Smoke and...Something

On Christmas morning I made a great personal religious discovery. No, it really wasn't an epiphany surrounding the Christ child, though I really did enjoy having 3 1/2 year old present on December 25. No, it wasn't from the Bible, per say. And, no, it did not involve the well-worn re-recognition of what sleeplessness feels like (I went to bed at 1:00AM after four services, and woke up at the crack of ?!?!?!?). My great personal religious discovery on Christmas morning was what the Holy of Holies, at the heart of the temple smelled like for those who were privileged enough to take it in, to experience it. In the church on Christmas morning, I smelled;

Smoke and....Something

Let me offer more explanation. On Christmas morning, I realized, halfway through my third cup of Java, that I had forgotten my wallet and cell phone down at the church. So, around 11:00AM, I drove down to the church to retrieve them. I should explain that when I say, "church", I mean the 16,000 square foot box that we built some 4 years ago on our property. 16,000 square feet is woefully small for our current space needs at Highlands. I believe that Kobe Bryant has a guest house that is larger than 16,000 square feet. So, the night before, 1,787 people crammed into 16,000 square feet, four times. 1,787 held candles aloft as Ave Maria was sung. 1,787 people sat (many stood) nearly on top of one another, hip to hip, cheek to jowl, candle to candle. 1,787 people listened, with half a brain on the message, and the other half on the trampolines they still had to assemble sometime that night. When I entered the room the next morning, there was;

Smoke and....Something

The Bible says that when Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, was on temple duty; "He was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of the incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside." What did Zechariah experience in there? What did he see? What did he smell? I think I now know! He smelled what I smelled on Christmas morning at Highlands;

Smoke and....Something

The smoke at Highlands was easily explicable. We had 1,787 candles the night before. In addition, we had two brightly kindled fires outside the church doors to welcome in visitors with the light of Christ. The smoke in the temple of Jerusalem was equally easily explicable. Incense in the temple had been a traditional smell of God, ever since the Exodus. Smoke was the most important part of the "burnt offering" (whatever that may be - a goat, a sheep, a dove). It was the smoke that arose to God, and the heavens, not the actual meat that was offered. And, of course, incense, frank-incense to be specific, was given to Jesus at his birth. The smoke was easy to explain. But what was the...Something?

At Highlands, it is hard to say what it was. Was it the maliforous smell of many bodies packed closely together, from the nearly 2,000 visitors the night before? Maybe. Was it the smell of panic and fear that the human body produces when in near shock, perhaps by a mother or a grandmother, they remembered that the oven was still on at home? Dinner was burned. Possibly. What was the Something that Zechariah smelled in the temple? The Bible says that, "An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense." Was it the smell of angels? What do angels smell like? Do they smell at all?

Or let me offer a radical explanation. Was the smell in both places some extra-terrestrial encounter with the Spirit of God? The great Hebrew scholar, and father of the modern Hebrew language, Rabbi Elizeer Ben-Yehud, translated Genesis 1:1 as; "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...and the Spirit BROODED over the waters." Was the smell I smelled on Christmas morning, and the smell that Zechariah smelled in the temple, that of the Spirit of God - BROODING? I will never know. No one will ever know. All I can say is that the smell was;

Smoke and...Something

All for Now,

GB

The Last Sledder

Every year, for 7 years now, Highlands Church has dumped 10,000 pounds of snow (a whole truckload) in downtown Paso Robles. At this point, I should remind my blog readers that Paso Robles is basically in Southern California, and the sight of snow in our town in December, is about as likely as a meteor hitting us (We hope that is unlikely). It never snows in Paso! However, we dump 10,000 pounds of it every year in order to build a huge sledding luge run for children to come and slide down during one of our community's street parties. We call it Ski Patrol. The image of a Swiss cross is both a symbol for skiers of safety (a member of a Ski Patrol), as well as a symbol of Christ's death. Every year Ski Patrol gets larger. When we began, we only had around 1,000 pounds of snow. Next year, plans are for two separate luge runs and a massive light display to illuminate the event.

The reason we have done Ski Patrol over the past 7 years is in order to connect with the outside community in a fun and accessible way. We attempt to show that Christians DO have fun every now and then. We also use the attraction as an outreach mechanism (a luring tool), to attract people to our church services, where hopefully we can plant some seeds of God's love. And, by in large, it has worked. The Paso Robles community have begun to look forward to Ski Patrol every year. Actually, now many other organizations are copying us (imitation is the greatest form of flattery). What has been remarkable, during the economic downturn of our country, is to see how Ski Patrol, for many families who don't have financial resources, has become their only form of entertainment all Christmas. One family recently told one of our volunteers, "This is the most fun our kids have had all Christmas, and the only fun we can afford."

But here is the main image I want to offer up from this blog post. This year, Ski Patrol ended around 9:00PM as usual. At 9:00 o-clock, all of the lights, the sleds, the bales of hay, video projection systems, and the music amplifiers were packed up and put away for another year. Ski Patrol was over, right? Not hardly. Early the next morning, around 6:00AM, someone from our church noticed a solitary, singular little boy on a sled, going down the Ski Patrol Run. The little guy was sledding all by himself. Who knows what motived him to be there. Maybe he woke up on his own, and before his parents got out of bed, he picked up his sled, and he headed out, by himself, for one or two last runs. However, this image of the "Last Sledder" has remained with me. This Christmas, for me, this little boy represents the emblem of all that the church stands for. The image of the "Last Sledder" remains with me because it symbolizes the tension between the lasting impact of what we do in our communities, verses the temporal and quickly disappearing displays that most of us are so familiar with. So, here is my question for the day...

