I thought I was on standby…I guess I’m not according to the new online check the night before to see if your group was picked system…oh joy!

Finished Barna and his Revolution book. I like some of his stuff (not all) and what he’s trying to get at with the whole thing about folks finding God outside the church walls. I know the church has disappointed many when it comes to its ability to develop and equip the people of God. It almost seemed like he was saying folks aren’t going to wait any longer for things to start happening. I get this. I’m also still convinced though that the church needs to be a place where people can find God and become the true Church. I’m convinced that the church needs to rethink what it’s doing when it comes to reaching the world for Christ. It means we need to change quickly. It means we need to be more intentional about loving people and walking alongside them.

I’m back to finishing McNeal’s Present Future book and I think McNeal gets the whole need to change thing within the church and what the church needs to start thinking about when it comes to reaching the world for Christ in to days culture:

"When church people hear the tough question I am suggesting ("How do we hit the street with the gospel?"), they still think in church terms. It goes like this: "we’ll do an outreach project, but we expect that the end result is that people who choose to follow Jesus will follow him back to our church (or at least, some church)." Or I run into this attitude all the time: "We’ll do this community stuff  after we handled all our programs, funded the services for club members, and paid salaries for ministers who spend their time almost exclusively on church members." Pg. 26

Back to reading.

I’ve been doing lots of thinking about my ministry as a pastor. Of course I’m still wet behind the ears. May 2006 will be two years of ordained pastoral ministry. I’ve experienced a lot in my first two years of pastoral ministry. I’ve preached a few sermons, done a couple of weddings, and a couple of baptisms. I’ve spent time counseling folks, listening to those who hurt, and I’ve even gone on some hospital visits that constantly remind me of the importance of the ministry of presence. If I could rewind the clock though I would do a few things differently.

I’d be bold about my faith in Christ. I look back and there are occasions where I could have been more direct with folks about my faith. What I mean by direct is making it obvious for the reasons why I love Jesus and why I follow him daily.

I’d spend more time in prayer. A pastor that prays and makes it a daily spiritual habit? I know I can spend more time in conversation with the Lord. I’d also find a support system of pastors who love praying and who I could confide in and where I wouldn’t be ashamed to say I need prayer or wouldn’t be afraid to pray for a brother of sister. There are only two pastor buddies i know of who live near by who I know in a second would pray for me. I just forget to ask. I also want to be the kind of pastor that isn’t ashamed to say, "can I pray for you?" "Or how is it that I can care for you as your pastor and friend?"

I’d spend more time in study of God’s Word. How is that the times I spend deeply entrenched in God’s Word is when I need to crank out a sermon? I want to be in a place where it’s a daily habit and where it’s obvious that I love and find hope in the study of God’s Holy Word. I want to be surrounded by people who love God’s Word and who desire to know him.

I’d be more intentional with colleagues. Pride often is a hindrance to asking for help. I’d become someone who was more intentional about asking for help from those above me and next to me in leadership.

I’d assert myself more with those I serve with and work with when it came to philosophical differences in ministry. As the young pup in ministry you feel that it’s better to be seen and not heard. I’d be silent when I did disagree with someone and I’d be direct with those I have issues with and strive to modeling Christ in the midst of conflict and work towards reconciliation with those I serve and minister with. Basically, I’d keep short accounts without making it known to the world that I’m frustrated. I’d practice what I preach when it came to gossip and building up the body of Christ.

Finally, I’d be myself. I’d give my heart Jesus away as much as possible. I’d ask people if I could pray with them and most of all I’d go after those who need Jesus. Reggie McNeal (My paraphrase) talks about this idea that evangelism needs to become more of a "Go get them and love" philosophy as opposed to a lets make our church look really good and yell "Come and get it…I’d become someone who went to where the people are. I’d be someone who looked for those who hurt and who needed someone to just be present with them in the midst of their "stuff."

I’ve always wanted to be a pastor who gave of my life as well as the gospel. I know I will be. I pray that as I mature and grow closer to him that I’d become someone who wasn’t afraid to let that fire in my belly be free…and to go after those who are in need of God’s love and compassion to restore their souls from the pain and burden that life oftens blesses us with…to God be the glory!

