Emerging Pastor

This was a rather large weekend for me. I started off on Friday night where I spoke to a local youth group about, well me. It's been a while since I've just given a flat out testimony of God's work in my life and I found myself sketching out the time from my conversion in my late teens to now and once again marveling at just how good God has been to me.

The results were good, I lifted a little bit of material from my Sunday sermon and challenged them about where they were heading in life (I guess that's standard fare for teenage talks) and specifically challenged them in their Spiritual ambition.

Afterwards I was talking one on one with some of the kids. One girl pulled me aside and asked me the question "How do you hear from God". It was great to be streched by the question. She didn't want a prepacked answer but a reflection of my life with God based on what she heard in the talk. Who said kids today dont listen :)

The questions continued on Sunday when one of the youth leaders passed on questions from their Sunday morning get together. Things like "Why is my school Calvanist, they keep saying everybody has a choice to be saved" which I thought was quite insightful!

I preached Sunday morning and even used some illustrations that I blogged about last week :) I spoke about identity theft and based it loosely around 1 Peter 2:4-10. It was well recieved and made people think which is my number 2 goal in preaching (number 1 being that what I say are words of hope).

The big idea I was trying to hammer home is that are Spiritual Identities are in being God's holy priest. We have been created with a plan in mind and work to do in the world.

I'm going to post the full text later in the week after I format it up.

(Source)

God has been teaching me a big lesson lately and it's not one I think I'm ready to learn. It's all about time.

A few weeks ago our preaching pastor and I were talking about his workload. He is about to finish up his work with our church and has ramped up his ministry in other areas. At the moment there is an overlap and he asked me the question "How do you fit it all in". I stood their and answered him honestly, "You take the time you would devote to your number 1 priority and divide it over all the lower priorities". By that I meant you steal time from your family and spend it on the other jobs we must do.

Doing this is ok in for a short time because there will be times when we must simply finish a task or put food on the table. Doing this for the long haul is not ok, and I've being doing it for the long haul.

These past few weeks, since answering that question honestly I have been physically, mentally and Spiritually exhausted. I need to take a break but every time I find time something else pops up to fill the newly created gap.

I guess I'm asking you quazi-anonymous people to pray for me. For strength, for wisdom and for endurance.

When I was worship leading this Sunday morning it was a real struggle to do it. There was a mini-revolt from some singers because they didn't like the songs, others were pressuring me to make changes. I prayed for God to lead me as I lead the church but midway during the service I lost my grip on Him and never quite recovered.

I feel empty inside, the tank is dry.

At the moment there are two things keeping me going. The love of my wife and Jesus' promise that the well of living water he has caused to spring up inside me doesn't not diminish but rather overflows from me into the lives of others.

The truth is, I'm still seeing that overflow into other peoples lives. I still see God effectively ministering through me to those who He brings across my path even though I am broken and empty inside.

I am a cracked pot still leaking out his love.

In my last post I mentioned that I was a very busy boy last weekend. We had a Christmas in July where a lot of people from the soup kitchen we run came along.

We were blessed to have many of them visit with us the next Sunday morning, this happend to be a day that I was preaching.

It was a great privellege to have these people who have never darkend the door of a church before to come come and hear me speak about God and the wonderful gift of life he has for us all, and as promised I have published the text of the sermon on the website for you to read and critique.

The message is The Holy Spirit, God within us.

My prayer for it was that it would be words of hope and words of life for those who need it.

Appreciate your feedback.

What a Sunday! It seems God can continue to teach me even when I get a little crusty and belligerent on the outside :)

In the third week of the church wide bible study series we learnt about meekness. Meekness is one of those qualities that is misunderstood as well as unappreciated by society and the church at large. Think about the first thing that comes to mind when you when you read the work "Meek".

Most people will answer something along the lines of "mild", "weak", "timid", "humble" or in a similar vein when the true meaning of the word is something far different.

Jesus encouraged us with the words "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth" but how can mild, weak and timid people do that?

When Jesus uttered those words he spoke of meekness as being "strength under control". I liken it to a horse that has been broken in by it's rider. The horse has not lost any of it's strength or power, rather it is now channeled through the desires of it's master.

Have we allowed ourselves to be bridled by Jesus? To be led in the way He desires or are we following our own desires.

I am being taught the lesson of meekness at the moment as far as it goes for holding my tongue. It is becoming more apparent to me that even if what I say is right, it's not always right (or the right time) to say it. Meekness for me is bringing my tongue under control for God's sake.

No, food poisoning isn't a clever theological metaphore, it's a horrid statement of fact.

I seem to be on the mend now but this weekend was pretty much a wipe-out for me. I was supposed to be leading the church in worship this weekend but I realised at 3am Sunday morning this wasn't going to happen. I wont go into any details, you all know what food poisoning does to the body, I'm just thankful to God for my wife who has nursed me through this time (even now as I blog ill lying on the couch) and for those in my church family who picked up the slack for my absence.

Someone once said "Don't make yourself irreplaceable or you will never be promoted", I believe something similar applies to the life of the minister. Not being promoted but rather having people being able to step into your shoes when life takes an unexpected turn.

Those that sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. (Ps 126:5) I've always enjoyed that Psalm, it brings an amount of comfort to me when ministering to those in pain because it points me towards the hope that they have in future and that the pain not matter how much it hurts will be redeemed. Twice this weekend I fell into some accidental ministry where this verse resonates deeply within me. The first happened in my lounge room...

I've been trying to make the "Sunday Life" entries as regular as possible, reflecting on ministry experiences from the weekend. My Sunday's are usually quite busy, if I'm not worship leading, I'm praying and talking with people. If I'm not talking or praying with people I'm preparing for something else. I sat down this morning thinking, I've got nothing to say. Sure I went to both services, was blessed by the messages and was challenged to draw closer to God, I had the opportunity to minister to people one on one, pray for healing in their lives and encourage them on. But sometimes it doesn't seem like enough.

This was a very exciting weekend for me, I had the honour of performing two baptism's. The first was my grandmother who I've mentioned previously. It was a very emotional experience for the both of us, and I will admit I was a little nervous in doing it. I'm not exactly sure why I was nervous, public speaking isn't an issue for me, but I did use an unfortunate word, I announced that we had three "victims" who were being baptized, definitely poor phrasing and a couple of people mentioned it to me afterwards.  

Here's an action shot of Gran going into the drink :)

There were three people being baptized, the second was John, a man who has come into our church through the soup kitchen (well it's really a BBQ) that we run every fortnight in a block of housing commission flats. Although I wasn't doing the baptizing I had an indirect hand in it. My dad was the one to baptize John! I had the pleasure of baptizing my dad a couple of years back and to see him growing in God like this is just amazing!!!

Here is the two of them before it happened. (Dad's on the left :)

Just over a year ago Sally and I made some new friends, Gary and Rhiannon. They started coming to our church and soon after to our bible study. We have been blessed to know them and travel with them in their Spiritual journeys as well as seeing their family begin to grow with a beautiful little boy. I'm usually someone who has a lot of acquaintances but not many close friends, Gary and Rhiannon were fast friends and we love them a lot.

Rhiannon expressed her desire for baptism some time ago and after a little electronic cajoling (I love email) she hopped in to be buried with Christ and identify publicly with his resurrection.

Here's some before and afters.

Join with me in praying for all three of them as they continue their Spiritual journey in Christ.