It seems like the right thing to do right now to jump on the bandwagon of the #prayforukraine craze. Don’t get me wrong by any means, we do need to pray for Ukraine. The people of Ukraine are enduring horrible circumstances. I can’t even imagine what they’re going through right now. Having a son in the US Army, I have been watching this scenario unfold continuously and am heartbroken by what these families are going through.
But why stop with Ukraine?
Look around the world for a minute and you’ll see that Ukraine isn’t the only corner of the world that needs prayer. Sure they’re the hotspot for war and fear but there are locations all over the world that have people living in fear. There are people groups near and far who are worried about their lives, livelihoods, families, and homes. Why does it take a war or a natural disaster to move us to create a hashtag to pray for a specific people group? Why do we need devastation to hit us for the church to fall on her knees in prayer?
And why stop with just the tormented innocent? Why not pray for those doing the aggressive acts of violence? If we’re going to do the Jesus thing and pray, then why not pray the Jesus way? Jesus prayed for the hurting and those dispossed from their homes but he didn’t stop there. He prayed for those we call enemies and even for those who persecuted him.
Sure the people of Ukraine need prayers for peace and stability and safety to be certain! But the people of Russia need prayer that God would soften their hearts and call them back to him. The church needs to pray for the hurting to find help but also for those doing the hurting. We pray that they would see God. We pray that they would soften their hearts and come around to see the devastation they are causing.
Unfortunately, what we’re seeing isn’t anything new. And it won’t be the last time a world leader brings devastation on another country for personal gain. This is part of the fallen world in which we live. It doesn’t make it ok or lessen the hurt but it also should help us realize that these things should not surprise us.
Today I encourage you to pray. I encourage you to pray for the hurting and homeless in Ukraine. I encourage you to pray for healing and well being for those displaced during the bombing raids. But I also encourage you to pray for world leaders that they might submit to God’s will. I encourage you to pray for Russia to humbly cease and desist the bombing. With man these things are impossible but with God all things are possible. Pray with boldness. Pray with confidence. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is the Jesus way.
I was reading an article recently and there was a quote from John Shedd that really stood out to me. The quote stood out because I think in life we can all relate in some way or another to doing exactly what this quote says. The quote said A ship in harbor is safe but that’s not why ships are built.
Some times in life we find the comforts of the harbor to be so compelling that we just don’t want to leave. I mean think about it. While in the harbor there is a whole crew right there at our disposal to tend to our needs. The deck can be washed with ease. The crew remains well rested. Little wear and tear occurs to the ship. It’s actually a very safe place. Rarely will the ship sink while in harbor. Passengers don’t get seasick while the ship remains anchored at the shore. But is that why a ship exists?
The short answer is a resounding no. We all know that a ship wasn’t designed to stay in the harbor. Your goods would never get delivered if the ship never left port. Your cruise would be pretty boring if you never left the harbor. New lands would have never been discovered if the ship would have remained safely anchored on shore.
I think in life, many people tend to gravitate to the places where there is little chance of being tossed and tormented by the raging seas. We all know that life is rough and in certain seasons life is more challenging than others! But staying in the harbor all the time robs the ship of the chance to see uncharted waters and experience unknown new lands.
As a pastor, this is one of the things I see so often that it scares me. As I talk to pastors and leaders of churches, I’m seeing an increasingly growing number of churches that are like ships anchored in harbor. We’re living a life we were never made to live. We’re safe. We’re protected. But there is a world of open sea out there that we were meant to navigate that remains uncharted.
I’m reminded of something Jesus said in Luke 19. I came to seek and save the lost. When a ship remains safely in the harbor, we certainly are not doing much seeking. We like to seek those who’ve already found us. And I hate to break it to you friends but that’s not seeking! That’s being found. The old build it and they will come business just isn’t effective. It’s not what the church was created to look like! The church was created to be a ship in the open waters. At one point Jesus even told his disciples to push out into deeper water. That means away from the shore and out of the harbor. When we remain in the harbor we find only a set grouping of people. Only those people who are living in close proximity to the harbor. But not everyone lives in the harbor. Jesus knew that. And if we’re being honest, we know it too!
