Just finished my 5th school chapel service for the week. This is one of the great blessings of my ministry. For I receive so much from God through these experiences.
I do two preschool chapels for 3-4 year old's on Tuesday, then two more for 5 year old's on Wednesday, capped off with the Elementary School chapel. It is a lot of work to prepare for these services, especially after doing them for seven years and trying not to do the same devotions every year. It truly stretches my creativity, but it is amazing to see what God gives me when I am putting them together. Today, as I was putting the finishing touches on the Elementary School chapel on serving others because Jesus first served us, I was struck with the idea of wrapping it up with the song "Jesus loves me." But then God gave me a different verse.
"Jesus loves me this I know, for His children showed me so!
Showed me of His love so true, Jesus I will follow you!
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! His children showed me so!"
(Lutheran friends, please do not post me about introducing decision theology. Our proper response to being chosen by God is to follow Him, and we discuss this very early on.)
"The goal of our service is that people would know that Jesus loves them, just like Jesus served us on the cross so that we could know how much His Father loves us."
Preschool chapel keeps me grounded! There is nothing like singing, "My God is so big! So strong and so mighty! There's nothing my God cannot do...FOR YOU!" a half-dozen times in a day, then attend a Board of Director's meeting and realizing that this is just as true for the seemingly overwhelming problems of the church. God is big enough and strong enough to handle them all!
I am so blessed to be able to receive so much from God every week! I pray that God continues to bless Lutheran schools (and all Christian schools for that matter). That we would continue to bring the little children to Him. For we are blessed just as much as they are by the hand of the One to whom we come.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Leadership in the Family and Gender Differences (a revelation)
I was watching my daughters play with a friend from church and I was struck by a sudden profound revelation that impacts how married couples view leadership and why, at least in part, we struggle in our marriages.
As I said, I was watching the girls play when I realized that girls determine leadership very differently than boys. The girls decided on a general theme for the game, "school." Then the battle began. Everyone started trying to make the rules for the game: who would be the teacher, the students, sit in which desk, etc. The leader of the group was the one who finally asserted her will and was allowed to make the rule for the game. For girls, the leader is the rule maker.
Growing up, I was one of three brothers. When we decided to play a game the rules were agreed upon prior to beginning the game. Eg. Kickball: Number of outs, boundaries, can you get someone out by hitting them with the ball, etc. are all determined at the outset. The leader is determined by who picks the team. For boys, the leader is the team captain.
Can you see how different these two methods of determining leadership are? Now, consider the impact that this has on our spousal relationships. Who is the leader in the household according to these two different methods? The husband thinks that he is the leader of a game (marriage) whose rules are set. He is the leader because he picked the team (he gave her a ring and asked her to be on his team). He is the team captain, and when you are the captain you are the leader for the duration of the game ('till death do us part!).
The woman goes into the relationship with the expectation that they have agreed upon a general premise of play (marriage), but the leader will be determined by who makes the rules. So, early on in the new relationship she begins to establish her leadership by changing (or determining) the rules of the game!
Can you see the chaos that can ensue? The husband thinks the rules are set and the wife keeps changing them. But every boy knows that you can't change the rules once the game starts! The wife, however, cannot understand when her husband is having such a hard time adjusting to the rule changes on the fly. After all, every girl knows that the leader has the right and is full expected to exert her authority by adjusting the rules in the middle of the game. It is the followers job to keep up and adapt.
The way that we learn how leadership is determined and exercised, according to our gender, impacts our expectations of marriage in our spouse, but we are playing with two very different expectations. These two views of leadership within the marriage are not only incongruent, they are incompatible. Both think they are the leader, and are likely making each other crazy because the other is not playing according to the same leadership definitions and expectations.
Let me know what you think. I could be crazy...just ask my wife!
As I said, I was watching the girls play when I realized that girls determine leadership very differently than boys. The girls decided on a general theme for the game, "school." Then the battle began. Everyone started trying to make the rules for the game: who would be the teacher, the students, sit in which desk, etc. The leader of the group was the one who finally asserted her will and was allowed to make the rule for the game. For girls, the leader is the rule maker.
