There is an attitude!

Yannick Noah is perplexed by "all that fuss" surrounding the arrest of his basketball player son, who was charged with marijuana possession and having an open container of alcohol. "I don't understand all that fuss for just drinking a beer on the street," Yannick Noah said Tuesday at the French Open.

This little blip of a story has been making he rounds in Chicago because his Joakim plays for the Bulls. He was down in Gainesville, FL when he was arrested. His Dad was in France for the French Open tennis tournament. Athletes who get into trouble with the law are not all uncommon these days. It seems to happen weekly. He also had marijuana with him. Now again this is not a huge surprise. What is interesting is the reaction of his dad. What is the fuss about? Why is everyone so upset?

This is scene is played out in our area over and over again. It is not about marijuana or beer, it is over the issues of how children behave in school or at the mall, or how we behave in the work place. If a child makes an obscene gesture at a teacher, hey what's the deal, why are you hassling my kid? What do you mean he got a "C", my child doesn't get a "C". So what he does not abide by the rules. What is the big deal? Your rules don't make sense. If my child is disruptive it is because you are not doing a good job of keeping in entertained or engaged or "fill in the blank".

Where is the place for the message of the gospel which tells us that we are not live for ourselves, that we are consider others better than ourselves? How can we enter into this toxic environment with good news that calls for personal accountability? Grace with righteousness. Forgiveness with a clear recognition of sin. We are sinners who have been saved by grace. We have repeatedly experienced forgiveness. But we also know that forgiveness involves the hope for change.

The environment has changed. I doubt that in the days of Paul he dealt with this level of narcissism. I never doubt the power of the gospel. I do question of we have the stamina to not become weary in doing good, if we can keep going in order to see the harvest or if we will give up. I pray we will keep going. I pray every day.

And now we are done

My youngest son graduated from High School Sunday. He along with 900 of his closest friends sprinted across the stage at a local junior college. They hold it there because of size and weather considerations which proved fortuitous.

As a ceremony it was fascinating. They keep referring to this as one of the great accomplishments in their lives and yet they tried everything they could to get this event over in less than 90 minutes. Oh, the band was great and choir was very good. The students who spoke did just fine but they were in a hurry. I know that there was another graduation in 5:00 pm, but seriously. And then they read the names, all 900 of them. They read them at a rate that the students had almost dash across the stage. If you cheered you might have cheered for the wrong kid. They offer a DVD of the ceremony for $20 but we decided to skip it. No wonder Ben lobbied long and hard to skip the event.

Some things ought to take time. There are some events that ought to be exempt from clock watching. They are of an import that they deserve all the time it takes to make it right. Grave side committal services, Memorial Day remembrances, breakfast with your children and worship. Of above all worship ought to given the time necessary. It may be 55 minutes, it may be 105 minutes or whatever. Not just pack in whatever, but to allow us to experience and respond the presence and call of God. We have no need to hurry, there is nothing else we are doing that takes precedence over this. So too when we are one of those nodal moments for our children we need simply be there without something else on the calendar coming at us demanding attention.

Congratulations Bennett. Well done.

Great Expectations

Last night my wife and I met another couple and went to dinner and then saw the new Indiana Jones movie. (I will tell you what I thought in just a moment.) When we got home and later headed off to bed the radio was on and one of the critics happened to be giving his impression of the film we had just seen. He didn't like, he thought it stunk. He said so from about every direction possible.

I went looking around for other reviews of the movie and found that some people like it a lot and others hated it. These reviews tend fall on one side or the other of the issue depending on their expectations of the film. The higher the expectations the worse the film was for them. The lower the expectations the better the film got.

I go to movies to have a good time, I do not go for art. I am not there for social commentary. I am looking for a lark. I wouldn't go to a movie like Trainspotters. So when the movie ended I was happy. I thought it was great fun. The story went a long, the characters were great. I am not looking for some high art form. is it the perfect film? Nope, never seen one yet. But my expectation were not too high. I paid $20 for two to see thing and I left happy. I would go and do it again.

