Leaning Forward

Maintaining a spot in the top ten

Lists of respected careers aren't rare. Every financial magazine and the larger national polling agencies survey a few thousand citizens annually to compile comparisons year to year. Their lists often reflect a political agenda or biases of a particular market segment. Yet, recent studies indicate a shift to the service economy and preferences of prestige over finances or visibility. One survey indicates the top ten respected careers to include (1) physicians, (2) teachers, (3) soldiers, (4) firefighters, (5) scientists, (6) police officers, (7) engineers, (8) chief executive officers, (9) farmers, and (10) clergy.

Cultural movements contribute to public opinion in these kinds of inventories. With the sexual antics of many cergy types having moved to the back pages of the paper, clergy members remain in the top ten. There was a time when local rabbis, priests, preachers, and other clergy topped the list. However, financial impropriety and sexual abuse moved ministry types down the list over the last generation. In recent years ministerial and denominational accountability have contributed to a reduction in declines. Today ministers barely remain in a top ten position. Barely.

Two other exclusions are notable. Attorneys, professional athletes, and Hollywood types moved off the top ten list altogether. Researchers attribute these slides to (1) availability of press accounts regarding the people involved in these professions, and (2) the negative direction these careers have taken in moral standards. At the same time, they signal further a raising of the morality bar among the survey populations. Evidently, the public no longer admires the off-the-field, away-from-the-office, or off-the-screen personal styles associated with these careers. This is a good sign.

Before we become too prideful over maintaining a spot in the top ten, we may wish to remember the slide over the past forty years. Clergy were generally considered among the leading citizens in most communities, individuals of strong moral fiber, usually well-educated, and trusted with sensitive data and confidential information. Scandals, made all the more visible by the anti-religious bias of the media, eroded public opinion and shifted the trust factor downward. Today, societal trends appear to be reversing. People aren't as attracted to the lifestyles of the rich and famous as in previous years and morality does seem to play in the opinion process.

The Word of God places the burden of example on all believers, but more so on those called to positions of biblical authority or leadership. Then, there is the message/messenger connection, the reality that the Good News is entrusted to the likes of us and that we must maintain some level of integrity as we declare the full counsel of God. Certainly none of us is worthy. Yet, Scripture calls for us to live the tenets of our faith in a way that honors God and gives validity to the Gospel.

Settling for tenth position in a ten way race doesn't fit the Bible standard. Peter wrote, "Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away" (1 Peter 5:2-4). 

Let's conduct ourselves in such a way as to raise this bar, for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.

Life Transitions

To say most believers and congregations are disconnected from the world around them isn't discovering the Rosetta Stone. Most observers acknowledge that traditional churches, for the most part, are internally focused and living in a missional vacuum. This is not a criticism as much as a concern. This may explain the freshness and relative success of many of the contemporary congregations. They place greater emphasis on the praxology, that is, the practice of the faith. They often teach a simple axiom: if you are not engaged, your faith is undeveloped.

Life Transitions give us traction! Here the tenets of faith are activated in practical ways. They become the living guides that point us to the people round us and give us redemptive purpose in our relationships with them. Life Connections relate us to other believers. Life Equipping helps us discover the elements of our own personal package and God's provision for fulfilling His calling. Here, in Life Transitions, we learn to make those connections and touch the people in our sphere of influence with the truth of the Good News.

Our text today informs us about the character that should attend our growing personal faith. Peter wrote, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins" (2 Peter 1:5-9). it is a power packed reversal, from ineffective, unproductive faith, and spiritual near-sightedness, blindness, and loss of memory. 

That Peter was inspired to write these words is especially meaningful for me. His story is the proto-type of recovery and may be more instructive for every believer struggling with faiure. But, the truth under- neath is profound: we are meant to live effective and productive lives. Being connected is the norm and not the exception. As these spiritual qualities are added our faith finds the traction for effective, productive lives.

