Selling Jesus?

As some of you know I spent part of the last 10 Days at the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show selling kitchen cabinets. I will spare you the details on the cabinets mainly because I am sick of talking about them.

When I told a couple people what  was doing I was often met by a disturbing statement and a statement that reveals the heart of some of our issues with evangelism. The statement I was met with went something like, “Sales should be a good experience for you since you will essentially be trying to get people to buy into Jesus with your calling as a pastor.” This statement is troubling to me because I hate the thought of the Gospel needing a sales pitch. I cannot stand that some people actually think that we are the ones that bend the perverted wills of man into accepting the truth of Christ.

The Gospel does not need a sales pitch. People do not accept the truth of Christ based on how good or bad the presentation is; people accept Christ because he is calling them unto himself. “And those whom he predestined he also called…” (Romans 8:30, ESV). God does the calling. He does all the work and we just proclaim (see Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 10:14).

So what do you think? Do you see God as the sole worker in the hearts of those he is calling or do you think you have something to do with it?

Healthcare, Christians, and the Glory of God

So I am stuck at home all day today due to icy roads and basically horrible whether so I thought I would blog a little bit about an issue that we can’t seem to get away from: Healthcare.  Now, this is not going to be a political post where I defend a political ideology but rather a Christian response to a cultural issue.

Healthcare and all the mantras about it, has started to drive me crazy. I have feelings about it and do not like the healthcare plan but I am not claiming the demise of our country, nor am I looking to this plan to operate as a functional savior for Americans. What is interesting though is how many people look to this as exactly what we need while conservatives and many Christian’s say this is what we don’t need.

Let me state it another way. Christians, stop preaching that conservative ideology is what this county needs. That is NOT what we need-we need the Gospel. Morals never saved anyone, neither has healthcare or any political system.

God is interested in the advancement of his Kingdom through Christ. I think it is time we get just as interested in this as well and trust God and his providence for the rest. It is time we herald the Gospel, not an ideology…but Jesus. Jesus is what will transform this nation. Jesus is what will change people’s lives. Jesus is the One who delivers from sin. Not a political system. Let us as the church proclaim the gospel with our lives and with words and let us trust Christ and hold fast to the only One that really matters.

Just a thought.

What do you think?

A Thought on Connecting

Driving is a time that I use for reflection and for thought and I have been thinking a lot about ministry and connecting with the lost people around me. Many people in ministry have no idea what lost people around them go through and do not really know what it is like to live in  non-ministry world. Future pastors usually go to school and later become disconnected from the reality of the harshness of life to those around them and I am as guilty of this as anyone.

So I guess the question I am posing is this: how are you (and myself) identifying with those around you? Are you failing to step into the world of people and see what they go through like marriage problems, emotional trauma, abuse, financial crises, debt, hunger, illness, and the list keeps going on.

Paul said, “…I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Cor. 9:22-23). Paul knew how to reach people. He understood them and where they were at. Paul was not advocating sinning but it does seem that he was advocating understanding and connecting even at the expense of his convenience.

So, do you know what the people around you are going through? Do you take the time to understand and relate to the teens in your youth group? Do you understand the life of people outside of ministry and social class. Paul did everything “for the sake of the gospel”…do you?

Awkward Spots

So over the past 4 months now I have been looking for a full-time ministry position at a church and frankly it seems to be going  no where fast. Churches are notoriously slow at choosing pastors to the point that I oftentimes get impatient and pessimistic about the whole thing wondering why in the world I spent $100,000 on an education only to work construction. But, in the middle of this time God has been doing great things and it is one of those desert times in my life where God is speaking loud and where I am being molded and shaped into who he wants me to be.

Maybe the most important thing that God is teaching me is identity and he is teaching me about keeping my identity in Christ in check. I don’t know if you experience this but I know a lot of people who, after being hyper-involved in various ministries and being so entrenched in what they sooner or later become defined by what they do rather than who they are in Christ. So, what happens when full-time ministry becomes difficult or worse yet, removed? First, I person starts to feel like their world is collapsing around them and the gusto for life and purpose for living is removed. The second thing that happens is depression. Because life was wrapped around ministry rather than on Christ their lives become miserable and he or she feels devalued.

