Musing About Good Friday

In preparation for next week's Good Friday service I have been going through my files looking over some notes from past years' services.

As food for thought, here are some themes I have previously used

2000 Retelling the Passion narrative

2001 Why did Jesus have to die? (Romans 3:23-26)

2003 Readings from the Gospel directing us to the Table and the Cross
(Pastor and Minister of Music)

2005 A Sermon from the Cross -- It is Finished (Psalm 22)

2006 Divine Power Displayed from the Cross (Mark 15.37-39)

2008 Thinking about Isaiah 53

My goal in these services are twofold. One, to recognize and consider the events of Jesus' death. Two, to prepare for Celebration of the Resurrection.

We can't get to Sunday, without walking through Friday.

May God bless you as you prepare.

Musing About Jonah

Last night we arrived at Jonah in the Story of God. Here a few thoughts I carried away from the study....

• Jonah's desire to flee from the presence of the LORD is mentioned three different times but is shown to be impossible by the storm (and the fish...and plant....and the worm....and the wind).
• Even though sailors did not want to throw Jonah overboard, when the storm immediately settled with his expulsion, they did not circle around to pick him back up.
• It is not clear when Jonah came to his senses. When the hit the water? When he hit the ocean floor? When he was attacked by a giant fish? Or on the first, second or third day inside the big fish?
• Jonah's biggest problem was he did not find the character of God trustworthy(4.2).
• Jonah is the only person who can tell this story. He seems conflicted at the end of the story...and it does not seem to have gotten any better by the time he tells his story to others.

If one studies the book to understand Jonah one will be surely disappointed. If we study to discover God, we will be enlightened. Jonah is not about Jonah, it is about God.

But maybe the biggest question to consider is why this mission trip to Nineveh? It seems so out of context with this point of the Biblical narrative. Even in the gospels Jesus is not ready to launch a Gentile mission. There is no other similar Gentile mission in all the Old Testament. What is going on here?

I believe that God wanted to show the Israelites back home that He would forgive. He forgave the Assyrians. He would certainly forgive His own people.

He also wanted to point out that even the horrendous Ninevites were willing to repent. Why wouldn't His own people repent?

Jonah is not about Jonah and the message is not entirely about Nineveh.

Quotable Thursdays

The internet is abuzz about the new feature here at musings...Quotable Thursdays. QT is a gathering of thoughts I have recently encountered and considered worth remembering. Quotable Thursdays is guaranteed to be published on....some Thursdays.

Lady and Gentleman (a nod to actual audience size) the inaugural QT....

"There is no passivity in the attainment of holiness. "
John Stott

"The important thing about eternal life is not its duration but its quality."
John Stott

"For the witchery of paltry things obscures what it is right."
Wisdom 4:12
(too true for even a Baptist to ignore)

"When you mix religion and politics you get....politics."
Ed Stetzer via twitter

"If the king of England arrogates to himself the right to spew out falsehoods, he gives me the right to stuff them back down his throat."
Martin Luther concerning Henry VIII
(if he didn't so oppose the concept, I think Luther would be the patron saint of the blogosphere)

What have you encountered that was worth remembering?

Why Church Membership Matters

Tomorrow night, as part of our midweek series 10 Things Every Christian Needs to Know I will be discussing why church membership matters.

When I mentioned the topic on Facebook a friend replied “Do tell. I have never understood why it was that important.”

Here is some of what I shared with my friend. (I think the teaching is much sharper with my friend in mind than just thinking about the Wednesday night crowd at First Baptist Church.)

So why does church membership matter?

To begin with I think church connectedness matters far more than church membership (paperwork). I have always had great people in our church that for whatever reason never "joined" the church but were wonderfully plugged into the full life of the church. I have also had many people join the church and never show up again. (I have never understood that. Why join if you don't plan on coming back?)

Paperwork isn't what matters. (But also a person shouldn't rebel against solely against paperwork either. We have paperwork in a ton of other places where it doesn't seem to bother us.)

Here are the clearest benefits to church connectedness.

* Element of identification.

An active statement that says "That group of people that have had their lives transformed and reordered by Jesus....I am with that group. I am one of them."

* It is where we are best nourished.

Healthy church remains the best place to be taught and encouraged. It is the best place for worship and for sharing the experience of faith with others on the same journey.

* There is a sense of accountability.