Most churches don't suffer from faulty doctrine except at this point. What we believe affects every single thing we do. So, real doctrine isn't static. It moves us forward to the world with the only message that can save it.

You know, life transitions.

Rivalry, downsized

OK, it's not the the Lonestar Showdown, circa 1894, with the Texas Longhorns and Texas A & M Aggies. But, when VMI and The Citadel meet today in the Military Classic of the South, the victor will take home the coveted Silver Shako and have bragging rights among the small state-supported military institutions.

The Military Classic of the South was my first Corps trip as a knob back in the fall of 1967. So, there's some sentimental value to the game I suppose. We traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, via train, ate a meal before the game, attended the Miltary Classic of the South at the Oyster Bowl, then rode the train back to Charleston. As trips go,it wasn't much of one. But, a train load of knobs loose in Norfolk made some impression, and, the game was another in a rivalry dating to 1920. Since the down-sizing of Virginia Military Institute, and their eventual affiliation with another conference and division, the game is on-again, off-again, every couple of years. It's still a good one, though, and we're looking forward to another win, I pray.

The most notable football rivalries are the ones you catch on TV. Ohio v. Michigan, USC v. Notre Dame, The Tiger Bowl with Auburn v. LSU, Florida v. Florida State, and all the other in-state grudge matches make for some interesting bragging rites around the country. Not to mention, big bucks at the gate and in sharing advertising revenues. While they draw the crowds and the headlines, there are hundreds of smaller named schools in the Football Championship Sub-Division, Division II and III that define sports success year to year. When Newberry beats Presbyterian, regardless of wins and losses, it was a good year. Or, The Cereal Bowl, with Carleton on the grid-iron against St. Olaf, a game first played in 1919. Winning the Goat Trophy or Cereal Bowl Trophy earn extensions for the coaching staff.

Today, the Dogs and Keydets will go at it again. In a matter of weeks there will be Georgia v. Tech, Juniata v. Susquehanna, Auburn v. Alabama, Clempson v. University of South Columbia, Harvard v. Yale, and Coe v. Cornell (IA), and dozens of other football games featuring long-term, often bitter rivals. If you're into this kind of thing, check out this site for more.

And, how about a GO DOGS! for our local team.

Lesson of the week: loved and encouraged

Yesterday was my sixty second birthday. It was a birthday I dreaded, not because of the number of candles that represent my personal chronology, but because it would be sad. The death of our son in July has covered many of the more festive occasions with a patina of sadness. Yet, last night, as the final hours of October 27 ticked away, "loved" and "encouraged" were the two words that best characterized the day. They pushed the sadness to the edges of the day and invited me to stand amazed at the care of so many people. My last thought was "thankful".

So, let's talk about the kind of "love" and "encouragement" that can banish such deep sadness. Of course, a little voice saying, "Ganga, I love you so much" and the cool "little monsters" coffee cup, etched with pictures,  that John Lewis had selected himself, is a good start. Just having John Lewis and Laura close is an injection of hope that brings comfort and joy. So, thanks Scott and Liz for going to Tennessee for the weekend and giving us with some much needed Ganga and Mimi time.

OK, having my office decorated by the Girlfriends, pctured above,is a boost too. But, their particular brand of love and encouragement goes deeper than some pink streamers and balloons. Stretched across the room were lines. Attached to the lines were personal notes from many of the ladies listing "62 Reasons We Love our Pastor". Around the shelving units were notes from the Girlfriends in Training with many of the same sentiments, just in little girl language. Later in the day I read them and cried. Nothing has touched me more deeply than their thoughtful words. They have left me speechless.

Charlie and Gerrie Ingram visited. Since the sixth grade, all the way through The Citadel, we have celebrated birthdays one month apart. He brought me a photo album of pictures that recorded our long friendship from RA Camp Marietta to high school graduation to college graduation and right up to now. It was a thoughtful gift. I will treasure it always, and yes, get a laugh or two from a few of them as well. Having these friends close over the years has been a comfort in more ways than I can recount. They are another very sincere blessing.