Who will be the "Last Sledder" in your ministry this Christmas?

Who will be the "Last Sledder" after everything else gets packed up and put away this Christmas? Who will carry the message of hope that you are preaching and teaching about every week, after you are gone? Who will carry the Gospel after we are all of us are gone from the earth? Who is the person sitting in the dark in the back of church, who isn't singing, "Joy to the World," but by the power of the Holy Spirit is moved to accept Christ this Christmas, and who dedicates their life to eradicating a world disease, ending global hunger, educating abject children in inner cities?

Who will be the "Last Sledder" in your ministry this Christmas?

Here is what I have learned about "Last Sledders" in my eleven years of ministry. "Last Sledders" usually don't attract a lot of attention. "Last Sledders" often seem like they don't care, or aren't interested. "Last Sledders" may argue with you about every single thing you say, and tell you to your face that you are wrong. "Last Sledders" often come late and leave early. "Last Sledders" don't take notes, but somewhere deep in their soul, very deep, they bury what you are offering, to be unearthed like a gemstone at a much later date. In the end, the "Last Sledders" are the ones who carry the mission forward, and hold the light the highest, when everyone else is gone, when the worship service is over, and when the bands have headed home.

The apostle Paul, of course, was one of the most famous "Last Sledders". He brutally criticized and chastized Christ followers for most of his early adulthood. Paul (Saul) hated Christians and all that they stood for. But then, when most of the disciples had separated and gone their own ways, Paul woke up one morning, and pulled out his sled, and went for a run, down the luge, all by himself, just he and God. The "Last Sledder", the apostle Paul, would write these words in the city of Rome; "I Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God offer the following..." (Romans 1:1)

Who Will Be The "Last Sledder" in Your Ministry this Christmas?

All For Now,

GB

Just Plant A Seed

This week I am taking the first steps of a new personal adventure to be a part of a freshly organized program for preaching pastors called a "Micah Group." Micah Groups are a Fuller Theological Seminary Program, birthed from PhD program there, designed to bring fellow pastors together in an academic and spiritual setting to talk and think constructively about the art of preaching. Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, formerly of Hollywood Presbyterian Church is a founding organizer of the Micah Group concept, as is Dr. Mark Labberton, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. Both men are great preachers!

The group that co-leader Israel Gonzales and I have organized is made up of some of the best and most well known preachers on the entire Central Coast. For the past three months, we have scanned and prayed about the entire coast from Santa Maria, to San Luis Obispo, to Paso Robles to Cambria, and have assembled, it must be said - 12 simply great preachers! The Micah Group begins in the Spring, but some critical preliminary steps for organization are happening this week. So, please pray for us!

The main point of my blog post this morning is to say that I have been thinking recently about the wisdom of preaching. So, here's my latest wisest idea. Effective, fulfilling, helpful, God- inspired, and incredible preaching is simply a matter of planting a seed.

Just Plant a Seed.

This past Sunday, as I was standing up front at the beginning of worship, with my microphone and headset wires all poking out of me, like I was a modern day reincarnation of Edward Scissor Hands, I was feeling very distracted. All of the organizational notes for my sermon kept going through my head. The worries of my message were pounding down upon me; "rolling down like mighty waters." I was thinking about my introduction and how that led to my first point, and how that led into a joke, and how that led into the big idea of the morning. Actually, I was being bogged down by all of these details, and greatly vexed by them. The vexation I was feeling inside was also easy to read on my face. My assistant turned to me after the first worship song was sung and said; "Are you OK?" The truth is, I was OK, but I was also worried about my sermon. But then I heard this voice inside of my head (maybe it was from God) say;

Just Plant A Seed...

Every preacher's main job, every communicator's main job, every teacher's main job, every evangelist's main job, every person who wants to share the gospel with a friend's main job, is to simply plant a seed. What is a seed exactly? A seed is the essential DNA of life for a plant. The essential DNA in a seed has lain dormant inside the seed for an indefinite amount of time. Only one of these little life clusters needs to be planted. Only one. A great Sequoia tree can burgeon to life from just one seed. A seed is a tiny ball of inert energy, that, pinched between two fingers, and released into soil, begins to set in motion the symphonies of the universe, the building blocks of life.

Now, let me talk about what a preacher's job is not. A preacher's job is not to cultivate the soil. A preacher's job is not to fertilize the soil. Cultivation is a task that God has sets in motion, usually many years before the seed gets planted. A preacher's job is not to plow the ground or to make a hole in the ground for the seed. One might argue that creating an open space for growth is the job of the morning Scripture, the hymn, the music, the choir, the setting, the space, the stained glass windows, the worship band - but not the preacher. The message giver has only to...

Just Plant A Seed...

This past week I saw a very inspirational interview of former professional golfer named Dave Stockton, who was talking about his master techniques involved in helping players become better putters (forgive the change of imagery from farming to golfing, but stick with me). Dave said that most putters, most golfers, think about too many things when they get up to make a putt. They think about wind current and ground conditions and ball velocity and humidity and a thousand other things. Dave has learned that these other thoughts are very destructive for golfers. "Don't think about bad conditions, don't think about the crowds, don't take advice from others, don't worry about how the ball will role. Just put the ball in the hole." Just do one thing...

Just Plant A Seed...

All For Now,

GB