A ship will never experience the purpose for which it was created if it remains anchored in the harbor. We’ll never know the feeling of the rising swells of water. We’ll never feel the ocean breezes on our face. The church was established to sail the open seas. Look at the design of some of the oldest churches out there. From an aerial view many of these churches even look like boats. Jesus told us to let down our nets and he would make us fishers of men. All of the imagery in the Bible is about the church, when it functions properly, being a boat in open waters.
Take a moment and honestly look at your situation. If you’re stuck in the harbor, then find someone to help you see life from a different perspective. Find someone who can help you get out of the harbor and into the exciting waters of life that are right in front of you.
I think there are times in life when we actually do ourselves more harm than good. I mean we have great intentions but when we really look at it we haven’t done much good at all. As a matter of fact, the good we thought we were doing was actually undone by the negative things caused by our actions. Ok that’s ambiguous so let’s dive in a little more.
The thoughts that follow are my observations from my own life and ministry. These are my failures. They are things I’ve had to work through on a variety of levels. And they are things that I still monitor closely to make sure I don’t fall back into some of these same bad habits and destructive ideas again.
You are not God.
Now that goes without saying but the issue is that we don’t live like this. Ok so admittedly we don’t necessarily go through life thinking we’re God, but we often make decisions and plans acting as if we are the most important person in the world. We pursue things that are all about personal happiness and individual success. We seek attention and put ourselves on a pedestal as if we’re the most important person in the room or universe. Believe me, I know a few of those too.
Friend it’s not about you. If you’re a leader of a team, parent, spouse or even friend to someone – you are not the point. A good friend, teammate, employer, parent or spouse will make decisions and go in directions that put the other person first. If we want to set ourselves and those around us up for the greatest success, start putting their needs before your own and watch how not only do their needs get met but yours will also!
The more you work, the less you get done.
This one sounds a bit like an oxymoron but it’s also very true. It’s kind of like that line they say on airplanes about the oxygen masks. If you’re traveling with small children, please secure the oxygen mask to yourself before placing it on your child. For the longest time I found this to be wildly insensitive and a horribly wrong practice! I mean who in the world is going to watch their child suffocate while they get the good air?! So I asked one of those friendly Southwest flight attendants why in the world this was the rule. They were patient with my stupidity and didn’t make me feel like too much of an idiot in their answer. She simply told me that if I couldn’t breathe, how could I make sure my child was breathing? Wow. Then it all started to click. Side note: I wasn’t even traveling with children which made my question that much more strange.
Back to over working. So the whole put the mask on the child thing is like taking a needed rest in order to be more productive. It doesn’t make sense until you ask a few questions. Then step back and realize that like a parent with no oxygen can’t help their child, so also a person who’s overworked and exhausted can’t focus on the job at hand and will likely not be productive nor effective. Getting the rest you need and stepping away from the task at hand for a minute is often the most powerful way to get more done.
Give yourself traveling time.
I have a tendency to stack appointments in my calendar pretty tight. I know how long it takes me to get from one place to another under normal conditions. And when I have to be somewhere I generally like to arrive on time, which for me is about 5-7 minutes early. But there are those times when we stack so many things so tightly in our calendar that we just can’t get it all done. We have no time to get from point A to point B.
This is also true with general calendaring without travel. The premise is that we tend to stack our appointments or tasks so tightly that there’s no breathing room at all. We move from task to task without giving our brains a chance to change gears. We run from one project to a totally unrelated project and wonder why our mind feels like mush at the end of the day.
There’s nothing wrong with stepping away for even as little as 3 minutes to use the bathroom, walk down the hallway, listen to music, close your eyes or just stare off into space. These are simple techniques that can clear your mind and let your brain get the space it needs to restart in a different gear.
Diversify your diet.
Now this one might be a tad misleading, so let me explain. I am not talking about your food diet, although that’s very important as well. I’m referring to the diet of information that you feed yourself. If you continually feed your brain with the same content over and over without any variation, you’re going to be mentally malnourished to say the least. It’s like eating crackers all the time with no protein or vegetables. You just won’t perform at your peak.
The same is true for what we put into our minds. I tend to read or listen to a variety of books. Some of these are books related to my field as a pastor. Others are leadership books. Others are on finance or parenting or how to understand what’s going on in my preteen daughter’s mind (ok so there’s really nothing that will help with that one but it’s worth a shot). The point is to try to look at the world around you through the many lenses at your disposal. Consuming content from a variety of sources helps you see not only your thought process more clearly, but also helps you appreciate where others are coming from and have more intelligent conversations about topics on which you disagree.
