Category Archives: Leadership
5 Suggestions For Creating A Winning Organization
Smiley face 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Okay, I don’t know why I am writing this. I am not a businessman, and some would say I am not even a very good theologian. This is certainly not a theological topic, but it is something that occurred to me over the course of the morning, so in order to get it out of my head I thought I would put it in a blog.
I have been a part of some really good companies, and some really dreadful companies. As I pondered over what made the good companies great and the bad companies really lousy, a very few characteristics came to my mind. I hope I have crystallized them succinctly and beneficially enough. Maybe you have another one or two to add. Feel free to push back or add to. Here goes:
1. Really good companies hire the best person for the job and then let that person achieve what it was that he or she was hired to do. That is, really good companies ditch the boiler-plate human resources department mumbo-jumbo run-around that sucks so much life out of new hires and, eventually, the entire company. Really good companies take risks, look for creative, hard workers, and understand that a spotless resume often means an empty brain, and a somewhat tarnished resume might also reveal a brilliant worker. This applies to churches far more than the average pew sitter would expect. I cannot tell you how many “boiler-plate” job descriptions for ministers are out there. Everyone wants the most successful evangelist, most spellbinding preacher, highest educated teacher, most devoted home leader, accomplished counselor and universally admired retreat/lectureship speaker. Know how many of those there are out there? Yeah, I thought so: exactly zero. But chances are a good man will have two or so of those traits, and many will have one outstanding trait among all of those. The fact is you cannot be 100% introvert and 100% extrovert, which is what many companies demand (or, at least, demand on paper). But, find the best individual there is available and then release him or her to do his or her potential!
2. Very closely related – do not micro-manage your company. If you release your employees (or your volunteers, if that is what you are working with) then allow them to succeed brilliantly and allow them to fail spectacularly. Great achievements are born from the ashes of previous failures. Let your good people take ownership of their work, and that means you have to get your long nose and oversized posterior out of their workspace. In the job where I had the best owner/boss, he let us make our own decisions and we knew that. We knew we would have to justify those decisions if it cost the company money, but we also knew that our boss would have our back if our decisions were questioned by his superiors. Folks, that is the kind of boss I would run into a burning building for. On the other hand, the most wretched company I have had the curse to work for made it impossible for me to do my job without the fear of my immediate superior calling me into her office for a periodic dressing down. It was brutal. Sometimes the best lessons are learned from the worst teachers, and, heaven forbid anyone would have to deal with a teacher like that, um, person.
3. Never, ever, ever issue instructions or demands that result in a “double bind.” A double-bind is a situation in which an employee or a volunteer cannot obey one command without violating another. For example, one company I worked for had one “bind” that we would obey every single regulation that the FAA handed down to a perfect “t” and there would be no questions asked. However, an unspoken but very clear rule was that we were to deliver our packages on time and precisely where it was to be delivered, also no questions asked. So, even though it was against FAA regulations we flew in weather we were not supposed to, in aircraft that were not airworthy, and carrying freight that we were not authorized to carry. There was no way we could obey one “bind” without violating the other. I hate to say it, but during the time that I was associated with that company 3 pilots lost their lives. In every situation the “official” reason was “pilot error” but those of us who knew the inner workings of the company knew better. And, by the way, yes I did make an official complaint to someone outside the company in an official position of authority (law enforcement). To the best of my knowledge, my complaint went nowhere.
4. Do not write checks on the bank accounts of your employees (or volunteers). This one has more to do if you are working with volunteers, but never commit your employees or volunteers to do something that is physically impossible, or strategically improbable, for them to carry out. An example of this would be to commit your volunteers to give more time than is reasonable, or expect higher levels of sacrifice than is realistic, or to expect higher levels of return than what your people can deliver. If it takes an hour to fly from point A to point B, don’t promise you can have a package there in 30 minutes. If it takes an hour to create a poster, do not demand that 3 be made in the same time period. If your people sacrificially gave $100.00 last quarter, do not demand $10,000 this quarter. There are so many ways in which this is done in business and in churches. Be honest, be fair, and work with what your people can give you. You would be surprised at how frequently they will willingly give you more!
5. To inspire loyalty, demonstrate loyalty. I could not leave Jezebel and the company from Hades fast enough. While I actually enjoyed the position, the company ethics and the office politics were in the process of killing me. It was a wretched experience, but, strangely enough, I am glad I lived through it. It taught me how not to treat people. There was no loyalty, and yet the ownership demanded absolute loyalty. Workers came and went on almost a weekly basis. Morale was low. To hear the owner speak, though, you would have thought his company was the happiest on earth. There are many former employees who would disagree with him on that point! On the other hand, I truly regretted having to leave the “pleasant” company. I had to for health reasons – but it was anything but an easy decision. It certainly was not a glamorous position – socially far beneath the excruciating company position – but infinitely more enjoyable and worthwhile. While the nature of the company encouraged a considerable amount of turnover, many former employees would come back to this company after their next adventure did not work out. We had a standing joke that our company was the embodiment of the Eagles’ famous song, Hotel California - “You can check out any time you’d like, but you can never leave.” We (at least most of us) loved the company and parted on good relations with the management.
So there you have it – my five foolproof ideas for how to create a winning organization, whether it be a company or a volunteer group.
Many happy landings!
Is God Through With Us Yet?
The Prophet Isaiah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
And the Lord said: Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote; therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with this people, wonderful and marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14, RSV)
I wish I had a dollar for every book and blog post that has been written describing the decline of the church of Jesus Christ today, or the prescription of the one single magic potion that would reverse this decline. Depending on the theological worldview of the author the church either has to become more modern or it has to go back to a pristine form of some past era. The worship needs to become more vibrant, relevant and “hip” or it needs to become more contemplative and dignified. The church needs to surrender the reigns of leadership to the younger people (whether in actual roles of leadership or at least in terms of the direction of the church) or it needs to “put the young ‘uns in their place” and reject any and every call for modernization. Just about everyone has a silver bullet or at least a silver plated bullet that will bring the church back from the brink of destruction to a full blossom of youth and vitality.