What God has shown me is a kind of renewed understanding of what it means to find all purpose, identity, hope, and passion in Christ. Honestly, I was the hyper-involved ministry guy and ministry became an idol. While this awkward spot of life is not easy I am certain that God has used it and that it was I lesson I needed to learn; and I am happy to learn it before stepping into full-time Christian service. Now, I will be praying for God to open doors at a church somewhere and I will continue to focus on Jesus being confident that he is in control of all of this and that he is what matters most.

Back To It…hopefully.

So I was on this quest to blog and I fail miserabley at it time and time again. It is one of those things where I post for awhile and then…nothing…for months. So I am going to get back to it. I think it is time that I blog a little bit more and more than that…I think my heart is finally in the right place to do it. You see, I battle this element of pride in my life and honestly, I am my own worst enemy most of the time. Before this moment, I think I blogged (or didn’t blog) with that element of pride in the backdrop. This conviction came upon me when I was listen to John Piper (who loves Jesus more than anyone I know) talk about how we should not blog our thoughts because of our pride but we should rather do it with humility and realize that God should get glory in our blogging.

So I am back at it. I believe that one of the reasons I didn’t  blog (besides my own laziness) is because I had my own popularity and fame in mind and didn’t desire God’s glory enough in this pursuit. Hopefully this time around will be much more God-honoring and I pray that this doesn’t effect my pride too much.

So…more posts to come (for the two of you who read this).

Saying Goodbye

So this past week or  so I have been doing a lot of thinking about things since the Geneva Community is practically non existant since school has let out. Since I am a graduating senior I have been saying a lot of goodbyes and am bidding farewell to lots of people (most of whom I will never see again). I have been thinking about the concept of saying goodbye. Also last week my family said goodbye to my great aunt as she passed away. Every time I get back from a mission trip I think about the people I met their and how much I would long to see them again.  During this whole time I have been asking myself why goodbyes seem so unnatural. Why is it so hard to let go of people? And why does it seem as if your never really let go even if you know you will never share a moment with the person again?

Maybe farewells are not supposed to feel normal and maybe we are supposed to think beyond our current circumstances and see things with the end in mind. Maybe our longing for lasting friendships and relationships should be a motivator for the gospel and teaching others about the gospel in hopes that we will experience community with each other again someday and experience God together in an even more profound way on the New Earth. 

Just some thoughts. Feel free to give me yours.

After thinking about all of this I realized that perhaps we were not meant for this. Maybe leaving people is not meant to feel natural and should make us think deeper about they way things really ought to be. God meant for us to live in community and in constant relationship with other people.

Living Intimately

If you are like me you tend to struggle with the spiritual disciplines at times; not because you don’t like them or because you think they are boring, but because you find it hard to quiet your self. I am a doer, I move all the time, when I do something I usually have to be active in doing something. It is an A.D.D. of sorts–and something that oftentimes fights against my yearning for intimacy with the Father.

Furthermore, the earliest parts of my Christian years were characterized by legalism; this is what Christians do and this is what Christians don’t do. It is this kind of thought that can plague the mind of one trying to cultivate intimacy simply because it turns relationship into regulations and quality time into reaching benchmarks with God. So in my devotional life I have to battle the “did I do enough” thoughts because of my past. I must replace that with thoughts of “Jesus is enough” and it is only when I do that will the relationship cultivate. When one realizes that all the benchmarks have been completed by Christ he or she is finnally free to grow in relationship with God through Christ.

Now more about the picture above. This year I decided to take a class on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Honestly, I was not really sure why I took it other than the fact that Dr. Watt was the one teaching it. Little did I know that this class would be one of the most formative classes in my college career. Recently in this class we were assigned to read the “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster. I heard a lot about this book–some good and some bad, and I was kind of excited to read it.

