WORDS

Words a Billion, all’s the same
Speech without Silence is a loosing game
Words without substance a crying shame
Noise the problem, Noise to blame

Words a million, nothing changing
Same old words, rearranging
Same old static without meaning
Billions listening, searching, gleaning

Thousands of words none worth keeping
Thousands sown but none worth reaping
All the poets crying, weeping
At the words, we’ve been cheapening

Hundreds of words I’ve heard before
The repetition beginning to bore
The words most speak I just ignore
Cause I cannot take it anymore

What just occurred to me is how absurd
The noise my ears have endured
A prophet spoke up last night in the sea of words
But I am not sure if anyone heard

His Word

All the words that we’ve squandered
Makes me stop and begin to ponder
Where did all the prophet’s wander
And their words of which I’m fonder

Millions listening, searching, gleaning
For that One Word filled with meaning
As the masses keep on talking
Oblivious to the truth I’m stalking

Words a billion, you can have them son
I’ve played with them all and had my fun
I’ve had my time and now I’m done
Cause I’ve found my Word, and I just need One

Billions of words I’ve heard
In this world that’s broken, blurred
But only one has cured and stirred
The human heart, and endured

One Word, resurrected from the violence
Bathed in love and truth and silence
That’s the word I hear and speak
Of the billions, the One we seek

God does not call us to love the world. He does not command us to love everyone. (yes, I just said that) God, the Bible says, loves the world. God loves everyone.

But the second greatest commandment is to “love our neighbor.”

The question, for thousands of years has been, “who is my neighbor?” Jesus himself got asked this question. And yes, Jesus greatly expanded who we are to think of as our “neighbor”- pagans, enemies, the poor, the unclean, etc.

But I would like to ask a different question. Not, “who is our neighbor?” But, “why neighbor?” Why not just command us to love the world, love everyone? If that is the nature of God, why not command us to do the same?

We do not have the capacity to love the world, to love everyone. God does. But we do not. The command to love our neighbor is a profound statement about what our love is to be like. Our neighbors are the people that God has placed in our lives. They are real, and tangible, and close. They have names. They are our family, friends, co-workers, and literally neighbors.

I think we have made a huge mistake in expanding the word neighbor to mean “everyone.” When we do this, we turn our love into an emotion without much content. Love becomes a feeling we are supposed to have, but a feeling that is incapable of changing the world. I believe that God called us to a much more powerful and tangible kind of love.

God calls us to love our neighbors. To love the people he has placed in our life… but to love them well. This is a tangible sort of love, expressed in action- time, meals, visits, phone calls, prayers, play, shared experiences, and so much more.

God does not call us to love the world. But He has called us to love our neighbors- the people He has placed in our life. But He has called us to love them well.

Our energy is not meant to be spent on trying to love more and more people. Rather, it is best spent on loving the people in our live better- in a way that changes things.

Tis’ the Season

It is the season of stress, busyness, chaos, and the pressure to buy a bunch of things you do not need.  I guess this is always true of American lifestyle, but it is certainly heightened in the month of December.  I was reminded of this while driving TO Thanksgiving with my wife, seeing tents lined up outside shopping centers.  How sad that people were choosing to get a good spot in line to buy something over spending the day with family and friends.  You cannot tell me that consumerism does not shape our souls.

Here are some thoughts that I think might make you holiday season deeper:

1) Give presence, not presents. Giving gifts to loved ones is not a bad thing.  But remember then greatest gift you can give to people is your time and love.  It is sadly ironic that we give so many presents over the holidays, but spend such little quality time with the people we give gifts to.  Love is better measured by how much time you spend with someone, not how much money you spend on them.

2)  Do things that energize you, not drain you. Most people get to the end of their holiday season exhausted.  This is because they give in to the pressure to say “yes” to everything.  Most of the activities around the holidays drain people.  Say no to the things that drain you so you can say yes to the meaningful things.  Find your salvation in quietness and rest (which holidays can provide).  And when you are rested, you will enjoy the relational part of the holidays more.

3)  Remember God. I will be frank: the holiday season in our culture has nothing to do with God.  In fact, it is remembering God that will give you the strength to resist the holiday season.  Prayer, presence, remembering Jesus, are the spiritual practices that allow us to resist the holiday practices of shopping, busyness, and freaking out about all the things we “need to do” to have a good holiday season.

I truly hope you all have a deep, rich, and restful holiday season.  May it be filled with the love of God and the love of people!

