This morning I dusted off the new mountain bike that my wife bought me for my birthday. its a great present but because of the extremes of Australian weather of late I haven't had much opportunity to ride it. In one week it was consistently over 40 degrees (that's Celsius, 104F), it peaked at 47 C for my birthday (117 F). The next week it hasn't stopped raining.

So I resolved last night, no matter what the weather, I was riding my bike! You see I'm trying to regain my fitness so with good intentions and a liberal salting of guilt over my health I set out this morning to set a bench mark for improvement. Basically I set out to ride as far as I felt I could until I was too tired to return.

At the apex of my journey I felt like just giving up and taking the next shortcut home instead of pushing through the pain of the ride. Then all of a sudden a shortcut opened up to my left, it was a little side street that would cut right across the U bend of the cul-de-sac I was peddling down. It was literally Grace Street.

In the sermon on Sunday morning, the pastor likened the Christian faith to a knife edge that we walk between faith and works. He highlighted the perils of straying to far to either side as if both are cliff faces that we can fall over and hurt ourselves on. For my mind he was spot on.

I didn't take the turn down Grace Street this morning, but it did prompt my thoughts away from the pain in my legs and towards my relationship with God.

My observation of Christian living is that there are those who certainly cheapen God's grace by continuing in their sin. They see faith in Christ as a free ride to heaven as if they are on a tandem bike and Jesus is doing all the peddling. Grace is the shortcut to heaven and a means of living.

Others, and I include myself in this lot at times seem to think it's all about them. It's their effort that will get them to their destination, it's their peddling, their sweat and their muscles that move them into the Kingdom of God. It's almost like they are punishing themselves into the Kingdom.

James the brother of Jesus asked the question "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" and concludes (rightly) that "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead".

That's a hard thought to swallow sometimes. God's grace is a means to living faithfully. It draws us in, shows us how valuable we are in God's eyes and the lengths that God will go to in order for us to call him Father. But God's grace is not an end in itself, works are a part of faithful living, they are an outpouring of our obedience and response to God's love.

Ephesians 2:10 tell us "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

What we do for God has been planned by God to bring about His glory. Let's not rest to long or struggle to hard but find our place in Him.

Over the past three days I've been attending the Higher conference, which is the annual Churches of Christ NSW Youth Ministry event for training and refreshing youth group leaders and youth pastors.

I have in fact no desire, compulsion (or ability) to be a youth pastor. My 2 years as a youth worker has shown me that it is not my gifting that I should never again entertain the idea :)

So why was I there you ask? No? I'll tell you anyway. I went to learn.

I consider learning as one of the most valuable activities you can apply yourself to. In this case I wanted to learn more about Youth Ministry in general and how best to support any such ministry that may one day be under my responsibility as the leader of a church.

In the past I've had some disagreements with people about the best way a certain ministry should or shouldn't be run. It's a sad thing to say, but sometimes the leadership of a church doesn't have a clue about what a particular ministry needs by way of support and can impose unfair boundaries or unreachable goals because they simple don't get it.

I don't want to be one of those people who simple speak from ignorance or from my own self-importance or my own gut feel on how I think something should run, and I also don't want the wool pulled over my eyes when someone says that to be successful, ministry X needs Y.

When I was first appointed an Elder in my church one of the first things I did was to contact several of ministry leaders and ask "So what do you do and why?" It wasn't for critique of their practices (although an outside set of eyes is often good for that sort of thing), but an exercise that helped me to gain a holistic view of the church I was asked to help lead.

There was a lot of great learning to be had at the conference and a lot that can be applied outside youth ministry. I particularly liked this idea.

 One youth pastor with a rather large youth group in the opening minutes of the night gets everybody to ask three questions of the person beside them. The first two don't matter, they are icebreakers the third question is "Is this your first time here tonight?" He then asks if anyone has a new person next to them and sends someone over with a drink bottle full of lollies, a letter home to the parents about what the youth group is about and a voucher (valid for two weeks) to have a free can of drink or chocolate the next time they come.

It's a great welcome idea, but in a youth group of 500 kids it also makes it easy to spot the new ones (their the ones holding the bottle) and get beside them and tell them about Jesus.

You could easily modify something similar in your church services, and I think it's an exciting idea :)

When I found the following test it was billed as the world's easiest having a pass mark of just 4 out of 10. What I have since discovered is that 4 was setting my sights a little too high :)

There are some things in life that we just take for granted. For some of us it's our faith in God, faith in being able to keep our job, that are parents will always be there for us and one especially for those emerging pastors, that God works the way we think he does.

Nothing is more confronting than challenging our expectations especially about the fundamentals of life, those questions we thought we had put to bed years ago. What I continue to learn is that I have to unlearn and discover freshly what it means to be in a relationship with the God of the universe. I have to continually unlearn and discover again what my doctrine is, that's not simply throwing away everything I've learned but rather allowing new knowledge, new understanding and discoveries to be synthesized into my greater understanding of things.

