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When our heros are watching

November 1, 2016 /

crowd of fans cheering you on

What would it be like to be the quarterback of the high school football team? The ball is on the fifteen-yard line. Unfortunately, it is your fifteen-yard line. Your team is down by four points. There is a 1:47 left in the game. You have to get in the end zone to win. Your coach calls a timeout to regroup the team. And as you approach the sideline the person standing there, waiting for you is Payton Manning. He looks at you, tells you he believes in you and what you have to do to win this game and as you are walking back on the field to the huddle you can hear his cheering for you.
It’s great to have your parents on the sideline to see you at the moment. Your coach’s confidence in you means a lot. Even your teammates telling you they have confidence in you iwonderful. All of these are more special than can be described, but there is something extra special about having your hero, the best of the best, saying you can do it. Someone who has been there and knows what it is like. Who knows how many hundreds of times Manning has been in this place where the game came down to his ability to execute and lead his team down the field. He knows what the pressure is like. He knows the hunger of the defense and seen the fire in their eyes. Every profession has its unique challenges, and we all know, despite people telling us they know what it is like, they really don’t. If they have not been where you are, they really don’t understand. So it means something extra special to have a person who has been there, who understands the pressures and challenges encouraging you on.
Hebrews 12:1-3 says to us:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
This comes at the end of a long list of great heroes of faith from the Bible. These men and women who comprise the “great cloud of witnesses” are not only witness of us but they are witnesses to us. Witnesses of the character and faithfulness of God. They are heroes who have been where we are, and they call us through the cloud of our temporal perspective to press on with perseverance. They cheer for us to put aside our doubts, fears, and struggles to grasp hold of the promises God has given to us. They have been there and understand.
Think about this. You might be saying to yourself that you have screwed up. You have disqualified yourself from every achieving your hopes and dreams. Your failure is too great. But let me ask you:
When was the last time you committed adultery?
But not only that, when was the last time that adultery led to a child being conceived?
But not only that, when was the last time that you used your power and authority to try to cover-up up what you had done by having the women’s husband killed?
But not only that, you take the women to be your wife in hopes of covering the whole thing up?
But not only that, when was the last time child conceived because of your failure dies because of your sin, and you have to live the rest of your life with this burden?
Hopefully, not of us has screwed up this badly. But even if you have there is a man standing before you as a witness of God’s faithfulness and forgiveness, David, saying to you today to put aside your sin and experiences God’s love.
When was the last time you faced an utterly impossible situation? You didn’t know what to do and even if you did you lacked the resources to make it happen? Two men call you to step into the impossible. Moses and Joshua, men well acquainted with impossible barriers, whether they are a sea, a river, or a walled city, they witness to you of God’s deliverance in the face of the impossible and they call to you to put aside that which entangles you, all those doubting thoughts, and step out in faith.
The list could go on and on. I would even challenge you to sometimes read the stories in the Bible and ask yourself what these men and women would say to you if there were on your sideline coaching you through whatever situation you are facing in life.
For we are surrounded by a great cloud of witness to God’s grace, forgiveness, and character and they call us to step up.
Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

It Changes Nothing

August 24, 2016 /

The Whitehouse

Dear friends,

As you all heard me talk about many times before, I listen to podcasts . . . a lot. One of my favorites is the EntreLeadership Podcast hosted by Ken Coleman. Recently he interviewed the entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. During the interview, Gary said something I had to come back and type it up to share it with you.

As you read this quote Replace the word “entrepreneur’ with church or Christian.

“If you are an entrepreneur or in business, not Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, Not Barack Obama, not George W. Bush, none of these human beings are going to help or hurt you . . . That is a straight fact . . . I’ve really been running businesses now for twenty years, and there has been absolutely not even a second let alone a day in my life that I thought oh God great thank God Bill Clinton was President when I started this company. . . there’s never been a day when I’ve said oh man Obama has stopped me from being successful. That is loser talk with a triple capital L . . . I feel bad for the person that says, ‘Well if Trump wins or if Hillary wins or Barack wins or if George wins like I’ll be better . . .’ To think that your future rests in the hands of the government, that is a recipe for disaster, and you will turn into a pawn.” (Source: https://www.entreleadership.com/podcasts/144-gary-vaynerchuksecrets-of-growth)

At the end of the day, the person who may or may not be in the White House has no bearing what so ever on our ability to be people of the Kingdom of God.  Nor does it change our call to declare to the world “The Kingdom of God is near.” The church will persevere. The will of God will be done. There has never been a day in history when a political leader, no matter how good or bad, made one once of difference on this truth.