Growing up, I was one of three brothers. When we decided to play a game the rules were agreed upon prior to beginning the game. Eg. Kickball: Number of outs, boundaries, can you get someone out by hitting them with the ball, etc. are all determined at the outset. The leader is determined by who picks the team. For boys, the leader is the team captain.
Can you see how different these two methods of determining leadership are? Now, consider the impact that this has on our spousal relationships. Who is the leader in the household according to these two different methods? The husband thinks that he is the leader of a game (marriage) whose rules are set. He is the leader because he picked the team (he gave her a ring and asked her to be on his team). He is the team captain, and when you are the captain you are the leader for the duration of the game ('till death do us part!).
The woman goes into the relationship with the expectation that they have agreed upon a general premise of play (marriage), but the leader will be determined by who makes the rules. So, early on in the new relationship she begins to establish her leadership by changing (or determining) the rules of the game!
Can you see the chaos that can ensue? The husband thinks the rules are set and the wife keeps changing them. But every boy knows that you can't change the rules once the game starts! The wife, however, cannot understand when her husband is having such a hard time adjusting to the rule changes on the fly. After all, every girl knows that the leader has the right and is full expected to exert her authority by adjusting the rules in the middle of the game. It is the followers job to keep up and adapt.
The way that we learn how leadership is determined and exercised, according to our gender, impacts our expectations of marriage in our spouse, but we are playing with two very different expectations. These two views of leadership within the marriage are not only incongruent, they are incompatible. Both think they are the leader, and are likely making each other crazy because the other is not playing according to the same leadership definitions and expectations.
Let me know what you think. I could be crazy...just ask my wife!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Living in a Pandora World
If you don't know the Greek myth of Pandora, you should. It speaks poigntly into the current secular world view. Here is the myth in a nutshell:
Pandora (whose name means literally "all-gifted," but can be translated "well-endowed") was the first woman. She was created by Hephaestus (the god of craftsmanship) at Zeus' command. She was the then granted wonderful gifts by the other gods to honor Zeus (beauty from Aphrodite, music from Apollo, etc.). As humanity begins to grow, Prometheus has pitty on them for they live more like beasts than gods and so he steals fire from Mount Olympus and gives it to them. Zeus now fears that man shall become like the gods (are you picking up some Eden-type themes here?). Zeus reasons that man's curiosity and self-determination will be insatiable, and decides to play on that. He entrusts Pandora with a jar (not actually a box) with a warning that it contains great power and should never be opened. Pandora is indeed overcome by her curiosity and upon opening the jar releases into the world all manner of evil and violence. But Zeus' greatest revenge is not in the loosing of evil, but in what lay on the bottom of the Jar. As Pandora realizes what she has done she quickly replaces the lid to the jar trapping its final component: hope. Thus the world was plunged into a hopeless struggle with all manner of evil.
This view of the world has held to our present day. People live lives of despair and hopelessness as they realize that evil does appear to be winning. But here is the difference between truth and the lie. God has dealt with our Pandora reality, by birthing hope into the world.
For it was into this world of hopelessness that a baby was born. He was a child unlike any other. All children bring with them a sense of hope for the future, but this child did not bring hope, this child was hope. In Jesus, the Father loosed hope into the world. Jesus came to set the children of God free. He would take the evil loosed upon the world in the fall of mankind into Himself, bottling it up forever, and in turn He would release hope from the bottom of the jar into a world that desperately needs it. The truth is that Jesus reversed the curse.
I am not claiming that the Pandora myth is true, but its parallels to the fall of mankind in the garden is striking, at least as far as the consequences are concerned. And what a beautiful illustration it makes that Jesus looses the hope bottled up in our hearts, that it might be free to reign among us. That we might be the people of Hope in a Pandora world.
This was the basis for my Christmas message this past December. You can hear it at www.risenchristlcms.org and click the sermons button.
