K.C. Wahe

As I think about this post I just finished a long shift at the hospital doing chaplain things. I am exhausted and also grateful for the day I had. As I reflect on my day I think of a statement made by a friend of mine just recently about teaching the people of God to be missional. I am convinced that being missional isn’t something you can teach. Being missional is something you just do. How do you know your doing things missional? 

You’ll know. You’ll start hearing and seeing God work in ways you’ve never seen before. You become a risk taker. You start stepping outside of your box of naivete. When was the last time God kicked you out of your box for a moment just long enough to catch a glimpse of what the kingdom of God actually is about and looks like? 

Responding to the mission of God means finally saying with arms stretched out ,”Lord, here I am.” 

So? What’s keeping you?

I am having major issues of recent with my blog. Thanks to a friend of mine who helped me fix my blog, my feeble attempt at blogging will resume. I have lost a couple of posts. The one I lost was my recent trip back to Princeton. When the 4th of July leaves us this weekend I will make an attempt to get the pictures back up with my thoughts about being out of seminary for six years.

I must confess I am not a blogger of worthy status. I admit I fell into the “fad” of blogging a few years ago and yes I do more on Facebook than blogging. Sometimes I don’t know if I have much to offer to the blogging world. I don’t have the time and the brain power to write and to reflect on the issues of the day.

Here are a couple of thoughts I have kicked around these last few weeks. I have learned that I am a better pastor when I am practicing the art of being intentional with family, friends, and most of all church folks. When I was a youth growing up in a large church what I remember most about those who I considered mentors was the mere fact that they were always present. Presence is a gift and I can count at least a dozen folks who were very present in my life from youth leaders to youth pastors. These folks understood what it meant to be intentional.

As I got older I don’t think I ever got a phone call or a visit from any of my pastors. I don’t even remember getting a note. I do remember one of my pastors taking me out for a steak dinner to celebrate something. It was a great dinner. The steak was awesome and the potato was as big as my left foot. To be honest though I don’t remember the reason why we went out, I just remember that he was being intentional with me. I remember another pastor and his wife taking us out to dinner just as I was departing for seminary. We talked mostly about what it is like to be in ministry and the joys and struggles of being a pastor and for Debbie the joys and struggles of being a pastors wife. Again, don’t remember details, just remember that this pastor was intentional with us.

I remember another senior pastor I served with in New Jersey while I was in seminary. I was an intern and I had the chance to watch him from afar. He wasn’t the greatest at preaching. He wasn’t the most charismatic of persons. His gift was that he was intentional with those he pastored. He always remembered names. I remember one church member saying to me, ” We continue to come here because the pastor remembered our names.” The man actually helped the church through a building campaign and both he and an awesome associate pastor led the church with the gift of intentionality.

So? What am I learning right now in my life?

Be intentional.

It might be the best gift of bringing about peace and reconciliation to anything I will ever do as a pastor.

Word on the street?

It acutally works. Am I still growing? Will I forget what matters most to being a Christ follower especially a pastor when it comes to being intentional with those I’ve been called to pastor and lead? Yup! At least today it feels good to know that it does actually work.

ht: Thy grace is sufficient

This is Rachel.

Rachel and I met almost two years ago. Rachel is 89 years old and loves Jesus and loves teaching God’s Word to children.

Rachel was recruited two years ago to be our VBS story teller. In 2007 and 2008 Rachel loved being the story teller. Rachel was a modern day Ms. Mears. She was always available when it came to kids stuff. I even remember Rachel serving at one of our Trunk Or Treat events. She parked her mini-van in our church parking lot, dressed in a costume,  and was ready to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids.

One of her dreams was to network with local Elementary Schools to run a kids club after school to offer a place where kids could learn what it means to follow Jesus. At a school near our church, she actually was able to get on campus and use a classroom to do her kids club. I remember her telling me on one occasion that this was one of the ways we could reach more kids for Christ.

She was right.

Earlier this year Rachel joined our church. She is loved by all and is very much a part of our faith community. Rachel is almost 90 years old and is currently in a nursing home. The doctors have given her only a few days to live.

Every time I’ve visited Rachel, she was always ready for me to pray with her. She’d muster as much strength as she could and would hold my hand until I was done praying and she’d go back to sleep. Last Sunday some folks from church brought Palm Sunday worship to Rachel. We sang together at Rachel’s bedside and gave Rachel communion.

Please pray for Rachel and her family.

When I asked Rachel what her favorite Bible verse was last week, she whispered this verse to me.

I wanted to cry and I pray that I myself would grow to love God’s Word as much as Rachel does.

Around 5:OOam this morning Rachel went home to be with the Lord.

Thanks for loving us like Jesus Ms. Rachel.

I’m still here.

Blogging silence continues.

A few thoughts.

Props to Chris in passing ordination exams!

I’m VBS guitar man right now. I’m off to plan VBS music.

By the way? Anyone have an extra Mini-Van sitting around collecting dust?

My wife’s car decided to take a hike.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program of marriage, family, Lent, Easter Preparations, and the day to day things of being a pastor.

Today is Pink Friday if you haven’t already guessed by some of my brief little snippets between my blog and my facebook.

My wife has taught in the public school system for a very long time. Many of her friends having been teaching even longer. My wife is in the process of listening to the Lord and trying to discern what’s next in her life. She’s even about to consider a new career. How does a teacher who has been teaching for over 15 years as a public school teacher all of sudden start over again? With the rising costs of state colleges and especially graduate level programs how does someone like my wife do this with kids, a mortgage, student loan payments, car payments, etc, etc, and some more etc. I know it’s not just education that is being hit. Everything is being hit.

Does she continue teaching? The problem is that there are no teaching jobs for a teacher with that much experience,  if you really do the math and think about the massive budget cuts not only happening in California, but across the nation. My wife and some of her colleagues are the ones with high salaries because of their education and experience. Friends have said, “but the stimulus package will help.” If its supposed to help, why is Los Angeles Unified Schools about to cut something like 5500 teachers?

Please pray for my wife. Our kids. Kids all over California. Teachers all over California who are considering other careers and who will be living off unemployment possibly like us. Our state colleges and universities. And yes administrators we will pray for you too, it’s not your fault. Although my kids high school doesn’t need something like four vice principals and a principal as school districts are cutting teachers left and right. Something’s not right with that either.

I’d be lying to you if I told you I am fine. I am not fine. It stinks that our kids, our teachers, and our colleges and universities have to go through this. I have no answers. The only answer I have is something we talked about at a Bible Study I led last night. I love Peterson’s paraphrase of Isaiah 40:27-31.

I also point you to a person who gets it.

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