Let us not be consumed with fear or anxiety about the future. Let us not place our hope in anyone but Jesus Christ.

Blessings,
Stephen

How do you measure the success of a church?

May 10, 2016 /

fortress church

Dear Friends,

Recently I was listening to a podcasted sermon from College Wesleyan Church out of Marion, Indiana. In the sermon was a quote from the civil rights leader and founder of the Christian Community Development Association, Dr. John Perkins. In the quote, Dr. Perkins challenges how we define a successful church. With a little help from Google, I was able to find the original context of the quote and I share the context here to challenge each of us:

“How do you measure the success of a church?” This penetrating question was posed by Dr. John Perkins . . . Little did I know that this seemingly innocuous question would lead me on a journey that would forever change my life.

I was a pastor’s kid, and it seemed in the moment that a response should be coming to me more quickly than it was. Yet I could not find a cogent answer that seemed complete enough.

Dr. Perkins continued to poke at us. He began to list potential answers to his question. “Is success determined by your Sunday service attendance?” This was always the first item on a pastor’s resume, yet we were pretty sure this was not the answer. “How about the size of the church budget? Maybe success should be measured by how many staff the church employs? Maybe success is determined by how many periodicals write stories on your church. How do you measure the success of a church?

When he was satisfied with the uneasiness in the room, he finally offered his own perspective on what the answer should be. “The success of a local church should be directly tied to the degree that it holistically transforms its immediate neighborhood. Any other success factor is secondary?”

Bill Hybels is known for the saying, “The local church is the hope of the world.” All too often, however, our definitions of success have very little to do with hope for the world but are instead measurements of the size of our own kingdoms. We measure success in the local church by how big of a building we have, how nice the building looks, how great the preaching is, how many people are sitting in the chairs (no successful church could have pews), and how much money is in the offering plate. But what if success is really none of these? What if success is measured not in the size of our kingdom but in the impact of the Kingdom of God in our neighborhoods? What would that change in the ways we do ministry?

Stephen
The quote comes from the book:
Fuder, John, and Noel Castellanos. A heart for the community : new models for urban and suburban ministry. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013

It is the third day

March 27, 2016 /

tombstones in a graveyard

What makes Jesus different? The statesman and missionary E. Stanley Jones in his sermon Christ is the Answer captures the hope of this Easter morning.

“Three days after Mahatma Gandhi had been assassinated, the radio did nothing night and day but eulogize and talk of the father of that great land, Mahatma Gandhi. Mrs. Naidu, the great power of India, gave a broadcast on Sunday, three days after the assassination. She was a Hindu, but had been in contact with the Christians a good deal, and she broke out in this eloquence. She said, ‘O Bapu [‘little father’], O Little Father, come back. We’re orphaned without you. We’re lost without you. Come back and lead us.’ I could sympathize with the eloquent plea of a stricken heart, representing a stricken nation, but do you know what I felt as I sat there? I thought, ‘O God, I’m grateful I don’t have to cry that cry for the leader of my soul: ‘O Jesus, come back. Come back. We’re orphaned and stricken without you.’ I do not cry that cry. He has come back. It is the third day and he’s alive. And wherever the heart is open, there we’re released. And wherever your heart whispers, ‘Help,’ he’s right there to give that help. And you can’t whisper a sigh within your heart without he’s right there beside you, meeting that need.”

He is Risen!

Source:
Jones, E. Stanley. “Christ Is the Answer.” 20 Centuries of Great Preaching: An Encyclopedia of Preaching. Edited by E. Clyde, Jr., and William M. Pinson, Jr. Vol. 9. Waco, TX: Word, 1971. 318-23.

An unlikely person of faith

March 8, 2016 /

three crosses at sunrise

Faith sometimes comes in unlikely places, in unlikely ways, in unlikely people. No person in history may have had a more unlikely experience of faith than the man who hung on the cross beside Jesus. Suffering his own just punishment, as he would describe it, he would be the first to see Jesus’ death on the cross as something more than a great hopeless tragedy. The Roman Centurion would witness Jesus’ death and declare, “Surely this man was the Son of God” but there is no indication his statement was anything more than observing a tragic loss or that had any future significance for the life of the centurion.

Peter had at one time declared of Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” but he was nowhere to be found on this day having fled with the other disciples. No, the first man to see Jesus’ death as victory would be the man hanging beside him. In simple, incredible words he would make his request of Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” In response to this man’s incredible faith, he would hear Jesus’ words “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Salvation had come to the man suffering beside Jesus.