Pandora (whose name means literally "all-gifted," but can be translated "well-endowed") was the first woman. She was created by Hephaestus (the god of craftsmanship) at Zeus' command. She was the then granted wonderful gifts by the other gods to honor Zeus (beauty from Aphrodite, music from Apollo, etc.). As humanity begins to grow, Prometheus has pitty on them for they live more like beasts than gods and so he steals fire from Mount Olympus and gives it to them. Zeus now fears that man shall become like the gods (are you picking up some Eden-type themes here?). Zeus reasons that man's curiosity and self-determination will be insatiable, and decides to play on that. He entrusts Pandora with a jar (not actually a box) with a warning that it contains great power and should never be opened. Pandora is indeed overcome by her curiosity and upon opening the jar releases into the world all manner of evil and violence. But Zeus' greatest revenge is not in the loosing of evil, but in what lay on the bottom of the Jar. As Pandora realizes what she has done she quickly replaces the lid to the jar trapping its final component: hope. Thus the world was plunged into a hopeless struggle with all manner of evil.
This view of the world has held to our present day. People live lives of despair and hopelessness as they realize that evil does appear to be winning. But here is the difference between truth and the lie. God has dealt with our Pandora reality, by birthing hope into the world.
For it was into this world of hopelessness that a baby was born. He was a child unlike any other. All children bring with them a sense of hope for the future, but this child did not bring hope, this child was hope. In Jesus, the Father loosed hope into the world. Jesus came to set the children of God free. He would take the evil loosed upon the world in the fall of mankind into Himself, bottling it up forever, and in turn He would release hope from the bottom of the jar into a world that desperately needs it. The truth is that Jesus reversed the curse.
I am not claiming that the Pandora myth is true, but its parallels to the fall of mankind in the garden is striking, at least as far as the consequences are concerned. And what a beautiful illustration it makes that Jesus looses the hope bottled up in our hearts, that it might be free to reign among us. That we might be the people of Hope in a Pandora world.
This was the basis for my Christmas message this past December. You can hear it at www.risenchristlcms.org and click the sermons button.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Somethings (Men and Women) Never Change.
I was reading through the Easter text again this Sunday in preparation for reading it to the congregation and almost burst out laughing. I had read it many times in sermon prep, etc., but this time it just struck me differently. Luke 24: 1-12 was the text. The women see the empty tomb, hear the angels' Good News, and race back to the disciples and tell them what they had experienced. Now here was the laugh-out-loud text: v. 11 "But [the men] did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (NIV).
What a perfect example of our normal relational interactions. The women are ranting about some experience, probably all talking at once in their excitement, and the men can't keep up! What are they talking about? What nonsense!
As a husband and father of 3 beautiful little girls I can relate to those poor disciples. All the girls are talking at once. I can't keep up with all the words of any one of them on a good day. I have no chance of processing it all at once. So, I begin to tune them out. "I obviously know better on this (or any other subject for that matter)," I think in my haughty male ego. What nonsense! Have you ever been there? Can you relate from which ever side of the aisle you are on?
This is what I love about the Bible, it is so painfully honest. No one trying to create this story for their glory would include these details. Yet when you stop and think about it, it has to be exactly the way it happened. It is exactly what would have happened if it were my family instead of the women and the disciples. This is the way men and women interact all the time: chaos, doubt, arrogance, too much information too poorly processed.
Here's the other part that hits a little too close to home. The women were right! The "nonsense" was a bulls-eye. (Ouch!)
So, gentlemen, then next time you are tempted to dismiss the words of the significant female in your life, stop and think about this passage. Then try a little harder to keep up with her. Because chances are she is...you know...
What a perfect example of our normal relational interactions. The women are ranting about some experience, probably all talking at once in their excitement, and the men can't keep up! What are they talking about? What nonsense!
As a husband and father of 3 beautiful little girls I can relate to those poor disciples. All the girls are talking at once. I can't keep up with all the words of any one of them on a good day. I have no chance of processing it all at once. So, I begin to tune them out. "I obviously know better on this (or any other subject for that matter)," I think in my haughty male ego. What nonsense! Have you ever been there? Can you relate from which ever side of the aisle you are on?
