcements of three of the institution heads is worth  a turn or two around the room, as well as all the talk about the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. Having Dr. Danny Akin at the Pastor's Conference today will certainly keep that pot stirring throughout the convention this week.

Locally, the meeting this year is basically ho-hum! I mean, there's always some whispers about the cooperative program split, who's running for one of the convention offices, and our predictable resolutions against abortion, et al. Sure, a few of us will comment on the absence of so many of our younger brothers, and the methodological stuff that shoves us into camps. Fear of being being called Mr. Negative around so many on-top-of-it guys, we won't spend a lot of time talking numbers---lower baptisms, declining attendance,  fewer dollars, and the other measurable demographics of our work, the hushed tone topics of back-room interaction. Very quietly will anyone talk about church splits, fellow ministers being unjustly dismissed, or the number of churches that didn't baptize a single new believer in the past twelve months. It'll be glad-handing and back-slapping resume sharing, like usual.

Last night I thought about the stories I'd like to hear. You see, around South Carolina there are a few churches involved in incredible ministry, congregations operating outside of themselves, ministries that are impacting their communities and our world in Kingdom-sized ways. There are amazing reversal stories, churches and leaders mobilizing for missional enterprise, turn-around situations that have recaptured a sense of mission for a dying community, spiritual families that have defied cultural limits to touch human need at a deep level. In locale after locale there are victory stories that never get told, re-locations, re-visioning, revival, remarkable community interaction, creative believers bringing the spirit of Christ to neighborhoods, schools being impacted by a local church! These are the stories I'd like to hear, the real-life episodes of real churches making a difference.

Usually they aren't told because the people doing them aren't chasing headlines. They're not being told because they involve, more often than not, humble servants who pursue their work for Christ's sake. Their assignments don't usually translate to big CP bucks, or exotic mission accomplishments. You don't read about them in the paper or hear what they're doing from the dais. Many of these leaders don't serve on boards, are never asked to speak at the conferences, and don't travel in the power circles.  Often they're excluded because they won't jump through the hoops required to get them a hearing. So,  an eager group of discouraged church leaders are deprived of the encouragement they could bring to the table. The stories a lot of us would like to hear.

So, later today and Tuesday I'll take a turn around the exhibit hall, do the social networking thing in real time, and pry the stories that I'd like to hear from the ones who usually aren't asked.

Let's talk. I'm dying to hear your story too.

Fun @ church is not a sin!

Last week our wonderful church family acknowledged my sixth anniversary as lead pastor! Harriet and I are always touched by their generosity and marking the day was a spiritual lift. Of course, being a man of few words I felt compelled to respond. Shooting from the hip, and just as certainly from the heart, I said some-thing to the effect that I had never had more fun in my life and that serving them at this stag and of my ministry is shear joy each and every day. It's true. I wouldn't change a thing right now, wouldn't turn back the clock one nano-second, or trade places with anybody on this earth, well, maybe except some thin guy with normal blood sugars who'd rather eat carrots than chocolate.

In retro mode I've thought a good bit about this fun thing. If anyone was scandalized by the idea of fun at church, they didn't say so. So, there's no controversy brewing or secret meetings of the personnel committee to send us packing for sporting a jovial attitude about something as serious as my personal calling and the work of the Kingdom. It is fun! Simple as that. My prayer is that it will remain so. Even more, I'm praying that every body else is having fun too.

When I say fun, what do I mean? Well, I love what I'm doing. Serving Christ is a true blessing. At the same time, I love who I am dosing it with, excuse the sentence construction. That's not throwing roses at our staff, leadership, or church family. I really do like these folks and enjoy being with them and serving shoulder to shoulder with them. What is more, I think they like me too. Ooops! That's a no-no for many of these aloof, stand apart pastors, and maybe a violation of the ordination oath or something. but, it's one of the things that make it fun, being with fun people.

The times in which we serve are fun times too! Get over it  Mr. Serious-all-the-time, long face! By fun I don't mean easy or comfortable or constantly smooth or without rough spots. I mean, this is church after all. Fun cannot be equated with something as transitory as happy. It's an over-riding satisfaction with life and ministry and God's awesome placement. Maybe joy would be a more appropriate spiritual term. Still, fun resonates. And, in my heart it is fun.

The Psalmist wrote, Our mouths are filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:2-3

Here's praying for some fun for you as we worship and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus again today. Rejoice and be glad!!!

