Archive - October, 2008

Five Ways To Undermine Your Calling

October 31, 2008 in Emotional Maturity, Ministry with 10 Comments

arrowdownThe other day I heard someone refer to a situation in a church in which the minister had apparently been guilty of some kind of immoral behavior.  Sometimes ministers and other church leaders have behaved in ways that completely go against what we have been called to be.  In doing so, we sacrifice a very noble calling for motivations that are usually self-centered.  Yet, a person can sacrifice this noble sense of call for behavior that may not be scandalous but nevertheless is wrong.

 

So, here are five ways to undermine your calling:

 

1.  Practice manipulation.  Don’t worry about genuine, authentic relationships, which depend upon some degree of transparency.  Rather, protect your own self-interests.  Manipulate.  Play people off of one another.  In other words, get with one key leader and convince this person that you are a real friend.  That person will tell you about frustrations, disappointments, and desires.  Then talk to another key leader.  Likewise, convince this person that you are a real friend.  Get new information from that person while using the information from the previous conversation for whatever might be in your self-interest.  Continue this kind of behavior always making sure that each person believes that you are that person’s special, trusted friend.

 

2.  Prescribe for others what they need to do while exempting yourself from your own prescription.  So you talk on and on about what the church needs to do and what various ministry leaders need to do while you give yourself a pass.  Those of us who behave in such a fashion often see our role as the keeper of special knowledge and insight.  Meanwhile, we fail to see ourselves as persons who need correction as well.

 

3.  Live as a people pleaser.  Anyone who has served in a public type of ministry knows the temptation to yield to this pressure.  Just say and do what others want to hear and see.  Take no stands.  Have no convictions.  Desire to be liked and affirmed above all else.  Tell others that you are a peacemaker when, in fact, you are just not willing to engage in any kind of conflict if it means that others will be displeased with you.  The focus becomes pleasing others rather than faithfulness to the one who has called you.

 

If you are like so many, you will eventually lose any sense as to who you really are and what you really believe.  In short, you have lost your sense of calling and your sense of self-identity.

 

4.  Live out of your immaturity.  If you do so, you may still perform well in public.  You may preach well, teach a good class, or pull off a great event.  Yet, in private, your behavior may spring from your insecurities and your fears.  What does this look like?  Perhaps you are a person who must always be right, who can’t admit fault, or who must always be in control.  Perhaps your speech reflects anything but self-control and godliness.  Such immature behavior might be tied to addictions that are seen in the use of Internet pornography, gambling, and/or drug/alcohol abuse. 

 

5.  Minister as one who is simply engaged in the accomplishment of church related tasks.  "Ministry" then becomes just a another job.  Meetings are held and conversations take place regarding the ministry while little attention is given to God.  Christians may get together and talk about the church’s ministry with no one ever talking about Jesus.  Compare this kind of ministry with living and ministering out of the transformed life.  When my own transformation into the image of Jesus is front and center, ministry will simply be the product of such a life.  The focus is on God through Jesus who is the cause and power behind such powerful transformation.

 

These are five ways in which a person can undermine the calling given by God.  Are there others that need to be added to such a list?

My Purpose in the Morning

October 29, 2008 in Jesus, Starting the Day with 4 Comments

coffee40.jpgYears ago, I read J. I. Packer’s Knowing God.  For some reason when I think of that book, I think of cold weather.  After all, it was winter, and we were living in North Alabama.  For weeks, I waded through Packer’s work, chapter by chapter.  It was a book that helped me see that my perception of God was much, much too small.

 

It is early morning.  I sit at our kitchen table drinking coffee (Drew’s Brews from Nashville).  A few minutes ago, my mind raced as I began to think about all that needs to be done today, this week, etc.  Then I decided to simply meditate on the rich reflections of Athanasius (297-373).  These words, excerpts from On the Incarnation, remind me of the importance of God becoming human in the form of Jesus, his son. In particular, I find this section meaningful this morning:

When God the Almighty was making mankind through his own Word, He perceived that they, owing to the limitation of their nature, could not of themselves have any knowledge of their Creator, for He Himself had no body and was not a creature Himself — He was uncreated.  He took pity on mankind, therefore, and did not leave them destitute of the knowledge of Himself, lest their very existence should prove purposeless. 

 

For of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker?  How could humans be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through whom they had received their being?  They would be no better than the beasts, had they no knowledge beyond earthly things.  And why should God have made them at all, if He had not intended them to know Him?

