If you are a leader in a local church, stop what you are doing and go over to Tim Steven’s post on You’ll Never Have Enough Staff and read it right now. It’s that good.
It’s not good like it’s going to solve your problem. It’s good like to know that no matter what size church or budget, most of us wrestle with the same exact issue. Never enough staff, never enough money to accomplish what you think God is called you to do.
This post is a particular timely reminder to me as we (Western Hills) are praying through our next hire, wrestling with the dreams versus the reality. I’m not quite ready to uncork all that we’re learning yet, still need some marinate time on it but suffice it to say that the times – they are a changin’.
Now more so than ever it is important for churches to flesh out Ephesians 4:11 – there are some who gifted and called to equip and empower others to carry out the ministry of the Church. That practically means equipping and empower volunteers and other lay ’staff.’ No more ‘experts’ doing all the work. (Not that there really ever was any experts in the first place…but that’s a whole other topic.)
I watched The Hurt Locker the other night. Alone. Amy wanted no part of it. I told her it won Best Picture. She said “Exactly. Since when has that mattered?”
Good point.
But it DID win Best Picture and I can see why. The character development and story line beats any movie I’ve seen this year. The story is about a team of men who are EOD specialists. Explosive Ordinance Disposal. They defuse bombs. But that’s not the whole story.
There are two significant themes that run through out the movie. The first is the huge need of adrenaline that war creates inside these men. Each deals with it differently – one looking to die, the other looking to avoid it, and the main character embracing it, chasing after it at great risk to himself and his team.
The second theme is their need for each other. In the church we call this ‘community.’ In the Army, ‘esprit de corp’, a sense of brotherhood. This goes beyond than just needing each other for the job itself. It’s almost as if each of the soldiers by themselves weren’t complete without the others. Insert “You complete me” line here.
I’m teaching on this subject in two weeks and the struggle I’ve always had with this subject is this — how do you explain something (community) that is best explained by experiencing it?
My first experience with true community wasn’t even inside the church. It was with my college roommates and frat brothers. After college, there was the Army understanding of community. It was later that I found community inside the local church.
I’ll try to unpack this in a few weeks but here are my observations about community…
All of us seek community of some sort. We seek it because we are human and we need it. It can be centered on many things – a hobby, a job, a sport, kids, explosives, whatever — but there is this innate desire in all of us to belong to SOMETHING. Gangs are at one end of this extreme, cults at the other.
That community will change us. Not all of this is bad, not all of this good. It will change how we speak, think, act, values – the list goes on. But change us it will. What that change looks like depends on the center of that community. What is that community focused on? It’s purpose? Could be as innocent as a knitting club or as dangerous as a downtown gang – but every community has a center, a focus and it will change us.
That CENTER will change everyone who is around it. In other words, whatever community you find yourself in, you will find yourself changing to be involved, more accepted in that community. You start hanging out with a bunch of ducks, you will eventually quack. Dress, speech, values, likes, dislikes, food choices – you name it and it will be influenced by the community you find yourself in.
The church struggles with community. I was sitting at lunch with a dear friend a few weeks ago when he dropped this on me. “I’ve been in church most of my life and as my ‘community’ started talking, it was very evident that most of us have never experienced true community inside the church.” I’ve had the unfortunate experience of hearing that conversation a lot over the years.
I don’t have a great handle as to why. Too busy? Too scared? Too naive? I’m not sure how important it is to dissect the reasons why, the results of no biblical community are plain – spiritual death. How many ‘Christians’ have abandoned their faith because the depth of what they’ve experienced as Christianity is to shallow to handle the life they find themselves living.
Christianity without community is not true Christianity. And as such is unable to handle the hell that life can and will throw at us.
That’s a direct quote from a pastor friend of mine when he heard about our current series Sacred Rituals. He saw our trailer for the series and when he heard that we played that music while we shared communion as a church two weeks ago — he said those words again.
So I asked …”How come?”
“It’s too risky. You didn’t pass the communion around, you played a chant, you’re hanging stain glass everywhere…” Then he said those words again – “There is no way we could ever pull that off.”
“I still don’t quite understand. Why couldn’t you?”
“It would be so far outside what people expected….”
Our conversation shifted in the awkward moment of silence that followed. I wish we had continued the conversation…maybe we will one day. I know what I’d say now. I’d challenge him a bit that our role as worship leaders is consistently create a context for others to connect with God. It’s Jesus they need, not another well planned worship service that will teach them another Greek word they will never use.
