The Call

so after the whirlwind of Easter there is another whirlwind in my life... a church called Christ Lutheran in Kansas City (overland park) has called me to be their senior pastor (i should note that i didn't intend any puns by talking about kansas and whirlwinds:) ). I got to announce it to St. Matthew this weekend and am looking forward to God giving me some serious clarity in the week(s) to come.

I realize that the concept of a "call" might not be that familiar to people today so i thought i'd explain it a little bit too.
First, i wasn't out job-hunting. The way this stuff usually works is that a church who is in search of a pastor (like Christ Lutheran) will start by gathering names. They'll get them from all kinds of sources: congregation members, church district offices, other pastors and church-workers. Then they'll go through the list and begin prayerfully removing those that don't seem to have the gift set, experience, or style to lead their church. Then many (though not all) of these churches will do phone interviews and subsequent on-site interviews. After that the team of people who is conducting the process on the congregation's behalf will prayerfully recommend a name or names to the entire congregation to prayerfully vote on. There's lots of prayer in this!

So now i've got TWO calls. God has already called me to serve at St. Matthew and that's where i've been plugging along the last (nearly) 3 years. And now I've got a call to Christ Lutheran. I think this is the place where a "call process" is pretty different than other job-change situations. I am charged with finding out what it is that God wants me to do. He's got plans for his Church and churches all over the world and his plans are best.

So instead of sitting around and matching up "pros and cons" alone, there is this other element. I believe it is possible that God could have one situation look 4x better in every facet of ministry but STILL desire a person to serve at the other.

And that's what makes this so hard. Right now i'm weighing out all the pros and cons, trying to figure out where God might be able to best use the man he's made me to be... and yet i realize that God does seemingly illogical "calls" all throughout the Bible. He does things that don't always make sense, but end up working out far better than any human imagination could've conceived.

This is the most boring post ever, i think-sorry about that.

I'll leave it at this, please pray for jocelyn and me. We want to do what will mean the most for the Reign of Jesus, Christ in the world. But we willingly admit, we might not know what that is.

An angelic messenger would sure be nice!

love me; love my dog

my mother-in-law has a very old Maltese named barkley. He's getting senile and mean (not to mention the fact that he's even outlived his own bladder control). But she loves her dog. Now some of you may know how i feel about pets (or should i say how my eyes, nose, and throat feel about pets? i'm allergic to most) even the pets i'm not allergic to i have a hard time warming up to. But i try to be careful around my mother-in-law, because she really does love her dog.

My father-in-law is always saying that he never knew the truth of the phrase, "love me; love my dog" until now (i admit i've never knew there was such a phrase) But it's definitely a phrase that carries truth! All of us in the family try to tolerate old barkley because he's so loved by my mother-in-law and we love her.

On this Valentine's Day i got to thinking of God's greatest commandments. Jesus said there was really only one, but kinda two. "love the LORD your God with all your heart...." that one makes a lot of sense. Then he said, "love your neighbor as yourself."

I've noticed that it is very difficult for most Christ-followers to take God seriously on the second one. Loving God sounds great. Loving yourself that's not bad either. but loving others? Hear me on this

If you aren't actively "loving others," then please start questioning the sincerity of your love for God.

Because these aren't really two different commands. They are one in the same, Jesus remarks that this "second command" is just like the first one. See, it's the "love me; love my dog" principle. I CANNOT say i truly love my mother-in-law (and i do!) if I refuse to consider her love for her pup. If we want to love God then that means we don't just tell him over and over in the words of a praise song or hymn, but that means we consider who/what he loves and work our tails off trying to love those things too.

Here's the big point: though God loves it when we pray, worship, make good choices, are generous, etc., the Scriptures teach that there is ONE THING that God loves above all... people, not just "good" people or "Christian" people, but all people (look here too).

I am definitely not perfect in my love for God (and by extension those that God loves) but i am getting less tolerant of Christ-followers who can claim to love God greatly but are going through life either ignoring or outright disdaining those that God loves. I'm assuming that most of us just don't know better. But now we do! Please don't claim to love God while you're punting his loved ones across the room, you're only deceiving yourself. I ask that anyone reading this does a heart-check and a scripture-check (i've provided references above as links) and begin loving God in a new way today... after all, it IS valentine's day :)

who's the problem?

was at a conference today at a local church known for it's ability to change. I'll be back there today. There were some good talks given about the necessity of change, and also some of the keys were given to helping a church change. It wasn't about change for "change sake" which is good, i think in my life sometimes change is an idol, it's my boredom-rescuer. The change they were talking about is the good kind; changing to become more missional (even if i don't 100% agree with their outcomes).

PLEASE NOTE: by talking about change, i'm not trying to bash st. matthew, i love what God has done/is doing at st. matt. Still, change is necessary for all of us, daily being transformed and conformed into the likeness of Christ, individually and as a body. So st. matthew people, don't get ruffled that one of your pastors thinks we need to change, truth is we DO! we all do and so does every church in the world!

Throughout all the sessions yesterday i had this battle with myself, who is the problem? i'm sure you've experienced something similar. i might blame the people in the congregation for being too resistant. or i might blame our history for being too enslaving over us. i want to look at other staff people and point out their inadequacies. or i even might blame our denomination for being too confining. All of those outcomes feel good for a second because that means i'm not really a part of the problem, they fuel pride (the bad kind)- i come out smelling like a rose (or something equally nice-smelling but more manly).

But i also find that pride is damning. All of these attempts at pointing the finger make me feel good for a second, but they also make me feel totally hopeless.

Truth is, if i'm a leader worth my salt (BTW, i've noticed that you can by like 20 pounds of salt for a nickle, so that means i'm worth about 40 cents?), i should be able to bring noble change to whatever God has entrusted into my hands.

I am the problem.

and maybe that's n0t a distinction i share alone, but i'm certainly a part of it. I guess part of that is an ego killer. Perhaps i'm not the leader that i thought i was. But the surprise that comes along with this acknowledgment is hope. Godly change can happen and "i'm staring with the man in the mirror" (please read/sing the previous line with all of mr. jackson's vocal hiccups, emotion, and slick moves-go ahead it's friday!)

So now i AM talking to you who might be a part of St. Matthew, or i guess any other local church on earth. What are you doing to make sure that your heart is being won over (changed, transformed) in greater measure, day by day, by Jesus Christ? AND what are you doing to help others experience this same kind of transformation?

It really does start with any/all of us who care. You don't need a pulpit or an elected position. one thing is needful-live out the transformation that Jesus is working in you, and love others enough to invite them in on it. it sounds trite, or overdone, but (for right now at least) it's an amazingly hopeful proposition.