So I encourage you to take this test (don't cheat, the answers are just below) and after you grade yourself take a few moments and pray to our Heavenly Father to reveal to you an area of your life or thinking (or both) where you have become stubborn or refuse to accept change and allow the Holy Spirit to challenge your expectations and grow you even more like Christ.

Let us live in the wisdom of John Maynard Keynes "When the facts change, I change my mind".


Here are the questions, be sure to write down your answers:

1. How long did the Hundred Years War last?
2. Which country makes Panama hats?
3. From which animal do we get catgut?
4. In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5. What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6. The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7. What was King George VI's first name?
8. What color is a purple finch?
9. Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10. What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?

 

Now that was easy wasn't it? Check your answers below AND GOOD LUCK!

 

1. 116 years
2. Ecuador
3. Sheep and Horses
4. November
5. Squirrel fur
6. Dogs
7. Albert
8. Crimson
9. New Zealand
10. Orange, of course.

A lecturer once had us perform an exercise were we enumerated our core values and provided a short explanation of each of the values.
His reasoning was that if you do not have something by which to measure your tasks and activities you will end up doing everything and be satisfied with none of them.

I developed my core values and afterwards I found I was able to say no to things that I previously felt unable to. It was liberating the first time, I was asked to take up a position of youth pastor and I said with complete confidence that the role was completely outside of what I consider my strengths and values, therefore, no.

The most profound lesson I learnt from the process is are my values really values or are they just preferences.

Preferences are those things we would like to value, or think we value but we do not show by our lives. If I say I value honesty but have no qualms with not handing back that extra $20 note the check out chick then what I have is not a true value but a preference for honesty.

Besides being completely hypocritical it's one of those things that cause us to go around seeking the spec in our neighbours eye. (I can't help but think of those people who legislate against homosexuality and find themselves with their pants down in an airport toilet).

There isn't a problem having a preference on something as long as we are honest with ourselves and acknowledge that it's aspirational and not core to our behaviour and lives.

The reason this has all come up for me is not because I've been operating outside of my core values but I've come to question the published core values of my church. This isn't a bad thing, more of a review. In the past 5 years we have moved more towards welfare and social justice but we do not reflect that in our stated values. Likewise some of our stated values look to be more aspirational which again isn't an issue, it's good to seek out different ways of looking at life but if it isn't who you are then don't state it as a value state it as a development goal. Doing this should help to make us mindful of our aspiration and remove the charge of hypocrisy.

Look at it this way. At the moment I have strong tape holding back both of my shoulders. It's part of my treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. When my shoulders are pulled back it promotes proper posture and reduces the strain on my carpal nerve. I aspire to have those shoulders pulled back at all times but in the mean time I need the tape to gently remind me of my goal. If I told my physio that there is nothing wrong with my posture and I'm only slumping at the moment because of the chair I'm sitting in (something I nearly did yesterday because of pride) then I am clearly lying to her, myself and everyone around me.

If your wondering, my core values are:

• Teaching: Through small groups and preaching to challenge groups of both Christians and non-Christians in their journey of faith.
• Mentoring:  Investing my time and my experience with the individual to help grow and deepen their commitment to Jesus.
• Family: Commitment of my time and attention to strengthen the bond between my wife and I as well as my extended family.
• Relevant:  Understanding the context of my ministry and shaping both myself and my approach to it.
• Authenticity: Showing my true self to those I meet and encouraging them to do the same.
• Leadership: Seeking to understand God’s purpose for His people and guiding them in the parts they play.
  

I've been reading today a lot about Pope Gregory (590 - 604) and his influence on the English church as well as some of his correspondence as recorded by Bede.

I'm fascinated by him as a missionary leader, sending out missionaries to the Saxon's to bring them Christianity. It was in fact the second time Christianity was brought to the Saxons, the first time was by sword but this time by the accounts I'm reading were with love (missionary zeal).

Bede records many pastoral letters between Gregory and the Bishop of London which are worth reading and apply to today's emerging pastor but I want to paraphrase something from his Homilies on Ezekiel. It shows that he thought the contemplative life of monks would be best validated if it bore fruit in action.

"Of the two wives of Jacob, whom spiritual writers regarded as tech biblical types of the contemplative and active lives, Rachel was beautiful, but Liah was the fur tile one. Gregory himself thought he had married Rachel when he became a monk; but being pope was like waking up in the night to find oneself in the arms of Liah. It was a shock, but while there were those who still lacked the Christina faith, it was a necessary shock" ¹

As emerging pastors we need to be filled with that zeal for fertile living, lives that produce fruit.