This is what I love about the Bible, it is so painfully honest. No one trying to create this story for their glory would include these details. Yet when you stop and think about it, it has to be exactly the way it happened. It is exactly what would have happened if it were my family instead of the women and the disciples. This is the way men and women interact all the time: chaos, doubt, arrogance, too much information too poorly processed.
Here's the other part that hits a little too close to home. The women were right! The "nonsense" was a bulls-eye. (Ouch!)
So, gentlemen, then next time you are tempted to dismiss the words of the significant female in your life, stop and think about this passage. Then try a little harder to keep up with her. Because chances are she is...you know...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Systematic Thinking Is Not Dead!!!
One of the joys of our reorganization at Risen Christ has been the creative thinking of our leadership team. They come to an understanding that one of the hindrances to our people growing was the "Jeopardy Sunday Topic of the Week!" For all of the benefits of the lectionary readings, one of the main problems is that it throws up a random thought of the week about God. People are trained in our culture to think systematically. Yet when we want to teach them the most important truths in creation, we do it in random fashion. We don't learn how to fix a car, plant a garden, or budget our income randomly. Why do we learn about God this way? What a great insight from a layperson!
Worse than this, we discovered that we were sending a dozen or more messages out each Sunday that did not fit together. The church sign said one thing, the hymns were on something different, the message was a third, the Sunday School material different from any of these, and if both parents went to different classes they might have five different topics in Sunday School.
The decision was made at Risen Christ to begin to channel everything to a single topic. The church sign, the songs, the message, Sunday school, both adult and children. What an unbelievable response. I have heard from many people who love being able to talk to their kids Sunday afternoon about the topic for the day, because they learned it well enough to be comfortable discussing it! Our consecutive Sundays are beginning to move systematically through issues of God and faith and people are connecting the dots! Discipleship is happening. People are learning and applying.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Systematic thinking is not dead in the church, but people are starving for lack of it in too many churches. I would challenge you to give it a try. I think you will be amazed at the response from people who honestly didn't know what they were missing, but knew they were missing something
Worse than this, we discovered that we were sending a dozen or more messages out each Sunday that did not fit together. The church sign said one thing, the hymns were on something different, the message was a third, the Sunday School material different from any of these, and if both parents went to different classes they might have five different topics in Sunday School.
The decision was made at Risen Christ to begin to channel everything to a single topic. The church sign, the songs, the message, Sunday school, both adult and children. What an unbelievable response. I have heard from many people who love being able to talk to their kids Sunday afternoon about the topic for the day, because they learned it well enough to be comfortable discussing it! Our consecutive Sundays are beginning to move systematically through issues of God and faith and people are connecting the dots! Discipleship is happening. People are learning and applying.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Systematic thinking is not dead in the church, but people are starving for lack of it in too many churches. I would challenge you to give it a try. I think you will be amazed at the response from people who honestly didn't know what they were missing, but knew they were missing something
Thursday, July 30, 2009
God's Vision of Discipleship--Just Sharing Life
I promised last month that I would discuss my vision of our congregation as we move forward into the beautiful future God has for us.
If you have never read The Shack, by William Paul Young you really owe it to yourself to do so. It a repository of profound and beautiful reflections on God in a very creative format. Here is one such moment, a discussion about God’s vision for the church. Mack, the main character, is talking to Jesus.
(Mack has just complained that the church he attends does not reflect the beautiful bride that Jesus has been describing)
“Mack, that’s because you’re seeing only the institution, a man-made system. That’s not what I came to build. What I see are people and their lives, a living, breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs,” Jesus replied.
… “So how do I become part of that church?” Mack asked. “This woman you seem to be so gaga over.”
“It’s simple, Mack. It’s all about relationships and simply sharing life. What we are doing right now—just doing this—and being open and available to others around us. My church is all about people, and life is all about relationships. You can’t build it. It’s my job, and I’m actually pretty good at it,” Jesus said with a chuckle.