Some would say I was on my way

To becoming a city hipster

Cellphone calls and Upscale Malls

Drowning the Wild’s Whisper

I cannot lie, its hard to deny

That my skin was growing thin

For I had my fill of the winter chill

And like to sin by staying in

Now the city streets and tasty eats

Don’t make a man the devil

But walking cement trails often fail

To remind us world’s not level

City scrapers and exhaust vapors

Witness Eden’s fall

Cause the city’s view isn’t the hue

That God dreamed up at all

You forget these things when comfort brings

The world to your front door

Computer screens and movie scenes

Can leave a man no reason to explore

But pixel lights and screensaver sights

Were beginning to appall

Because the winter chill now had a thrill

That whispered when it called

For in my soul there was a hole

That only the wild could fill

So I made my pack and placed on my back

And set out for the Holy Hills

There is a truth out there for those that care

That only the wanders know

It’s the wisdom of the trees carried by the breeze

Spoken in the places most never go

And I was on my way with plans to stay

To the places I once well knew

And the air was crisper with the Wild’s whisper

And salvation was closer too

And just around where there was no sound

Except the chorus of nature’s song

At an elevation atop creation

After the trail was long gone

Where the air was frost and I was lost

And the night was dark and risky

I found my goal and set down my soul

And poured a glass of whiskey

The hike did tire so I built my fire

And sat tight to fire’s flame

And as I sat there tranced as the embers danced

(I pondered from where I came)

Things had gotten blurry in the city hurry

And my soul was hard to find

But as the wind swirled and flames twirled

The wild’s whisper did remind

And in the night I gained my sight

And got what I came for

Cause my ears heard the wild’s word

And it spoke right to my core

Then I saw the moon wink as I finished my drink

And all my stirrings began to cease

So I laid down my head and went to bed

And slept in perfect peace

At morning light the sun was bright

And it painted the horizon gold

And the whisper spoke and I awoke

And I’ll tell you what it told

City goals take many souls

Because they forget the wild’s call

But truth in the trees carried by the breeze

Whispers salvation for us all

On August 1st I resigned from my position on staff at a local church.  This was the 4th church I have been “on staff” (getting paid to perform a ministry job).  There are many benefits, comforts, and good things about being on a paid church staff position.  However, from experience and talking to others, it has a dark side.  As a friend said recently, the danger becomes when we only read our Bible or pray, as a part of what we are hired to do.  As most pastors know, reading scripture to prepare a teaching is not always the same thing as reading scripture to hear God’s voice and to grow in the faith.

Which brings me to the past 2 months…

I did not realize how refreshing it would be to continue in ministry (and following God’s call) with no paycheck attached to it.  In many ways, this is a very trying time.  I am unemployed, Natalie is working to keep us afloat, the process will be slow, fund raising is just starting.  I am learning to walk by faith in new ways.  I would not say that our sacrifices have been overly dramatic (we are blessed).  But there is a very significant difference in ministering as a job (with pay and benefits), versus ministring out of calling (with no pay and at personal sacrifice).

My point is not all that profound.  It is simply re-energizing to work hard at something solely because God has called me to this thing.   As I have experienced and others have confided in me, those who get paid to minister usually are called, but often confuse their calling at times with job responsibilities.  Sometimes it gets so bad, that some of us minister solely because it is a job that pays the bills and we can do it (superficially).

I wonder how many ministers/pastors would continue to do their daily work if the paychecks stopped.  Are these pastors ministering out of calling, or job responsibilities?  (this has all sorts of implications when brought into Jesus’ teaching on the good shepard verus the hired hand).

For me, I got confused along the way.  Somewhere in the last couple of years, I started doing a job versus obeying a call.  And I am grateful that after the paychecks stopped and the job ended, the call was still there.  The call will always be there.  And I will have to obey and follow it whether there is pay or not.  Of course, I pray there is.  And I know I am called by the One Who Provides.

“Prayer does not prepare us for the greater work.  Prayer is the greater work.”

For the past 3 years I have read and studied about missional church planting.  I believe that the church in America has some serious challenges in the sense that it has become an institution, building, one hour service, and irrelevant to every day life (I could go on).  I believe that structure matters and that we need to work hard to structure our communities in ways that make a difference in our world.

However, what we really need is not a new “model of doing church”.  If this is all we are seeking, we are just reinventing the same problem in a new way.  Don’t get me wrong, I more than most, believe we need to do things differently.  But what is deeper than new models and structures, is the vibrancy of our prayer life.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.”  The model of the house is irrelevant.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples to lock themselves in a room and to not doing anything…….. until…… the Holy Spirit came upon them.  When the Spirit came, God began to use the church to flip the world upside down.

Regardless of structure, what is the state of your church’s prayer life?  Has God poured His Spirit upon your community, your city?   Have you asked Him to?  Or are you trying to change the world by yourself… with cool music, great sermons, and creative logos?