Let's see. There were 472 Face Book notifications, 24 telephone calls, 37 text messages, 28 emails, a mail box full of cards and notes, two deliveries, a home-made sugar free chocolate cheese-cake, two bags of sugar-free candy, and dinner at my choice of restaurants, which turned out to be an evening with Chuck E. Cheese. All of this is to say it was an incredible day.

Every moment spoke "love" and "encouragement", the thoughtful actions of people who understand the concepts of faith and works and who know how to express them to others. The double blessing is knowing this same concern is extended to so many others, and is pro forma for most of the people who have showed this kindness to me. It happens around us all the time. Yesterday I was the recipient. And, perhaps speaking for others, it really matters.

You know, this is a significant lesson of the New Testament, our treatment of others. Last Wednesday we learned that all of the Law and the Prophets, meaning most of the Old Testament, can be summed up in one sentence. " So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12).

Yesterday I got lifted by a bunch of really awesome people. They raised the bar on how I will treat everyone else in the days and weeks ahead.

All I can say is, "Thank you", and "WOW".

 

 

Read of the week: Where is God? by Dr. John Townsend

Earlier this year I taught through the Book of Joel in my Weenesday night small group. It was a revealing study. In one section the prophet anounced that an army would march through Israel and leave the nation in ruins. He challenged them to rend their hearts and return to the Lord. There is also an imagined question that the nations surrounding Israel would ask of the Israelites. "Why should they say among the peoples 'Where is their God?'" The out-take: if they are the people of God, why isn't God there? They wanted to know "Where is God?" in this national calamity? Where is God in their hour of trial?

Here's a real live, hot-topic question for people of faith. Christian writer and psychologist Dr.John Townsend has authored a book with that entire idea as the title: "Where is God?" (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville: 2009).  The premise of the book is that "Where is God?" is a legitimate question for people dealing with the unanswerables in life. When faced with the harsh and often shocking realities of life, humans want to know "why?". Somehow we need to understand when the scales of justice and fairness are slanted against us. "Where is God?" is one of the pleas.

Townsend explains our need for answers in the reality of sin. Truly, things aren't like they were supposed to be. Originally, God created all things with a perfect design. Of course, temptation and eventual sin through everything out of harmony and balance. So, the world is crooked and broken, marred by the sinful heart of the human species. Yet, created in the imago dei, the image of God, there is an ideal streak in us, an inner yearning for what is right. So, sinful humans are lost in this struggle to find this perfection. And, there are no places we won't go or things we won't experience in order to find it. This God sized void must be filed with something.

When the awful things occur, we want to know. So, there is a cry out for the Lord God who can be known in nature and all things, the general revelation that makes us aware of Him. So, Townsend's book is an attempt to explain (1) why we need to hear from God in hard times, (2) why finding God is hard during such periods, and (3) how our gracious God can be discovered in the midst of our pain. It is really a very down to earth, practical guide for people who are asking questions or searching for answers. Dr. Townsend has a way of communicating at a level that makes the reader comfortable and want to know more. His Biblical orientation and evangelical outlook are also appealing. 

In our recent journey two things kept me in this book. One, Townsend understands that we will not always feel like praying or reading the Bible or attending church or being with other people. He implies that we need these things anyway. God didn't say "Feel like praying." He said, "pray without ceasing." At the same time, there is the belief that God places people and events and verses and circumstances in our paths to leader us past the tragedy. This is a message of hope. We are taught that He will honor HIs promises and that in due time He will lift us up.

So, here's Where Is God? It is a good read and worth your investment to read it.