I am struck with the realization that most of these suggestions, while every one might be good intentioned and even healthy in some respect, can be described simply as window dressing. Hiring a younger minister, recruiting a praise time or removing the praise band altogether, removing the pews, creating a prayer labyrinth, lighting candles and incense – all of these external changes will amount to nothing if there is not a substantial change somewhere else. That change has got to be in the heart of the individual, and the collective heart of the congregation, or nothing anyone does is going to amount to anything at all.
I am also struck with the realization that the one voice that most people refuse to allow to be spoken in the church is the voice of the prophet. Hence, I turn to the prophets with increasing interest. I am convinced we cannot hear the voice of the Messiah correctly if we refuse to hear the voices of those who prepared for his arrival. I believe our focus on surface religion and our avoidance of the prophetic message are inextricably related. If we want to restore our church, we must learn to hear the prophets once again. No, that is not a “magic bullet.” But it is a necessary beginning.
Notice in the passage above – Isaiah did not say the people were not honoring God. Oh, they were honoring God all right – dressed in their finery and exuding all kinds of spirituality they worshipped with great pomp and circumstance. But, and this is a common theme throughout all the writing prophets, God would not be mocked with their false worship. He saw straight through their empty and vain ceremony. As Isaiah stated it, the process of worship that had devolved by the time of his writing was simply, “…a commandment of men learned by rote.” How many of our worship services can be described by that one dreadful line?
I have been involved in multiple ministry situations in a relatively broad sampling of congregations and there is one characteristic that defines virtually all of them. (Note: I have not been to every congregation, so if your congregation does not fit this description, simply move on). That characteristic is a lack of commitment. I am not accusing every member of every congregation – some members are amazingly committed. There is, however, a disturbing number of individuals who simply could not be any less interested in the mission of the church.
I have known members who would not miss a softball practice or game to save their life, but who cannot manage to get out of bed early enough on Sunday morning to attend a Bible study. I have known dear sweet little old widow ladies who would not miss their weekly card game if they had double pneumonia, but let them be afflicted with a case of the sniffles and they are nowhere to be found on Sunday morning. I know men who can quote the batting averages of the complete roster of their favorite baseball team who could not find a Scripture if they were handed a Bible with thumb indexes for each book. I have known church leaders who had a chest full of pins from their social club honoring their recruiting prowess who never, ever invited anyone to attend a worship service. I have known salesmen who would drop everything to make a sales call for their business but who were always “booked solid” when it came time to make an appointment to study the Bible with a friend or neighbor. I have known brilliant teachers who were always “too tired” to teach a class. I have known retirees who had plenty of time for the golf course, for the fishing stream, or for the lunch room at the senior center but somehow never had any time to volunteer for a congregational ministry.
Why is it that the auditorium will be full on Sunday morning, but on Monday or Tuesday night when the “rubber is meeting the road” there is only a handful of members show up? And why is it that even though they are so worn out, so tired, and so distracted, that they would not be any other place but the Bible study table, the prison visiting room, the nursing home, the soup kitchen? Is it not because deep inside their heart they have the love of their Lord burning brightly?
Somehow or another the softball diamond, the card table, the bowling alley, the social club, the Senior Center – all of these can make absolute demands of our time and we do not even flinch. But let the Lord’s servant speak the words “total commitment” and watch the fur fly.
How dare you expect me to be totally committed to the church! You are not my master. I have more important things to do.
And so Bible studies go untaught, lonely people go unvisited, critical ministries wither and rot when the willing servants finally get burned out or die. And the members who only know the “fear of the Lord as a commandment learned by rote” wonder why their country is “going to the dogs,” wonder why no one seems to have any moral values anymore, wonder why no one is attending their church anymore, wonder why there is no teacher for their class, wonder why no one will ever come to visit them. And they dream up such wonderful ideas as adding PowerPoint projectors to their auditoriums and building a prayer labyrinth in the weed patch behind the building. And, if they are really radical, they might even recruit a praise team to make their vain worship more relevant.
Sometimes I really have to wonder – Is God through with us yet? When is he going to do something marvelous with this generation? And will we have the spiritual eyes and ears to become aware of it when it happens?
God, revive us again, and please give us eyes to see, and ears to hear when your Spirit starts working in our desperate world.
A Senior Phobic Society (Or, Whatever Happened to Wisdom)
It is right there in the middle of all the blood and guts, the “thou shalts” and the “thou shalt nots.” It is a tiny little verse, hardly more than a gnat’s whisker in the whole scheme of God’s ponderous revelation. Alone and overlooked, it sits quietly, and maybe even patiently, waiting for someone to read it, to listen to it, maybe even to take it to heart.
You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:32.
We live in an ever-increasing senior-phobic society. We warehouse our elderly in “care homes” or “retirement centers” or some other euphemistically appropriate term. Those names are nothing but short-hand for, “a place to put the old and worthless until they die.” Billions of dollars are spent in the frivolous attempt to keep ourselves from showing any age: memberships at the gym, expensive surgery, hair color by the gallon.
The youth of our population are venerated and sought after. If a question of generational conflict arises, the deference is given to those who are barely out of adolescence, or perhaps barely entering it. A generation that does not even have the capacity to understand the questions are being given the responsibility of coming up with the answers. And the answers that they are providing are being utilized with hardly a thought being raised as to their truth or ultimate health. The answer seems to work now, and now is the only thing that matters, so let’s go with what works. “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
We are in the midst of a huge economic downturn. Those who are most vulnerable are those in the middle ages, those who have valuable work experience, but who also have four or five decades of existence behind them. Sorry. You cost too much. Better to hire someone who knows how to work a computer, but does not have a work ethic. At least we don’t have to pay them as much for the work they don’t produce.
