Accidental Pastor

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ⁴¹  is love, ⁴²  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ⁴³  5:23 gentleness, and ⁴⁴  self-control.

Well, okay…one of the footnotes for the NET Bible translation of this verse says that everything following the word love could be read as defining the attributes of love. As a good human "doing" I would like to propose that we do a self-evaluation for each of these categories, on a scale of one to ten. Let’s be honest, okay?

Alright, there are eight attributes, that means that 80 is a perfect score, 0 would be quite a bit less than perfect. With me so far? Okay, let’s help out on the scale….

Joy: I have a song in my heart and a smile on my lips, that has got to be a 10…I frequently stay in bed until 2 p.m. and wear my pajamas all day while lying on the couch using the remote control…uh, a 0?
Peace: oh boy, I am going to pull the plug here and stop being clever…I’m holding myself up against these attrributes and I say woe is me…I have missed the mark, fallen short, where is my portable sackcloth and ashes and my velcro stripped rent-able clothing when I need it?

God help me! Live in me and through me, because when it is all said and done I am not very loving…I can’t decide if it is a good thing to want to be more "fruity." That is better than being fruitless, I guess.

And here is the kicker, there is no way I can "try" to be good…Trying is a waste of good energy…better to just give up! Yeah, that’s the ticket.

I was reading eric keck’s excellent post about last night’s charity fundraiser sponsored by American Idol. He writes:

doing the stuff… without any explaination… other than the obvious social justice…  (which was implicit and not delved into… but rightly so… a talent search show isn’t necessarily the platform or the motive.)

$30,000,000 for the poor… amazing in ONE night.  i was saddened to watch as i realized that money is a beautiful band-aid

I confess. I am an American Idol fan. I really liked Carrie Underwood, and I thought Taylor Hicks was the right choice last year. And yes, I like Reuben, Fantasia, Clay and Kelly Clarkson.

It just felt odd to hear Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell walking and talking in what I am sure were well-scripted scense through the poverty-stricken conditions in Africa, expressing compassion and really, abhorrence of what they were seeing. And then the videos of poverty-stricken American kids that are going to be helped by the money raised.

Here is what I was thinking: Where is the Church of Jesus Christ? I was wondering what would happen if we spent half as much on marketing, the production of weekend services and facilities and took the surplus money and poured it into attacking the roots of spiritual darkness at the tactical level. Attacking poverty with education and compassion and job training and financial initiatives. Attacking homelessness with clinics and housing and relationship. Attacking hunger and thirst with food and drink. Attacking violence with love. And fatherlessness with the love of the Heavenly Father. Maybe then we wouldn’t celebrate our efforts with a song that proclaims the absence of God and religion and we could imagine just a little bit what the kingdom of God might be like.

Ah well, I am pretty sure that wouldn’t meet my needs. I wonder if the worship leader is going to do my favorite songs this weekend.

If you haven’t figured it out, these days I am up to my neck in editing and publishing ventures. As an agent I am negotiating book deals. As an editor I am shepherding several websites and blogs. I am also helping a close friend in a publishing venture. Roger Sachs has been "missional" since he was radically saved during the Jesus movement. Before his conversion, he had been a hippie and a drug dealer until he ended up in a Mexican prison. He was in on the early days of the Vineyard and Keith Green. He worked with Lonnie Frisbee in the 80s and 90s. He is not an international speaker, nor is he the pastor of a megachurch. But he is a guy who sold all he had, cashed in his family’s savings and bought round-the-world airline tickets to do missions work in New Zealand, Africa and England.

On that trip he found himself hiding out in a storm pipe in the African wilderness along with many other adventures. Over the years Roger has had a passion to write about these adventures. In his own, raw and conversational style he has told his story in his first book, Fire on the Mountain, available through Freedom Publications. This is the kind of book that "missional" leaders should read if they want to understand how truly radical following Christ can be.

Have you ever heard of the DISC inventory? Well, if you haven’t, it is one of the ways that people who make a living categorizing personalities, leadership styles, and so forth, figure out how people operate. Surprise, surprise, when I first did this assessment several years ago (circa 1993) it turned out I was High D. I only become a High I when there is opposition to my leadership. In other words, if we are working together, as long as you follow orders, I am a very happy camper. This is probably why I have never worked very well in "teams." In fact, I think true teamwork is pretty rare. Almost as rare as unity. Here is a truism I have seen in action. Whenever the pastor starts preaching on unity, one can be sure that a church split, or at least an exodus, of some sort is just around the corner.

