The Forming of Me

If you don't know me or more importantly, if you don't know the church where I grew up then this post is probably going to make little to no sense to you. I just wanted to share something I wrote that expresses the gratitude I have toward the community of people who impacted my life in the name of Jesus when I was growing up.

The Blue Grove

A sea of blue and smiling faces

Glad to be there enjoying life with friends, celebrating and growing together

Like distant relatives together again catching up on the past week

A welcome is heard and music begins

Piano, organ and voices raised with a southern flair and hearts engaged

Out of the blue, guitars appear and song after song is sung with requests for more

Gathering closely together, needs are made known

Knees and heads sink into blue

A slight rumble, louder now, a roar of praise and petition together, in unison, until softer again it fades away

A man stands in the front with a look of authority and something to say

Blue light around a cross shining behind him

Loud words are spoken amidst tears, laughs, shouts and Amens

Beginnings of faith, love, and hope

Gratefulness to those who loved, cared, and prayed

Where are they now? Where are they going? Do they know how much they have guided my journey?

So simple yet so influential...

Have I mentioned my favorite color is blue?

A Milestone on THE WAY

It's graduation time! Not for me but for those who have completed the requirements of the schooling in which they have been participating. Serving in youth ministry, I have gotten to celebrate and be a part of a number of graduations. There is always a sense of hope and looking to the future. There is celebration of past accomplishments combined with the excitement of looking forward to new adventures. There is joy over the completion and sadness over the potential loss of relationships. It is an amazing time.

Over the last few weeks I have also been reading about what the church of Jesus is supposed to look like. Something interesting struck me when I was reading about baptism. Baptism is supposed to be a time of celebration of a new believer's entrance into the family of God. It is a time where the community of believers can gather around someone or someones and invite them into the fellowship of Christ followers. We can rally around this new disciple and encourage them that they are not in this adventure alone. Whether or not we are accomplishing this task in the way we currently due baptism is beside the point for this discussion.

What this led me to think about was other dedication rituals that we often partake in as a body of believers. We dedicate babies and vow to help the parents raise the child in Christ honoring ways. Do we truly mean it? Do the parents truly want the community of believers around them to take part in raising this child? Again, this may be material for another discussion. What I did think about were ways that we as the body of Christ can use times like graduation to gather around a young believer and challenge them in their journey with Jesus.

• I wonder if we take the time to publicly commission these young women and men to chase after the leading of Jesus in the next phase of their lives. We often stand them up and congratulate them and even give them gifts. But do we challenge them to boldly charge into the next phase of their lives with the desire to do God's will wherever He might lead them?
• Could we be more intentional about mentoring these young people as they walk through this modern day rite of passage? Do we take them under our more experienced wings and guide them in how to find God's will? How many of us offer to truly help them along the upcoming path? We cannot let them transition to a new phase of life and expect them to know how to do it while following Christ on their own! We must gather around them and let them know they have a family who cares for them and will help them on their way.
• The Bible tells about communities of believers commissioning new leaders by laying hands on them and praying for them. Are we taking the time to gather around graduates and pray for them?

Society has set up this time of year as a milestone in the lives of thousands of young people. As the church we need to use this milestone as a time for the family of God to encourage a young person on their way in Christ. Let's not just give these men and women token congratulations and gifts. Let's surround them with the love of Christ and help guide them on their new adventure on the Way!

Between the Word and Finanaces

The idea of ministry as a vocation has started to become a bit of a strange idea to me lately. The idea that a pastor is supposed to be following God's leadership and preaching the Word of God to people on a weekly basis regardless of how much that Word could offend people, while at the same time being paid by the money that those same people bring as a offering seems to put a pastor in a very difficult place. If it is the pastor's role to be a truth teller and to give people a Word from God on a weekly basis then chances are that those words are not always going to tickle the ear of the listener. And let's be quite frank, people don't always like to hear things that challenge their lives of comfort. I'm not saying that pastors should always be beating up their congregations with their sermons but there are going to be times when the church needs to be given a little push to get back on the right track. We all need that push from time to time. But how easy is it to be the giver of that push when the people you are pushing are making decisions about the paycheck that supports your family?

Maybe the pastor isn't supposed to be the only truth teller and that is the job for the church as a whole to be doing for each other. That takes some pressure off the pastor but it still raises the question for me as to what the role of the pastor then becomes. Is is caretaker? Vision giver or leader? CEO? Administrator? All of these roles seem to me to be things that the Body we call the church should be doing collectively as a community. If the role of the pastor is spiritual director then why do we employ them full-time? Why don't we work the church in a more community fashion and pay some people part-time here and there for administrative duties?

I'm just wondering if the idea of "full-time pastor" is going to become a thing of the past. Why not organize a church as a body of believers challenging each other and caring for each other in a spirit of unity and love? Is this idea a pie-in-the-sky dream that can't happen? Does a group of people always need someone "in charge?" This is something I want to look into Biblically and practically in the next while and see where it takes me. It may not be too appealing to those of us who "work" for the church currently but it has been on my mind and I need to get at least a little resolution. Just thinking here. Anyone have any answers for me?