I was driving to work this morning and was listening to the radio about a girls softball team who did something that the church forgets to do sometimes. Two players who set aside their own egos and acted with grace in a situation that called for them both to throw in the towel. When the unexpected happened they both recognized what had taken place and “considered” someone else better than themselves. Trust me when I say that if you don’t sob like a baby after reading this article, then please read Paul’s words here and then read the article again. Click here to watch the video.

Spent the whole day with a couple of nice folks today. It wasn’t over coffee or a meal. It was sitting with them in a court house waiting for a close relative of theirs to be arraigned. What was interesting about my experience was that it felt like another side of the call to serve in ministry that isn’t talked about a whole lot in seminary. Another side that is definetly like serving as a chaplain in a hospital.

Ministry to those facing the possibilty of a long term prison sentence in some ways is like spending time with folks in the hospital. Same feelings in some ways are expoused. If you’ve been a chaplain you understand what I am talking about. I wished I could of been able to do something. I had written a character refernce for this person. I met the attorney. I spent time with the family. I even just sat for a while waiting. Just being present. Being still.

When I arrived back to the court house after lunch, I was able to see this relative who’d we been waiting for all day. Of course from a distance and with several inches of glass in between us and the courtroom. I couldn’t help but catch this persons glance. The eyes of this person spoke volumes to what they were experiencing sitting on the other side of the glass. The tears being held back and the need to be strong as preparation for the journey this person was about to face is nothing I ever want to face. Nothing any one should have to ever face.

I quietly put both of my hands together gesturing that I’d be praying for this person. The person caught my gesture and did the same. That was about it. All I could do. As we left the couthouse again all I could was share with these couple of folks that I’d be there for them if they needed something and to keep me in the loop about their relative. I’d try to visit this relative of theirs when I was able. The imprint of today will be with me for a long time.

Again, I learned something today that I didn’t learn in seminary.

Can’t fix everything.

                                Just listen.

                                             And be still.

 Of couse as I left the court house, two cats in navy blue clothing given to them as gifts by the court, who were being released from prison, walked through the front doors of the courthouse and into the beautiful heat freedom filled day. Both threw their arms into the air and shook each others hands and walked off into the sunset with a smile. Freedom does have that ability to make us smile.

Had to smile for them. 

What a day.

What if pastors were to live honestly before the people of God? Lives unashamed of revealing to the world the reality that we don’t have it all together. We think, feel, and breathe the same kinds of things that every other person sitting in the pews encounters on any given day.

I was talking with a close friend of mine this afternoon and the discussion came up that the pastor needs to be able to reveal to his or her congregation a kind of authenticity that makes a clear statement that we don’t profess having it all together. To go one step further, that within the proclamation of the word, the good news of Christ’s love, that every sermon I preach should include my willingness to be authentic as a way of illustrating the message of God’s love. Transparency of mind and spirit, coming to the table, letting it all hang out, making the word come alive for the sake of the gospel being heard and received in a way that convicts the hearts and minds of God’s people.

My preaching professor in seminary always commented that he’d rather have folks leave church after every sermon with two or three ideas that were easily remembered as opposed to an exegesis of the word “chair.” I wonder if the pastor should take it one step further? How about two or three ideas that reveal God’s heart for God’s people and that are made applicable through the pastors willingness to be authentic?

What does it really mean to be authentic when it comes to preaching?

It means that somehow with God’s help, power, and the Spirit of God always working in the preparation of the sermon, that I somehow tell the ego that burdens me daily to take a hike. Get honest. Be real. And don’t be ashamed to allow my heart to speak through the word God has given me on any particular Sunday.

Now in my quest to becoming the lean mean machine I am I was recently driving through the good old Antelope Valley and noticed a sign that was advertising , “the four minute workout.” Now mind you I’d love to only workout for four minutes. I have lots to do every day. Its hard enough to get on the treadmill for at least thirty minutes. Now if you’re interested, you can even buy the machine for a little over $14,000.00. I think I will stick to my treadmill and to my snappy snap fitness work out facility with the cool snap fitness staff who make working out a blast.

My regular cafe misto is enough to keep me through the day.

Upon occasion the late afternoon requires a quick boost.
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(This is a painting that my friend Jenny Smith painted of the pulpit at Princeton that I preached from on one occasion)

Something I’ve come to appreciate in my short time as a solo pastor are the opportunities when folks are able to fill the pulpit for me on any given Sunday. I enjoy preaching every Sunday. Whatever the season might be. Advent, Lent, and Easter and everything and anything in between. I’ve had a couple of our church members preach this past year and a couple of good friends of mine. Over the next two month I’m having some folks fill the pulpit for me. It will give me a chance to be fed and to listen. It will also give me a chance to connect with those hanging in the pews. Something that sometimes is hard to do when you’re helping lead worship.

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A new team building event for our leaders at church.

Thanks Steve

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to live in authenticity as a Christian and follower of Jesus? Authenticity being the place we accept ourselves as a fallen and broken people in the midst of an ever changing world. Simply meaning we come to the table “letting it all hang out” before the world.

Let me explain. Recently I was with a friend who is fully aware of my work as a pastor and who we’ve become good friends with over the last couple of months. On one occasion he let out a loud sneeze and I responded with a good old “bless you.” His response along with some other things happening in my life of recent grabbed my attention. He says something like with a smile of course, “you don’t force your religion onto people?”

My authenticity as a follower of Jesus means that I am going to live my life out as an example of God’s grace. In my living out my faith before others with the recognition and acceptance that I am a broken person and that without God’s love in my life, I could not manage living on my own, that this is a much better approach to sharing my faith as opposed to giving the impression that my faith in Christ is to be pushed onto someone else. Avoiding having others see me as someone pushy or forceful. It also lets others know that I am not by know means living my life perfectly and sinless.

Too often people are faced with those who use the smothering approach to evangelism. I grew up with it. I was schooled in it in some ways by my surroundings of people I observed growing up in the church. This was the thing to do at one point in my youth as a young person and a Christian. I see this even in my work as a pastor with others who are still tied to a model of evangelism that I have no doubt God uses and has used but at times overwhelms the one on the receiving end of the “good news.” When do you begin that conversation? How do you discern that precise moment in time where “you’ve earned the right to be heard?”

I am hoping to finish a book I started sometime ago called, Just a Walk Across the Room,” by Bill Hybels out of Willow Creek. It is something that I want to go through with our leaders and begin praying about in the way we do outreach together as a church community. Obviously we adapt as opposed to completely adopting the cookie cutter approach to evangelism knowing that not every model fits or works.

I hope to blog some more over the next few weeks about evangelism and about living out our faith before others as authentic followers of Jesus.

If you haven’t already figured it out the Starbucks cup you grip regularly on a morning basis has a new look:

As I made my regular stop on my way to the office, I ventured in, got my “cafe misto” with steamed soy and extra caramel and I was on my way with my newly designed cup. Starbucks also has introduced a new way to save some bucks. If you register your new card and every time you use it when you purchase your drink, Starbucks knocks a few coins off of your drink. For example, today when I got my “cafe misto” with steamed soy and extra caramel. My soy and caramel were “free.” Pretty cool. Anyways, make sure you register your card and start receiving the benefits from those guys up there in that corner of the country.