When I finally delved into this book I was immediately impacted by what came off of the pages. This book was all about intimacy with the Father and getting to a place in our devotional lives where we are open to God changing us and reaching into the dark corners of our lives.

This book gently goes through the inward disciplines (i.e. prayer & meditation) and outward disciplines (i.e. simplicity & solitude) and challenges the reader to grow in them. What is best is that there is no semblance of legalism in the pages of this book and there is only the call to go to new places with God and live intimately with him.

really random political rant…grr

So, some of you know that I have a passion for politics and before God called me to ministry that was where I was headed. Well, I still follow politics pretty extensively and I usually end up getting really ticked about what congress and the president do. Well, the past few days was one of those days. Congress passed Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package–an 816 BILLION dollar spending spree. O, and did I mention that we do not have 816 billion dollars; which means we are going to print more money and devalue the dollar and my generation as well as generations after me is going to be paying it back.

What is more is that people think this is all getting pushed back into the economy when in fact 335 million of it is going to fund STD prevention programs. Last time I checked STD prevention programs had little or no effect on the economy. Also, people who do not have social security cards will be getting a refund check. So that means illegals will be getting money and tax cuts on taxes they do not even pay. I mean c’mon, this is not that difficult and anyone with any knowledge of Austrian ecomonics and our Constitution can testify to the fact that this massive governmental spending spree is not going to work. Government is not the solution to our problem. If we want to solve the problem we must let the debt liquify and allow these bad companies to pay for their mistakes. We need to return to what is constitutional and return to the free nation we are meant to be. I could go on forever but I do not wish to bore you with too much more so I must quit. Please feel free to comment.

new year’s stuff

So, it has been awhile since I have updated; too long if you ask me. But anyways, I was thinking that I would write about the new year. This year should be different for all of us because we should set new goals and strive to grow in our walks with God. So in light of this, here is a list of some of the things I plan on doing in 2009.

1. Grow in my walk with God and learn even more about what it means that he is my only and absolute Joy and Desire
2. Work out 3 days a week
3. Blog at least once a week
4. Twitter regularly
5. Figure out whether or not to get a job or go to seminary
6. Graduate (maybe that should be before the previous one)
7. Cultivate my friendships to be deeper
8. Read a lot of books that I actually want to read
9. Read through the Bible
10. Go to Peru for missions
11. Give regularly to an organization (probably GO InterNational)
12. Live by and stick to my budget
13. Reach out to some people who don’t know Jesus
14. Become more proficient at guitar
15. Be a better steward of my time for God’s glory
16. Spend and enjoy family more

Now, I know I listed a lot here. But all of these are things are things I desire to get accomplished and keep up with.I believe that as a Christian, we should be constantly seeking God more and more and this year 2 Chronicles 15:1-15 are the theme verses for me.

So, over finals week I decided to do some reading in my “spare time.” Earlier in the semester I started reading It by Craig Groeshel. I saw Craig at Catalyst ’08 in Atlanta; his talk was based off of a portion of this book and it left me speechless and hungry for more of God.

Craig talks about It as being that indescribable work and move of God upon an individual or upon a church. The churches and people that have It are growing in a noticable way. People are getting saved. Lives are being changed. It is apparent that these churches have It.

One of the things of the book that challenged me was when Criag talked about whether or not the reader of the book had It. This really challenged me to look intside and search my heart. Did I have that unquenchable passion for God that influenced every single area of life, or was I going through the Christian motions. Craig Groeshel challenged the reader to press into God in a new way and ask God to give you It.

So I ask those of you who read, do you have It? My challenge is for all of you to seek after God in a new way and run after him. He is as close as the next breath and he desires his children to have a contagious passion for him. If you feel that your faith is dry and empty, seek God and ask him to consume you.  The writer of Hebrews said, “for our God is a consumming fire” (12:29 ESV).

It is time for people to see that the people who know God through the blood of Christ have something different, that they just have…It.