The same is true in the church – if not even more true. Congregation after congregation wants the maturity of a man who has been in the traces for 15 years, but they want that maturity behind the face of a 30 year old. Excuse me? How does that math work? Let a man turn 50 and he might as well forget finding a preaching position today. Never mind that at 50 he has finally achieved a little bit of education from the school of hard knocks and might actually know how to properly preach and guide a congregation.
Even our “elders” come with children in diapers. An “elder” at 35? Who exactly is he “elder” than?
Rehoboam could have had the entire nation of Israel as his servants. The older, the wiser, the “gray heads” all told him to respect the people, listen to the people, lighten their load – be their servant leader. He turned to his younger comrades. They scoffed in derision. Forget the gray-beards, they said. Double down. Make the people pay. Show ‘em what you are made of. Show ‘em who is boss. Rehoboam listened to the young fools instead of the wisdom of the sages, and he lost his kingdom. He split God’s people and they never recovered.
I speak as a baby-boomer who is watching the age and wisdom of the generation ahead of me pass away slowly but surely, and in ever increasing numbers. Because of the accident of my birth I grew up in a situation where I have never known sacrifice. I have never known want, or hunger, or deprivation of any kind. How can I pass on to my daughter knowledge that I have never obtained? And why should I listen to someone 20 years my junior who has spent those 20 years in a more favored and ostentatious culture than the one I was given? Why are they lecturing ME about how life should work, and why should I listen to them? What wars have they fought? What depression did they live through? What nation have they built? What sorrows have they lived through? What obstacles have they overcome?
I am not asking these questions in anger or sarcasm. I am asking them sincerely and openly. I want to know why I should look to youth instead of age for the wisdom to know how to solve the problems of a bent and broken world.
Today we are in the process of eliminating the wisdom of the ages from our congregations. We no longer rise in the presence of the gray hair. We no longer honor the face of an old man or an old woman. We are therefore, if I read the passage correctly, in the process of eliminating the fear of the LORD our God.
Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Turn the nation, turn the church, turn anything over to those who do not have the experience or the knowledge to make the wise decisions and the results will be assured.
But that tiny little verse is still there, still waiting, still hoping that someone, somewhere will listen to it. Maybe a young person will read it and listen to it, and maybe even take it to heart. We can hope.
How Do You Make The Church Relevant?
English: Fairway wood positioned near golf ball (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Christian world, Western edition, is all atwitter with the discussion of how to make the church relevant. From what I am to gather, the precipitating issue which started all of this discussion is the fact that young people are leaving the “church” in droves. Not by tens, or hundreds, it would appear. But apparently all across the religious spectrum from the most conservative Bible believing hell-fire-and-brimstone type churches to the most liberal mainline denominations, young people are voting with their feet in unprecedented numbers. The answer, as discussed in books and seminars and blogs and tweets, is to make the church “relevant.”
As I have mentioned many times previously, I am not the brightest bulb in the box, so please, if I am missing something here, please enlighten me. But just how exactly to you make ANYTHING “relevant?”
From my somewhat perplexed and even increasingly agitated viewpoint, something either IS relevant, or it is not, but there is virtually nothing a person can do to make something relevant.
Go ahead – I dare you. Make something that is absolutely irrelevant to your life relevant. Let’s say you hate a sport – say golf. Many people love the sport. Some tolerate it. Others despise it. Now, how are you going to make golf relevant to someone who hates it? Make them play 18 holes every day? Read them the rule book every night before they go to sleep? Put a video of “Golf’s 10 Greatest Moments” on their 72 inch TV screen? How, exactly, can you make something relevant by forcing it down someone’s throat? Or, by making it more sexy? Or by jazzing it up with a praise band or a dance team? Or by adding “non-traditional” songs? It just will not work, folks. You can put all the lipstick you want to on a pig and guess what – all you end up with is a very confused and possibly very angry pig.
Either the church is relevant to a person’s life or it is not. There is no way under God’s pure blue sky that we are ever going to make something that is irrelevant to become relevant. I am not trying to be obstinate, unkind, or uncharitable here. Provocative, for sure – I want to provoke some serious thought.
Just this week I have been reading Deuteronomy in my daily Bible reading. The past two days two verses have leapt out at me while I have been thinking about this subject. The first is Deut. 27:9, “Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, ‘Be silent, Israel, and listen! This day you have become the people of the LORD your God.’” Now, that verse might slip past me 9 out of 10 times I read it. But notice – this “day” to which Moses and the priests made mention was not the day the Israelites left Egypt, nor the day they received the law at Mt. Sinai. The “day” was the day they had the law read to them as they prepared to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. In other words, the past was important for the Israelites and they were never to forget it, but what was relevant was the law in their immediate and given situation. But Moses and the priests did not make the law relevant – it simply was relevant.
The second verse is Deut. 32:47, “For they [the words Moses was giving the Israelites] are not meaningless words to you but they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Notice that. The words of the law are not meaningless. They are life. We look at the Levitical law as dry as day old toast, meaningless and beyond comprehension. To the “people of God” however, they constituted life.
I have to confess – I am really befuddled here. It just seems to me that if a man went through the Palestinian countryside saying, “I am the Son of God” and if he was able to defend that claim with Old Testament prophecy and the immediate power of God, and if that same man was crucified and three days later was resurrected out of a cold and sealed tomb, then what that man and his immediate followers said to me are relevant. I do not make them relevant. I have the choice to accept their relevance, or to reject their relevance and thereby declare them to be irrelevant for my life, but in neither case am I materially affecting the reality of the relevance of the Son of God or of his disciple’s teachings.
What this all boils down to is that when someone writes a column or a book or gives a speech and says in effect, “Young people will return to the church when we make it relevant” they have placed an impossible requirement on the church. We cannot crawl inside some 20-something-year-olds head and flip a switch and suddenly “make” the church relevant.
If Jesus and his sacrifice are relevant to any person’s life, then the church will be relevant. If the church is irrelevant – what does that say about the person’s devotion to Jesus and to his mission to create the “people of God?”
