Being a Banana

"Good leadership is the art of giving yourself away, and helping the people who bear more fruit in their own lives."

In Africa, there are many different kinds of trees - but there are two trees which are the most opposite from one another.  These are the Banyan trees and Banana trees.  Banyan trees are the greediest, most selfish trees around.  From a long distance away, you can usually tell if a tree is a Banyan, because everything around the tree is dead.  Banyans grow very tall, and live long lives, mostly because they selfishly drink up all the moisture and the life around them.  No fruit grows on a Banyan.  They are impressive to look at, but it is hard to say what the real purpose for a Banyan tree is.  It would seem that Banyan's live mostly for themselves.

Banana trees on the other hand, are the most generous trees around.  Shortly after a banana tree grows, it develops another tree right beside itself.  Then, as soon as that tree grows, it too grows another tree right on the side of it.  You can always tell Banana trees because you will usually find a sea of life surrounding one.  From miles away, even before you see a banana, you can tell that a tree is a Banana tree, just because of the amount of vibrant and lush growth that you see all around.  And, of course, Banana trees grow beautiful fruit.  Banana trees don't live as long as Banyan trees, partly because they give up their own lives, so that other trees can have life.

Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?" (Matt. 7:17).  Jesus also said, "I am he good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I down my life for the sheep." (John 10:14-15)

Be a Banana Tree!

All For Now,

GB

"Flying Solo"

This week at Highlands we are talking about "singleness".  One of the main problems with the concept of "singleness" in our society is that all of the terms associated with being "single" either connote a sense of non-completeness or loss (solitary, widow, alone, isolated, single, lonely, bachelor, bachelorette, just me).  As we think about "singleness" at Highlands, we want people to begin to see themselves being complete in God, and not having anything particularly wrong with them.  So, we are encouraging people to self identify themselves in a new way - as "Flying Solo".

All of us "Fly Solo" at one time or another.  All of us have aspects of our lives that are "solo experiences".  We are either not married yet, not planning on being married, our spouse has passed to the next world, our spouse is away for a period of time, we are divorced, or we are single in the faith (our spouse is not a Christ follower).  These times can be challenging, but they don't have to be. God speaks to people in solo situations!  God spoke to Moses, Mary, Abraham, Jacob, Paul and many others (99% of the Bible was written by people who were flying "solo missions") while they were "Flying Solo".

When my wife Star leaves for a couple of weeks to go visit her family in Tennessee, I begin a "solo mission".  My option is to either let my life totally go (fast food, TV, late nights, sleep late, not exercise, not pray, not read the Bible) or to grow closer to God through the solo experience.  

The great church leader St. Benedict lived in the 6th century - AD.  He led a group of people who were "Flying Solo" and who were actually excited about it - Benedictine Monks and Nuns.  When I think about monks and nuns I don't usually think of joy, freedom, adventure, journeying.  However, Benedicts followers were on life's greatest journey.  Here is a prayer that Benedictine taught his "solo flyers" that might speak wisdom to you as you fly your own "solo missions":

Gracious and Holy Father, 

Grant us the
 Intellect to understand You,
  the Reason to discern You, 
Diligence to seek You,
 Wisdom to find You,
 A spirit to know You,
 A heart to meditate upon You.
  May our ears hear You, 
May our eyes behold You,
 And may our tongues proclaim You.
  Give us grace that our way of life may be 
Pleasing to You, that we may have
he patience to wait for You, and the
Perseverance to look for You.
  Grant us a perfect end:  Your Holy Presence, 
A Blessed Resurrection, and Life Everlasting.
  We ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord  - AMEN.

Say Hi to "God"

I have a friend whose mother is dating God.  Maybe I should explain.  My friend's mother has had a relationship, for the past 10 years or so, with a person that claims to be "God".  The exact nature of the Godly deity to which my friend's mother ascribes is not known to me - neither is the level of dysfunction that is involved in the relationship.  Though obviously, it is considerable.  This dating relationship with God, of course, raises a whole host of related follow-up questions.  If you are on a date with God, who pays?  What are the implications of breaking up with God?  Each time I talk to my friend, I say, "Oh, and remember to say Hi to God for me."  My friend always replies, "I will say Hi to God for you, is there anything you want to ask Him?"

There is another friend of mine who is in an ongoing debate with me about whether Jesus is actually God.  This friend has recently written me a series of very animated, angry, screed-like emails about how wrong I am in claiming that Jesus is, in fact, God.  No amount of redirecting my friend to the Apostles Creed, "Fully Human/Fully God" can assuage my friend's strong convictions that Jesus was simply a teacher.  I think he is still attending Highlands, but just barely.

The purpose for this blog is simply to illustrate how confused and misdirected our world often is about the true nature of God - today.  While we theologians and pastors can spend hours at a time debating the nuances of how, exactly, does the nature of atonement in Christ work, everyday people continue to be completely confused about what and who God is (ie: God can't be dated, Jesus is God).  The basics of our faith should not be lost in the theological shuffle irrelevant nuance about God (postmillenialism, suprasurlapsarianism...).  In my faith community, people still need just the basics.

All for now,

GB

The Ministry of "Grunting"

It was a Friday afternoon, and I was doing my usual yard work "chores" in the back yard.  The temperature was around 90 degrees and the heat of the afternoon was settling in on Paso Robles like a blanket over an old dead dog - cicadas were chirping loudly.  It was hot and I was tired!

My 22 month old daughter, Haley, was taking shade underneath the flap of the green recycling garbage bin and drinking a cold bottle of milk as she watched me attempt to pull up the last and most difficult weed of the afternoon.  I pulled and pulled at the weed, but it would not come up.  I started to grunt loudly as I pulled (uuuuuuhhhhhhhh.......).  My grunting did not seem to help.  The weed was fixed.