Why is this, do you suppose? Well, for one thing, we are all different. No matter how much we try to categorize, describe or make sense of different types of people, we will remain somewhat unique. Maybe not as unique as a grain of sand, or a snowflake, but nevertheless, unique. Now, here is the kicker. No matter how unique each of us is, we tend to think that other people will think, feel, believe and act like us. In my little world, Charlieland, I call this Charlie-pomorphism. It is usually a huge awakening for me, and I have to admit, usually a disappointment, when I find out that others are not like me, they don’t believe exactly as I do, and their idea of unity and teamwork is not exactly the same as my idea. Because you see, in many ways I like every idea I come up with, every thing I think I ought to do, and when I don’t feel like doing anything, I am sure that is the perfect thing.

So what is a High D to do, and for that matter a self-centered and self-absorbed one like me? People just won’t do what I want them to when I want them to do it. They don’t always think that every idea I have is brilliant! Sometimes, if I am "teaching" a group, they fall asleep! Oh, boy! Isn’t that rude?

I’d like to think that maybe I can learn something from the parts of my life that are frustrating, those parts when I interact with people who haven’t done what I thought they should do. Gee, if I had any empathy, I might understand that is the exact way they feel about me!
Yikes!

Bad things happen, and from time to time, they happen on college campuses. In Nov. 99, twelve students died in the collapse of a bonfire on the campus of Texas A&M. At the time, I was struck by this tragedy. I wrote:

When tragedy strikes, people of faith are called upon to respond to tough questions. "God, why do bad things happen to good people?" One thing that can be certain is that the Christian God is a suffering God. Many times in the ministry of Jesus, He was moved by compassion. (See the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 9, verse 36). In our tragedies and sorrows, God suffers along with us….until that day when…"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Rev. 21:4.

Eric Stanford contributed a great article to a special report we published at the time, in it he wrote:

There’s nothing like the sudden death of the young to punch a hole in our papier-mâché "reality."

* In a world where medical advances are announced daily and life expectancy is stretching like a rubber band . . .
* In a world where the economy has been so strong for so long that it’s calling into question the very idea of "economic cycles" . . .
* In a world where we have more ways to distract ourselves (Discman, Nintendo, satellite TV, on and on) than ever before . . .
* In that sort of a world, we can easily become insulated from what’s really real. The padding muffles the sounds, softens the edges. We are anesthetized.

Life is for real. This is the real thing. People don’t always get that, anymore. And then the young die suddenly.

These are some of the thoughts swirling around in the aftermath of yesterday’s tragic shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech University. The media is demanding the answers to other questions: Can gun control prevent this kind of violence? Are campus officials to blame for not issuing an earlier warning?

I am reminded that all around the world, particularly in war zones, mass casualties are happening every day. People died on our nation’s highways over the weekends (this happens week in and week out in America). Storms and flooding claimed lives in the last few days.

I have no answers. Just a sadness and a desire for God’s kingdom to come, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Next-Wave editor Bob Hyatt writes:

I’m currently privileged to edit what Andrew Jones calls "possibly the greatest emerging church online publication ever."

It’s not only a privilege but even a pleasure to have a hand in shaping what has been and continues to be a voice, a reflection, a sounding board and even a challenge to this emerging church conversation we find ourselves in.

In this Issue of Next-Wave we have two ways for you to reflect with us…

One is the amazing e-book that Charlie Wear has put together. It chronicles the history of Next Wave by highlighting the contributions of all those who have edited over these last eight years. It’s an amazing compendium of articles, interviews and reviews as well as some bonus materials…

It’s official. Next-Wave has been publishing for 100 months. Amazing! I have spent a considerable amount of time compiling articles by the five editors of the ezine, interviews and bonus material.

You can download the ebook in either pdf or doc format. If you want to help defray the costs of keeping Next-Wave going, feel free to make a contribution.

100 Months — Five Editors  pdf
100 Months — Five Editors doc

Blessings…