Why I do what I do

So I’m sitting in a hospital room visiting with a member of our congregation last night, and he’s telling me about all the ways that our church has helped him get closer to God. We are, it appears, not very judgmental, so he felt at home and kept coming back, and feels closer to Jesus than he ever did before. We encouraged our people to start really digging into God’s Word on a daily basis with the Life Journal and he and his wife have been reading the Bible like they didn’t used to. It’s good to do what I do after all! It’s good to serve here. It’s good to be alive.

All split up

We all went our separate ways for our breakouts today at the Arts Conference… And we all learned so much that it is just about making our heads explode! My session on working with a Creative Team was just revolutionary. My other colleagues learned so much about their areas, too. Just wonderful. Learning is what it’s all about, folks. Learning is one of the great joys in life. So today was pretty joyful. It was neat to sit in a session with Nancy Beach, one of the teaching pastors at Willow, and learn that the challenges and failures and successes that they have and the ones we have are way more similar than I would have guessed. THANK YOU Nancy!

Lunch!

So they asked me to be part of a lunch to talk about leadership challenges here at the Arts Conference. It was cool, because I’ve been to (now) three arts conferences, and this year will be my eighth Leadership Summit (Read about all this stuff at the Willow Creek Association website here.) They bribed me with Cheesecake, and the piece they gave the few of us that went to this lunch was so much bigger than the one they gave the rest of the attenders that I just had to take a picture. Here it is.

Day 1 - ARISE

Nancy Beach’s first session was a great reminder that we need to retreat to be able to create art that redeems. We need that time spent with our Father to be able to use our time to encourage believers and encourage people who want to become believers. The time away in solitude seems like a waste of time to so many in this world, but it’s a great use of our time from our Heavenly Father’s perspective. Take some time today and just be quiet with God. More later…

Be more quiet now…

Lately I’ve been privvy to a lot more people arguing and debating (usually just arguing) than normal. Could it be that we don’t remember how to be slow to speak and quick to listen? I know I forget that… all the time… Guess I should shut up now…

My problem with Joshua…

I have a great book in my library called “Hard Sayings of the Bible“. It helps me understand some of the things that are “tough” in the Bible, but it is really silent on my biggest “problem” with scripture. The book of Joshua, which I’ve been reading as part of my “Life Journal” (For those of you who go to TCC, you can get one at our Resource Center). Here’s the same God in the Bible that loves us enough to send His Son to die for our sins, and he’s instructing the Israelites to go on these wanton killing sprees. I have heard the explanations, but it’s still hard to take. It makes God seem really distant to me. And maybe that’s the point. God is very distant from me. He is holy, and I’m not. He is omniscient, and I’m not. I guess what it means for me is that these stories that make me feel God is so far away balance with the story of Jesus, who isn’t content just to be near us, or even around us, but loves us so much that He wants to be in us. And sometimes, that’s almost more than I can believe, too. But in a good way. I guess what I’m saying is I’d rather have Jesus living inside and through me than answers to the tough questions… Jesus, be in my head and heart today, and let me be some of Your mercy and grace in a fallen and broken world.

Here comes Easter

Seriously, for those of us who work in the church, especially if our responsibility is the weekend service, this is an exhausting week. I’m already tired, and it’s only Thursday morning! But fortunately for me, I’m not worrying. My worship team for the weekend had an UNBELIEVABLE night of rehearsal last night, the sermon is going to be great, the media is all set, and it’s great, too. In short, God has worked with us humble sinners to craft what I think will be a life-changing service for some, and a rousing time of worship celebration of our Lord’s resurrection for all. I hope a lot of churches have the kind of joyful awesome worship celebration for Easter that we’re going to have at Tri-County.

Just don’t…

…I’ve run into a lot of judgement in the church and in the world lately (but, thankfully, not really in my church… WAY TO GO! TCC… Keep on loving!). Maybe because it’s election time and a lot of people seem to be pretty unsatisfied with their choices (Is that any different than normal?). But God sent His Son and poured out all that love and mercy on us. Let’s be agents of grace… and let’s not be agents of judgement. That’s all…

Who am I anyway?

So… I get to go and lead worship for a retreat full of teenagers this weekend. I can’t help thinking that I don’t have as much to offer in terms of spiritual enlightenment as they might think I do. I’m just a regular guy after all. So what do we do with that? What do we do with the fact that we aren’t all we’re cracked up to be in other people’s eyes sometimes? I think of Romans 7. Honesty really is the best policy after all. Hey, if Paul can do it, why not me? After all, I’m wretched and miserable, too!

Too much pain

I’ve been so overcome by all the difficulty in so many lives these days. Loved ones lost to horrible tragedies. Hopes dashed by unforeseen circumstances. Jobs lost. Relationships ended. I have to admit, when pressed, that I do sometimes wonder where God is when people suffer because of things they’ve done, or things others have done… or not done. I understand about free will, but I know that a good father will often stop his young child from doing something in their free will that will hurt them (like walking out into traffic), and I find myself wishing God would do some more of that. So don’t get me wrong, I still believe God at His Word, but I don’t always like the way he chooses to leave things. And then I remember Psalm 88, one of my favorites, because it reminds us that even among God’s people, in God’s word, there is pain, there is lament, and there is even sometimes a momentary feeling of hopelessness. If you know someone who has lost deeply, or is hurting right now, take a moment and read that psalm and pray for them. Or for yourself, if it’s you!