For Mack these words were like a breath of fresh air! Simple. Not a bunch of exhausting work and a long list of demands, and not sitting in endless meetings staring at the backs of people’s heads, people he really didn’t even know. Just sharing life (emphasis mine). [p. 180]
When Jesus modeled the life of discipleship, what did it look like? It looked like a bunch of dissimilar men and women who shared a love for God and a love for Jesus who were doing life together. They ate together, shared their hopes and dreams, shouldered each other’s burdens, fought like siblings, and grew to maturity in Christ. The church, as God modeled it, was about His children sharing their lives together in His presence.
It was not primarily about Sunday morning worship, serving on a committee, creating a new program, or any of the exhausting things we undertake in the name of Christ, as important as those things can be. It was about people walking together where Jesus was leading and doing the things He asked them to do when they got where they were going.
If we are doing all of those other things that we think of as church activity, without living daily in community with disciples in Jesus’ presence, then we are not being the church Jesus envisioned.
Now please hear me correctly. I am not proposing that we scrap everything into which we have been putting so much effort of late. Programs have an important place. Sunday morning has an important place. Committees have an important place. However, none of them is the main thing. The sum of them is not the main thing. The main thing is living life together as disciples of Christ. Gathering in communities where dissimilar men and women (and children) can eat together, share their hopes and dreams, shoulder each other’s burdens, fight like siblings, and grow to maturity in Christ.
This is the sense of belonging most people are truly looking for in their lives. They often come to the church and don’t find it because we have lost the main thing in the minutia of ministry. My vision for Risen Christ is to make the main thing the main thing. Discipleship is the priority. Living life together. Read Acts 2: 42-47 again and ask yourself one question. Would you want to join a church like that? Then why not do everything we can to be that church for each other, and those God is calling into our midst.
If you have never read The Shack, by William Paul Young you really owe it to yourself to do so. It a repository of profound and beautiful reflections on God in a very creative format. Here is one such moment, a discussion about God’s vision for the church. Mack, the main character, is talking to Jesus.
(Mack has just complained that the church he attends does not reflect the beautiful bride that Jesus has been describing)
“Mack, that’s because you’re seeing only the institution, a man-made system. That’s not what I came to build. What I see are people and their lives, a living, breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs,” Jesus replied.
… “So how do I become part of that church?” Mack asked. “This woman you seem to be so gaga over.”
“It’s simple, Mack. It’s all about relationships and simply sharing life. What we are doing right now—just doing this—and being open and available to others around us. My church is all about people, and life is all about relationships. You can’t build it. It’s my job, and I’m actually pretty good at it,” Jesus said with a chuckle.
For Mack these words were like a breath of fresh air! Simple. Not a bunch of exhausting work and a long list of demands, and not sitting in endless meetings staring at the backs of people’s heads, people he really didn’t even know. Just sharing life (emphasis mine). [p. 180]
When Jesus modeled the life of discipleship, what did it look like? It looked like a bunch of dissimilar men and women who shared a love for God and a love for Jesus who were doing life together. They ate together, shared their hopes and dreams, shouldered each other’s burdens, fought like siblings, and grew to maturity in Christ. The church, as God modeled it, was about His children sharing their lives together in His presence.
It was not primarily about Sunday morning worship, serving on a committee, creating a new program, or any of the exhausting things we undertake in the name of Christ, as important as those things can be. It was about people walking together where Jesus was leading and doing the things He asked them to do when they got where they were going.
If we are doing all of those other things that we think of as church activity, without living daily in community with disciples in Jesus’ presence, then we are not being the church Jesus envisioned.
Now please hear me correctly. I am not proposing that we scrap everything into which we have been putting so much effort of late. Programs have an important place. Sunday morning has an important place. Committees have an important place. However, none of them is the main thing. The sum of them is not the main thing. The main thing is living life together as disciples of Christ. Gathering in communities where dissimilar men and women (and children) can eat together, share their hopes and dreams, shoulder each other’s burdens, fight like siblings, and grow to maturity in Christ.