I now differ to my friend Paul who seemed to get the point…

Technorati Tags: Reggie McNeal; Pastor; Ministry; Community;

I’ve experienced some blogging blues of late. I’ve found myself caught up in the joys and struggles of life and of ministry. In many ways its been a sabbatical of sorts from the blog which can be somewhat addicting I must confess. Although I don’t claim to be the most gifted of writers as some others I know, I do feel I have lots to offer the blogging world. I’m just trying to find my niche. In many ways you can say I’ve hit a wall when it comes to this blogging thing. To those seven or so folks. I will return. I will dig deep. I will come back strong. In the meantime props to those in the Olympics who give of their heart and guts and who seek to follow Christ even in the midst of heart- ache and who aren’t ashamed of the gospel. Thank God for people like Kelly who put on Christ and his heart daily.

HT: Thy Grace

"Community happens when the people of God make a decision to trust God, one another, and the world with the spew of life that weighs them down. It’s the place Christ enters in and offers a ray of hope for those looking for purpose, meaning, and ultimately opportunities to love others as Christ loved them. No one person looks the same or sounds the same. In the end it’s the church coming together, responding to Gods call to go and meet the people where they are at in their lives, to bring them back into the place where God moves and restores his children to wholeness."   

Technorati Tags: Community; God; Church; People;

I’m at a denominational conference on the east coast. I heard a frightening stat this morning. 86 persons per day leaving…leaving…leaving the church. 1 person every 17 minutes. How come no ones freaking out?

Started reading "Revolution" this morning. My questions thus far; Where do I fit into Barnas take on the current state of the church and the people of God if I’m a pastor? If people are giving up on the established institution and are finding God in other places amidst community, where does the role of the pastor fit into this shift? Or is it a charge for me as a minister to help push the people of God to a place of spritual maturity, to a place where they feel they can experience true intimate worship of God? Where they are being pushed to a level of Christ like servant-hood where the broken hearted, the poor, and the outcast are experiencing the love and acceptance of Christ? If what I’m reading is true, my role in the years to come is going to become one of helping the people of God right out the doors of the church (Guessing they might not need my help) and into a community of faith where they can find God, experience his love, and serve him with all of their heart, soul, and mind? I’m also guessing "church" programs will die and ministry that is about being missional and life changing is what I will be creating with the people of God. My role will become more of one that helps send the people of God out into community and figuring ways out on how to empower them to find Christ in community. Kind of exiciting, but there is a part of me that still has to rely on the importance of finding community within the community. How do I do this as a pastor? How do I facilitate this kind of spritiuality for the people of God, for those who want it so bad that they can taste it? How do I help with the healing of those who have legitimate feelings about "church" and who feel compleltly spewed on? I still have to rest on the fact that for me it was the community within the community that God used as one of the mechanisms in bringing me to Christ. For it was the grace of God working through the people of God within the core, the heart, of the "church," the truest of communities that pushed me towards the kind of faith I was to have and should have as a follower of Jesus. Without this community called "church" I would not be the kind of husband, father, and pastor I am today. I then after reading some of Barna this morning remembered something about "Church"  from the Boo (PCUSA BOOK of Order); "The Church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone as the author and giver of life, sharing the gospel, and doing those deeds in the world that point beyond themselves to the new reality in Christ." And thank God I remembered my call as a pastor when it comes to empowering the people of God here, here, and here. Barna, I Will read on!

Technorati Tags:
Pastor;
George Barna;
George Barna Revolution;
PCUSA;

I was watching the news tonight at the gym. Watched a glimpse of Bono at the National Prayer Breakfast. This was what caught my eye reading the caption at the bottom of the screen as I was dying a slow death on the ecliptic machine…

"If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I’m certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather." Good one Bono!

Read the transcript here…

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places"

Way to go Bono man!

Tod has started a series here, here, here, and here on Barnas book Revolution, because of this discussion he’s begun and Steve has hinted to, I happened to pick the book up today. When I turned the book over to read what the hype was all about, what caught my eye was this statement; "Millions of believers have moved beyond the established church…and chosen to be the church instead." I’m planning to read this short read next week while on some study leave, but I immediately wondered to myself, "Barna, where were you before I went to seminary six years ago, acquired thousands of dollars in graduate debt, and got ordained as a pastor in a large denomination that seems to be fading away before my eyes?" I also wondered, "am I not needed now as a pastor in this shift of the people of God stepping down from the bleachers and becoming what the church always has been, will be, and always be as the people of God? Looks like a good read and will raise lots of questions for the people of God to ask and will cause me to ponder what my role will be as a pastor in this shift.