Mid-week LIFT: the ingenuity of man

Since my public confession and humiliation over tool and DIY deficiency last Sunday my mail box has been full of Wed sites and pictures of people with little proficiency but lots of brain-power. Carol Jaudon sent me some pics from a very funny site, www.thereifixedit.com with a catalog of priceless jury-rig jobs. If you need a laugh today, at mid-week, go right here. There may be a few sensitive shots here but in the main, it's just good clean fun. Like the toilet pictured stage left. Some body spent some time and money designing that deal. The ingenuity of man!

OK, my lead personal strength is ideation, which means, mostly, I am an idea man! So, gadgets, Rube Goldberg contraptions (if you don't know what that is, go here), and jury rigged repairs are in my mind, if not in my hands. It is the stuff of progress, this ability to adapt, invent, and create machines and mechanisms to advance daily life. Many great inventions happened int eh garage as a result of someone tinkering. The "thereifixedit" site contains pictures of some of the strangest, yet actually ingenious remedies I've ever seen. With the right agent or marketing director, a few of those tool box might sell. If not in main-line retail, at least late night cable.

Ron Popeil may be among the most ingenious inventors and marketers. Don't know him? It's your lucky day. Go here to learn more about this marketing whiz. His company RONCO has invented and sold millions of Popeil Pocket Fishermen, the Buttoneer, set-it and forget-it roasters, the veritable CHOP-O-MATIC, VEG-O-MATIC, DIAL-O-MATIC, solid flavor injectors, GLH-9 HAIR IN A CAN SPRAY, smokeless ash trays, and a number of kitchen knives and cooking utensils. The Inside the Shell Egg Scrambler was a real jewel. It does great work on those Cadbury Easter Eggs, if the yellow stuff bothers you. Nevertheless, Popeil is one of those guys who have parlayed their ingenuity into big bucks and fame.

And, it's not just inventors and garage engineers. Artists, authors, public speakers, administrators, moms and dads, business tycoons, and even little children put the mind of man on display every single day. You know what? it's just what God said about the human species when He came down to scatter them after construction of the Tower of Babel. "The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them" (Genesis 11:6).

Perhaps this is why the Bible addresses the human mind so often. God created us and gave us minds to think, invent, build, imagine, dream, and every other possibility of the species. Yet, the bounds of this ingenuity have limits. Some things are beyond the ability of man. With man, some things are just plain impossible. Still, with have a new mind, the "mind of Christ" to harness the unbridled ideation that drives mankind and devote this ingenuity to the higher ground of His calling.

Paul wrote about renewing the mind. Romans 12:2 reads, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Get up. Look up. Give up. Think up. Live up.  

When leadership goes to church: waiting

As a natural achiever, getting cranked has never been a problem. There is a certain motion about life that is dictated by this tendency. It is the personal strength most aggravating to others. Us achievers and activators usually expect everyone in our circle to operate at the same speed and with the same urgency. It is a strength asset that gives us plenty of traction.

In a secular environment fast-paced corporate leaders are recruited and valued. The motion of business is usually fast and most companies want entrepreneurs who are motivated self-starters, able to burn the candle at both ends. This world moves fast and demands on-point leadership.

Decision making is fast and furious in this world too. Teams and departments gather facts, analyze data, and move the machinery of business along at a rapid pace. Reflection and deliberation are done on your own time. It's a world where the fast eat the slow and the second place loses the account. So, leadership in corporate America is often about seizing moments and getting things done ASAP, PDQ, and all the other jargon of action-based systems.

This line of thought became one of the more profound learnings of shifting out of that world into the world os spiritual leadership. In my former life, banking and hospital financial administration, we usually operated under the dictum DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO SOMETHING. This was the resulting work ethic of modernism, ages and generations of chasing the American dream, fulfilling the American work ideal, and being successful according to a numerical score-card. So, it was basically a busy-ness deal, being in constant motion, fulfilling assignments, keeping rigid schedules, ignoring down-time, and doing what was necessary to advance the cause of the company. It's a dog-eat-dog, no prisoners kind of drill that makes for corporate success. DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO SOMETHING!