What happened to the thief hanging beside Jesus in the next moments? Did anything change for him? In one respect, no. Nothing changed for this man. He still hung on a cross, people still hurled insults at him. Salvation came, but suffering did not end. He was not in that moment lifted from the cross. He did not even experience a quicker, easier death. His body still writhed in pain and as the shadows grew long his legs would still be broken to speed his death. Nothing changed and yet everything changed. This man could know in his heart that his death was not the end. He might say as Paul does in 1 Corinthians, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting” (15:55)?

As Christians, we are often tempted to paint faith as a “Get out of Jail Free Card” on human suffering and trials. While we may not say it so explicitly, we live as though we believe if we only say a little prayer then any problems we might have in this life will be magically taken from us and we will live life in perfect harmony. How do I know this? Because we panic when suffering comes and have a crisis in our faith. Faith doesn’t take away pain. Faith changes the lens through which we see our pain. Faith did not take away the man on the cross’ pain. Faith enabled him to see his pain through the lens of Jesus’ promise to be with him in paradise.

John Wesley would say of early Methodists, “Our people die well.” So did the thief. He died well because he had met the Lord of life. May we not only die well but live well, living life through the lens of the promise that “weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5) for in the morning, Jesus says, you will be with me in paradise.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

 

Giving credit where it is due:
The concept for this series of blog posts and its accompanying sermon series draw from the masterful work, Seven Words to the Cross: A Lenten Study for Adults by J. Ellsworth Kalas.

Confidence in a Crisis

November 19, 2015 /

Road sign: Trust or Fear

Dear Friends,

Do you have confidence in a crisis?  Listen to these challenging and encouraging words from Dallas Willard which I read recently:

“We will never have the easy, unhesitating love of God that makes obedience to Jesus our natural response unless we are absolutely sure that it is good for us to be, and to be who we are. This means we must have no doubt that the path appointed for us by when and where and to whom we were born is good, and that nothing irredeemable has happened to us or can happen to us on our way to our destiny in God’s fullworld….It is confidence in the invariably overriding intention of God for our good, with respect to all the evil and suffering that may befall us on life’s journey, that secures us in peace and joy. We must be sure of that intention if we are to be free and able, like Joseph, to simply do what we know to be right.” (Quoted in Transformissional Leadership, 182)

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

Source:
Ogne, Steven L., and Tim Roehl. TransforMissional coaching : empowering spiritual leaders in a changing ministry world. Nashville, Tenn: B & H Pub. Group, 2008.

Encourage Each Other

October 14, 2015 /

puppy face

We all desperately need someone to encourage us. In this, we are all the same. Henri Nouwen writes, “Beneath all the great accomplishments of our time there is a deep current of despair. While efficiency and control are the great aspirations of our society, the loneliness, isolation, lack of friendship and intimacy, broken relationships, boredom, feelings of emptiness and depression, and a deep sense of uselessness fill the hearts of millions of people in our success-oriented world” (20-21).

Who can you encourage today? Drop them a note in the mail. Send a text. Write an e-mail. Send a PM. Higher an airplane to write a message in the clouds. In Proverbs we read, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” (11:25, NIV). Do you feel empty today? Then fill someone up and you will be amazed at how you are filled. Let us be people of generous encouragement today.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

 
Source:
Nouwen, Henri J. In the name of Jesus: reflections on Christian leadership. New York: Crossroad, 1989.

Let Love Roll

July 17, 2015 /

peace

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, as he washed his disciples feet and became a servant he said these words to his disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭34-35, ‬ NIV) It is funny that he would call it a new command. For the three prior years of active ministry he would live out this command to love one another and he would call his disciples to follow his example. On this night, however, love would become unmistakable.

What is love? Paul would tell us so eloquently in 1 Corinthians: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭4-8a, NIV)

Racism is deeply embedded in our country and its effects are felt on many different levels. It can cloud our vision and cause us to see what is not there to be seen. My challenge to each of us is that we engage each other with love. When we are tempted to make comments in social media or share another’s words ask yourself if your words are words of love to the “other side.” When one’s actions do not make sense, ask yourself what the lens of their life might be which would cause them to respond in the way they did. One does not have to agree but we must understand for without understanding we have no hope for reconciliation.

The stakes could not be higher for Christians. By our love for one another the world will know that we are followers of Jesus and by our unity we will demonstrate to the world that Jesus is God (John 17:23). The reverse is also true for those of us who call ourselves Christians, our lack of love demonstrates are not truly Jesus’ disciples and our disunity give them a reason to question Jesus himself. Ultimately true reconciliation in the hearts and lives of people can only happen through the reconciling work of Jesus in each of our lives.