What is our expectation for worship? Is it entertainment, it is to be moved, it is to wowed with the message, is it to be engaged with the scriptures? When you walk into church with great expectations you are usually disappointed. The music wasn't great, the graphics on the screen didn't have the right words in the right ordered, the sermon was okay but not great - no new stunning revelations were handed out.

We live a time of unparalleled expectations. We expect whatever we invest in, be it time or money or energy, to be exactly what we what or need and if it fails to match our expectations we we make our disappointment known. When do our expectations become unreasonable or counter-productive? When do these demands interfere with or even diminish our lives? Is there a difference between excellence and being unreasonable? Just curious.

Let us remember...

The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be here dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that this government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth. "

Abraham Lincoln

During this Memorial Day may we remember those who have given their last full measure of devotion. As the book of Hebrews says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” May God bless us.

Veritas Deux

Part of the revitalization process according the seminar of last Saturday is encouraging the right type of leader for your church. (This is the seminar created and sponsored by our beloved denomination.) In their construct of the universe there are two types of leaders, the Catalyzer and the Stablilizer. Dr. John Wenrich, the presenter was careful to indicate that both are necessary but that we have in our history more often rewarded the Stabilizer and punished the Catalyzer.

That has to change according to the research. The culture and climate today requires the boldness and risk taking orientation of the Catalyzer. Given the entrepreneurial attitudes of our current society we need the fast and furious characters, the hard charging, conflict creating, rock the boat personalities to move us ahead. Those people need to be encouraged, championed and celebrated. Great, go for it. just one little hitch...

I, like most of my comrades in ministry, were trained to be Stabilizers. We were encourage not to rock the boat, not create conflict, not let the prophetic over rule our priestly calling. Bulldozers were given a wide berth and maybe not a second call if things fell part in their congregation. We were to build relationships even if it was at the cost of mission. That was not overtly indicated but the message got through. The church was not business and those "secular" tactics were to avoided.

That day has changed. So the question is can we change with it, can we (I) make the needed adjustments, and who will help us turn that corner? I have been in the ministry for 27 years. If churches change slowly, can you imagine changing their pastors? I read business and leadership material. Jim Collins is one of those I have devoured. Fast Company is one of my favorite magazines, I attend the Leadership Summit. Are there the resources and mentors to help us who have grooved a behavior for so long take the steps needed? Will there be the patience required of those in authority in our churches and in the denominational offices?

And what of those who cannot make the jump? Of course you are not guaranteed a position in the church. That is understood. But these are men and women who have given their best efforts for the kingdom, how do we care for them? It may be that they are necessary, but will we still see that? Revitaliztion has to happen. It has been on the back burner for too long. The steps our tribe is taking are the right ones. But we still need to move forward with grace and wisdom.

Seth Hits it Again!

"If oil is $130 a barrel and if security adds two or three hours to a trip and if people are doing more and more business with those far afield...
and if we need to bring together more people from more places when we get together...
and if the alternatives, like video conferencing or threaded online conversations continue to get better and better, then...
I think the standard for a great meeting or a terrific conference has changed."

The above quote is from Seth Godin's latest post. It is one that every pastor and church chair ought to heed. The cost of meetings keep going up. Are we giving those who give up their time and resources a meeting worth attending, a gathering that acutally accomploshes something?

Seth Godin is someone we opught to list to regularly. You can find him at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Telling the Truth

We had a seminar at our church Saturday. It is the Veritas Seminar from our denomination focusing on church revitalization. 85 people representing 14 congregations were there. It is the brainchild of John Wenrich who leads the efforts to revitalize our 580 established churches.

For our tribe the news is not good. The vast majority of our growth comes from churches that have planted in the past 15 years. The rest of us who have been around longer are shrinking or holding our own, but we are not growing. So this effort is receiving a lot of attention and energy. The seminar was good. John is an engaging presenter. The material moved along. But through the entire thing I was a bit unsettled.