Then, from the corner of my ear, I heard my 22 month old daughter begin to grunt, mimicking my strains and stresses...(uuuuuuhhhhhhh).  We grunted together over the intransigent weed. Finally, with a snap, the weed came out of the ground.  Somehow, both of our grunts combined made the weed loosen it's grip on the ground.  It would seem that two grunts are better than one.

The Philippian Church church shared in the troubles of Paul's ministry; "I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me.  Indeed, you have been concerned but you had no opportunity to show it...Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles." Phil. 4:10-14 

Ministry, pastoral care, counseling, shepherding people can, in part, be described as "grunting with people."  When someone is in grief because of the loss of a loved one, when a couple is in crisis in a marriage counseling setting, when a staff member is struggling through a project, sometimes the most helpful thing we can do is to "grunt with them."  By sharing in the pains of others, we often, miraculously, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, ease their ability to pull up the weeds of their lives.

All for Now,

GB 

The Shalom of ADVANCE

I recently went to a "pastor's retreat" in order to recharge my engines as a pastor.  In my church, with the economy the way it has been, and with recent staff "transitions" I have been feeling very overwhelmed by life in general.  So, my thought was that I would RETREAT to a pastor's retreat, and there I would find God's peace.

The problem was that once I got to the retreat, the challenges that I was facing back at home were on my mind the whole time.  In addition, I was with other pastor's who were bragging about how well things were going at their churches, and the leaders of the conference were giving solutions which weren't helpful for me.  Soon realized that I would need to RETREAT from the RETREAT if I was going to find God's peace.

I went and spend time by myself, in the forest with my Bible and in prayer.  Nobody was around.  It was just me.  And yet, I was not at peace.  Even there, in the midst of nowhere, I felt this unrelenting sense of my burdens at home.  Then, in a non-audible voice, but still a strong presence, I felt God telling me; "Graham, the shalom (peace) you are looking for will not be found in RETREAT, but in ADVANCE.  Go back and face some small part of your challenges at home, and then you will feel my PEACE."  

I returned home and the first thing I did was organize a meeting with the person that I least wanted to connect with.  I talked to one of the people that I had been RETREATING from.  After the meeting, sure enough, I found what God was promising me - PEACE.  

So often, the peace that we are looking for, the peace that God wants us to have, does not come from RETREATING but ADVANCING.  The peace that God offers comes not in withdrawing but in connecting, advancing, going forward, making small steps towards the future.

Moses did not want to advance towards the Egyptian government and confront Pharaoh; "O Lord, Please send someone else to do it" (Exodus 4:13).  He thought that peace would be best attained by withdrawing from life and living in the wilderness.  However, it was there in the wilderness, in Moses' retreat, that he heard God's voice to GO, move forward, push ahead.

God wants you to have SHALOM (peace).  Often Shalom comes from RETREATING, but more often SHALOM can be found by stepping forward into what God wants to show us and provide for us, even in the midst of difficult challenges.

All for Now,

GB

Loving Your Gift

This past Sunday, I was sitting in my usual chair at the front of the worship center, waiting for the final worship service to begin.  At Highlands we do three services (8:30, 9:45, 11:00...we used to do four but most of the staff almost died from hyperventilation....).  So, it was 10:55, and I can honestly say that I was sort of dreading to have to do another worship service.  It had been a hard previous week administratively, our church is struggling financially, and I was tired.  I didn't want to preach again.

But then, I heard this voice in my ear (not audible, but noticeable), say to me, "Do you Love your gift...Do you love your gift...Do you like the art of preaching...Do you enjoy the activity that God gave you an ability to do?"  The answer in my mind was, of course, yes, but I wasn't acting like it.

God gives all of us gifts.  To some people He gives the gift of organization, to others the gift of personality, to others the gift of music, dance, video, cooking, gardening, caring, listening, nurturing.  God gives us all gifts.  However, it isn't enough to just have a gift from God, we are also called to love that gift.

In the book of James it says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above; coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights...".  Our job as Christ followers is to not only accept the gifts that God bis us, but to love them,, and to live into them.  When we do this, we actually make God's gift in our life even richer and fuller.

Love your gift...even when you have one more sermon to preach on a long Sunday morning...

All for now,

GB

Easter - Surprise!

One of the most important things that marked the very first Easter Celebration in history was Surprise.  It was a surprise that Jesus chose Passover to make a big theological statement during Passover (most of his contemporaries thought Jesus would do something big during Roshashan - Atonement).  It was a surprise that Jesus actually was killed on a cross (his followers thought he was bluffing or mistaken, right up until the very end).  It was certainly a surprise that Jesus came back from the dead after three days, as he said he would.

This year, Highlands Church is trying recapture some of the surprise that represented that first Easter. To this end, we are trying two new ideas.  First, we are having a Maundy Wednesday worship service instead of a Maundy Thursday service.  For practical reasons this works better for us, because we already have a well attended Wednesday night service.  Also, Maundy Wednesday sticks in the mind a little more easily (it's out of the box).  We are also introducing an Easter Sunset Service (instead of an Easter Sunrise Service) on the Saturday night before Easter.  Again, other churches are doing Easter Sunrise, we are focussed on Surprise and newness.

When modern day Christ followers get too locked into tradition, ritual and thoughtless ceremony, we lose a sense of surprise.  God wants us to remain surprised about life, the things of God, the resurrection.  Surprise leads to joy and joy leads to newness and faithfulness.

How has God surprised you lately?

All for now,

GB