 

But, in fact, our good and gracious God has given us a share in His own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ.  In addition, God has made us after the same Image and Likeness.  Why?  Simply in order that through this gift of Godlikeness in themselves they may be able to perceive the Image Absolute, that is the Word Himself, and through Him to apprehend the Father; which knowledge of their Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life. 

 

(Devotional Classics, Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., pp. 339-340)

My Story — School Years

October 28, 2008 in My Family, My Story with 6 Comments

children.jpgFrom kindergarten through high school, I went to a Christian school in Dallas.  My parents, along with a number of other parents, helped begin this school just before I entered kindergarten.  I have only a few, vague memories of kindergarten.  I can remember Mrs. Rich, my teacher, who was a warm and lively person.  For some reason, I can also remember playing outside.  Our kindergarten class (the first class of this new school) met in a church building that would later become the Highland Oaks Church.

 

The following year as our new school building was being built, this entire new school, K through 12, met in the Pleasant Grove Church building (the home church for our family).  Finally, we moved to the new school building at 6916 Lake June Road.  (Why do I remember this address?)  I remember a few things about these early years.

 

2nd grade — My teacher was Mrs. Smothers.  I remember thinking that she was very "pretty."  One of her special students that year was Louise.  Louise had no arms.  I remember watching her, amazed at what she could do with her feet.

 

3rd grade — My teacher was Mrs. Rinks, who also went to our church.  She was a single parent who had a son named Ronnie.  She was full of life and energy.  She laughed a lot and had a way of making me feel good when I was around her.  One evening she came to our house for dinner.  I overheard her tell my parents that she needed to talk with them sometime.  I imagined that she was wanting to move me up a grade.  I thought that perhaps she was going to recommend that I bypass the fourth grade and begin the fifth grade right after I finished the third grade.  Uh, no.  I’m not sure where I got that idea but it certainly wasn’t from her.  Anyway, it is a good thing I stayed in the third grade.  After all, that is when Howard Jones taught me how to put peanuts in a coke (bottle), shake it up and then drink it all.  At the time, that seemed quite amazing.

 

4th grade — Mrs. Lipscomb was my teacher.  She was the oldest elementary school teacher that I had.  Now this was a Christian school, so we had daily chapel.  Chapel took place in the auditorium of a church building that was next door to our school building.  One day we had a guest speaker.  Mrs. Lipscomb told me to introduce him.   He was Paul Billingsly’s dad.  (Paul was another student.)  As I waited for the time to do the introduction, I thought about how silly that was.  "Why should I introduce him when everyone knows he is Paul’s dad?"  So, I decided not to make the introduction.  When the time came for the introduction, I looked at Paul’s dad and pointed to the speaker’s stand.  I then looked at Mrs. Lipscomb.  She was very unhappy with me. 

 

5th grade — Mrs. Walker was my teacher.  She and another teacher had come from Harding University.  This may have been her first year to teach.  I was in her class when President Kennedy was assassinated.   I was in her class when a boy in the senior class drowned at White Rock Lake while on a senior picnic.  I was also in her class when I met Pamela who sat behind me.  Pamela would probably be referred to today as "a special needs child."  She seemed to fall a lot.  I can remember turning around in my desk to see her wiping blood off a newly skinned knee.  That seemed to happen quite a bit.  I remember feeling very guilty and ashamed one day because I laughed at her.  I can still remember how hurt she looked.  It is interesting how such a mental snapshot can stay with me all of these years.    

 

Somewhere during these years, God was at work.  How?  I have no idea.  I do know that when I was a child, good people such as my mom and dad prayed for me.  Yet, I have no idea how to explain exactly what God was doing.  I do believe that he was at work, preparing me for a future life.

 

More later.  

The Evil of Thoughtlessness

October 27, 2008 in Spiritual Life with 7 Comments

34587.jpgSeveral weeks ago I received a copy of Culture, which is published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.  I began flipping through this issue (Fall 2008, Issue 2.2) but got no farther than the first article: "Blueberries, Accordions, and Auschwitz."  The article is subtitled "The evil of thoughtlessness."  The author is Jennifer L. Geddes.

 

What was stunning were the pictures.  (You can see all of these by looking at the issue linked here.)  The picture to the right caught my attention, particularly after I read the opening paragraph.