I am in no way suggesting that every congregation that bears the name of Jesus is relevant. Many congregations died years ago, it is just that no one has told them yet. Many others are in the final gasps of life. If you doubt me, just consider the seven letters to the seven congregations of the church in the book of Revelation. Seven churches were addressed, but it is clear that each was dealt with on an individual basis. Laodicea was lethargic, but that had no bearing on the relevance of the church. Sardis was in effect dead, but that had no impact on the relevance of the church universal. Philadelphia was perking along pretty good, but that did not mean it was more relevant than Laodicea or Sardis. There is a HUGE distinction between a dead or dying congregation and an irrelevant church.
So, call me a cynic or an old fuddy-dud or a knuckle-dragging troglodyte if you wish. I am simply not buying the snake oil that is being peddled by so many in so many different ways today. The church is the most relevant community in the world. We will never be able to make it more relevant, or even make it relevant to begin with. We can make a congregation more useful, more inviting, more caring, more evangelistic, more benevolent, more knowledgable, more grace oriented, more worshipful, more inclusive, more inter-generational, – and maybe a dozen other things. But relevant?
C’mon theologians, preachers and bloggers, let’s use a better word!
A Radical Sermon – “Peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9)
Why do most ministry leaders get out of ministry (whether paid or volunteer)?
Why is there such a high burn-out rate among ministry leaders (both paid and volunteer)?
What is the one thing that, if it is not the #1 least taught aspect of ministry in schools it has to be in the top 3?
Hint: the same answer covers all three questions.
Answer: Anyone who seeks to take up the mantle of ministry is going to get creamed – certainly in the metaphorical sense, but sometimes in the literal sense.
To minister to people means that you are going to place yourself near someone in the process of experiencing pain or discomfort. Think about it – who needs a minister when you get the huge promotion, when the baby arrives in splendiferous perfection, when the love of your life says, “yes” and when the grandkids get the starring role in the school play? No one – except maybe in the case if the proposal if a formal church wedding is in the works. But that is becoming less and less a reality these days.
No, ministry in the real sense involves the hours and days and weeks and sometimes months when everything seems to go wrong at once. The newborn baby dies. The lead deacon on the ministry team announces his divorce and engagement to the church secretary in the same email. Five irate parents demand that the youth minister leave or be fired. Five others demand he receive a raise and a commendation. Last week’s sermon on the sacrificial giving did not go over as well as you had planned it.
Oh, and, by the way, the elders would like to speak to you in your office after class and before you preach. Chances are, this is not going to end well.
Ministry is dealing with the 60 year old who has just been informed of a terminal cancer diagnosis. Ministry is also dealing with her sister who has held a grudge because of a real or imagined offense that took place decades ago.
Ministry is working with a group of young and excited Christians who want to see the congregation grow and be responsive to their community; and it is also dealing with a group of senior Christians who have seen far too many of these excited Christians come and blow up the church and then move on to really trust this latest group. The’ve dug in their heels and refuse to budge.
Ministry is dealing with a young man who for whatever reason either cannot or will not surrender his attachment to pornography; and it is helping to bind up his young wife who cannot compete with his digital mistress.
Ministry is clearly seeing the sin that is destroying the congregation; but it is also knowing that when that sin is identified and condemned there will be immediate and painful ramifications. Honesty and integrity to God demands skillful and Spirit led intervention; reality and human failure means that the repercussions will be dramatic.
When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” he was basically saying, “The captain has turned on the ‘Fasten Your Seatbelt’ sign. We are headed for some turbulent weather.”
You cannot “make peace” in the absence of conflict. If everyone was at peace to begin with, there would be no need for a “peacemaker.” And, you cannot step in the middle between two (or more) conflicted parties without getting caught up in the mess. And, just for good measure, add in your own weakness and sinfulness, and peacemaking becomes a real test of faith and of discipleship.
Some messes are easy to identify – the couple who call you to referee a marital spat. The single parent who calls you to counsel the belligerent teen. The alcoholic that needs an intervention. These can be nasty – and sometimes dangerous – but at least they are the easy ones to spot. In these situations it is possible to bring along back-up, either a fellow minister or even the police if need be.
But there are also the hidden conflicts, the sin and rebellion that lie simmering in a congregation for years if not decades before they blow up in spectacular fashion right before homecoming Sunday. There is the racism that is never spoken of, but which silently dictates every decision coming from the eldership. There are the aspects of greed, of pride, of selfishness that lurk behind the selection of every ministry leader in the congregation. There are the petty disputes over paint color and chair styles that can paralyze a rebuilding work. These sins – and countless others like them – must be addressed if there is to be the healing of the Spirit and a transformation into the mind of Christ, but how is it to be done? And who will have the minister’s back when he tries?
Jesus promised a blessing. Peacemakers will be called “sons of God.” Wow. Remember what happened to His one and only, unique Son? Yeah, that whole crucifixion thing.
But, think of the blessing again. Peacemakers will be called “sons of God.” Where is the one and only, unique Son of God now? Yes, that’s right – with His Father in heaven. Those who seek to build bridges, those who “stand in the gap,” those who purposefully and bravely bear the brunt of all attacks in order to create and deepen peace on this earth – they will receive that blessing too. There can be no greater epitaph, no greater words spoken in the memory of an individual whether they are living or dead than these -
“This man is a Son of God; this woman is a Daughter of God. Where there was conflict, they brought peace. Where there was brokenness, they brought healing. Where there was enmity, they brought reconciliation. They paid the price. Blessed is their name.”
That does not make ministry easier. Peacemaking will still be a dangerous, emotionally draining, and sometimes painful process. But at least it allows the peacemaker to know that his or her work is not in vain. If not in this life, then certainly in the next, our peace making efforts will bear fruit. We cannot ask for more than what our Savior received, and he paid for his peacemaking efforts with great sorrow and pain.