These are just a few of the many things I’ve had to learn the hard way in life. I hope they are somewhat helpful to you and provide you with a shortcut of sorts to not stay stagnant.
I get to see all sorts of things in my line of work. Many people joke around about me only working an hour on a Sunday and the rest of the week goof off with video games or who knows what. To be totally honest, there are things that come across my desk as a pastor that I really wish I didn’t have to manage. But there are other parts of my day that make me just pause and realize how amazing some of the people who surround me truly are.
The situations that blindside us and pretty much throw us into a tailspin are the things no one wants to deal with. We run from them. We fight to get out of them. We try to make our way through them. But really we just want these unknown and unsolicited crappy days to just go away. Whether they are relationship meltdowns, financial crises, disturbing health news or family drama, we will have to come to grips with some level of all of these things throughout our lives. How we make it through some of these truly life changing moments often is determined by who we let into our circle.
One of the most blessed parts of my job is to be someone who is trusted to be part of someone’s circle. I get the honor of being the person who’s there when good times happen. I get to hear the good news of a baby born or a guy “popping the question.” I get to see the smiles and endless grins on the faces of those who are filled with the joy of living.
But I’m also honored to be invited into some of the darkest and scariest moments of people’s lives. I am called on when a loved one is ill, hospitalized or tragically dies. I’m there when a child needs medical attention. I’m invited into the circle when families are in turmoil and trust within friendships becomes broken. I get to be present when tears flow and hearts are broken and fear overwhelms.
I write these things not to pat myself on the back but to remind you that you are vastly important to me. No matter what level of connection I’ve had in your life, believe me when I say that walking with you through good or bad times is an absolute honor. It’s something I do not take lightly.
As I write this some of you are filled with joy while others are barely able to breathe under the pressures of life. No matter which end of that spectrum you may be on, know that I or someone like me is just a call away. We do have limitations and boundaries but in general we are here.
It is in these moments, entering someone’s story especially a story of crisis that I witness some of the most amazing displays of grace that one could ever imagine. It is in the moments when life is unraveling at a pace that is dizzying, that we get to witness someone’s true character. It’s not when life is easy that the real person shines forward. It’s when they are stressed beyond belief, broken seemingly beyond repair, weak beyond imagination that someone reveals who they truly are at their core.
I have recently come to realize that the strongest people in the world are not necessarily in a uniform, at the gym or wearing a cape. They are simple, ordinary people who put their feet on the floor in the morning when they’d rather stay in bed. They move forward when it would be way easier to fall backward. They stand when the world says to sit down. They remain silent when every ounce of their anger says to speak. They’re the people who demonstrate grace in ways that I didn’t know were humanly possible.
To the many people who’ve been a part of why circle and invited me to be a part of your story over the past several decades, thank you for showing me what grace looks like in so many ways. Thank you for being the evidence of grace upon grace in even the least graceful of circumstances. Thank you for the trust you’ve shown. Thank you for showing me what the love of Jesus looks like today.
Your life matters. Yes, this is about you. The past couple of years have been pitting one person against another about whose life matters. Well the point is that life matters. The owner of life isn’t the point. The fact of life is what is vital.
I know that some will say it’s a copout to say that all life matters. But realize I did not say all lives matter. But that life matters. The life you live and the life your enemy lives – they both matter because life matters. But you don’t make your life matter because you’re a good person or a rich person or a person of a specific ethnic background. Your life matters because your life was a gift to you.
This week we focused on life issues. We talked about beginning of life issues and end of life issues. But we spent a lot of time looking at how we deal with those who don’t see matters of life the same way we see them.
It’s easy to make this whole topic of life matters something about politics or even race or age but it’s not about that at all. It’s about valuing each individual life as something special. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has seemingly their own viewpoint on this one. But the fact of the matter is all of our views are tainted with some bit of information we have coming into this. We think the concept of life matters is something about race. Or we think it’s all just a bunch of political bologna. And to a large extent that seems to be the case unfortunately.
But the truth is that life is not something we can determine. We have to let outside sources inform our understanding of life’s origin. We have to let the reality of the uniquenesses of the human condition help us better value lives of all shapes and sizes and points of origin.
Below is a message I gave on the value of life and why it’s so very important to have a proper understanding of ourselves before we can even have this conversation.
