2 Timothy 2:22: Pennysaver Messages to the Church

"Eric G. We want to hear your voice & make sure you're O.K. Please. It's been 6-months, time heals all. Please call home. Love, Mom, Dad, Heather." 

"Please pray for Rose. I need a job."

"Happy birthday Dad! With love. From your girls, TJ and Sarah." 

- Pennysaver 23544, July 9, 2014.

I found these notes in the "Messages" section of my local weekly mailer, tucked between the "Animals/Pets" and the churches listed in "Neighborhood News" There is something simple, public and raw about these declarations that makes me want to join them.  

This is one of the places that church is at its best and at its worst. At its best, it is the family that grows, laughs and cries together before God. "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." (1 Cor. 12:26) At its worst, it is that same family, but torn apart by selfishness. Not pain or sorrow, but selfishness. That's why Paul advised, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves" (Phil. 2:3) 

Obviously, these people didn't look to the church for either. They rather posted (literally!) their concerns to the pages destined for recycling bins. Church was a worse bet than Pennysaver for sympathy. I am a worse bet than Pennysaver for sympathy, most days. But I did stop and pray for each. And I ask you to go out of your way to be the attentive ears and extended hands of Jesus this week. 

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." - Psalm 34:18

Finding God's Will In 250+ Pieces of Paper

What have I learned after sifting through 250+ resumes along with my 8 fellow pastoral search committee members?

1. Lots of gifted, godly, experienced men of God currently in transition in their ministry lives.
2. Lot of circumstances lead to transitions in church leadership.
3. Pastors don't realize how many people are applying for a position.

Even glimpsing the lives of so many pastors has given me a greater appreciation of the stresses that life in the church puts on those who are called into full-time ministry. Their resumes reveal the inherent contradiction in what we (as churches) ask them to do when they submit their application: they must be a humble servant-leader and at the same time they must put forward their strengths and successes. Few manage the balance well.

How hard it is  to weigh a man by a piece of paper! We asked God to protect the resume of the man who is best suited to Cornerstone. We didn't want to dismiss one that was unimpressive or accept one that was glossy and slick just because they were unimpressive or slick. We meditated on those Bible passages which dealt with discernment and God's insight vs. our insight, because we realized that a man's life was at stake and we were likely to get it wrong without help.

But in the end, you feel like you are standing in a grocery store in the condiments aisle. All good quality. All tested. But which one goes best with Cornerstone, in God's opinion? Because we can't hire them all. Or would just anyone do?

Another aspect that came out early is that the committee must be the first to believe that God still has a plan to use Cornerstone for good in El Dorado Hills. In discussing this, we felt it would be dishonest to call a man to invest his life and his family's life here if we didn't believe God had something more for this church.

It is a slow process. "Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others." (1 Tim. 5:22a) From the time that we received the first application until the time we sent the first rejection letter was just over 3 months. That means that the lives of these pastors have been in suspense for at least that long. I feel for them. I answered each query about status personally. But at the same time, it just takes time. During that time, some have left their current positions anyway. Some have joined another ministry. Some are still seeking God's direction.

It's all good, because both the pastor and Cornerstone must follow God in service of his church. In thriving churches, senior pastors must sense the wind of the Spirit to steer the church into the life-giving role God has for it in the community.

John 1:23: Slow Train Coming

I've spent a lot of this past week on trains, both in Taiwan (to Jiaoxi and Taichung) and between Sacramento and the San Francisco airport. So its not surprising that I was reminded of chapter 14 of Rick Mckinley's book This Beautiful Mess, which is entitled "Slow Train Coming" The chapter refers to the iconic Bob Dylan album of the same name which features a picture of a rail crew laying track before an on-coming train. In this section, Mckinley talks about the already-here but not yet aspects of the kingdom of God.

Cover Art for Slow Train Coming by Bob Dylan

But to me it also reflects the already-here but not yet aspects of my work within the kingdom of God. On one hand, Jesus has already gone before me. As it says in Hebrews: "...Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Heb. 12:2a) He blazed the trail that I am following and prepared the way for me. Paul says: "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph. 2:10).