But we can rest with all certainty knowing that if we engage in this radical work of transformation His presence will be with us, and our blessing is secure.
May God send us more peacemakers, and may we lift them up in continual prayer.
Best Book in 2012? Best Blog? Best Print Journal?
Jester reading a book (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the blogs that I follow is Matt Dabbs, Kingdom Living (you can find the link over on the right hand side of this page). On his blog he invited his readers to suggest the best book they read in 2012. I got some good hints reading the list, and I will check back to see what else people have been reading.
So, not to be a copycat or anything, but I decided to steal his idea and see what you all have been reading – good books, great blogs, can’t miss journals. They do not have to be printed in 2012 – some of my favorite books are decades old – but just something you read in 2012.
Thanks in advance for your contributions!
Just to get things started -
My reading was severely curtailed this year due to my Doctor of Ministry studies and a move. But Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Culture by Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee is for me my best read of 2012. If you are a lover of the Sermon on the Mount, or you want a good volume on Christian ethics, this is the volume you need to get.
Cover via Amazon
After that volume I suggest you buy and read anything written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
In terms of blogs, I really like following the aforementioned Matt Dabbs, and Timothy Archer always has good stuff in The Kitchen of Half Baked Thoughts. Tim is a fan of the San Antonio Spurs or Dallas Mavericks, I forget which, so some of what he says has to be taken with a grain of salt, but he shares good stuff and his jokes are top notch. I will be adding to my blogroll soon, so keep in touch.
In terms of journals, I read Christianity Today and have just started to subscribe to Leadership. Print journals are kind of like dinosaurs, on their way to extinction, but I still prefer them over e-media. I like having the ability to cut or copy articles without all the side bar stuff that invariably gets printed when you want to print a copy from your computer. Note to web site hosting companies – make your print friendly links truly print friendly! Choose a readable font and have only the article print – no one wants to waste ink on advertisements that will soon be out of date!
I look forward to reading about what you are reading – and you may just turn me on to a new blogger or journal!
The Decade That Changed America
The forward magazines of the U.S. Navy battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) explode shortly after 08:00 hrs during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (USA), 7 December 1941. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today is December 7, 2012, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. As I ponder this event I cannot help but consider the changes that have reshaped America in the past decade. Just for a moment, consider how America responded to the unprecedented attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and how America has responded to the equally unprecedented attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The two narratives could not be any more distinct.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor the President of the United States addressed the joint houses of Congress and requested a declaration of war. Following the attacks on New York and Washington the President of the United States promised retribution, but did not seek, nor did he receive, a declaration of war. In 1941 and following the people of the United States knew they would have to make personal sacrifices on many different levels before the war would end. In the years following 9/11 Americans have not only refused to sacrifice, we have complained bitterly about the expense of fighting our “enemy.” In 1941 we knew exactly who that enemy was. In 2001 and following we only have a vague idea of who the “enemy” is, and too frequently we have befriended our enemy and killed our friends. In the years following World War II America was still largely an agrarian culture, and the work ethic was what drove the exploding economic opportunities. After ridding the world of the threat of National Socialism (the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists), it was generally assumed that nothing could stop someone who had a dream, a plan, and a bucket full of elbow grease and determination. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, those who survived the tragedy and the survivors of those who died lined up at the doors of the government demanding to be paid for their losses. Instead of “asking what they could do for their country” (in President Kennedy’s great phrase), they demanded that their country sacrifice for them. That, in one single vignette, illustrates the profound difference between 1945 and 2001. Our moral fiber has only disintegrated from that point.
In my last post I made the following observation:
This past election was truly an eye opening experience for me. In this election cycle I tried to listen and read what the candidates and the pundits in the media were saying (and writing) from a theological vantage point. In other words, I was trying to hear what was being said within the broad structures of God’s Word and also within the structures of God’s actions in similar situations in times past. What I discovered was truly disconcerting. I am not one who buys into the “Chicken Little” theory of American politics (“the sky is falling, the sky is falling”) but I do sense that over the past 8 years America has past beyond a “tipping point” and I do not believe there is any return (short of a cataclysm). When the eventual results of this move will become obvious I have no way of knowing, but I do believe that day is inevitable.
I would like to expound on that just a moment.
In this past election the citizens of the United States had a stark choice to make. On one level there really was not that much of a difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. But, on another level there was a profound difference. President Obama, for all of his oratorical skills and political acumen, knows absolutely nothing about fundamental economic principles. Despite my hesitations about Mitt Romney’s ethics, I at least knew that Romney understood how a company works, and how companies work together in an economic spider-web. Romney understood that in order for businesses to succeed the government was going to have to pull back – at least to some degree. In Obama’s world, the only reason businesses exist is to provide income for the government to increase it’s stranglehold on every facet of American life.
Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama’s socialist view of government, where the state is to be the overlord and dictator of all decisions involving a person’s life from the cradle to the grave. It wasn’t even really close. Instead of Kennedy’s vision of all Americans pulling on the same rope at the same time to keep the American dream moving forward, we now have each American pulling on a single strand of the rope in the hopes that the government will give him or her just one more perk, one more entitlement, one more “guaranteed freedom.” In a staggering reversal of fortune, we have turned our government “of the people, by the people, for the people” over to the National Socialists.
Think about how America has changed, and how quickly it has changed. My grandparents were among the first generation to enjoy the “fruit” of Social Security. By all accounts, Social Security will not exist by the time my daughter reaches the age of 65, and that is assuming America still stands as a republic in 2071. That is four generations, folks. Our current rate of expanding “entitlements” means that we as a culture will be financially and morally bankrupt in far less time. And, lest you think that I am crying “wolf” when there is no wolf, simply answer this question for me: when, in the long history of human existence, has a populace voluntarily chosen to relinquish privileges and status that a previous generation has enjoyed? Our baby-boomer generation is now entering their retirement years which is placing an increasing burden on those who are working. The number of those who are working is getting smaller. Every “social safety net” that has been voted into existence has only expanded – none have contracted. Every session of congress that net gets bigger and those “saved” by the net demand more and more from those who are providing the services.