 

^1. McManners, J. The oxford illustraed history of Christianity, p940

I've been polishing up my CV lately in anticipation of applying for a new ministry position somewhere. When I say polishing up I actually mean creating from scratch because I've never really had to apply for one.

So far my paid pastoral employment is as a visiting speaker to churches and a part time wage I draw from my church to support my college tuition. I've held a lot of roles but never have I applied outside of this church for a job.

I'm not jumping ship yet but I sought out some advice about what to put on a CV for ministry and there were some things I didn't think about.

There's experience of course. I detailed different ministries I had been involved with and my role within them. I included a very brief rundown of my secular work experience (my I. T. CV runs to about 6 pages at the moment) as well as something about my passion.

The advice I received from the head of leadership development for my denomination (the guy who also co-ordinates a lot of jobs) was to include two sections. Firstly "What I contribute to the team" and secondly "What I want to learn from your team".

Both of these gave me pause for reflection, this isn't just a job, ministry is a calling (something I actually said in my "Passion" section) so what is it exactly that I believe God is calling me to do? To learn and to teach?

In secular employment you can take a job that isn't a 100% fit because you know you can just move on (very Gen X/Y of me) but being called to a place to minister should take a great deal more of reflection, prayer and introspection, shouldn't it?

So emerging pastor, let's ask the questions, what do I bring to the team and what do I want to learn before we put in that application form. Perhaps God may want to inform us a little bit here.

I can't go into specifics because of confidentiality but a recent situation that comes partially under my authority has me contemplating the line between the public and private life of the pastor and whether such a division actually exists.

It has always been my belief that leaders in the church are to be held much more accountable for their actions because of their position. It's certainly a Scriptural concept and one that makes me shudder a little. How that will work in heaven I'm not sure but it's something that God keeps placing in my head, especially as I grapple with sin in my own life.

The pastor will never be perfect, will have their failings. The Apostle Paul had a thorn in his side that continually bugged him and God deliberately didn't remove it. I may exegete that this is because it kept Paul humble but that is speculation.

In my own life I deal with sin, with patterns from the past that keep raising up to try and grab me back into their bondage once more and as much and has hard as I've prayed and as much and as hard as I've fasted and as fervent and as honest and as real I have been with myself God has refused so far to take it away from me.

What are we to surmise from this, how do we reconcile God leaving us vulnerable to temptation while holding us to a higher standard? Is he just mean or is there a higher reason for it?

Someone once said that "Character is who you are in the dark". The real you is the version of yourself who no one meets, no one sees, no one witnesses. If this is the real me, the one in the dark place, then my vulnerability to certain sin is my check and balance and the method of God to help me grow and overcome.

That is the private life of the pastor, the place where we struggle.

The post is really a short treatment of the issue, I can see that it needs more fleshing out over the next few weeks. What are your thoughts about it?

Today I'm thinking about what constitutes a spiritual retreat.

I'm (trying) to write this Sunday mornings sermon and I keep coming up with the same nothing that the last 20 revisions came up with. I think that I really need to get my physical and spiritual batteries recharged and quickly or I am going to continue to slide into trouble.

The problem is every time I've attempted such a venture in the past I either get distracted by something and chase that down or I force the issue so hard that God can not meet me. It's a bit like writers block, the more you push it the harder it is to get the words out.

One of my favorite movies is "Stranger than Fiction". Right now I can identify with the author (sans chain smoking and queen latifa as my personal assistant). I know that there is something there, it is just around the corner. I can feel it's presence just beyond my perception but the harder I reach, the more slippery it becomes.

How do you turn that around? Fasting has worked in the past but my wife doesn't like me doing it. I have a tendency to go to extremes. The last time I fasted I went about 4 days with only a little water and I was a wreck physically. I did however get the answer from God that I was seeking (that is he answered, not he gave me the answer I wanted).

In my sermon I'm going into the area that we can have our spiritual identities stolen if we do not use them, that is, if we are not being the ministers of reconciliation that God calls us to be we will start filling our lives with other things. I feel I've started to fill mine with business and I want it back!

(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.

Sunday and Tuesday night I brushed off ye olde electric guitar and was involved in a very intimate worship experience with my church.

It happened quite by accident, all the night service crew (except for one) who were rostered on had to bail at the last minute so the drummer (the only original), another worship leader and I just sat on some stools and bashed it out. The drummer was playing a large bongo and the other worship leader and I were playing guitar and singing.

That Sunday night I really felt the presence of God in the worship time, at the end of a couple of songs I engaged in some "free worship" and it was a blessed time with the Word, communion and ministry afterwards.

The three of us were asked to lead worship on Tuesday night during our monthly prayer gathering and we readily agreed, everything was about the same but I just didn't feel it.

So it begs the question, what was different, God or me? And what can I learn from this?