The truth about alcohol

The weekend topic in the TRUTH series is the TRUTH ABOUT ALCOHOL. And, the truth about consuming alcoholic beverages is not good, no matter what some of our contemporary preachers say about it. Yes, it is cool to stand on a church stage and sanction casual, social drinking. Pastors who do so are considered the new, hip tribe of pop religion, with-it guys who get it, what-ever it is.

Maybe it's because I've got a few miles on me, have actually been commode-hugging drunk, have experienced the lost weekends of binge drinking back in the day, or have walked along-side so many individuals and families struggling with the demons of alcoholism. Perhaps having visited many tragic people in the detox unit, or others in the nightmare of the DTs makes me approach this topic with greater care. Maybe I've heard too many high school and college administrators talks about the epidemic of alcohol abuse ravaging our campuses, or have been a little too close to several treatment programs. Could be that Harriet's dad was an alcoholic and that her family was broken by the horrors of his drinking. For the life of me, regardless of the motivation, I cannot be cavalier about this.

So, please join me in prayer as I speak what I think is the whole counsel of God on this crucial topic this weekend. Pray that I will be covered in grace and stand on the truth.

Thanks!

The components of spiritual health

Most people agree spiritual well being is an admixture of Bible study, prayer, service, evangelism, and fellowship. The pace of life these days often precludes the disciplines of grace that further attend a balanced spiritual life---meditation, fasting, Sabbath rest, and contemplation---mostly discarded in the speed of work and other obligations. For me, a pastor for thirty years, most of the components of spiritual health fall into the ebb and flow of the every day responsibilities of ministry. The hair ball for me is usually fellowship. When I'm doing the diagnostics of spiritual health, it is usually the dark spot on the X-ray of my weekly routine.

Now, I'm not talking about being with people. 
Genuine fellowship can't be calculated by simply counting the number of people in your circle every day. No, congregations are generally very caring and generous and usually know when to draw close and also, when to step back. Ours certainly fulfills every expectation in that category. They surround us with prayer, support, encouragement, and care at every level.

In the same way, I'm not referring to personal family relationships either. In a Biblical priority system family must rate high, the closest people God places in our circle of influence and care. Being empty nesters Harriet and I are blessed by our happily married children, all college graduates, professionals, and believers. Our grandson introduces another wonderful layer in the Holmes clan and we all enjoy the  unique, intimate fellowship of close families. So, if there's a vitamin F deficiency, it isn't family.

What I'm talking about is the routine camaraderie of peers, ministry friends who've been there and with whom you can bleed a little. OK, by nature I'm not a whiner. One thing The Citadel taught me is to shut up, suck it up, and step up to whatever is in front of you. It's not the stuff of legend or heroes, just a simple code to help deal with the challenges of life and work. Factor in the realities of faith and you get a pretty solid foundation for the rigors of ministry, often a lonely undertaking. Just the same, the Gallup people number among my signature themes a relater strength. One of my insecurities is the need for close relationships. Supposedly, I'm good at it. But, enough about me.

The velocity of daily schedules and demands of ministry usually flings this fellowship component to the margins of the calendar. Yes, every few weeks several guys get together for lunch or coffee and  some church/denomination/politics/sports/family bragging/crying/cheering/complaining sessions. It is always good. Just not often enough.

This is why I look forward to the annual meeting of our state convention. I appreciate the efforts of our state staff to teach me something, provide inspiration for challenging times, and inform me about the latest innovations in ministry, the new toys of the techno set. But, most importantly, I love walking around the exhibit area, re-connecting with friends I haven't seen in a while, enjoying a cup of coffee with a valued pal, and laughing through a meal with a group of seminary buddies. Usually, I will see fellow pastors at the convention who serve every day just five miles from me, separated by hectic agendas and not the short distance. This is the real value of the state convention for me, the fellowship component that is shifted to the fringes of most weeks.

If I were king for a day, the fellowship component would comprise the central element of the annual meeting. Coffee kiosks scattered around the room would float an aroma that screams 'welcome' to everyone present. Conversation nooks would invite personal interaction, lunches made available without learning, an opportunity for staffers to unplug for a few minutes, make the human connection. There may even be affinity corners to permit people in similar situations to pool ideas, ask and answer questions, review scenarios. It would be a networking mall, a place to connect.

But, forsooth, I am not king, just another local pastor trying to cut it every day in a world gone nuts. And, I'll go to the annual meeting like I have every single year since 1981, and look forward to spending some valuable time with people that matter.

Hope to see you there! No. Need to see you there!
 

Here come the baptists! Both of them...