You would think it was a series of photos from summer camp.  The smiling faces look across a rustic wooden bridge towards the camera, react in mock surprise as the rain begins to fall, and finally run giddily towards the camera.  One of them carries an accordion rather than the typical camp-song guitar, but the mood is one most of us remember fondly from summers gone by.  They are obviously having a good time.

 

Only after a first glance, do you notice that the campers depicted are not teenagers in swimsuits, but adults in SS uniforms.  The setting, it turns out, is not a summer camp but Solahutte, a retreat center for SS personnel near the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex in Poland.  Trips to Solahutte were given to concentration camp employees as a reward for jobs well done.

The article (which contains several other similar pictures) discusses the "thoughtlessness" or the failure to think reflectively about our actions.  The author makes reference to Hannah Arendt and says, "Arendt came to the striking conclusion that thoughtlessness — that is, the failure to think reflectively about the world around us, our actions, and their possible consequences — can be a moral failing of the highest order." (p. 5)

 

Jennifer Geddes, in the conclusion of this article, writes: "Their example, their failure to reflect carefully on their actions and the consequences of those actions for others, calls us to pay attention and think deeply about what we do, why we do it, and what effect our actions may have on those around us."

 

This is very sobering.  Of course, it is sobering as I think about our culture today and our failure to reflect carefully on our actions.  I wonder about our lack of reflection in regard to our actions in marriage and as parents.  Finally, I also wonder about the lack of reflection in church today (at least as I have experienced church).

 

I am interested in your response to this.  What does it mean to live with very little reflection regarding our actions and the consequences of these actions?

Five Suggestions for Staying Fully Alive

October 22, 2008 in Renewal, Self-Care with 13 Comments

RaftingHe stood before our church and preached.  Each week, this figure in a dark suit opened the Bible and talked.  I was in my later years of elementary school, so I don’t remember a lot about this man.  But I do remember that when he preached, it seemed dull.  I don’t think it was the suit or even the poor lighting.  I don’t even think the dullness was because he was not particularly entertaining.  

 

As I became older, I heard that this man had stopped studying a long time ago.  In fact, according to this source, he basically preached through old sermon outlines that he had used many years earlier.  Nothing new.  Nothing fresh.  It was in his voice.  He sounded like a man whose clock had stopped a long time ago.

 

You’ve known a person like this, haven’t you?  At some point in his or her life, this person basically shut down:

 

  • The minister or professor who no longer studies.  This person seems to have lost any sense of wonder.
  • The empty-nest couple who park their minds and bodies in front of their television each evening.
  • The young father or mother who seems to have forgotten the dreams they had of being used by God.
  • The man in his early forties who regularly talks about being "old."

 

I don’t think that God ever meant for us to be this way.  He created us with body, mind, emotions, the capacity to love and be loved.  Yet, some of us shut down far too early.

 

A few suggestions:

 

1.  Cultivate your sense of curiosity.  One man in our church is in his late 80s and is more alive than others half his age.  He leads a support group and regularly asks me for book recommendations.  One doesn’t have to talk with him very long before realizing that he is fully alive!

 

2.  Learn something new every day.  This has become very important to me.  I have found that one of the best ways to do this is by asking questions.  

 

3.  Listen.  Perhaps you are with a group of people and several begin to talk about a subject about which you know nothing.  Instead of trying to change the subject or getting frustrated, why not use this as an opportunity to learn something new?  It is amazing how many people let opportunities to learn slip by instead of listening and learning.  I have known some ministers and a few college professors who seem to have no interest in listening to other people and learning.  (Some of these people are ready to preach or make a presentation but listening and learning may be another matter.)

 

4.  Make small but deliberate changes in your routine.  Read a different newspaper.  Watch the news on a different station.  Listen to music that you don’t normally listen to.  Sit in a different coffee shop.  Take a different route to work or to the university.  Read from a different translation of the Bible.

 

5.  Develop an interest outside your area of expertise.  Look for an area in which you already have an interest and develop that.  For instance, if you have always been fascinated by watercolor painting, bee-keeping, jazz, or fly fishing, why not develop this interest?

 

Bottom line:  It is unnecessary to shut down prematurely.  Yet, some of us will need to be very intentional about staying fully alive.

 

What has helped you stay fully alive, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or relationally?

Updates

October 19, 2008 in Spiritual Life with 4 Comments

coffee33.jpgFor the past few days, I have been at the Lipscomb Preaching Seminar, held at David Lipscomb University in Nashville.  What a wonderful and helpful few days.  I had the opportunity to hear such people as Walter Breuggemann, Brian McLaren, Cleo LaRue, John York, and Mark Hamilton.  There was also the opportunity to visit with many old friends and to make a few new friends.  This is a wonderful seminar that was encouraging and very helpful as well. 