At some point the balances tip past equality, and the burdens of the welfare state exceed the ability of the working class to support it. It is my contention that the first clear indication that America is moving headlong into collapse was the overwhelming support President Obama received for his vision of national socialism.
So, since this is a blog concerning all things theological and not necessarily political (although the two can never be separated), what is the disciple of Christ supposed to do?
First, a few things he or she should not do. One, running out and buying an arsenal of guns and a warehouse full of ammunition is not only foolhardy, it is positively unchristian. We will not overcome this evil at the point of a gun. If you trust in Smith and Wesson then it is blatantly obvious to me that you do not trust in Jesus the Messiah.
Next, circulating or signing a petition to secede from the Union is equally foolish. Political stunts such as that not only feed our opponents prejudices against us, they are further proof that we do not trust in the power of God, but that we are relying solely upon our own human wisdom and ideas. God repeatedly communicated to Isaiah that the Israelites were NOT to send to Egypt for military support. It was a good political strategy, and maybe at one point could have been considered a sound military strategy, but it was a pathetic spiritual response to their crisis. Which then leads me to my theological response to our current situation.
Disciples of Christ must return to their faith. I know that sounds like a stupid comment, but it is absolutely true and necessary. For far too long we have been concentrating on impossibly small and meaningless arguments while the soul of America has been radically transformed. God, Jesus, sacrifice, redemption, transformation and Holy living must once again become the focus of our message. If we are to leave a heritage to our children of a free and prosperous country, we are going to have to build a foundation one human soul at a time. We are going to have to preach a message of sin and grace, corruption and salvation and we are going to have to pray for the Holy Spirit to move in a profound and decisive manner once again. We are going to have to return to the fortitude that is illustrated by the disciples in the book of Acts if we hope to make a difference in this world. And that means we are going to have to say unpopular, unpatriotic, and politically incorrect things and risk the consequences.
I said that a day of judgment is coming – and I believe that. But I also believe in God’s grace and God’s forbearance. I believe that he can relent, or he can lessen the fall that justice demands. That is the story of God’s dealing with his faithful in the past. The question for disciples today is whether we believe in that grace, and if we are willing to humble ourselves to approach God to ask for that grace. That is the question the next decade will answer.
Ezekiel 22:23-31 – Is There No One To Stand In The Breach?
Ezekiel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is the second part of my thoughts on Ezekiel 22:23-31. The first half of this study is found here. In brief, what I wrote in the first piece was that reading this paragraph in Ezekiel was like reading a modern newspaper. Our political leaders are corrupt and guilty of bloodshed, even if it is not as blatant as it has been in historical periods in times past. Our religious leaders are guilty of putting whitewash over the bloodstains. The Holy is conflated with the profane, the clean and the unclean are blended until there is no way to separate the two. The general public follows in the footsteps of its leaders and is similarly corrupt and criminal. We are not living in the garden of Eden any longer.
So, if that is true, what is the point of Ezekiel 22:23-31? I think the answer to that question is found in verse 30. “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.” There are many, many chilling verses in the Bible. I think v. 30 is one of the most sobering. God searches for one who can stand in defense of his or her people – and cannot find a single person.
How many crimes have been committed, and then ignored, because a good person will not stand “in the breach” and do what is right? How many deaths, how many robberies, how many injustices? Political correctness is killing us with a death of a thousand cuts. We have not become a nation of barbarians – we have simply become a nation of ethical pacifists. We do not want to get involved because it is always someone else’s fight. We turn our heads and walk away because it is not proper to involve ourselves in someone else’s business. We are just one person, and what can one person do against an entire corporation, or against an entire political system? So the breach remains a breach. The wall is undefended. The enemy does not fear defeat, because the gate is open.
The final sentence in this paragraph is equally striking. God tells Ezekiel that the time for repentance is over – He has already begun what he will ultimately complete. But notice the phraseology. In the RSV the words are “…their way I have requited upon their heads.” Now, that is a little archaic and stilted, but newer translations help us out here. The ESV (a descendent of the RSV) translates that phrase, “…I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the LORD God.” God gave the Jews what they dished out. God gave them a dose of their own medicine. If they wanted to treat others like barbarians, then they would be treated like barbarians. And that is exactly what did happen.
So, what is in store for us? If our culture mirrors that of Ezekiel so closely (and I believe it does to a tragic degree), can we hope to escape an equal punishment? We think (and I am speaking here primarily of Christianized America) that we are God’s chosen nation, God’s blessed people. We think that because of our history and because of some of our traits and traditions that we will be immune to God’s punishments. I wonder though, are we not simply whistling past the graveyard? Can we see the handwriting on the wall, or has our vision deteriorated along with our morals? What if Americans were suddenly treated by citizens of other nations the way we have been treating them? What would change about our government if we simply applied the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We do not even live up to THAT standard, and that is really the most basic of all ethical principles to follow.
This past election was truly an eye opening experience for me. In this election cycle I tried to listen and read what the candidates and the pundits in the media were saying (and writing) from a theological vantage point. In other words, I was trying to hear what was being said within the broad structures of God’s Word and also within the structures of God’s actions in similar situations in times past. What I discovered was truly disconcerting. I am not one who buys into the “Chicken Little” theory of American politics (“the sky is falling, the sky is falling”) but I do sense that over the past 8 years America has past beyond a “tipping point” and I do not believe there is any return (short of a cataclysm). When the eventual results of this move will become obvious I have no way of knowing, but I do believe that day is inevitable.
What I question is if there is someone (or a bunch of someones) who is (or are) willing to “stand in the breach” and at least proclaim that the day of judgment is coming. I mean in a biblical sense, not a political sense. And, when things start to become seriously dangerous, will these individuals remain steadfast?