Get ready, the baptists are heading to Columbia again next week, both of them! Just kidding, of course. Well, not entirely. You see, meetings are off the to-do list these days and annual gatherings like the South Carolina Baptist Convention have been shrinking for a decade or more. So, when the South Carolina tribe convenes next week for the 189th time, it will be a smaller, grayer, more traditional group. Most of the younger pastors, church staff, and leadership will opt out. Sad. What is worse, a majority of the people my age will stay home. Even sadder.

Leaders in denial say this is a national trend, reflective of a growing intolerance to meetings in general. For proof they recite the litany of civic clubs, home owners associations, neighborhood watches, PTA organizations, and fraternal groups with flagging attendance, income on the skids, and membership spiraling downward. If you're looking for an easy answer to the meeting dilemma, this is it, hovering visibly out there on the surface for all to see. You don't have to look farther than the nose on your face for this one. The culture is to blame.

Not quite. Go in another direction with me.

[1] Understand that everything in this world is changing at the speed of thought.

[2] Some local churches are connecting to their fast-changing communities by staying relevant and current in their proclamation of the dynamic yet unchanging Good News of Jesus.

[3] Church meetings, at the denominational, state, and even associational levels, are basically conducted the same ways they have been for decades. It's old hat and worn out. Nobody wants to go listen to a bunch of institutional bureaucrats read reports and do rah-rah-cis-boo-bah for their great institution. We're already sold on them. We support them with our money. They don't have to do the PR thing on us, or justify the funding we provide. E-mail the report.

State convention leaders, in my opinion, desire more. But, change is complicated, requiring by-law revisions, constitutional amendments, and flexibility, which bureaucracies are usually not. Change is too much trouble, especially when the whims of society change so quickly. Church groups are usually not geared to fast. Slow is more like it.

Nobody likes operating under lowering expectations, the uncertainty of wavering numbers, and allowing pessimism to define a spiritual enterprise. But, it is what it is. Most of my cohort will not go to Columbia next week. They'll stay home and do what they consider to be real Kingdom work. Again, a sad commentary on what convention meetings have become. I'm really praying for the largest crowd in years. But, reality bites.

Innovation is really a rare commodity in convention logistics and meeting arrangements. I've got to hand it to our state convention staffers and order of business committee for introducing new elements to the annual meeting agenda. But, once again, even some of the new ideas miss the mark. Like the free lunch and learn sessions on Tuesday of this years meeting. This is essentially a good idea. Vendors will cover the costs and there will be interesting topics covered to provide information about a variety of subjects. Knowing that pastors are a cheap lot, the prospect of free lunch is appealing. But, don't forget most pastors attending this meeting are going there to re-connect with their college and seminary buddies, ministry and affinity colleagues, and peers from past affiliations. Most of the guys I know will forgo the free lunch to have a burger with their pals, and do the social thing. They'll trade lunch and learn for lunch and laugh or lunch and lean.  

In fact, social networking is really the deal. Even in the electronic age ministers like to press the flesh, tell the tales of church life, catch up with families, whine and gripe to someone who understands, and make the exhibit hall rounds. Do your own count. Compare how many people are actually sitting in the meeting room to the others clustered around the lobby or exhibit areas.

So, Monday, a few hundred South Carolina Baptist Convention pastors and staffers will head to the Pastor's Conference and auxiliary meetings. We'll hear some preachers we're already heard, shake a few hands, visit vendors and exhibitors, attend an alumni luncheon or dinner, re-connect with old friends. And, prayerfully be energized for our assignments back home.  

So, here we come, Columbia, both of us.

Your mission field

OK, yesterday I heard a new twist on a missional theme that has formed the vanguard of my personal thinking for a few months now. A group of business professionals were standing around after the quarterly LifeWorks Charleston event featuring author/speaker Richard Blackaby. BTW, Dr. Blackaby's comments about ministry in the marketplace were a brilliant exposition of Moses encounter with God @ Mt. Sinai from Exodus 3. I had never heard this particular text reviewed from a workplace perspective. It was an excellent treatment of a very familiar passage, a new take, if you will.

So, when the final prayer was spoken and the meeting dismissed, many of the attendees clustered around the Family Life Center of Northwood Baptist Church to debrief the message, connect with other marketplace believers, and prep for a day at the office. That's when I heard something novel, maybe inspired.