Ok so if you’re a certain type of person, you probably don’t like that statement. The point here isn’t to upset anyone nor is it a knock on the church either. The point is that I think over time we, as pastors and churches, might have lost our way a little bit. I by no means am perfect, nor do I get this right all the time but this is a pretty critical thing to get right.
Church Centered
There are many of us in churches around that have become kind of church-centric. The church becomes the reason the church exists. It’s like saying the church is the most important thing going on in the church. That’s just not the case.
I had the chance to participate in a conference recently that for all intense and purposes said the end result of all the church does is to get people into the church. Yikes! That’s the most selfish, egotistical, and downright heretical thing I’ve ever heard! The church does not exist to fill its seats or pad its bank account. Too many churches have become so consumed with doing it their way or preserving what they have that they’ve lost sight of why they exist in the first place.
A church-centric kind of church really cares more about boards, budgets and butts than anything else. A church centered on itself makes it hard for people to get involved. You can’t do anything without some sort of membership status. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some places where a level of ownership found in membership is important but to limit all activity and service in the church to a members only status isn’t healthy.
A church-centered kind of environment gives the impression that it’s all about the church. The church and worship become the end goal of all the church exists to do. Often when a person joins a church-centered kind of atmosphere there’s really nothing left to offer. Worship is it. It’s the sum total of what the church has and what it expects from those who make up the congregation. Worship is vital, critical and necessary! But it’s not all the church is here for by any means. So if it’s not solely about worship or the church from an institutional side of things, what is it?
Kingdom Centered
It doesn’t take much to veer off the tracks from the church God established in the book of Acts to one that’s really all about self preservation. The way back is to hone one’s sight back on what’s most important and that’s Christ and his message of Grace and Truth and Mercy. It’s about becoming kingdom focused again.
A kingdom centered church is one whose focus isn’t on numerical growth but on depth of growth. Look I get it, numbers matter. We have to count what we can count. But can we take measurables and find a better way to use them? I’m part of a system that asks for year end reporting, which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. Again you have to measure what you can measure. But the measurements we record only show part of the story. They only show basic connection not depth of engagement.
At the church I am called to serve, we measure a series of numbers as part of a discipleship pathway. There’s an expectation that comes with being a part of this church. It’s bigger than here. It’s bigger than worship or Sunday School or a website or time of day. It’s about engaging in a life that demonstrates obedience to a different way of life. To that end we measure a progression of data. When one number goes up, the other numbers should increase at a similar rate. If there is a lag in numbers, we have to ask some hard questions.
The information we look at is simple and relatively easy to track with a few general questions. How many people are in worship on a regular basis? This number represents the group of people who are simply present in the worship life of the congregation from a mostly observation based position. They’re not leading, teaching, or serving.
The second question we ask is of these people in worship how many are in some form of Bible study or growth opportunity beyond worship? This number shows us those who participate which takes more commitment than watching for an hour on a Sunday and puts one in a place to be challenged a little more personally to a different kind of life.
The third area on which we focus is the area of service. So how many people are moving from observation in worship to participation in Bible classes or groups to some form of involvement in a specific area of ministry or service in the church. These can be anything from clean up crews for events, to those mowing the lawn or cleaning up outdoors, to greeting people when the arrive on Sundays. The sky is the limit here. It’s about helping people see the value they have in the church as a whole.
Finally, we focus on invitation. How many of those present and involved are bringing others along for the journey? This shows ownership. Ownership not of the church. Not of this local expression of what church looks like either. It’s ownership of a different way of life. It’s ownership of a kingdom centered mentality.
You see, Jesus said in some of his last recorded words in the book of Matthew going make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.
Did you see it? Right there at the end. As pastors we focus so much on the beginning of this that we tend to gloss right over the end. Make disciples yeah we talk about that a lot. Baptize them? Yep got that one covered as well for the most part. Teaching? Sure we teach a lot of information that is readily accessible in a variety of mediums. But what about teaching obedience? That’s a whole different ball game.
A kingdom centered church is one that teaches obedience. Not just head knowledge. Not just know your bible and what it says. But know what it says. Know its context. And let that shape how you do life. That’s the key. Right there. A kingdom centered church is one that seeks the transformation of its members to more intentionally live out the calling of God day by day.
So go to church! Attend worship! Yes those are very important and a key part of who we are as followers of Jesus. But go one step more. Take your worship out of the building and into your neighborhood. Remember worship isn’t the end game it’s a resource God has given us to move us closer to His image in us.