This is the sense of belonging most people are truly looking for in their lives. They often come to the church and don’t find it because we have lost the main thing in the minutia of ministry. My vision for Risen Christ is to make the main thing the main thing. Discipleship is the priority. Living life together. Read Acts 2: 42-47 again and ask yourself one question. Would you want to join a church like that? Then why not do everything we can to be that church for each other, and those God is calling into our midst.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Power of Vision
Proverbs 29: 18a (KJV)
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish.
This has never been driven home for me as it has in watching other congregations go through the renewal process. One church I work with in Cincinnati found itself in an economically changing community. They had a thriving school that went through Jr. High. The school was their outreach, their purpose, their identity. Because of changes in the community, and a season of strife in the congregation, they were forced to close the school. They found themselves adrift in a community they no longer knew, without a purpose apart from Sunday morning worship.
As I worked with the church, I discovered a dynamic and passionate leadership team who were eager to be about God’s mission. They began to examine their community, congregational assets, and leadership passions in detail. What they discovered is that God had a vision for them. They were being called to meet the educational needs of children and parents in the community in new and powerful ways.
They are just beginning to talk about their new dream. They have yet to implement, or even flesh out the plan in its entirety, and yet the energy is becoming electric. One member approached the pastor after a recent Sunday service, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, said, “I have a complaint, pastor. I had to park in the back of the parking lot for the first time in four years!” That is the power of vision. A church was perishing because it lacked vision. With a vision of God’s plan for their church, they are already beginning to thrive.
What is the vision of God’s purpose at Risen Christ? Take a moment before you read on and think about it. If your neighbor asked you that question, would you have a response?
While the leadership team is wrestling with this question in a holistic way, the first part of our answer is as follows. “Risen Christ Lutheran Church exists to bring spiritually barren people into a fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ.” Read it again. What does it say to you? Where can spiritually barren people be found? In our neighborhoods? In our places of employment? In unhealthy churches? In our midst? (Did I just hear an “ouch”?)
What does it mean for someone to be in a “fruitful relationship” with Jesus Christ? What would that look like? What would the marks of that be? How could you tell someone who is in a fruitful relationship with Jesus, from someone who is just playing church?
It is not enough for me to tell you what I think the answers are, you must wrestle with this yourself if you are to own the vision in your own discipleship journey. I will give you some of my thoughts next month.
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish.
This has never been driven home for me as it has in watching other congregations go through the renewal process. One church I work with in Cincinnati found itself in an economically changing community. They had a thriving school that went through Jr. High. The school was their outreach, their purpose, their identity. Because of changes in the community, and a season of strife in the congregation, they were forced to close the school. They found themselves adrift in a community they no longer knew, without a purpose apart from Sunday morning worship.
As I worked with the church, I discovered a dynamic and passionate leadership team who were eager to be about God’s mission. They began to examine their community, congregational assets, and leadership passions in detail. What they discovered is that God had a vision for them. They were being called to meet the educational needs of children and parents in the community in new and powerful ways.
They are just beginning to talk about their new dream. They have yet to implement, or even flesh out the plan in its entirety, and yet the energy is becoming electric. One member approached the pastor after a recent Sunday service, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, said, “I have a complaint, pastor. I had to park in the back of the parking lot for the first time in four years!” That is the power of vision. A church was perishing because it lacked vision. With a vision of God’s plan for their church, they are already beginning to thrive.
What is the vision of God’s purpose at Risen Christ? Take a moment before you read on and think about it. If your neighbor asked you that question, would you have a response?
While the leadership team is wrestling with this question in a holistic way, the first part of our answer is as follows. “Risen Christ Lutheran Church exists to bring spiritually barren people into a fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ.” Read it again. What does it say to you? Where can spiritually barren people be found? In our neighborhoods? In our places of employment? In unhealthy churches? In our midst? (Did I just hear an “ouch”?)
What does it mean for someone to be in a “fruitful relationship” with Jesus Christ? What would that look like? What would the marks of that be? How could you tell someone who is in a fruitful relationship with Jesus, from someone who is just playing church?
It is not enough for me to tell you what I think the answers are, you must wrestle with this yourself if you are to own the vision in your own discipleship journey. I will give you some of my thoughts next month.
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