Four or five colleagues were catching up since our last event several months ago. It was usual banter---family, church, and work. One individual talked about a late summer mission trip to an exotic locale. You know, like suffering for Jesus on the French Riviera. That's when it was said. It was really an aside. One of the people said, "I go on a mission trip every Monday morning, to the mission field at my office...". There was more but my hearing stopped right there. It was the most profound statement of the day. Whooaa! This business man got it! He articulated a grasp of the great commission of Jesus better than any theologian or preacher I had ever heard. Work is a mission trip every week. Astounding!

Blackaby had already made the workplace/mission connection in his fine review of Exodus 3 & 4. The area surrounding Mt. Sinai was Moses' workplace. When he saw the burning bush on his job site, he stepped aside to investigate. Of course, God spoke to him. Richard reminded all of us that burning bush experiences happen all the time around us and God will speak to us when we step aside from the busy-ness of our work assignment. Then, God asked Moses, "What is that in your hand?", referring to the shepherd's staff that was stock and trade equipment for people in Moses line of work. It is the question He asks each us, as He superintends our assignments in life and commissions us to serve in our mission field at work. Good stuff!

But, to hear a young professional person refer to his job site as a weekly mission trip was a stirring reminder of how God has arrayed us to change the world. He has strategically placed His people at the crossroads of culture and finance and enterprise. What better place to live out the tenets of our faith? What greater opportunity to witness lasting Kingdom truth? The Monday mission trip. Incredible!  

LifeWorks Charleston convenes quarterly to discuss marketplace ministry, mission assignments right in our daily cubicle or on the daily route, at the customer counter. It is encouraging. More so, that many of these fine business professionals see their workplace as a mission point and a viable place to live out the precepts of faith. This is inspiring. 

A mission trip every Monday! Who'd have thought---? 

Ideas shape culture...even when they are wrong!

There have been four or five seismic shifts that have caused a total recalibration of society. The wheel. The printing press. The assembly line. The aero-plane. The world-wide web. Not to mention some pretty astounding also-rans---the cotton gin, the locomotive, the auto-mobile, the telephone, fiber optics, ad nauseum. More than a few events can be included in the list---the renaissance, the reformation, the industrial revolution, two world wars, the great depression, landing on the moon, the gold rush, and of course, Woodstock, the boomer come-of-age thing. Each has altered the landscape of human thought to some degree, some for the better, some for the worse. It is the way of things, ideas shaping culture.

The other day, browsing the stacks of sale books at Barnes and Noble a title caught my eye, 10 Books that Screwed up the World and Five Others that Didn't Help,by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D. Right off I knew it wasn't new or a best-seller. Well, duh? It was in the sale table, a subtle clue. At the same time, I knew I wanted to take a look at this little volume because the jacket stirred something deep in me about understanding the dilemmas of this life. Maybe, just maybe, Dr. Wiker could give me a hand in grasping facts about our world that, well, just don't add up for me. Alas! I am not alone in the vast wasteland of simple thinkers. Here is some decent scholarship to substantiate what I have always thought to be side-ways thinking, you know, ideas that on one hand don't make a lick of sense, but on the other have been accepted as genuine gospel.

Wiker's ten are The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill, The Descent of Manby Charles Darwin, Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, The State and Revolutionby Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, The Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud, Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead, and Sexual Behavior in the Human Maleby Alfred Kinsey. In addition, Wiker acknowledges several "dishonorable mentions": The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourse on Method by Rene Descartes, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, and Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Not a shabby list of great works, I may add, literature that has shaped cultural mores for more than a few generations.

At first I thought Wiker was into the pot and the kettle thing, an author critiquing other authors, an idea man finding fault with other idea men and women at opposite poles of the philosophical spectrum. A thumb-through reveals thoughtful analysis of ideas, however, discussion of the absurdity of some of them, and how they wormed their way into the marketplace of ideas as accepted truth. Wiker's essential thesis is that bad ideas have bad consequences, and that the ideas posited by these works have adversely affected world culture because they have become the foundational precepts behind much of the faulty philosophy that drives mankind today. He is right, you know. Many of the basic presuppositions about life are based on the thin ideas presented in those and other idea books. Misery, pain, and much suffering followed in the wake of those ideas. Remember: bad ideas generate bad outcomes.

Much modern and post-modern thought is grounded in pseudo-truth, that is, ideas that have been sanctified by the elites of society and eventually elevated to a level of acceptance beyond dispute. Darwin's work is a fine example. His theories, with much of the actual science questionable, have been formalized into the prevailing teaching model of origins and developmental science. The result, of course, is a de-valuing of human life and undermining the authority of Scripture and God in the human epoch. This is, rightly, Wiker's fundamental argument. The authors he identified have provided human solutions to age-old problems which are now honored as established truth. 

