Over on Josh’s blog he writes, “Churches are a direct reflection of their leadership. If you don’t like the spirituality of your church, you’d better first change the spirituality of your leaders.”
What a challenging quote. I’m going to forget I ever read this, ha!
I am constantly amazed by disciples who can suffer so much loss, yet remain as faithful and as committed as ever. In the past couple of months I know of a preacher who lost his 18 year old son, a good friend who had to give a baby back to some parents who suddenly changed their minds about giving the baby up for adoption, grandparents who had to watch their granddaughter lose a baby early in pregnancy, and another family who had to watch their mother die in a hospital room at an early age. It is almost as if there is tragedy around every corner. But in all those cases a renewed faith and commitment were the response. It truly amazes me.
I took a class at Lipscomb on the book of Lamentations. In this class the professor described a lament as a time when faith and reality clash, and faith wins. Our faith calls us to believe in the good of all situations. Faith gives us hope and optimism. But reality is not always good. Reality often makes it difficult to be optimistic. Reality can be ugly. Often times faith and reality clash. It is in these moments when we need a renewed faith and commitment.
A song we, and many other churches, sing on Sunday mornings comes from time like this. We sing the words, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness (Lam. 3:21-23).” Such beautiful faith-filled words in the midst of such darkness. They are words that provide an amazing witness to the power of faith. These words served to lift God’s children when they needed it most.
All of the people above who have been a part of such dark times have uttered words like those found in Lamentations. When their faith and their reality clashed, they stood on the side of faith and cried out in a loud voice, “Great is thy faithfulness!” When their hearts were broken they sang aloud, “His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.” They decided a long time ago that faith would always win. Again, I find that amazing.
I look at the lives of these people, and their responses to these situation, and I pause to ask, “Have I decided that faith would always win?”
First, I want to apologize for not having any new post on here in a while. I’ve been consumed by all the sports going on lately. My Cubs are playing extremely well. I find myself drawn to watching UEFA Euro 2008 (that Turkey vs. Czech game was amazing). The Celtics/Lakers series is going longer than I expected. I was sure hoping Boston would sweep L.A., but the Lakers are sticking in there. And yesterday, for some odd reason, I was glued to the Tigers Woods/Rocco Mediate match (I say odd because I like to play golf, but watching it is so boring).
I’ll try to do better.
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A lot of preachers are blogging. Almost all of the names on the side panel are of blogging preachers. I have built some friendships through blogging. Many of these men I consider friends I have never met in person. I call them my blogging friends. Anyway, I had a crazy thought the other day. What if I and all my blogging friends could do a pulpit swap for just one day (we could all just mix it up… maybe pull names out of a hat for each church)? I thought that would be awesome… not realistic, but awesome. But then another thought hit me: What would be my one-time message at another church? If I wasn’t given a topic, what would I choose to talk about?
If one of my blogging friends was to come here and preach what would be your message?
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This Sunday I will start a new sermon series that is focused totally on Romans 12. I’ve broken the chapter up into a couple of different sermons. One of my main points for this Sunday is that a good theology that does not lead to good living is actually bad theology.
I found this on Mike Cope’s blog, but I wanted to post it here for those of you that don’t visit his blog (although you should start!).
Sometimes you just want to tell everyone hello, even if you don’t have anything significant to post. So, “Hello!”
Last night I was at Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs sweep the Dodgers. It was a cold night, but an awesome game. As I was walking through Wrigley I spotted a familiar face appear from behind a cracked door. I was like a kid in a candy store. It was a Chicago Cub! More specifically, it was Ryan Dempster.
I’m the type person that when I see famous people I choose not to bother them because I don’t want to be annoying, but the friend who was with me wouldn’t let me get away with that. He said, “Let’s go get his attention and take a picture with him.” I’m definitely glad he convinced me to annoy Demp.
This past Sunday I continued my sermon series called Discipleship 101. This sermon was on the second word in Jesus’ three word challenge, “Come, follow me.” We looked at Follow. What does Follow mean? What are its implications for my life? This is what I suggested:
In a culture where we aspire to be leaders, and look down our noses at followers, is it any wonder that discipleship seems so difficult? Discipleship is not about leading, but about following.
Today I was having lunch with a Pentecostal friend. I only point out that he is a Pentecostal because it is important to the story. During out time together we were sharing stories about different things related to ministry and our lives. As he was telling me one of his stories he related to me that he heard God laugh. He said he literally heard him laugh, and that he will always believe that. God was laughing!
Now, my upbringing taught me to disbelieve comments like that. As a matter of fact, I was taught to debate comments like that. But I didn’t debate that comment, and honestly I couldn’t bring myself to disbelieve it. To be even more honest, I found myself being jealous that he had the faith to hear a laugh and believe it was God, while God would never be my first thought if I heard an unfamiliar laugh.
I would love to hear God laugh at my silliness or at one of my jokes. I would love to hear God laugh with me as I laugh at the silly things my son does. I would love to hear God laugh.
I’ve been eating from a buffet for the last few days. That is the only way I know to describe my time at RESOURCE. I’ve been sitting at the feet of Gordon Fee, Randy Harris, Ken Greene, Bob Russell, and Sally Morgenthaler for the past few days. We have been feasting on 1 Corinthians. It has been a wonderful experience.
Tonight I am going to Comerica Park to watch two of the worst teams in baseball right now - Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners. It will be fun!
That is the title of my new sermon series - Discipleship 101. Today I asked the question, “If you could strip down discipleship to its core and sum it up in one sentence, or phrase, what would it be?” My answer came from the words of Jesus when he called out to Simon and Andrew saying, “Come, follow me…” I believe those three words sum up discipleship. It is a lifetime of responding to Jesus’ call “Come, follow me…”
Today I focused on the word come. What does it mean? What are its implications for our lives? I suggested that:
Next week I’ll focus on the word follow, and the next week we will discuss me.
