God is always at work. I affirm this with all of my heart. I believe God is still working in my life and the feeling is surreal as I think about this post. Some of these thoughts aren’t really new to some of you. I’ve shared in previous posts these reflections.

This post is unique.

A very long time ago I wondered upon the campus of a church that I’ve come to love very much. It’s my home away from home. I’ve always loved this church. It’s composed of people who’ve become some of our dearest friends.

There are people in this church who have no clue and don’t even realize how much of an impact they’ve made on my life for Christ. I am a follower of Jesus, husband, father, and pastor because of how some of these people were used in my life by Christ.

When I was a Jr. High kid there were two places I could be found.

The boulevard or at church.

This past Wednesday I had an experience that was so surreal that I felt I was in a scene out of the matrix. It happened again on Friday and even on Saturday morning.

I dropped my kids off with some friends of theirs at this church for a youth group function.  At this church there is a room where the youth function took place. This room always takes me back to my life as a kiddoe.

This room was where I learned from folks that I was loved and valued by Christ.

It was a room where I learned how to play guitar and lead worship. It was a room where I earned a Holy Land coin from my 7th grade Sunday school teacher if I memorized scripture. It was a room where I heard good news as a youth that Jesus loved me and would be faithful in the midst of the joys and struggles of life. It was even the room where I served with my wife in ministry prior to us getting married, helping her run an after school children’s program for the neighborhood.

This week our two boys got introduced to this room. They were introduced to people who continue the vision of loving kids and giving Jesus to them by showing them simple acts of kindness. Seeds of faith planted into their hearts.

As I drove off after dropping them off, I couldn’t help but remember the emptiness I had as a kid not having parents who were available and who showed up as parents. As I drove off I was overwhelmed with God’s blessing that although I didn’t have my parents, that I had the church, the kingdom of God here on earth filing that hole in my heart. As I drove off I was tickled pink that my wife and I get to be parents of some awesome gifts from upon high. As I drove off, I felt grateful that the Lord of the universe, through the work of the church, saved my life. And as I drove off I was overwhelmed with joy that the seeds of faith that were planted in my heart as a youth, were being planted and rooted in the hearts of our kids. Seeds of faith that I took from people who loved me and that we gave and still give and will give to our kids as parents.

And it all began in that room in 1982.

Surreal.

Have you ever wished that you could rewind your day by just ten minutes? Day started off pretty well. Began with a trip to the gym which has been a blessing to me in disguise. Proceeded to drop something off for my wife at her classroom. Next stop? The neighborhood watering hole for my daily cafe misto. I caught a glimpse of the paper and read the fear and concern that the Laker’s could be eating humble pie. Exited the watering hole to my car. Got in my car and slowly backed out into a beautiful little sports car driven by a college kid who happened to park his car against an Island in the parking lot (right behind me of course). The day continued with a joyful trip to an awards ceremony for our 8th grader who received a couple of awards that made me want to shout and scream with praise. He received some kind of Presidents Achievement Merit Award thingy and some award with a 4.0 on it. The awards ceremony trumped my little morning dance with a sports car at Starbucks. Praising God for the kiddoes. Finished the day with some phone calls, a brief meeting, and a trip to the hospital to do a visitation, and a really yummy carnitas burrito from the near by greasy spoon Mexican food restaurant.

Still running with my eyes to the sky! It’s just one of those days.

For close to 15 years my wife has worked in public education. She’s taught in public schools both here in California and in New Jersey. She’s an awesome elementary school teacher and God has blessed her with a tremendous amount of gifts when it comes to teaching. Both parents and children have been impacted by her teaching. I’ve witnessed first hand her teaching abilities in the classroom.

Over the last several months one of the hot topics in California has been public education and the budget cuts that have and will take place all over the state. We’ve seen this before and have heard about the cuts over the years. She’s always been safe from any district budget cuts until this year of course. My wife and at least 58 other teachers in her district have been issued pink slips. I know there are other districts that are also issuing pink slips.

You never think about the possibility of loosing your job until it happens to you. I think that’s what’s exhausting. It becomes real when your one of the ones facing the possibility of unemployment for whatever reasons. What’s even harder not only for my wife, but for others, is that there are some really good teachers who care about the promises they made to themselves and to the kids and parents they serve every day that when they come to work that they are more than just prepared to teach; that they’re ready to make a difference in a child’s life.

When we relocated back to So. Cal we very much trusted that God would provide for our family. Even before we made the move back my wife was hired by the school district she currently teaches in. This is how we knew that we possibly were making the right decision to come back home. God has always been at the helm of any transition we’ve been part of over the years. Every move we’ve made my wife has been blessed with a teaching position or other employment. This is how I know that she’s more than just a gifted teacher. This is also why we aren’t stressing yet. Although tempting.

Faith is more than our bandage right now. It’s our strength. It’s always been our strength. And with the given events in the other parts of the world like Myanmar and the loss and suffering that others are enduring in our own country in the mid-west, because of weather it puts things in perspective. It keeps me from making this post all about the issues and politics at hand especially when it comes to public education right now. It keeps me from thinking of the worst case scenarios for myself in my current call as a pastor and for my family.

My prayer for those who teach and who’ve been affected by the state wide budget cuts is that you will find the strength and hope needed that God will provide for you as God has provided always for my wife and family. My prayer is also that those who’ve been called to make the tough decisions will listen to God and will take into account all of the scenarios not only for those who are good at what they do as teachers who will eventually find new employment, but the kids and parents who were looking forward and hoping to have the best of the best teachers who do more than just teach. Parents and kids who were looking forward to the blessing of being blessed by teachers who care about making a difference in a child’s life.

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.

Sunday morning Easter schedule

3:30am Wake up

4:10am Pick up church member

4:30am Arrive at church

5:10am Arrive here.

6:00am Sunrise service begins

7:00am Head to church to put out lilies

7:30am Finish song slides

7:45am The Fellowship Hall smells yummy with breakfast foods

8:00am First service begins.

9:15am Take a break, hang out with some cool church folks

10:00am Second service begins

11:15am Hang out with more cool church folks in the yummy fellowship hall.

12:00pm Go to church members house for brief Easter egg hunt

1:00pm Drive home quickly for family members to arrive for the “Official” holiday gathering and start prepping the munchies. (Must have beef salami with the cheese and crackers, wifey runs to the store)

2:30pm The HAM arrives, potatoes mashed

3:00pm Everyone eats

3:30pm Run to VONS, out of coffee, need coffee stat! Stopped at Starbucks for a quick Cafe Misto to relieve the nerves and to wake me up and bought two pounds of coffee for the family to have with the pies.

4:00pm The family watches “I am Legend,” Sorry Mr. Smith, hoped it would be a little better.

7:00pm Every ones is gone. Clean some with the wifey.

Sometime between 10pm & 11pm I’m snoring.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!