I am not advocating some reactionary response that calls for the building of personal bomb shelters and the purchase of enough ammunition to fight WWII again. That response would be foolhardy and just as dangerous as making no response at all. Neither am I advocating some kind of knee-jerk political response that is just as humanistic in nature as the situation in which we find ourself today. What I am advocating is a biblical response of repentance and mourning over our national, religious, public and personal sins. We (as disciples of Christ) have been complacent about far too many issues of critical importance for far too long. The results are beginning to be made manifest. The end has not yet come, and I pray we have some more time left.
God is patient beyond all of our understandings. God wants all men everywhere to come to know Him, to come to love Him, and to enter into a personal relationship with Him. But God’s long suffering patience came to an end with corrupt and profane Jerusalem. At some point God’s patience will come to and end with corrupt and profane America.
The wall has been broken through. The city has not yet fallen, but the wound may be incurable. Ezekiel’s unanswered question reverberates across the ages. Where is the one who will “stand in the breach.”
Liberals and Conservatives Make Strange Philosophical Twins
English: Red High Heel Pumps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I dunno. Maybe its just because my twig got bent when I was a little kid, but I get amused at the weirdest things. Some of which are decidedly NOT funny to others, which tends to get me into far more trouble than I deserve. Like, for instance, when I point out that women spend billions of dollars on make-up, push-up bras, tummy flattening girdles and impossibly high pointy spiked shoes, and yet are incensed when men comment on their appearance, some women just get positively apoplectic. It’s a good thing I can out-run some of them in their pointy high heeled shoes, or I would be flogged with their push-up wonder bras.
Another oddity that is simply mind boggling to me is how liberals and conservatives love to bash each other, all the while blithely ignorant of the fact that they are philosophically identical. Both sides would disagree with me here – but that just lends credence to my theory.
Take egalitarian and complementarian positions for example. On the one hand we have a group that says women should be treated equally to men in all respects, but especially in regard to church leadership. There is no difference between men and women (as they exegete Gal. 3:27-28) so men and women ought to be able to serve equally in positions of leadership.
It should come as no surprise that egalitarians dislike complementarians, those who believe that men and women have distinct, albeit complementary, roles to fill in the church. What I find amusing here is that egalitarians save some of their most hateful venom for women who are complementarians. They simply cannot comprehend how as woman could acquiesce to this horrible miscarriage of justice. In their mind every woman should listen to them and leave such misogynistic churches immediately. That some women choose to remain in these bastions of chauvinism is bothersome to the egalitarians, but at least they can explain it by telling themselves (and anyone who will listen) that these poor women are so brow beaten that they cannot even think for themselves. They just blindly go along with whatever their slave-owning master-husbands tell them to think.
But what really riles the egalitarians up is when a woman defends the concept of complementarianism. Here is where the affirming, kind, gentle and compassionate egalitarians absolutely flip their wigs. How dare a woman actually suggest that God has specific roles for a man and a woman to play, and that the male should be the leader. Do you think that African American females were excoriated for supporting Mitt Romney? Try being a complementarian female and see how you get treated by the general media – or by the predominant gate keepers within mainline Christianity today.
But let’s flip the coin. Complementarians are quite convinced that egalitarians are out to destroy the world, or at least the church, with their heretical inversion of biblical authority. Every book, author or preacher is given a screening so invasive it makes the TSA look like a bunch of boy scouts. Many other disagreements are tolerated so long as a “good brother” is sound on the “women question.” However, lurking behind all of their bravado and machismo is a disturbing and (to me, just slightly) humorous paradox. Many complementarians will call anyone a leader as long as he has, um, shall we say for decency’s sake, external reproductive features.
Adam and Eve (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In many congregations if a woman stood up to distribute the emblems of the Lord’s Supper a small revolt would take place. But, replace that woman with an 8 or 9 year old little boy who was baptized just last week and not a peep of resistance would be heard. Why, you retort, we are training that little boy to be a leader! Okay, help me out here. We would never invite that 8 or 9 year old boy to make decisions in a men’s business meeting, or to cast a vote in an elder’s meeting. I doubt we would ask his opinion about the hiring or firing of a preacher. I seriously question whether we would entrust him with the leading of a Bible class or other ministry simply based on his baptism. Yet, we routinely place such youngsters “at the table” or let him lead a prayer or read a Scripture so he can be a “leader” in the church. It is for that very reason that we say a woman, or an 8 or 9 year old female who has just been baptized, cannot perform such things.
What does passing a tray of bread or grape juice or reading a passage of Scripture have to do with leadership? Am I the only one who sees the incongruity here?
Apparently not, because many “egalitarian” churches have made the move to allow women to serve in many visible capacities. They have seen the paradox, but instead of searching for a theologically informed response, they have simply pieced together a practical band-aid that allows women to think they are being treated equally and at the same time salves the conscience of a few “compassionate” males.
Lest I be misunderstood here, I am not arguing for the practice of allowing women to serve as worship “leaders.” I would be considered a complementarian, although I am not truly comfortable with the term. I believe emphatically that God has given the role of spiritual leadership to the male gender. I want to be clear about that.
What I am arguing against is the false idea that visibility in the worship service is somehow equal to leadership. Let me put it this way – visibility in a worship oriented service should be limited to those who have already demonstrated spiritual maturity and leadership, not as a proving ground to somehow develop that leadership!
I will be bold here, and I will undoubtedly get myself in all kinds of trouble with some readers. It is my opinion (hopefully theologically informed, although that may be debated) that the biblical concept of leadership is based on a prior history of service, measured and tempered by maturity, and it is therefore critical that we define and develop servants before we elevate them into positions of leadership. What we are doing to our young men is a huge disservice at best and is spiritually fatal at worst. We baptize them, give them a Bible, teach them how to give a 5 minute devotional, let them serve at the Lord’s Table and, voila, presto-chango they are transformed into a leader. Many cannot even shave, but we routinely stick them in front of a crowd and croon, my, what a wonderful Christian leader!