Soon after leaving the world of corporate finance, a lesson of spiritual leadership crashed through all of the secular conditioning. One day, a deacon in my first church challenged me with a particular of spiritual leadership. Our little church had some important decisions to consider. I was the new, untried and un-proven pastor, no previous pastoral experience, recently called to ministry. Still under the trance of corporate leadership systems I was itching for action, cruising for high-speed process. Yet, I was undecided and somewhat double-minded about some of these decisions. That's when Vernon Pierce through the gauntlet of spiritual leadership in my path. He said, DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING. SIT THERE.

When leadership comes to church there is the grace and sitting before God, waiting on a word from Him, praying for wisdom, listening for His still small voice, and finding single-mindedness in some of the momentous decisions. Of course, this advice flies in the face of everything I had been conditioned to know about leadership. In the board room, action was paramount. Waiting or deliberating often meant lost business or missing an opportunity. More, deliberation signaled indecisiveness in the leader, perhaps fear in decision-making, maybe even a flaw in the leadership style.

But, when leadership goes to church, the genuine spiritual leader understands the discipline and grace of waiting till directions from heaven come down.

King David was often impetuous. Then, he wrote, "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD" (Psalm 27:14). There's an inner strength in waiting on God. The world says, DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO SOMETHING. God often says, DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING, SIT THERE.

Amen.

If UR the center, something is wrong---

Modernism proposed a human centered church model that may explain why so many of our congregations are self-absorbed and disconnected from mission today. Surely the well-intentioned and Godly leaders of that age didn't intentionally create a post-biblical system constructed on ego-centric principles. But, the church growth movement of the sixties and seventies did elevate the human element in church matters. One of the exercises involved writing the word CHURCH and then circling the letters UR in the center. Sunday after Sunday, the outreach people reminded us UR the center of church.

So, it's no wonder today a majority of our churches are plateaued or declining. More than a generation of church leaders were raised under a church growth paradigm that emphasized numerical measures as the indications of church health. Back then growing church = healthy church. In such a caste system, every person was considered central to achieving growth goals and objectives. UR central was a way of making every single individual indispensable to the purpose of the church---then, stated as growth. 

Well the "church growth movement" went by-by with several key theological discoveries. Wonder of wonders, the church belongs to Jesus Christ the Lord. He said, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). So, verily and alas, Jesus is in the churcl building process and we earthen vessels are relieved of this great burden. In that same line, the demise of the "church growth movement" gave rise to another very timely Christological realization: Jesus is the head and center of his church. Rick Warren, opened The Purpose Driven Life with this central confession: it's not about you. This self-evident truth rocked the traditional church to the basement. Millions of modernist generation church people were blown away by the profound reality that UR are not the center of the church. That would be Jesus.

So, many congregations are governed by the likes and dislikes of a few gate-keepers who came along in the aftermath of "a million more in '54" and the other numbers games we played back in the modern world. These churches are stalled in mission, caught in a time-warp of UR preferences and biases. Some don't like this, others don't like that, one group says tomato and another group says tomaito, and long lists of other positions with little theological basis and mostly human whims. Resistance to anything new may factor into the formula as well. But, bottom lines are blurred with the opposer types. What matters is the UR stuff, you know, UR the center of the church.

If UR the center, something is wrong. This would be, uh, a spiritual problem. It's not just a cultural or societal miscalculation, a positioning issue. No, here is a bonafide spiritual heresy that may take us completely out of the church ranks altogether. When a bunch of sinful homo sapiens are the center of the church, Jesus has been demoted and that congregation has forfeited the right to use the name He decided to place on His body.

The church in America needs serious revival, a renewal that rocks the UR mentality and re-establishes the Christo-cenrtric nature of the church.

"And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy" (Colossians 1:18).

 

Life Equipping

Faith equips us for life. Certainly, eternity forms a hope-filled backdrop to what we believe. But, the teaching of Jesus, his apostles, what is inspired in the written Word, and the central mission of HIs church, which is making disciples, is a life equipping process that literally changes everything.