If our churches are irrelevant and ineffective in today’s culture, it is not because we do not have enough technology, money, books, lights, and music videos.  We have all these things and more.  But do we walk with God in the power of the Holy Spirit?

God uses people who pray.

But if you do not pray, He probably will not use you.

As of August 1st- I am officially unemployed.

I stepped down from my youth pastor position to follow the call on my life to plant churches.  In some ways, I feel like I am completely unprepared.  In other ways, I feel like if I read one more book or blog on how to plant a church, I will explode.

More than anything, I desire for God to do a new thing in the city of Rockford.  My prayer is that He would pour out His Holy Spirit in such a way that lives would be redeemed, restored, and transformed.  I know that unless God builds His Kingdom, all my labor is vanity.

I know I have a part in God’s agenda.  To pray, to learn, to be prepared.  But mainly I believe my part is to be available.  To let God have access to my life.  To help others here His voice and equip them to follow this call.

It should be an exciting adventure.  I will certainly keep you posted

My feet have walked this world and know its ways

My heart beats each day, but often strays

My hands meant to be raised in praise

But they often stay

Idle at my side

My eyes meant to be open wide

My life surrendered by it swells with pride

Sin still breathes when it should have died

My lips confess but I think I’ve lied

Still my soul longs to abide

In you

All I am and all I do

Baptized in fire and made new

Sin and pride killed and through

Washed in the crimson hue

I walk this world but its not the same

The world’s games of fame, and blame, and shame

Do not hold a flame

To my claim

That Christ is risen and reigns and king

Hell defeated, Death no sting

Come, let the world bring, anything

Still, I will sing and let the gospel ring

Our lives our His and can’t be shaken

Cause what’s in His hands can’t be taken

We are the church in the making

Darkness fading, light in-breaking

Satan, be ware, cause we are waking

And our hands will be raised in praise

Our faith a fiery blaze

Lips proclaiming your love and ways

Hearts fixed on you all our days

See my life and hear my cry

“Jesus is Lord” til the day I die

To this alone I testify

My first year in seminary, I had to interview for a few internships.  All of us first year students would talk with the internship director, who would try and place us with churches that matched our gifts and passions.  For this reason, I interviewed with a handful of churches looking to do local outreach.

While the interviews were designed for the leadership to get to know me, this was one of my first experiences getting to know church leadership.  It was one of my first experiences “behind the scenes”… getting to see how things run, the questions pastors ask, the goals they have, etc.

Again, all the churches I interviewed with were interested in doing more local outreach.  But over the course of our conversations, I discovered something that continues to bother and frustrate me.  These churches were driven to outreach out of selfish motives (not blatant, evil selfishness, but a real self-focus).

In these particular cases, the churches were dwindling.  The communities were filled with people with grey hair.   And the pastors were waking up to the fact that if they did not begin to reach out, the church would be in jeopardy of closing.  No doubt, many pastors and communities are waking up to that reality daily across the country.  But I remember leaving these interviews slightly confused and frustrated… they wanted to reach out to the community for  the wrong reasons.  Self preservation is not a good motive for loving our neighbor.  It allows “self” to remain our first love.  Which, makes loving others secondary.

It has been many years since that experience.  And I have learned that this is not just a problem for the small, dwindling congregation.  It may be more of an issue for many of the pastors serving in growing churches, many of them strong and stable.  What I mean by this, is church leadership often focuses on itself first.  Too many pastors, it seems, are driven by an image of success that highlights the “type of church” they want to lead.  While there is nothing evil in this, I believe it is subtly dangerous.  When “self” becomes the priority, things like outreach become secondary.  In other words, outreach becomes the means by which we become the type of church we want to be.  In this way, our outreach is not motivated by broken hearts but by becoming successful (success is a form of narcissism).

I think this is made most evident in our hearts and the language we use.  First, where is our heart?  If we are honest, many of our hearts are set on creating a certain type of church.  Again, there is nothing wrong with this… unless our hearts become more set on this than loving others.  Second, listen to the language we use.  I am amazed by the difference between pastors who talk about their city and pastors who talk about their church.  We tend to talk about the things that are on our hearts.  When the people of our city our continually on our hearts, we will talk about them and how we can show love and serve them.  When our church (and more so its style and programs, than people) are on our hearts, we will tend to talk about these things often.

These things are not mutually exclusive.  However, I believe we have gotten things quite confused and out of order.

Dancing Fools

What a strange world we’ve made
The racing and chasing for pots of gold
The lives we’ve created we now evade
With dreams of escaping or days of old

Stranger still that we do not alter
This beastly system that binds and tames
Rather we stress and strain trying not to falter
Or fall, as we play these silly games

How alluring the fools who laugh and dance
Oblivious to the scoffs and stares
Theirs a world of divine romance
Which looses chains and changes cares