The tragedy is that many, far too many, buy into this false coronation and a few years later when life slaps them upside the head these “leaders” have been destroyed. They get chewed up and spit out – first by the world and then by the church that no longer looks at them with awe but instead with contempt. They have failed marriages and broken families and shattered dreams and destroyed faiths because they were told and they believed they were something that they never were. They were told they had achieved spiritual maturity when they needed to be told they were little infants. They were told they were leaders when they had not even mastered the art of marching in formation. They never were given a chance, but they are given all the blame, and the church looks for the next newly baptized young man to begin the process all over again.
So, as bizarre as it may sound, both egalitarians and complementarians fail at a crucial point. This point is not about gender – although I do not want in any way to minimize what I believe is the clear teaching of Scripture. The point where egalitarians and complementarians fail equally is on the biblical concept of leadership. Anatomical appendages and the rite of baptism do not combine to confer the mantle of leadership. Leadership is learned. Leadership is earned. Leadership is a honor that should be given to few and honored by all. If every male is a leader simply by virtue of baptism then the entire concept of leadership evaporates, and it is “every man [will do] what is right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25).
Actually, the more I think about it, this is not funny at all.
People Cannot Follow If They Are Not Led
“Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem” by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My daily Bible reading had me in the book of Lamentations this morning. One of the real blessings of my daily Bible reading is that my schedule calls for me to read a section long enough to be challenging, yet not so long as to be oppressive (or, at least in my mind. YMMV). Just to let you know, I read anywhere from 7-8 chapters a day, not counting Sundays when I have a different schedule. Even though this is a lengthy reading, every so often one or two verses jump out at me as if I have never read them before. That is what I find so interesting about this particular plan. The text speaks to me in its own way, rather than me telling the text that it has to say something to me. Of course, sometimes I am so distracted that I can’t hear any of the verses, but that is okay because I know that tomorrow is a new day, and I will read that passage again in due course and at that time it may speak volumes to me.
So, as I was saying, today I was in Lamentations. Now, I don’t know about you, but I cannot recall ever hearing a sermon taken from Lamentations, and to the best of my recollection, I have only preached one. So, as I was reading along and following the prophet’s anguished cries over the destruction of Jerusalem I came across 4:13, which in my Common English Bible reads this way:
It was because of her prophets’ sins, her priests’ iniquities, those who shed righteous blood in the middle of the city.
Wow. Reading the books of Kings and Chronicles and the prophets you would get the idea that Israel and Judah were punished because of the sins of the kings. The author of Lamentations thinks otherwise. Oh, to be sure, the kings were a sinful bunch (at least all of Israel’s kings were, and a great many of Judah’s). But the author of Lamentations (Jeremiah?) saw through to the real lack of leadership – the spiritual leaders.
Today, especially among conservative pundits, bloggers, and preachers, the entire problem with the United States resides solely in the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Why, if we could just sweep out the mean, nasty, ugly heatherns that are making all those mean, nasty heathern laws, well we could fix up the country just like she should be.
I don’t think God is going to give our political leaders a pass when it comes to morality and the way in which they have led our country. But I think there is another group that is going to get a lot more scrutiny than I think they are going to be comfortable with, and that is all those conservative pundits, bloggers and preachers that are calling for the roof to fall in on all the liberal politicians.
Simply put, the people cannot go where they are not led. And if the so called leaders who are complaining the loudest are not forging a way for the people to follow, then they need to shut up. And if they are forging that path, then they need to shepherd those who are following instead of shooting arrows at the other guys.
Real leadership involves more than just identifying where the other guys are wrong. It means that you have to both teach and live the ideas that you believe are right. Leadership does not mean holding up a wind sock and then going in the direction of the prevailing current. It means setting your course and courageously maintaining that course whether the wind is at your back and the sun is shining brightly or if the wind blowing mercilessly against you and the sun is hidden by the clouds. The one who says, “I will take a poll and whatever my people feel is best, that I will do” is not a leader. That person is a charlatan. That person is a fake. That person is a coward.
Real leadership means standing at the point, and quite often standing alone, to take the arrows from the enemy in front and, quite frequently, arrows from the discontented hiding behind. Leadership is not acquiescing to the whims of the majority, but it is confidently proclaiming the way of truth and safety. Real leadership means that the leader makes demands that might at times cause his or her followers to make sacrifices. Fake leadership promises only blessings and success.
As I view the religious scene in the United States I see a lot of men (and women) who are comfortable in their positions who have done their homework well and know exactly where the winds of popularity are blowing. They know how to play the game of politics with brutal, almost demonic efficiency. They know how to play the fearless general when necessary and they also know when to pull out the robe of the martyred hero when the situation calls for it.
Jeremiah provides the perfect illustration of the concept of Godly leadership in a time of personal unpopularity. He tried desperately, with only minimal and fleeting success, to get the people to hear and accept God’s truth when virtually every power – political and religious – was against him. He may have lost the battle, but we have his story as a lasting tribute to the necessity of having spiritual leaders who are willing to go against the current of modern culture in order to speak the word of God.
English: South façade of the White House, the executive mansion of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Español: Fachada sur de la Casa Blanca, la residencia oficial del Presidente de los Estados Unidos, situado en 1600 Avenida Pennsylvania en Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am really growing weary of preachers who stand in the pulpit and declare that the real problem with American resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. No. That person is just the result of the real problem with America.
The real problem with America stands behind the pulpit every Sunday morning and preaches a false word – a lying deception. The real problem with America is the spiritual leader who refuses first to hear the Word of God, and so refuses to proclaim it. The real problem with America are the so called “conservative” preachers who preach week in and week out “peace, peace” when there is no peace.
If the preachers in the pulpit would lead the people in the pew, then the president on Pennsylvania Ave. would be of no consequence. If our politicians have so much authority in the realm of morality and ethics, exactly whose fault is that?