In practice this doesn't always happen, but church should be place where other people help keep us on target. If it works for the Biggest Loser, it is probably true in our faith as well. (This is not busy body, but true concern, similar to the kind of concern you would have for your physical brothers and sisters.)

* It keeps our faith from becoming vague.

Being linked to a specific church should both strengthen and deepen our convictions and keep us from just sliding all over the place in our belief structure.

* A few Biblical points.

In the Old Testament the people of God were always being gathered together. Jesus made it His practice to be in the synagogue each week (as did Paul later). When people got saved in Acts, they were "added to their number" and they "met daily".

There is no Biblical example of people expressing their faith in isolation.

What do you think?

Your Best Life Death Now

"For God's love, good people, let me have more fire!"

It sounds like a typical exhortation for a passionate preacher. But when John Hooper made this cry he was not calling for greater power in preaching or even a better way to live. He was crying for a better way to die.

At the time, he was tied to the stake and the first two attempts at building a fire that would take his life had so far failed miserably. The flames had been enough to consume the lower half of his body, but not enough to take his life. He cried out for more fire to end his torture.

I have been reading about martyrs lately. First, in a book that addressed the reign of Mary I of England. At her ascension to the throne, Catholic Mary made her greatest priority the extinguishing of the young but rapidly growing, vibrant Protestant church in England. Over the course of her nearly four year reign, Mary had nearly 300 Protestants burned at the stake.

I had long known that this type of activity had earned Mary the moniker Bloody Mary, but for some reason it struck closer to heart recently. Mostly, I assume, because the very things that cost these men and women their lives are the very things I do each week as a pastor.

I picked up a rather slim book entitled The Martyrs of Mary Tudor to read more about these men and women.

Today, my call brings me far more respect than I deserve. I am paid generously to do my job, I am invited to pray at public events, people buy my lunch and a local golf course lets me play for free. I wondered how would I react if things were different. I wonder how the church at large would react we lived in those days.

Yet we often complain about how difficult ministry is today. The hours are long. People complain about ridiculous things. Our projects face opposition. I wonder what John Hooper would think. I wonder what our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing real persecution right now would think.

What would it like to minister if the leading question of our day was not Your Best Life Now, but Your Best Death Now?

Ministers at the Mansion

"Would you be interested in joining a group of ministers for lunch and an open discussion with Governor Jindal at the Governor's Mansion?"

It was one of the easier questions I had to answer this week.

To be honest I showed up today a little cynical. On one hand my respect for Governor Jindal is very high. Last summer we invited the governor to share his testimony at our church. I had checked with several folks who had assured me that he would not be political and that he would give a strong witness to the work of God in his life.

I was not disappointed. It would have been a powerful word from any anyone....but from the sitting governor of your state....it was amazing! It was the gospel story lived out in one man's life.

Yet I was still cynical today. My experience is the governor is a sincere man. But he is also a strategic man. (He didn't just arrive where he is today by accident.) Over the years I have observed that politicians have been far more effective using the church than the church has been in using politicians.

After the governor spent almost 90 minutes with us today, I am deeply convinced of his sincerity. I am convinced he would rather lose an election than compromise his faith and convictions.

Many at the table pray he never does either.

Which left me with a fresh concern. I can not read the hearts of other men, but I sensed that many heard the same convictions that I heard and saw hope. Not only for our state but may be even for our nation. This may be true. It certainly seems we could do worse!

But as I surveyed the room, twenty pastors and a governor. I could not help but notice the imbalance of power. For so many of the issues addressed, it was us as pastors that had the greatest opportunities for influence. It is the pulpit and the pew (or stool and folding chair) that is most leveraged to change the spiritual climate of our nation.

While the merits of trickle down economics may still be debated, there is no such thing as trickle down faith!

Pastors, may we raise up more men and women with the convictions and courage Bobby Jindal appears to have. Our nation (and our next door neighbor) could really benefit if we did.

Musing about Salt and Light

I reference the Living Church by John Stott once again in my blog for two reasons. First, it is taking a while for me to read it as I am only reading snippets at a time. Second, Stott’s snippets are better than tons of tomes by most other writers.

In a chapter entitled, “Impact” Stott gives four very brief implications of the call to be salt and light. He addresses salt and light as both an evangelistic impact and a cultural impact.

1. Christians are radically different from non-Christians.

No one confuses light with darkness or preserved food with rotting meat.