And by that mandate alone — Sunday should be the most dangerous day of the week for us. If the goal is to connect people with God, who knows what He’ll do when He gets a hold of them. We’re talking about God and He’s ‘not a tame lion.’
The point is – our worship services should be anything but predictable, boring, and static. Mainly because God is none of those things. There is no way on the planet that should be ‘business as usual.’ What is ‘normal’ when talking about the presence of God? I’m reminded of a Sally Morganthaler quote — when we show up for worship, we should be wearing life vests and crash helmets.
There should be a sense of wonder and trepidation every Sunday morning. We want an opportunity for a ‘holy moment’, a ‘thin place’ experience where the veil between the mundane and the Holy is merged. Why? Because it’s the seedbed of transformation. It’s fuel for the soul, sometimes it’s healing for soul. Because people need God Himself more than they need to be informed or entertained.
BUT that’s not ALL that worship is. Worship is larger than just the service, the encounter. It’s also a living sacrifice. Practically speaking, a living sacrifice is when Jesus gets the last word in every decision, thought, and deed in my life. If I start living like that… If I start worshiping like that…
I’m convinced the same sense of wonder and trepidation WOULD be available to me every day. And Sundays would be so much more sweeter, deeper, and yes…dangerous.
Yesterday was awesome at Western Hills. God continues to blow me away in this series – the depth and meaning of these simple rituals.
Yesterday, after the first service worship set, I could barely talk. I was supposed to ‘wrap-up’ the service with about a 8 minute spiel on worship and completely flubbed it. I was completely torqued and upset at myself after first service when one of our folks interrupted my pity party and said — “That was a home run. Simply awesome. Thanks for creating space this morning for us to connect with God.”
Which was God’s way of slapping me upside the head to remind me — “It’s reallllly, realllly, reallly, not about you. Trust me on this one. If I used a donkey to talk…well, you can figure the rest out from here.” Second service went much better after that wake up call.
2 HUGE shifts that 1st Christ-followers had to make to ‘get’ worship. First, we worship in response to God’s mercy, not to get it. Very different from other religions. Second, Worship is a living sacrifice, not just a specific encounter or moment.
A living sacrifice is when Jesus gets the last word on every one of our decisions. That’s worship. Real worship starts the moment we hit the door to leave a church service.
Tim Cook at Apple: “This is the most focused company I know of, am aware of, or have any knowledge of… We say no to good ideas every day.” Cook then pointed out to analysts that every single product the company makes would fit on the single conference table in front of him. “And we had revenue last year of $40 billion.”
What a challenge for churches. Can you put every single one of your ‘products’ on a single table? And is there that stamp of deepness, excellence on every single one of those items?
Technically Camber, it blows but I understand. It’s also very evident that none of our kids have great aim when it comes to vomit. After one child threw up beside Amy’s side of the bed, we (meaning Amy) ran her into the bathroom right in front of the toilet. The thought went something like this — when you throw up again, hit the round thing we call a toilet. It’s French for “Smells Funny.”
She still missed the toilet. She did not miss the walls, the floor, the unused toilet paper dispenser, the roll of toilet paper on the wall, or the hand towel. Nothing quite says “I love you” than the splat of nasty-ness on a tile floor in the middle of the night. The older son because he’s the oldest and must excel in all things, 3 upped his sister.
So there are 4 pretty significant spots to fix, replace, blow up, bleach, cut out and just call it a day. A brutal reminder that your kids are never too old to have white carpet. And never give your kids red Gatorade if they are feeling puny. Write that one down, you’ll want to keep that one.
The reality is we throw up because something is wrong in us and our bodies don’t really care where we are or how convenient it is at the time. Something is wrong and this is the fastest way to get it out of the system. It’s not the neatest or most convenient, but it is the fastest. And when you’re throwing up, you don’t really care what you look like or even where you are at. It’s just not as important when you think your spleen is about to come through your nose.
So what’s my point? My point is this – today I caught myself more concerned about my carpets than my kids. How backwards is that? I mean – it’s a carpet and I don’t even like the carpet anyway. It’ll clean… maybe… eventually… ok… probably not ever but that’s beside the point. My kids were puking their guts out and needed more from me. I was worried about the carpets.
I’m embarrassed about that but I’m bound and determined to not let that thinking invade the church. WE can’t let that kind of thinking seep into the church. It’s happened in other places. They are more concerned about their carpets than their kids. As in – until you get cleaned up (quit living together, smoking, cussing, drinking, addicted, or cheating), you can’t play on our carpets.