We all have rhythm. No, not the ability to play drums or keep a beat even, but we all have a rhythm. Rhythm is all around us and it’s part of our day to day lives in so many places that we often overlook it. I mean right now, you’re probably reading this with some form of rhythm to your pace. Your heart is even beating to a rhythm (I hope it is!).
Rhythm is all around us as well. There’s rhythm in the sunrise and sunset. There is rhythm in the way the feet hit the treadmill in the gym. There’s rhythm to your breathing. Seasons follow a rhythmic pattern. Everything about life is based off of a healthy rhythm.
As we kick off a new year together here on the blog, I wanted to spend a few minutes discussing healthy rhythms. I really think rhythms are the biggest struggle many of us have in life. Whether you’re struggling with weight or finance management, relationships or body image, productivity or worship attendance they all revolve around rhythm. And there’s one rhythm that sets them all up properly.
If you look at the world around you and especially at the way the world was formed. As a follower of Jesus, I believe that God formed all of this in the way it describes in Genesis 1. That part of the Bible lays out what we call the 7 days of creation. In those days of creation, God sets a whole series of rhythms or patterns for the world. From tides to sunrise/sunset to seasons to even the way he speaks and things happen, it all follows a rhythm. Nothing was made in creation that didn’t involve God speaking. Even before he created man, God said let us make man in our image. There was a rhythm to how it all happened.
But the problem is, we live in a world of solo drummers. We don’t like to march to someone else’s drumbeat. We like to be creative and come up with our own rhythms. I’m a huge advocate for consistency and patterns.
Heck look around the world right now as people are crying for a return to normal. They’re not looking for normal! They’re looking for rhythm. Our rhythm of life was disrupted nearly 2 years ago and we haven’t found a sustainable rhythm yet. What we call normal is really a comfortable and sustainable pace with which we can walk, talk and live our lives. We haven’t had that for a while now and we long to have it back again.
But it goes a little deeper than just waking and sleeping at the same time everyday, which is of tremendous benefit in and of itself! There is a deeper rhythm that must be established to really have things moving in the right direction and to establish a sustainable pace for productivity, health, wellness, relationships and all aspects of life to truly flourish.
Below is a message I gave to kick off the New Year at Living Word Galena. In this message I’ll dig a little into the idea of the rhythms around us and how they can help us stay in rhythm. I’ll also give a couple of tools we have here to help keep us in rhythm.
The new Spiderman movie was released recently and it has taken the box office by storm! While I haven’t seen the movie yet, I have heard some pretty stellar reviews to say the least. The Spiderman saga has been a pretty good series of movies from my perspective and I’m excited to be able to see this one soon. But as I consider the movies I have seen, one thought stands out at me from these movies. It has to be my favorite quote from the series.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Spiderman
Leadership is a pretty challenging thing, especially in our world today. Being a leader of any organization is not fun when you can’t see where you’re headed and don’t know what to expect. The graphic above contains a quote from Peter Scazzero who wrote a series of works title Emotionally Healthy_____. The blank is for the different topics he’s written on over the years from spirituality to discipleship and much more.
A person who’s in leadership, whether they want to be or not, has a great responsibility and weight on their shoulders. As leaders, we’re responsible for casting a vision for a preferred future and making corrective action as problems arise. Good leaders will even anticipate challenges before they arise. The closer to the top of an organization you rise, the more power you have. And the more power you have, according to Peter Parker, the more responsibility you must shoulder.
Something that’s become fairly evident through the past 24 months of life challenges is that many leaders are wanting the power but lacking the maturity. They have the obligations but lack the desire and intestinal-fortitude to get the job done. There are a lot of immature leaders in the world and in the church these days.
The above quote from Scazzero is a reminder that each of us have inner demons with which we have to wrestle. We have to work through our challenges and find creative and effective ways to manage the troubles in life. If it’s true that higher levels of leadership, power and responsibility bring out deeper levels of inner struggle, then we as leaders need to surround ourselves with some key people.
I strongly recommend something that was shared with me years ago. It’s called a personal board of directors. No, it’s not nearly as formal as it sounds, but it is very important. I have people in my circle whose opinion I value in different areas of life. They are friends or voices who I respect and who are able to challenge me because they are professionals in their respective fields. I used to call on these people all the time. And admittedly, I don’t use them nearly as much as I used to, until life explodes.
