Last night the stars were in line. My oldest boy hit an in the park home run. His team was down three. Three runs scored. He tied the game. You should have seen his face! To be the guy who helps your team out rocks! Especially when your only 10 years old! To be a kid again!!! Here’s another dude who helped his team out last night!!!!
“Dad, who knows maybe you will be pope someday.”
(The University Chapel Pulpit)
I was cruising last months pictures of the inauguration of Princeton Seminary’s new president, Dr. Iain Torrance. If you have never been to Princeton, one of the most beautiful buildings on the Princeton University campus is the University chapel. I spent many of a day sitting in the chapel praying that my professors would some how have mercy on my soul. As I recall my days in seminary I only pray for Dr. Torrance as he leads the seminary and its students into becoming followers of Christ in the church universal.
When you have kids weekends are the best. Baseball and birthday parties keep us busy this weekend along with responsibilities at church. Jesus’ promise of rest in Matthew 11:28-30 constantly reminds me where my strength must come from as a young naive pastor in his first call. In the midst of the hurriedness of life and the commitments of family my prayer is that I become a pastor who practices the spiritual discipline of resting in the arms of God. How do I become someone who stops and rests? How do I model for my family, my church, and the world what it means to truly rest?
What happens to a group of people who feel they have no power? What is the role of the pastor when it comes to empowerment? I can’t help but think the model for servant leadership that Jesus gives to us in scripture is the best tool for empowerment of the laity. The life he lived and the gospel he proclaimed is the greatest example of how we should live our lives in the kingdom of God here on earth. My belief is that as pastors and leaders we are called to be servant leaders. We are to practice what it means to be a servant leader as Christ did for us. Servant leaders empower the powerless to becoming full disciples of Christ. Servant leaders don’t care about what you look like, how you sound, how you smell, or whether or not you are a scholar of the bible. Servant leaders love as Christ loved the church. Servant leaders go after the powerless. They go where no one wants to go. They’re not ashamed of the gospel. Servant leaders pray for the powerless. They pray for those who also have too much power. They pray that they might become people who come to grips with the fact that the kingdom of God is about loving and empowering the powerless to becoming the true church. A place where the broken hearted can still worship and gather whether or not the four walls of the church are still standing. A place where the Lordship of Christ is proclaimed and where lives are changed, healed, and empowered to go out into all the world loving the powerless into the kingdom of God. What if this happened today? Where the broken hearted felt empowered to becoming messengers of hope and good news! And what if servant leaders learned how to be servants first? Look out world! Look out church!
Often I come across those who love working with youth and those who are glad I’m the one being payed to be the pastor to students and families. On two seperate occasions these past few months I’ve been confronted with those who feel powerless in the church and those who love power within the church. In my ministry I’m learning how to empower the powerless. What does this look like in our ministries to students and their families in our churches? How do I empower those within the church to be leaders and teachers of “good news,” when they feel they have no power? How do I help those who feel weak to becoming people of strength? How do I help those who love thinking they have power become people who empower others? In the context of being a youth, “how do I help those who feel “picked on?”
Often we want to give up. Nothing seems to go our way. Then POW! Check this out!
Here and there. As fast as I can. I look, I search, I pray, and hope. Surrender I must. Surrender I can’t. From one place to another. I look for rest and hope for rest. I’m tired. I won’t tell you though. I sit. I pray. I look to him who says, “Come to me all who are tired.”
Here and there. From clipart to my bible. From my broken guitar string to my missing pick. I hope you won’t find out. I’m not perfect. I fear you might find out that I’m tired. I pretend. I’m a sinner. I pray you might accept me in my feeble attempts of caring for souls that hurt.
Here and there. Sermons that stink. Talks that tire. My heart I pray you see with hope that you will hear loud and clear. The love and grace of God so near. I hope and pray I stop to tell and be. Breathe and sing of he who loves you and me. I pray you will see. See the spirit at work and moving in me.
Here and there. Jesus freaks and liberals. Working, living, and praying one day he who made us will unite. Inclusive this and inclusive that. Come to me. Go and make. Be transformed. Be imitators. Imitate the one who loves and the one who aches over his children who lack faith with hopes that one day he who is here and who is there will bring peace to those who are over here and who are over there.