It’s totally backwards of how God operates, how Jesus treats us and expects us to treat others. Jesus knows how to clean carpets and it doesn’t seem to bother him as much as it does others. So maybe we need to once again remind ourselves that at one point in time, we were the ones throwing up in the middle of the night unable to find the toilet. And he loved us anyway…and he cleaned up the mess.
My good friend Rex and I (and our families) were sitting around lunch Saturday and we were invaded by a bunch of old guys wearing fezes…or is it fezzes? The upside down popcorn bucket hats with tassels on them – those hats. Shriners. Appears that the circus is in town – literally – and they always seem to help kids.
But it did bring up a crucial question in the history of humanity. Where’s the 2nd guy? Meaning, it is completely understandable for one individual to do or wear or say something utterly ridiculous. It is on the 2nd guy to correct that behavior so that it does not turn into a social phenomenon. The Macarana immediately comes to mind.
It’s the 2nd guy who could have stopped the insanity by saying — “There’s no way you’re wearing that bucket on your head” but obviously he didn’t. He lied and therein gave credibility to something utterly ridiculous.
So this is the partial list we came up with…add others as they hit you.
Fez hats with tassels
Rocky Mountain Oysters
Double Luge
Running with Bulls
Bungee Jumping – we had some disagreement here. I mean, if the first guy didn’t die — it’s legit.
Fire Walking
Ear Gauging
Milking a Cow – think about it…
Mullets
Exercising in spandex
First, to the Golf Writers Association — you all are a bunch of suck-up hypocrites and your ‘ban’ of Tiger’s announcement was the ultimate in “You really don’t get who you are and why you are here.” You think Tiger not answering questions is an insult to journalism?
I’ll tell you what an insult to journalism is — the way you babied Tiger, never asked him any hard questions, help hide his disease, and kept your mouth shut when he was on top of the world. Let’s be honest, your organization hasn’t exactly produced the kind of work that is going to be seen on Nightline or Sixty Minutes. You looked the other way with Couples, Daly, and Woods. You weren’t looking to expose anything when you were writing all those puff articles on Tiger and getting paid. Please don’t grandstand now.
Having said that, I’m still amazed that people are amazed.
While Tiger did his usual saying a lot to not really say a whole lot, I don’t think he owes me or the public a more detailed explanation of what he did wrong. I get the picture. I’d soon move on. His bosses and sponsors and wife and kids may deserve more but I don’t. The hardest critic is still his wife and kids. The real hard questions will come without the cameras and microphones.
As for Tiger’s comments, nothing really groundbreaking. He’s out of mind to think the media will leave him alone. It can’t. Part of that is accountability, part of that is consequence. It’s insane to think he is just another golfer, he’s not. He’s a brand unto himself and he created himself that way. This is just part of that package. All the press releases in the world stating otherwise won’t change that.
Every Tour player and fan will have to decide what to do with Tiger once he decides to play again – shut him out, root against him, forgive him, or mixture of all. As with any situation, that decision will say more about us than it does Tiger.
Have a former student who asked these questions (among others) — How should one pursue happiness? Is it even worth pursuing?
I’m at a place in my life that I think less and less about being happy. Or at least the focus on my life is less and less on my state of happiness. Is it depression or maturity? A little of both? Not sure.
In my youth I pursued happy and got misery. Now I am pursuing meaning and impact and communion with God…and generally I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. Irony, huh? The years of believing that if I got this one thing or one experience, I’d be happy have taken their toll. I’d get it and then I’d be miserable looking for the next one thing. How many one things were there? I lost count. But they were all done in the pursuit of being happy.
By not pursuing happiness, I’m happy … more often than not. But it’s larger than just NOT pursuing happy. It’s pursuing God (for me), His ear, His heart…meaning, impact, communion. And maybe it’s not really happy but rather joy. Whatever “this” is, it is the residual feeling of pursuing meaning, impact, communion with God.
I’m tempted to write that the pursuit of happy is the most selfish thing a person can do. Not that I want all of us being Eeyores, but I’m not sure happiness can be achieved with itself being the end goal.
My generation and the ones behind me have an unhealthy obsession with being happy. Someone told us that we’re entitled to being happy and we believed them. Where did we get this? Where did the idea that my life was supposed to be easy and happy? And who is continuing to feed that lie?
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