As a leader, it’s important to know your weaknesses and fill your life with people who are strong in those areas. You don’t need a board of directors for your personal life, but you do need the self awareness to know when you can’t do something. I’ve seen far too many leaders do far too much damage to their organization by permanently taking on a task that isn’t theirs to do. This is called micromanaging. I did it for a while and it was awful! I suck at many things in life and the sooner you as a leader can realize what you just flat suck at doing, the better your organization will be.
So the long and short is that you have the power you have for a reason. Use it wisely. Wield that power with the responsibility that it warrants. And be honest with yourself and those around you when you just are in over your head. It eliminates a lot of stress and your organization will flourish when you get the right people in the right places in your organization.
Something I like to do at the end of each year is look back and see where we’ve been. Some of what follows is more personal while other parts are more general and I believe can apply to most of us. But none of this is intended to be depressing! As a matter of fact the point of this year in review is to see what we can learn about ourselves and the community around us. So buckle up for a trip down short-term memory lane.
Ok so we start with calling out the elephant in the room. The year for some flat sucked. And for others it was ok. But I don’t think many people experienced a banner year. That’s a pretty big overgeneralization, but I think it applies to most of the population. From constant guessing about what’s next to trying to figure out how to stay healthy to keeping the income more then the expenses has proven to be challenging to many Americans.
The year started off with many of us trying to get back to normal, or as close to it as possible. We quickly figured out that what normal means for one person isn’t the same as normal for the next. Enter 3 issues that I feel summarize this year.
Is mutual respect still a thing?
So this is going to sound negative but stick with me for a second. One thing the last year+ has taught us is that mutual respect isn’t really something we can all agree on. It depends on where we get our information, what we believe to be real, whose opinion we actually value, and who our true friends are. This year has tested all of these ideals. And the challenge we have faced in 2021 was to not let these differing opinions divide us.
Something that we’ve all seen this year has been the walk away or lash out methods. It’s heartbreaking to see family and friends disagree on something, then let that disagreement lead to division. We can have fun rivalries in sports, why not in other areas of life? We have thick skin with some topics, so why has 2021 thinned our skin so badly? I really think it’s an issue of respect. We want someone else to respect us but we’re not as willing to humble ourselves to let someone else have an opinion that’s different than ours.
A token to take into a new year is to watch our reactions. Think before you speak or act. It’s easy to yell at someone or virtually erase them when they say something we don’t agree with. It’s easy to talk behind their back and belittle them. But it takes maturity to open up and welcome an honest and heartfelt disagreement. Then walk away as friends who see things differently.
We’re all going to die…eventually
I get it no one wants to talk about it but it’s true. We can’t live our lives in fear and that’s unfortunately what I have seen a lot of the past 12 months. No this is not a political or even a simply health related statement. Just look at how we react when storms are predicted. If we get word that a snow storm is coming, we rush to the store to get all the batteries, water and bread we can find. This past year has seen some shortages of products on shelves in part because when bad news spills into the airwaves we jump to fear mode.
Something to take with us into the new year is to find a place where you can grab ahold of hope. For some it’s in their loving family. For others it’s found in their friendships. For me and many like me that hope is found in my relationship with Jesus. Not everyone is a person of faith but I can attest personally to the fact that when my faith seems less, my fear increases.
Surround yourself with people who can encourage you. If you have a group like this, know you are blessed tremendously! Don’t be so easily offended when one of your encouragers actually puts the screws down and challenges you. If you can’t take challenge from a friend, then you might have your hope in the wrong place.
Way more good has happened if you just open your eyes.
Have you ever purchased a new to you vehicle? Then you realize that everyone in the world drives the same car! I remember getting my Black Ram 1500. Then I realized three of my neighbors had very similar trucks. You tend to see what you feel most closely.
The challenge we’ve faced in 2021 has been a product of our society lusting after scandal and fear and the whole sex sells mentality. If there’s bad news or a juicy story, you better believe that will flood the social streams! And when that’s what fills our minds, that’s all our eyes will see. As we move into a new year, we have the chance to change what our minds see. We have the ability to alter what we put into our minds so that our eyes can actually focus on something totally different than scandal and all the negative floating around.