On the other hand, God has called me to break ground for those who would follow behind me in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is coming up behind, the "slow train" and I'm laying track. Talking about calling! John the Baptist said this: "Finally they said, “Who are you?" ... John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” (John 1:22-23) This is interesting, because only in John's biography of Jesus does it mention this appropriation of the prophecy as his mission. The others merely mention he was fulfilling it (cf. Mark 1:3, Matthew 3:3, Luke 3:4).

I sense that John's mission is my own: the make straight the way for the Lord. The prophecy John cited continues in the original (Isaiah 40): 

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. (Isa 40:4-5a)

There are many ways for this mission to take shape, but it the result is clear: the extension of the rule of God and the blessings of God where God has called me. Riding on the train, there are places where the track hugs the shoreline, and there are places where it strikes out easily across the plains. But the east side of Taiwan is rugged, mountainous country. Make the railway smooth enough for the train requires some major engineering and restructuring of the landscape. Look at Isaiah's language again: valleys raised up, mountains made low, rough become level, rugged becomes smooth.

So Jesus has blazed the trail, but now we lay the rail for the kingdom of God to come.

Amtrak Train Arriving At The Station

Colossians 3:24 Different Classes of Service

One day, a few years ago, this little sentence embedded in Paul's letter to the Colossians struck me: "It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (3:24b). Growing up in church as a kid, there always seemed to be a hierarchy of "service" to God. Upper class service was the work done by missionaries (always at the top of the heap), followed by pastors and then other full-time ministry workers and maybe full-time moms. Middle class service involved volunteering at church or in some para-church organization, and if you worked really hard you might be approaching upper class. Lower class service involved what people did in their jobs, which basically helped to make money to support the church and to give us an opportunity to evangelize our co-workers. Pastors never talked about kids growing up to be truck drivers, computer programmers or clinical biologists for God. No, if you were the good kids, you went for the pastorate or the foreign missionary life.

But this sentence, "It is the Lord Christ you are serving." gave me new perspective, because it comes right at the tail end of Paul's instructions to slaves:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. - Colossians 3:22-24

Slaves had no choice in their lowly tasks. Slaves had no choice in their lowly position. They couldn't choose to become a missionary or a pastor (see Onesimus in the book of Philemon). But they had a choice of boss: Jesus. With that choice, they gained the dignity of a calling as high and as spiritual as any pastor or missionary, because they are obedient. With Jesus as boss, he could reassign them at any time to those roles, or he ask them to remain in their current role. The notion of calling is not reserved for full-time ministry positions (cf. 1 Corinthians 7) but rather to being exactly where God placed you. And being invested where God placed you is the essence of godly living.

Paul told believers what their ambition should be:

...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thess. 4:11-12)

Don't worry, there is a balance here. I have every respect for those who are called into full-time ministry and I have seen first hand the necessity of God's hand in those professions. But I refuse to feel guilty or lower class because my gracious calling from Jesus is to write code and design firmware. Sermons and C++ code are both the product of grace and, as such, are from God (James 1:17).

There is more here, and a number of believers seem to be rediscovering the dignity of the other 24/6 portion of our lives before God. I'll share more later.

Judges 8: The Dangers of Being a Hero

When I was growing up, Sunday School was often full of the exciting stories from the Bible. The Lion's Den. Noah's Ark. David and Goliath. Gideon's 300 Men. Reading those same stories now, as an adult, makes me wish that I had learned the rest of their stories, because it turns out that being a "hero" can be a pretty dangerous profession, spiritually.

I had just finished reading Tim Keller's short, but profound, commentary on Judges and then was reading Judges again as part of my morning Bible reading when I came to chapter 8. Normally, in Sunday School, we only covered chapters 6 and 7, because that has all of the good bits about trimming down the army, using a fleece to determine God's plan, the visit to the Midianite army's camp and the noisy trumpet/pitcher/torch victory scene.

As in life, there is the hero's quest but then there's the hero's test.  The hero's quest involves overcoming the obstacles, internal and external, to reaching the goal. But the hero's test involves how you handle what comes after you've reached the goal. That's Judges, chapter 8.

In chapter 8, Gideon's men scatter the Midianite army and Gideon rallies the other tribes of Israel to cut off their retreat.

1. He has to downplay his own heroic deeds to placate one of the other tribes (8:1-3) that is much larger and more powerful.
2. When his heroic deeds are not recognized by people (8:4-9, 15-17) he promises and delivers revenge. (King David almost falls into the same trap in 1 Samuel 25)
3. He is taunted by his enemies about being the hero (8:18-21)
4. He turns down the offer of kingship, but takes the hero's reward, creates an idol in his home town (8:22-27), and draws Israel and his family away from God.