Wiker's recommendation regarding these famous literary works is surprising. He's not into book burning, censorship, or banning them from educational reading lists or libraries. On the contrary, he suggests that we read them thoroughly and become intimately familiar with their contents so we can recognize them for what they are: ideas, philosophies, theories, perspectives, personal assessments, solutions. They are not truth and should not be be accepted as such.

It's a fun read, witty and engaging. At the same time, Wiker frankly discloses the Godless ideologies that link the various ideas and make these books the standard texts for modern liberalism. That's the rub, too. The book shelf of modern liberalism offers these authors as absolute truth in their areas of study, a veritable library of truth for life. Wiker admires their literary contributions but keeps them in the realm of ideas. Just ideas.

People grounded in truth can tell the difference. They know the difference between truth and ideas. They further know that good ideas are a fast-forward button for life, and bad ideas are destructive. Even more, they profess something life-changing: truth sets you free.

Glory. And, yes, there's the one book that changes the world.  

What's that on your shoulder?

OK, let's think shoulders for a minute, one of the inglorious body parts that is indispensable but not typically one of the talking points of everyday conversation. Yes, shoulders figure substantively into life processes, and our language about life. Consider... 

Some people wear a chip on their shoulder all the time. Eventually they run into another who won't hesitate to knock it off. Yet, most of us have people around us who are copping an attitude, just waiting for the right opportunity to unload their mess onto someone else. Many others just  wear their feelings on their shoulders, out there in the open where they are ever so easily hurt. Then, there's the proverbial cold shoulder, the shrug that cables indifference to others, the shoulder that is not available to assist the heavy burdens weighing another person down. I never realized the prevalence of shoulder language. Even when engulfed in the secure embrace of another very loving person I have most often ignored the subtle conveyances with which our shoulders tell the story of our encounter with others and our take on life. The stuff of shoulders.

Most of us know about putting a shoulder to the tasks of life. Occasionally we're sensitive enough to what is happening around us to offer a shoulder for someone to cry on, or seek one when we've been injured or hurt. Once in a while we remind aggrieved or troubled friends and loved ones that the world is not resting on their shoulders, our words a balm when they are under emotional attack. Once in a while we realize that we are standing on the shoulders of other human giants who point the way through life. Day by day we hitch up our courage, buck the shoulders for the challenges we face. The shoulder thing is significant.

Shoulder to shoulder is an image of life and faith. It is a picture of people joined in mission, individual strength and purpose multiplied by the proximity of others joined in common enterprise. Shoulders  coordinated to the task are stronger, more adept at lifting seemingly impossible weights, stretched even higher by the reach of those along-side. It is another vivid depiction of church, the posture which enables the spiritual body to function efficiently and effectively for the Kingdom.

Shoulder to shoulder is difficult for us humans, even believers, because people stand at different heights. Some are infants, others tall and strong, each of us at various stages of our personal spiritual development. Our common faith is a leveler. But, standing shoulder to shoulder is still a purposeful, intentional position only achieved as our Gracious Father equalizes the height that could just as easily separate us. 

How can we ignore the shoulder work of taking up a cross daily, and following Christ? What a powerful metaphor of the self-denial and potential suffering in the life of faith. How moving is the mind picture of Jesus carrying the cross, the weight of the beam crushing his already broken body, the bleeding, sagging shoulders of our Lord, then the man guards chose to offer a shoulder on the way to Golgotha.

Lately I have been aware of the incredible people God has brought into my circle, the people with whom I am permitted to share the shoulder to shoulder dynamics so crucial for mission. Each day I thank Him for parents, a wife, children, and extended family that have encouraged me for thirty years of ministry. That circle also includes colleagues that have advised and contributed counsel and assistance at every stage of personal growth and in every ministry assignment. Most notably have been the hundreds of church family members who have combined their gifts and talents in the shoulder to shoulder partnership that makes mission conceivable. Being shoulder to shoulder with the Northwood family for six incredible years has been a highlight, making my shoulders strong and erect. 

Maybe this shoulder to shoulder ideal is a pipe dream in this life. Theological differences create a disconnect between a vast number of believers, churches, denominations, and para church groups separated by doctrinal variance,methodologies, and style. God spoke a word to the prophet Zephaniah about a day in the future when this reality would define the day. He said, "Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder"  (Zephaniah 3:9).

Just some thoughts about shoulders.