Finally, I want to share with you a resource I would highly recommend. It is the autobiography of the civil rights worker, John Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down. As I read in these pages how his brother was murdered by a sheriff’s deputy in 1946. Then as I read of members of his church being loaded into a police van that did not go directly to the police station but instead stopped along the way to beat the people in the back. I was again struck by the similarity to today’s events. Through poignant words and a deep conviction for reconciliation through the good news of Jesus Christ, John Perkins has much to teach us.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

Cower or Fight: Building Trust

July 11, 2015 /

Man and Dog

I have been driving the same truck for nineteen years. I can’t change it. It has a little button. A wonderful, great and glorious marvel of modern engineering. The likes of which I have not found in vehicles before or since. The “scan” button. With the press of the button, my radio will automatically advance to the next station it finds with adequate signal strength. You may be saying to yourself, “my car has such a button.” But here is where you are mistaken. Many vehicles have a “seek” button, even my relic has such. This button advances you to the next station found and stops. Many vehicles also have “scan” buttons, but these advanced forward to the next programmed station. My button is unlike these. Mine is a triumph of automotive auditory engineering. With the press of this little beauty, my radio will advance to the next signal it finds but only pause there for a few seconds before automatically advancing again to the next signal of strength, repeating this process perpetually until commanded to stop. For those who have made TV channel surfing an Olympic sport, this wonder brings your years of training into the automobile. Many times I can be found driving and listening to forty-seven radio stations, all at the same time. It is a thing of beauty. Almost brings a tear to the eye just to think about it.

It was on one of these radio binges that I was caught by the words of a preacher. I do not know his name. I do not know the church he was preaching in. I do not even know what radio station he was on. But the words I heard were like a flash of light to my understanding.

We have all seen the pictures of dogs beaten and abused. From a distance, they look like normal friendly animals. But when you step up close and stick out your hand to scratch him on the head a switch in the dog’s psyche goes off and memories of past abuse flood the mind of the dog. Instinctively the dog will cower in terror or run. Other dogs will have the opposite reaction. Fear will overwhelm them and they will lash out in anger striking at the hand extended in love and friendship. This preacher made the connection that African Americans are like the beaten dog. For centuries, they have been abused and excluded in our society. Abuse that all too often continues today.

I remember recently seeing a friends post to Facebook in response to the swimming party debacle in Texas: “If you are not guilty don’t run.” Great advice, unless your life experience has been one of injustice and abuse. Then the prudent thing to do is to run . . . or fight. The history of beatings and abuses of power by those in authority against African American people in our country is long and well documented. The passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865 may have abolished slavery, but it did not change human hearts or behavior. The abolition of segregated schools in 1954 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not change human hearts or behavior. We still have a very long way to go.

One final observation. If I wish to regain the trust of the beaten dog. The one whose natural reaction is to cower or bite. On whom does the greater burden of trust building rest, on me or the dog? The answer is obvious: On me. This is the great challenge we all face and the even greater challenge faced by our law enforcement. Centuries of abuse cannot be erased from the human psyche in a day or with the passage of law. Many well-meaning officers have reached their hand out to members of their community in love and friendship only to be bitten. But we must not give up the hard work of gaining trust.

In my next post, the last of this series, I will offer some insights on a way forward for each of us. In the meantime, I welcome your comments and thoughts. Please visit our website and post them below this post or make them on Facebook.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

How do we define ourselves?

April 15, 2015 /

hand tools
We are defined by the things we do and the roles we play. Husband, father, son, daughter, mother, and wife. CEO, General Manager, Assistant, Leader, Pastor, Chef, Salesman, Guide, and Janitor. This is what makes a period of unemployment so debilitating. When we lose our roles and titles we feel as though we have no identity and are stuck in an impossibly dark cloud trying to find a way out. We sift through job postings wondering if we want to be identified by the title while fearing being defined by nothing. Each time we hear a potential employer say “no” it chips away at what little sense of self-worth we have because we are defined by what we do and the roles we play.

But what if this is not how it should be?

What if our identity and worth are not to be found in who we are but in whose we are?

We are children of God. We to the one, who knowing everything about us, gave up everything for us.

What difference does that make?

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Thoughts for today’s Milk Can come from a recent sermon preached by Katie Withrow at Hope. I highly recommend listening to the words she shared and pondering their implications. Listen Here.

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