You can certainly see this played out in the world at large, and even within the microcosm of the church. We desire to be recognized and significant, not just in the eyes of God but in the eyes of other people. But we are clever enough to realize that if we are too blatant in our desire, it will back fire.

So it leads to a weird cycle of hide-it-crave-it-abuse-it behavior that we see in Gideon's life and ours as well. Gideon hides it from the Ephraimites who are more powerful, but wants it and takes it out on two villages who are less powerful. Gideon hides it from the Israelites by refusing to become king, but wants it and takes a reward, and then fashions it into the ephod that draws attention to his home town.

The cycle actually continues into the lives of Gideon's sons, especially Abimilek (vs. 31) in the next chapter: "They [Israel] also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them." (Judges 8:25)

In church, we see these same desires for recognition played out, just a different venue. We work hard in church and sacrifice our time and our money and, in some cases, our reputation for the good of the church. We are overlooked. And if we are noticed, we have to downplay it so that we don't look too prideful. Then we get hurt because no one noticed or angry because someone else got noticed or someone treated us carelessly. Or if we are noticed, we use it regularly in the future to subtly point attention back to ourselves (and away from God).

Helen pointed me to a quote by Oswald Chambers, where he said,

Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor it is sin. The trap we fall into is, extravagantly desiring spiritual success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live.

The truth is: Gideon didn't win because he was biggest, best or smartest, and neither do I. He won because he bet everything he did have on God and God is the biggest, best and smartest. Gideon's faith was nothing to shout about, it took two fleece miracles and a dream from God to move him along. But he had it. He bet everything because God... That phrase puts the credit right back where it belongs.

I struggle with this. I'm not sure how it plays out in every scenario. But I can see in Gideon's life and in my own life, the destructive down-side of needing to be recognized for my work in God's kingdom. And the positive up-side of recognizing God's win as my win.

John Paul in Taiwan

It's not the pope, but rather John Paul Lin. As I was walking down the mountain from visiting Wufengqi falls in Jiaoxi, Taiwan, he was riding up on his bicycle. He noticed me, crossed the road and asked me where I'd come from. I mentioned the falls to which he replied, "Did you also go to St. Mary's?" (referring to the Catholic Church nearby). I indicated I had not (I'd tried but got lost part way and turned around) and he said I should come back and try again.

It turns out that he is a volunteer at the church, welcoming the many visitors who come this time of year who are also visiting the falls. "You need God to transform your heart." Then as he left (he what overslept), he asked, "Do you have God in your heart?" "Absolutely," I replied. He said, "Good. He is the one who gives you all your good ideas. Innovation."

Amazing to meet a fellow pilgrim on a Saturday in Jiaoxi.

How Then Should I Search?

One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament is from Habakkuk 3:

Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known;
    in wrath remember mercy.

There are times when entropy seems to have taken hold of my world and, valiantly as I struggle, things fall apart. Oh, I run to fix them up, hold them together, and patch them with duct tape and the measure of the grace of God given me. But these days produce in me a deep longing for things to go right, for once! Many of my prayers have centered around this.

Worse is the creeping fear that Jesus has passed by and I didn't notice. Maybe I didn't notice because I'm just not smart enough. Or maybe I didn't want to notice.

The first one, I understand because I am continually discovering how ignorant I am and scrambling to recover. That's my job. Sheesh, that's my marriage. That's my life in the kingdom of God. So I search intently for evidence of God's movement (1 Peter 1:10-12). That is a disciple--an apprentice.

The second one is more subtle. Jesus told a story about people like us (Luke 14:15-24) who were too busy to go to the huge party, probably a wedding. They'd just purchased a new field, a new set of 5 oxen or they'd just gotten married themselves (cf. Deut. 24:5 and what it implies) and couldn't be bothered to celebrate. For us today, perhaps this might be a new business, a new car or a new relationship. They all are saying, in essence, "I'm in the middle of the good life. Don't bother me with what God is doing." We didn't miss God. We traded him away.

So I pray for God to show his power in my day, because I'm tired. But I also pray that I am ready to see, participate and celebrate.