2. Christians must permeate non-Christian society.

And do it more effectively than a mouse permeates a cat!

3. Christians can influence and change non-Christian society.

Retired Berkeley professor, Robert Bellah says that "the quality of a culture can be changed when 2% of its people have a new vision."

4. Christians must retain their Christian distinctiveness.

This is demonstrated through greater righteousness (Matthew 5:20), wider love (Matthew 5:43-44) and nobler ambition (Matthew 6:31-34).

May your community be different because of His church this week.

New Church Logo

Turns Out "Chairs" Aren't a Spiritual Gift

I have a problem.

My name is Tim and I often pay way too much attention to the wrong details. This revelation was reinforced this week as I helped my wife set up a classroom in the church for her breakout session at our Women's Conference.

For whatever reason, I take pride in my ability to lay out a room. (I think it is the old church planter in me.) I have learned that as many people as possible need to be able see other people in the room. Rows need to be staggered so that optimum eye contact can be maintained between speaker and audience. Space between chairs and rows must be properly configured. Wider is always better than longer.

As I explained to my wife (who seemed to have some doubts at the time) "I have the spiritual gift of chairs!"

But alas, there is no such thing as a gifts of "chairs."

Not a single person has ever been reached for the kingdom because of my chair designs. I think as a pastor I can spend way too much attention on these kind of details because they are things I can control. Chairs will go exactly where I want them to and when I finish they look so good!

That is a rare experience in ministry. So, I spend time on chairs and bulletin layouts and powerpoint presentations and church logos (our new one looks pretty good by the way) and colors for church polo shirts and even perfect phrasing for particular proclamation points.

But that is not really where ministry happens. Ministry is always much messier and far more intangible. It is connecting people with God's revealed truth and helping those connections take root.

Ministry is about the people who invariably come in and mess up my chairs anyhow.

Funeral Directors and Funeral Ministry

I received a call earlier this week that the family was being called to the nursing home as it did not appear Mr. Young was going make it much longer. By the time I arrived he had indeed passed away.

Mr. Young was the lead funeral director at one of our town's funeral homes. Over 15 plus years as pastor I have worked with many funeral directors. My relationship with these men and women has always been good. They have always been extremely courteous and helpful over the years, both to the grieving families and to the officiating minister. (Except the one that drove me to the cemetary and then left without me. It wasn't a long walk...but still. I mean, my stuff was still in his car.)

I am particularly grateful for the first couple of funeral directors I worked with in Fort Lauderdale when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

I remember the first time I worked with Mr. Young, being deeply impressed with the dignity and warmth he brought to his work. I found out later that his wife was an inactive member of our church.

What surprised me was when I arrived at the nursing home was that even when the family patriarch is a funeral director, families can be completely unprepared for death. I was surprised how much my presence meant to the family. Even though his wife has not been in our church in a long time, I was introduced around the room as "my pastor." My ministry that day was enhanced by a couple of prior visits to the hospital and nursing home to see Mr. Young.

Driving back to town I wondered about the hour and a half this visit had consumed of my day. There are those who try to tell us that effective pastors have more important things to do than these kind of visits.

To be honest I really haven't found many more important ministries than caring for people and seeking to bring God's presence into their lives. How about you?

Operators are standing by!

Admit it. There are times that you are tempted to reach for the phone during an infomercial. You didn't even plan to watch it, but you got distracted and before you know it you are watching an infomercial. You know you should likely change the channel (or better yet turn off the tv). But just between you and me, you are fascinated.

The featured product does truly look easy to use. And wow, it is versatile! And clean up certainly does appear to be a snap. And it would seem you would certainly be healthier, wealthier, more attractive and more popular if you made those three easy payments.

In looking ahead to this week's Explore the Bible Sunday School lesson, I am convinced that God would make really crummy infomercials. The mantra of the infomercial is "this is easy, this is effortless". God's message is far more often, this is going to be difficult.

Consider Isaiah's call in chapter 6. God asks who will go for us? Isaiah volunteers. To which God then describes one of the least appealing life missions in history.

"Preach till they can't/won't listen anymore. Then wait for your beloved nation to be a pile of ruins."

Operators are standing by.

Make no mistake God is good. (All the time, in fact.) But our preaching and teaching should never be confused with infomercials. Isaiah learned that. And so should we.