There are ten metrics that the 580 established church are measured by, and how often these metrics are seen or experienced determines which into category the church specific church is placed. There are four categories: healthy, stable, critical moment and the at-risk churches. After some research they have discovered that in our tribe only 17% of the churches are healthy. The rest fall into the other categories. 18% are at the bottom and more than what we would like are under achievers.

I do not dispute the numbers or the categories. I do not dispute the metric that determine the results. What I wonder is how did we get to this place? If only 17% of the church are healthy what happened? There has to be a glitch in the system to end up 83% of your base in trouble. Is it theological problem, it is pastoral training problem, is polity or is it ecclesiological? Why didn’t we hear about this before now? I understand that the landscape has changed and we are not dealing with the same environment that existed when I was in high school. I get that we are post-modern and post-Christendom. But weren’t we paying attention?

If 83% of the church are sliding down hill, and that is the impression you got at this event – you do not stay static you will either get healthier or you will head down the other direction. So if 83% of us are rolling down hill, what does the future hold? Is it realistic that 83% of us are get off our duffs and do the hard work of turning this fleet around? Are we training pastors or more importantly retraining pastors to lead the churches into health? Have we “recruited” the types of pastors to take the stable or critical moment churches and lead them to health?

Veritas is all about truth and the truth is right now we just do not know.

Random Musings

It has been a while since I have posted anything. There are multiple reasons for this some technical, some professional and some personal. But in spite of the silence online my mind still spins like a dryer.

Our church has a server which is connected to all the PC's. Well when the server goes down it pretty much mucks everything. When our intrepid technician got Avery thing back up and running. I discovered all my files were gone. They weren't gone, they were just hiding. All my iTunes were hiding. I was assured they were there indeed there just not there. The long and short of it was that I needed a new profile which means I have rebuild everything all over again. My fuiles are back, my tunes are back. They are just all jumbled up.

Gas is now $4.06 a gallon. And what is really crazy is that gas is now higher than cigarettes. Gas is more than milk. We know it will be the end of the world when gas costs more than Starbucks.

All my sons are out of High School. I am done with the public school system. I have dealt with those systems since 1988. The high school graduation ceremony is a combination of a sprint and marathon. It is a sprint because they do everything they can to get out of the thing in under 90 minutes. No invited speakers. Limited music. it is marathon because they have to read over 900 names. I believe that perfect size of a high school is 600 students.

I cannot remember a time in my ministry when I have been more tired. Not exhausted, not sleepy, not down, just weary, almost flat at times. It is like the mileage has caught up with me. So I am spending more time praying and reading and listening. Not worried or whiny, just more quiet. I am fairly noisy most of the time so this catches some people off guard.

Catch you later!

It's worth what you pay for..

In the pastorate you find yourself giving advice or counsel on a regular basis and on wide variety of issues. People may ask you about marriage and family or church finances or leadership or how to make the copier stop doing whatever it is doing. You might find yourself being asked about legal issues, family structure issues, sexual orientation issues or even biblical issues. At least for me I often find myself over the tips of my skis .

The pastorate is one of the places where the expectation is that you know what someone ought to do. The reality is that you don't. It is not that you are ignorant or informationally challenged, it is that you cannot know about all those things. You might know a little about many issues but that is just enough to cause trouble. Interestingly often people are not willing to be referred, they want you to tell them because you are handy and you are right there right now. They are looking for the sound bite format solution. Again at least with me, there is not quick 5 minutes solution available.

It is the level of expectation that surprises me. I ought to know and if I don't - why don't I know this? What is the problem? No problem, just reality. I am not sure there is another occupation, may be doctor, may be not, that has such a diverse set of expectations as the pastorate. It keeps it interesting. The challenge is not to buy into the expectation and promise what you cannot deliver. So I promise to stay within the areas I can confidently answer and with rest, punt. You want to know about Malachi or Jude, I am your man. You want to know about investment strategies or if the building's footings can support an second story, well we can go looking for someone together.