Simple church. As a new young pastor I’m looking for something simple. Need something simple. Many things to do during the week and one can forget that the message Jesus gave was simple. Love your neighbor as yourself. Simple Church is a new book that a friend said that the staff he was serving with was reading through. Just got it. Hope to finish it soon. Seems like a “simple” read.
Blogging stinks right now. Not much happening. Went to Gilbert Arizona for a few days with the family. Nice little community there in Gilbert AZ. Gilbert has a few things I’m liking that California needs to get quickly…and that we loved.
1. lifetime fitness (a very cool gym with more televisions than best buy to work out to, a rock climbing wall facility, and an indoor/outdoor mini-water park and pool that we sat in and played for around four hours in 108 degrees of HOT sun) I’m sorry 24 hour fitness. When lifetime fitness comes to Cali…you guys are toast, we’re going lifetime.
2. PEI WEI- I loved Panda. I love Pick Up Sticks even more…PEI WEI will take over Pick Up Sticks fairly soon and I will love PEI WEI. Please come to the AV Mr. Pei Wei???? (We didn’t get to go, but drove by two stores I think…have come to learn PEI WEI is here in Cali…hurry up and come to the AV)
3. Wildflower Bread Company We had breakfast here and Panera Bread you rock with the all you can drink coffee and free WIFI…but these guys serve a cool little Honey-Cured Ham & Brie Frittata that was awesome and yes all you can drink coffee is happening at the Wildflower…
We are now back and ministry is happening this week in Littlerock! Another cool thing about my call as a pastor and that I get to help make happen….
VBS!!!! 15 kiddoes. It was pretty cool. I have to say that we have a cool church in that we have people who really do care about ministry and making sure that when kids come to the church that they are loved like Jesus loves them.
Four more days to go!!! Please pray for us as we try to reach kids for Christ in Littlerock! AND YES I get to play my guitar!!!
You ROCK Deb! Thank you Lord for Deb. Bless her, love her, fill her with your love, and most of all may she continue to be and become the woman you’ve created her to be. May it be so. amen.
These last couple of months I’ve been in circles where the word “missional” continues to be a “buzz” word amongst folks. I think its awesome. This last week I sat with a bunch of pastors who were asked to think about what Jesus would say about the cities we live in and in our context as pastors. What does this mean to me? It means for me as a pastor that I fall down in the middle of grace in every aspect of my ministry. It means falling down on the side of those who hurt and who ache over the things of this world that don’t seem right. It means weeping for the parent who hopes they’ve given their child what they need in order to survive this world. Falling down in the middle of grace means that we hurt for the lives lost last week and for the parents who grieve. When it comes to being a missional pastor it means helping others to come to grips with the call to fall down in the middle of grace. It means helping others to catch a glimpse of the mission of God, to becoming people sent out into the world, to love as Jesus loved, even when things don’t seem to jive.
All glory, laud and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King,
To Whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.
Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s Name comest,
The King and Blessèd One.
The company of angels
Are praising Thee on High,
And mortal men and all things
Created make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went;
Our prayer and praise and anthems
Before Thee we present.
To Thee, before Thy passion,
They sang their hymns of praise;
To Thee, now high exalted,
Our melody we raise.
Thou didst accept their praises;
Accept the prayers we bring,
Who in all good delightest,
Thou good and gracious King.
I spent some time with a member of our church a few days ago. I’ll call him Joe. Joe is roughly in his fifties and lives pretty much everywhere and anywhere. Joe is homeless. When I arrived to the office on Monday, Joe had left several messages wanting me to call him back. I had to track him down at the hospital he was at, because I didn’t have an accurate spelling of his last name. I would eventually find him. You see Joe just wanted someone to know that he was in the hospital.
When we finally connected over the phone he had requested a few things. “I need some visitors” and can you bring me a King James Bible?” The first I didn’t have a problem with and the second request I did some digging and found an old NKJV Bible in a box at church.
When I finally had a chance to go see Joe, he was about to be released when I arrived at the hospital, because there’s a 5 day limit for folks who don’t have affordable health care. After spending about five minutes together, I pieced the puzzle together that the hospital had thrown Joe’s shoes away and couldn’t find a shoe that fit him because the dude wore a size 18 shoe. Joe is a very independent kind of guy and wasn’t thrilled about his stay in the hospital and was ready to leave whether or not they would keep him.
We agreed that he would sit and wait until he was released until I found him some shoes. I told him that I’d be right back and that he had to be as patient as he was able to be with the staff trying to help him with his release. I made a quick trip to about five different shoe stores, and after five smiles of “you got to be kidding,” a few phone calls to some church folks for ideas, I ended up at a place called Grace Resource. The biggest shoe I could find was a size 14.
When I arrived back to the hospital his nurse said, “he left.” I found a security guard and asked him if he’d seen a big homeless guy wondering around the place. He said, “yeah, he’s sleeping on a bench near the ER.” I wondered around the hospital and found him sound a sleep as the guard had said outside on a bench near the ER. I woke him up and he looked up at me and said, “you’re back.” I said, “found some shoes Joe, let’s get them on.” And with a whole lot of wiggling of feet and pushing, we some how fit Joe and his boats into a pair of size 14 shoes. Don’t ask me how we did it.
After a quick trip to Carl’s Jr, a double six dollar burger combo for Joe’s dinner, and a ride to where his shopping cart was, I learned more about Joe as he shared his life with me, where he was from, and that he grew up a Methodist. What struck me about this experience was that Joe is a bright individual, smart, intuitive, and loves to talk. He knows Jesus and even shared with me that he considered himself a street minister. What really struck me most about this experience was that this is why I’m doing what I’m doing as a pastor. It’s about meeting the people, face to face, right where they are at in life. Rich, poor, and the in-between. The poor in spirit. Nothing to do with numbers, how small or big a church is, or the kinds of programs the church offers to its people. It has everything to do with coming right down to where the people are at in the midst of their joys and the chaos of life. Eye to eye. Sitting with them in their pain.
Whether it’s dropping Big Joe off at his cart, making a hospital visit, or praying with someone about their health, its about the people; it’s the place where Jesus meets us, and settles in, and sets up shop. It’s where he works and reshapes us as people of God. And our only requirement as pastors? Is to act when the Spirit of God nudges us and reminds us of why we do what we do in loving his people into the kingdom of God. It means making our churches people centered. It’s our mission and it’s the mission of God; to love them as Jesus loved them, in-spite of who they are and what they’re going through in life. Thank God for the Joe’s of ministry and thank God for opportunities where we pastors need to be reminded of why we do what we do on a daily basis and to become pastors focused on “kingdom work,” and to borrow a phrase from a show I watched on television last night the “right now” stuff of today. May it be so.
We saw the movie Amazing Grace last night. See it. Please. My favorite line of the movie, “I’m the worlds greatest sinner and Christ is the worlds greatest Savior…I hope I got that right. Anyways, see it. An old friend has helped write a book that I hope to get that will only add to helping grasp the power of this movie here.
Flew solo tonight leading my first Ash Wednesday service at church. It was a special service in so many ways. The church hadn’t had a Ash Wednesday service for several years. It was an honor to lead this service and to help folks get ready for the Lenten journey we all walk as followers of Jesus. We even tried something new. Communion by intinction. Very moving and powerful for me to witness God’s grace in community.