 

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On the right-hand sidebar, you might notice some pieces of this blog that have just been updated:

 

1.  God-Hungry Live was updated with videos of Scot McKnight as well as Marva Dawn.  (God-Hungry Live consists of videos of various Christian speakers, thinkers, etc.)

 

2.  You might also enjoy looking at "10 Significant Books."  This is simply a list of ten books that have been helpful to me in some way.

 

3.  I have also updated the "What I’m Reading" page.

 

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You might also note that I have a "Facebook" page.  You can get there by clicking on the bar on the right-hand side near the top.

Encouraging Words from Gary Thomas

October 15, 2008 in Spiritual Formation, Spiritual Life with 6 Comments

GaryThomasThe Beautiful Fight is Gary Thomas’ new book.  It is a powerful work about spiritual transformation.  A few years ago I read his book A Sacred Marriage.  I was very impressed.  Since then, I have read many other books written by Gary Thomas.  I am not sure what it is that draws me to his work.  I just know that what he says speaks to my life and I come away encouraged.

 

First, a great quote about the meaning of the transformed life:

 

Intentional spirituality — the living, reigning, and ascended Jesus living through us and transforming us into different people — does not exist to uphold a few rules but rather speaks of a process that creates an entirely new person who sees with new eyes, feels with a new heart, hears with renewed ears, and lives with a new passion.  It is, I believe, the only life worth living.  (p. 19)

 

I really like this paragraph on the compelling life:

 

What defines a compelling life?  Someone who is available to God and regularly experiences God’s fellowship, presence, and empowerment.  There are no substitutes, no shortcuts.  We are not compelling; on the contrary, we are sinful, often poor imitations of our Lord.  But when God lives through us, shines through us, and overcomes our worst inclinations with his merciful transformation — that’s compelling.  People become interested not so much in us but in what’s so different about us. (p. 27)

 

Finally, here are some wonderful comments about seeing life through the eyes of God:

 

As our plane ascended out of San Antonio, it passed an enclave of mansions.  These homes had to contain at least seven to ten thousand square feet of space, with immaculate lawns and gardens, large pools, and huge garages.  But from two thousand feet in the air, it’s amazing how small these homes looked.  Another few thousand feet, and they become mere playhouses.

 

And then it hit me: not a home on this planet looks big to heaven; no house looks huge to God.  The things that swell our chests with pride look mighty puny from another perspective.

 

We can’t impress God.

 

And so I prayed, "Lord, help me to see this world with your eyes.  Otherwise I might value what you despise and despise what you value."  (p. 59)

To Keep from Being Overwhelmed

October 13, 2008 in God with 5 Comments

bricksWinston Churchill told the story of a Royal Navy sailor who rescued a boy who had fallen into the frigid waters of Plymouth Harbor.  The next day the sailor was walking through the downtown area.  Nearby, the boy who had fallen in and his mother were also walking.  The boy spotted the sailor, tugged at his mother’s coat, and pointed him out.  They began walking toward the sailor.  He saw them and assumed that the mother wished to thank him.  As they approached him, he looked at the boy, stuck out his chest and beamed with pride.  He took off his cap and the lady said, “Young man, are you the one who rescued my boy from Plymouth Harbor?”  The sailor replied, “Yes ma’am, I am.”  The mother then said, “Well, I would just like to know one thing: Where is that boy’s cap?”

 

Yes, it is an old story, but it is still relevant.  So often we do not live with a spirit of gratitude.  Instead we get preoccupied with "missing caps."

 

To live with gratitude is to live each day understanding that the past, the present, and the future really do belong to God.  Far too often we keep rehearsing the past (in particular our blunders, sins, etc.).  We miss the importance of the present while we worry about the future.

 

Now perhaps you don’t need to read any of this.  No problem.  I am actually thinking about what I need to hear today.  I find it very easy to focus on a "missing cap" and in no time I am becoming anxious and preoccupied.  My own anxiety at times is not associated with a heavy, burdensome issue in my life.  No, often it is nothing more than the accumulation of some very ordinary concerns.  A few people I need to call.  A situation I need to deal with.  Needing to check in with one daughter who has just returned from a long trip.  Meanwhile our younger daughter, Jamie, has been home from college the last few days and will be returning tomorrow.  So, I want to visit with her. 