The Pauline Epistles describe this process in many references. One richly stands out, the basic text for considering Life Equipping today. He wrote, "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service..." (Ephesians 4:11-12). There is a Life Equipping dimension of Scripture adn what Jesus taught that thrusts us out there to the means streets of this world to influence them. So, faith equips us about marriage, parenting, careers, education, voting, serving others, citizenship, money, stuff, the environment, what we eat, and everything else about life. Life Equipping is simply learning how to apply truth, and the relationship that is underneath it, to every arena of life.

LIFE CONNECTIONS introduce us to the people and life of faith. It is the entry way, where people come in contact with other believers and learn the essentials of this life. Faith is visualized in the life of committed Christians who are learning to live this life. So, it is relational in nature. LIFE EQUIPPING is content driven. It is the training or development piece that teaches us to apply what we believe to life.  Here, the lessons that Jesus and the apostles and the Bible writers can be actualized in every element of personal life. Here, faith becomes real.

If the contemporary church has a weak spot, it may be at this point. You see, there's a time element in the equipping process. It is called "abiding" or "remaining" in Christ. It is the essential component of any spiritual growth. The branch and vine must remain attached. Today, we tend to substitute urgent matters in place of important matters, and this equipping element is shoved out of our priority list. As a result, many Christians are ill-equipped for the various elements of life. 

Today, we're talking LIFE EQUIPPING. This is the stuff of spiritual maturity. I'm praying that He will grip us to change our world by teaching us to life it out every single day.

Blessings! 

The sports time warp

If you're into athletics you can exist in a sports time warp this weekend. It's that rare time of the year when you can catch just about any genre of competition on TV in one short weekend. Yes, you must have a cable connection or a dish to plug into this bonanza. But, right now, live an in person, you can experience the pantheon of sports right there in your living room or den.

Except maybe sumo wrestling. ESPN does air ld footage of classic sumo bouts occasionally. But, in the main, you'll have to move to Japan to be in on this action. So, here's a clean pic of the sumo deal so you check it on the total sports inventory for the weekend. Nice, huh?

So, let's see. There will be thirty+ college football games, ten or more professional contests, the PGA, the senior PGA. the Hooters Tour, the Nationwide Tour, NASCAR, Indy, women's soccer, women's volleyball, classic women's softball, the World Series, classic baseball re-runs, fly-fishing, bass fishing, trout fishing, several varieties of hunting, roller derby (men's and women's), college basketball, classic NBA (since the players can't come to terms with management), drag racing, fantasy football, Japanese extreme sports obstacle courses, motor-cycle racing, monster trucks, archery, English pub darts, parachuting, bungee jumping, ski trials, track and field, paint ball, championship Texas hold-em, horse racing, rugby, lacrosse, AWA wrestling, boxing, tae kwon do, hockey, arena football, and the favorite at most of the college campuses, partying.  And, if you count the picture, sumo wrestling. Did I miss anything? Surely I did, Our sports fanaticism knows no end.

So, wise one, make a point. The point is simple: we have our obsession with sports and the networks and sports information directors and universities and talking heads give us what we want, plenty of it. So, the weather is fall gorgeous, the trees are in full fall color spectacular, and we're all home watching maniacs bait their hooks to catch a large mouth. One guy I heard Friday at Starbucks was whining because the NBA season is going to be interrupted by the players association lawyers. He'll have to miss a couple of weeks of drugged-up-gun-toting wife beaters running up and down the basketball court and shooting forty footers. Poor guy.

Now, I like my sports too, and will more than likely watch a college football game or two over the weekend. Last weekend we accidentally flipped the channel by one of the college women's basketball games. Shoot, Harriet and I outnumbered the people in the stands. So, we channeled on up. It was our day. We caught the last few minutes of one of the fishing pros drowning worms on a mid-western lake.

What a thrill!