As a person of faith, one thing I like to do is join members of the church I serve in reading the bible. We read the whole New Testament in 2021 and it helped so many people! In 2022, we’re doing another reading plan but this time it will be a more chronological approach to the Bible. We’ll read a little bit from all over the Bible in order of how it would have happened. We’ll leave out some of the parts that are, well harder to get through. The point will be to fill our minds with the things we want our eyes to see.
So all in all the year 2021 wasn’t the best of my 45 years to be certain. I suffered loss in areas of my life that I never would have predicted. But the true blessing of 2021 was that something happened in my heart that made me appreciate the simplicity of certain moments. What used to really irritate me, doesn’t seem to take the same toll. I’ve been able to see the people who are really there for me to support, encourage and challenge me. I’ve also been able to see the ones that aren’t. They each hold a special place in my life. I wouldn’t be who I am without the disagreements, encouragement, challenge, support, accountability, and camaraderie of so many. Thanks for a great year in 2021 and I can’t wait to see what new things God has in store for us in 2022!
Be kind to your pastors. I know that many of you are just that, extremely kind and generous to your pastors. And to those I have the privilege of doing ministry with you are beyond kind and generous, so I thank you! But the reality is like every profession, Pastors are struggling and according to the studies it seems their struggle is impacting them more than we realized.
Through the last 20+ months many studies have been done on the great resignation and transitions in life and work. But there have also been targeted studies dealing with specific occupations, including pastors. The most recent study shows that pastors are hurting…bad!
The shocking statistic shows that nationwide over 38% of pastors are or have been contemplating leaving their position. And to make that even more real the research broke that out to pastors from mainline denominations where the number skyrocketed to 51% of pastors contemplating leaving! That’s scary!
Now before we get all suck it up buttercup, which is my normal reaction to things like this, we have to understand the landscape a bit. As pastors, we were not trained on how to lead and do ministry in a divisive context. We were not given the tools and resources on how to handle real relationships in congregations that we thought were strong implode overnight. We are not financial gurus. We are not perfect husbands and fathers. We are not superbly gifted in leadership or administration. For some reason many pastors act as if this whole church thing is a competition or something. We are taught, albeit implicitly, that growing churches with good finances and clear discipleship growth is a sign of healthy leadership and good biblical teaching. If we’re not seeing these things then are we really doing our jobs right?
I have to tell you these are dangerous places to sit!
If you’ve made it this far and you’re not a pastor, this one is for you. What can you do? Encourage your pastor. I don’t mean give them gifts, but real encouragement. Not just a good sermon pastor comment on the way out the door. Share a story of how the bible came to life in your week. Tell of the struggles you’re facing as you seek to apply the biblical teaching to your job as a teacher or trash collector or physician. Ask them questions about things you don’t understand in your daily devotional life. Show up! Seriously, a great source of encouragement for your pastor is to just be present. Be present in worship. Be present in bible class. Be present in service to those around you in your congregation and community. Be present in sharing your faith story with those around you.
Look pastors it’s going to be hard. And if I’m being honest, and not some negative Nancy, it’s going to get worse. I know that doesn’t sound very encouraging. But stick with me. The one thing you can do to break through this time of challenge and desire to quit is to realize what you’re actually here to do.
Your God-given mission is not to grow the church. Your call is not to build a bigger building or call another staff member. Your goal isn’t to get your members back in church or to make all the right decisions. Your call has nothing to do with balancing a budget. These are all good things and things to work toward, but they are not the main thing.
We are called to do two things: preach and administer God’s good gifts (sacraments). Really and truly that’s what we’re here to do. We are here to give away to our churches and communities everyday the wonderful message of how grace conquered sin, death and hell. We are called to make sure the gifts of baptism and communion are present as often as possible and that those who come participate in these gifts know what they are and why they are of value.
If I can give you any encouragement brothers it is this. You’re not in this alone so stop acting like it. Whether you’re in a mainline denomination or a nondenominational setting, there are thousands of us called by God to bring the joy of Christ to the world around us. Reach out to another pastor. Confide in your leadership. Share your struggles and your successes. It’s ok to celebrate the wins no matter how small! It’s ok to mourn the losses no matter the size. Reach out to someone if you’re struggling. Pray with your people. Know that we’re in this together, so reach out and we’ll share the burdens of ministry together.
Stay the course my friends. Reach out if you need some encouragement and coaching. I’m always here.