 

These sound very ordinary, don’t they?  Probably these tasks are not much different than some of what you deal with every day.  Yet, these everyday tasks have a way of compiling, like trying to carry a number of bricks.  You may have started with one brick, but as you stack one on top of the other, trying to carry such a stack eventually feels overwhelming.

 

Think of these bricks:

 

  • One more project to start and complete.
  • One more unexpected bill.
  • One more doctor’s appointment that you had not anticipated.
  • One more writing assignment due.
  • One more test to take.
  • One more situation at work that needs your attention.
  • One more clarification you need to make.
  • One more conversation you need to have.

 

Meanwhile I read this morning Hebrews 13:5-6.  The context of this encouragement deals with money and contentment.  But I love the larger principle: God promises his forever presence.

 

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you."

So we say with confidence,

"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?"

What Is at Stake?

October 9, 2008 in Jesus, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Life with 14 Comments

calendar.jpgAn ordinary day may be more than "ordinary."  In fact, much may be at stake.

 

I was thinking about this yesterday in light of the day, which seemed pretty ordinary.  It was an ordinary Wednesday in many ways.  Much time was spent in preparation for the message this Sunday and for a class that I teach on Wednesday evenings.  Somewhere in the middle of the day were telephone calls (one from my younger daughter, Jamie), lunch with an area minister, a few e-mails sent, a chapter from a book read, and a couple of errands that I had to run.  Late afternoon, I worked out at the gym and then went to a meeting of our leadership group at church.

 

In many ways, this felt very ordinary.  Yet, in using the word "ordinary" to describe such a day, I don’t want to leave the impression that it was just another "ho-hum" day.  After all, there is much at stake in an ordinary day.

 

Think for a moment about what is at stake today:

 

  • Integrity.  Will I do my work with a sense of integrity?  Will I do the right thing or will I do what seems to be in my interest?
  • Mission.  Do I remember today to pay attention to what God is doing around me?  Will I make myself available to God to use for his purposes with the people with whom I come in contact?   Will I remember that people desperately need a relationship with Jesus?
  • Character.  What will I be like today when no one else is looking?  How will I speak about people when they are not present?
  • Family.  Will I be the husband and father I have been called to be?  Will I seek to deepen my relationship with them today?  Or, will I put other matters ahead of them?
  • Being an authentic Christ-follower.  Will I seek to follow Christ — regardless?  Will I have a heart for obedience to Jesus today?
  • Love.  Will I begin my day with the desire to love God and, consequently, love others?  Or, will I be so preoccupied with the events of the day that my life has no sense of these two great priorities?

Yes, I know that more could be said about the day.  I could talk about the need to depend upon God during the day and to trust that God’s Spirit is at work in me throughout the day.  I could talk about the importance of God’s grace both for forgiveness as well as for the power to be what I’ve been called to be today.

 

Just for today, however, I want to focus on what is at stake.  I have listed a few key words that are reminders of what is at stake on an ordinary day.  What would you add to this list?

Do You Believe in God?

October 8, 2008 in Faith, God, Spiritual Life with 2 Comments

_1In the New York Times Sunday Book Review (October 3, 2008), Garrison Keillor wrote a review of the book Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes.  The review begins with the following paragraph:

 

“I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him,” the book begins. Julian Barnes, an atheist turned agnostic, has decided at the age of 62 to address his fear of death — why should an agnostic fear death who has no faith in an afterlife? How can you be frightened of Nothing? On this simple question Barnes has hung an elegant memoir and meditation, a deep seismic tremor of a book that keeps rumbling and grumbling in the mind for weeks thereafter.

 

There is something about that first line that captivates me.  Perhaps it is because this man, who is a self-proclaimed agnostic, seems to want to believe but just doesn’t.  Some of us could say that we do believe in God but at the same time we miss him.  In other words, some of us claim to believe in God, yet we behave as if he is absent and nowhere to be found.

 

Perhaps this is most evident in our prayers.  Some of us pray almost anemic prayers.  We pray but only ask God to do what seems reasonable or normal.  We don’t pray for anything large or incredible because it just seems impossible.  Consequently, our prayers are not God-sized.  In fact, we may find ourselves praying for something that really doesn’t seem to require God’s divine intervention.  In the words of one person, "I’m sure everything is going to work out nicely, but it can’t hurt to pray."

 

Do you relate to this?  Do you find yourself praying for only what seems reasonable or normal?

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