If I were my friends Julie and Tony I’m not sure how I would be doing if I were given two months to live. I can’t imagine what Tony must be going through knowing that his wife, best friend, and mother of his children has been given no hope of living. The wind has been knocked out of me. All I can do is pray. My heart aches and my soul cries out to the living God for his power to fill the lives of my friends and to bring about restoration and healing to Julie. If Deb were given two months to live I do not know what I would do. I do not know how I would tell my kids. I remember when I worked in the oncology unit at a Pennsylvania hospital during my chaplaincy while attending seminary and the wide range of emotions I experienced as I was asked to enter room after room of folks who were told they had cancer. I remember the morning that I sat and watched a family say good bye to a loving father and husband as they watched him breathe his last breath. One the experiences I had I still remember like yesterday is when I was asked by a man who had been given only a short time to live because of his cancer diagnosis that if I had any answers. It was one of my first ever visits as a chaplain at this hospital. I walked in and introduced myself as one of the hospitals chaplains. We began a short conversation which went something like this…

“Good morning John, my name is K.C. and I’m one of the hospitals chaplains.” I’m here to bring you greetings this morning.” The mans response to me caught me off guard. He says, “any answers?” as he looked up at me waiting to see what I would say. As I stood there praying that the Lord would teach me and fill me with great wisdom which I had never had before in my life, there was a long period of silence. We both stared into the quiet of his room. I wanted to run out screaming myself. As I stood in silence by this mans bed, I had recalled learning from some old pastor friends that quiet was sometimes the best kind of pastoral care a person could receive. I also learned that if I tried to fill the quiet with meaningless attempts at trying to respond to this mans question that I would find myself in a situtation that I was not at all equipped theologically or pastorally to deal with as a young pastor in training. I had never ever been asked this question by anyone who was going through a life threatening and life ending event. All I could muster up and knowing that the Holy Spirit was the only way this man would get what he needed from me at the moment, I responded by saying “nope, no answers.” The man responded by saying to me, “good job kid, good answer.” All I wanted to do was cry.

I have no answers to why my friend Julie, a godly and spirit filled mother is about to die. I have no answers to why a godly father and husband might loose his wife, his best friend, and that his children will possibily loose their mom. What I do know is that both of these folks have more faith right now than I have. I ask if you read this that you please pray for a miracle. A life changing miracle. Prayer seems to be the only answer at this point and as I learned from my pastor friends about silence and pastoral care and what the Psalmist David said about being still in the presence of the shalom of God, I will be queit. I will pray for a miracle.

(Julie and Tony’s family)

Thy Grace is Sufficient: I Don’t Understand This

Read my friend Steve Norris’ blog about our friends Julie and Tony. Please pray for our dear friend Julie. Julie is someone I served with in the youth and young adult ministries at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church several years ago. Pray for her husband Tony and her most beautiful children. She has struggled with cancer and the word is that she might only have a few months to live.

Does the past ever meet the present? I’m almost positive there are things in my life that have happened to me for whatever reasons that pop up in other places in my life and in my ministry as a young pastor. Good and bad habits. Past sins that haunt me. Experiences as a child that occur as memories in other parts of my present life. The church is filled with people who hold onto the past. The church is composed of people who bring their past into the present. How do I help the people of God recognize the past, deal with it, then move forward knowing that the gospel is about letting the past go, trusting God with the present, and the future? One of the challenges of a first call is deciding when it is okay to cast and implement vision? Helping people recognize the past as a history that makes us who we are as a church and at the same time empowering those around me to see the need for a new vision for doing ministry? I have no doubt this is what a new pastor experiences any where in his or her life in a first call. It’s also learning how to navigate through the “remember whens” and those who believe the past is much better then the present and is the basis for doing ministry.

What a day. A chance to sit in the presence of friends and families of our children and students. The main emphasis of the services today were the reports and reflections of our youth on their recent Mexico Mission trip back in March. The Word was proclaimed. Good News of Gods love was made loud and clear and their wasn’t a need for a pastor.

There is a mens Bible study and small group at church that I’m involved with and one of the members recently suggested a book by Tim Kimmel called, “Little House on the Freeway.” I don’t know about you but it seems that there is no time to breathe the breath of God while in the midst of the hurriedness of life. Kimmel suggests that there are at least seven characteristics of a hurried home: You can’t relax, can’t enjoy quiet, you’re unsatisfied with what you have, you have an absence of absolutes, you’re over worked and under-appreciated, you worry about stuff you can’t control, and you’re not happy unless your successful. For us relaxing and being quiet tends to be a huge for us as a family. Learning how to be still and to be quiet in the presence of an almighty God who desires to be the center of our hurried lives is what I strive for as a husband and father. I also know as a pastor and what Kimmel highlights in his book is that the church tends to be one of the problems in promoting hurried lives. The question then is how do I equip families who live hurried lives to stop, listen, and breath the breath of God and how do I help the church be the solution and not the problem to the hurriedness of life? I will read on!

I only pray it never gets to this… 

This Sunday our youth at church get the chance to do what most youth Sundays look like in most churches who freely give up a normal typical Sunday worship service. Each of the youth (Children included) get to do everything us pastor dudes and chicks do. We pastors get a break from being the worship leaders. It’s great to even watch the Senior pastor “relax,” from the normal routine of preaching two services. The best part is to watch and hear the Gospel proclaimed from the heart. No lexicons. No commentaries. No bible dictionaries. To be honest I love it! There is something though that happens to me on these special days in the life of our church. When I watch the service unfold…I realize and remember where I started as a pastor. I realize how the Lord has walked with me over the years. How the Lord has saved me from what seemed to be a life of complete and utter loneliness. As the service happens I also remember the first time I got to help lead in worship. I remember when the pastor had me up front helping lead the people of God. On this special Sunday I come to grips with the fact that we the people of God are a broken exhausted over worked group of sinners who are in need of renewal. IN need of the Holy Spirit to work. On this special day we again recognize the need to once again approach the throne of Gods grace with confidence and complete surrender. Just as our youth do when we empower them and believe in them that they are just as capable of proclaiming the Gospel as much as we are. What would our churches look like if it were Youth Sunday every Sunday??? Just a thought or two. I’ll let you know how it goes.

What if preachers practiced the act of just showing up. What if they treated the proclamation of the Gospel as an act of intimacy with the Lord?

“I simply stood up, read a passage of Scripture, and talked about what God was saying through that passage and how I was trying to live it out. It was totally humbling, and the feeling was unlike anything I had ever experienced in ministry before.” Read this!

I don’t know if some of you listen to sports talk shows. The only show I’ve kept up with over the years I have to confess is the Jim Rome Show. While listening to the show today I had flash backs from my preaching classes from seminary. A pastor calls into the show from Littleton, Colorado. He apparently calls in each year. Nice guy. The pastor says, “Jim, you always say to have a take and don’t suck.” The pastor then says, I always say to myself when I get into the pulpit have a sermon don’t suck.” Rome affirms the caller for a take he has on the dodgers, the pastor hangs up, and Rome says to the caller, “thanks pastor for calling into the show.” My challenge to you pastor, “have a sermon don’t suck.” I almost crashed in laughter.