Love People One Person At a Time

About eight years ago, when my brother Jamie and I were about to start a new church development in Paso Robles, California, we were insanely eager to learn from any church that was having success.  To this end we read all of Robert Schuller's church leadership books, we plowed through The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren, we drank in all of Bill Hybels' leadership tomes. We couldn't get enough.  Our basic premise in researching these churches was that; 1.  We loved the Presbyterian Church, 2. We knew it was dying and needed to change, 3.  We were HE - (double hockey stick) bent on doing whatever was necessary to save it.

In the process of this learning binge we also met with many successful large church pastors.  One of whom was a pastor from a suburb of Sacramento, we'll call him Jim, who had started a church that we'll call, "Cyprus Brook," (even though the real name of the church is much better than that).  Cyprus Brook had grown to 6,000 members in just six years.  The truth is that we had waited about a month or two to get on Jim's calendar.  And then, when the vaunted day of meeting was about to occur, his secretary called and cancelled, and we had to wait another month.  So, it was with no uncertain degree of anticipation (and a little agitation) that my brother and I waited for a face to face with Jim.

We drove up to the church that day, and waited in the church coffee shop.  The appointed time for the meeting came and went, the time seeming to drip through the hourglass, like a bad rerun of "Days of our Lives" (has there ever been a good one?)  Finally Jim came.  He was wearing a rumpled shirt, and torn shorts, and flip flops.  He was kind and completely unassuming.  He had a boyish flair, not "Dead Poet's Society," but more, "Easy Rider."  But it didn't matter what Jim's appearance was, or what the differences in our styles of church were, or what the varying flavor of ministry was at that church, Jamie and I were focussed on figuring out what we could from him.  We wanted the recipe to the Gordian knot of church growth, and church success.  And so, we asked him what it was.  This is what he said.  "It's simple, just...

Love People One Person At a Time

Jamie and I furiously wrote those seven words on our pads, clearly expecting that more important, more complex, more nuanced information was yet to emerge from this modern day totem and prophet of all things of clerical success.  "Good," I said, "And what else...."  Jim said, "That's it, let me repeat it...

Love People One Person At a Time!

Jim was clearly a little exasperated that this simple but oh so important dictum was not permeating our grey matter in a more effective way.  So, he clarified.  "Look," there are a lot of things you need to do to grow a church.  You need to have a good name.  You need to go out and hang out at stores and have something that people need, like drug prevention therapy for moms and dads of teens.  You need to hand out Bibles at every service.  You need to have a facility that can facilitate growth.  And a lot of other stuff.  But that stuff all fits into place, if you get this one thing right....and let me repeat,

Love People One Person At a Time!!!

"I've got to go," said Jim.  "Good luck in your new church."  And with that, Jim was gone.

So, I have had the chance to reflect on this sagacious piece of advice for about 8 years now.  And I have come to see the true wisdom in what Jim was offering.  So, this is how I have tried to love people one person at a time in my ministry.  When people are talking to me, I try to be fully present in that conversation, even if it is only for 5 seconds.  When new people come to the church, I try to remember their names, and then I follow up with a phone call soon there after.  When people are hurting in church, I try to lay hands on them right then and there and pray for them.  When I am writing a sermon, I don't write it to the masses, I write it for a handful of people in church, who's names I know, and who's problems I understand.  I have tried to see the Christ following faith as not a group effort, not a mass movement, but an individual exercise in living out the gospel, in unique and REAL ways.  So, I really have tried to;

Love People One Person At a Time.

You Should Too,
All For Now,
GB

Bless This Home

This blog post is being written directly on the heals of the 10 members of the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs (and that number is likely about to climb), and and subsequent to the loss of the 342 (and that number is also likely to climb) homes of the members of the Colorado Springs community that have recently lost their homes in the Waldo Canyon Fires.

The concept of - "Home" is a fundamental human need and concern.  The number of cliche's and pithy aphorisms that surround the medium of "home" are endless.  To list a couple of well worn ones; "home is where the heart is," "home is where you hang your hat," "hearth and home," "home sweet home," "home, home on the range," (maybe that one is a bridge too far).  And yet, even though these concepts have become cliches, we all recognize home as a place of great significance in our lives.  Home is more than a house, it is a place of mooring and hermitage.  Home is more than a place, or a space, it is a dream, and a returning, a memory, and a place to build memories.

The founding fathers of our country, we should hasten to add on this fourth of July weekend, had originally allotted the primary three fundamental freedoms as not, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property."  The basic concept, smelted from the embers of the great enlightenment, were that human beings needed property in order to have a core sense of self.

Jesus also recognized the concept of home.  Jesus' true childhood house (we should distinguish the word house from the word home at this point) was in Nazareth.  But, as the Bible tells us, Nazareth was not a home, as Jesus was very much a prophet "without honor," there - he was not welcome.  Jesus' real home was the tiny little hovel of Peter and Andrew's mother-in-law's house in Capernaum.  Jesus loved that place! He returned to it again and again and again in his life.  He performed one of his first miracles in that home, healing Peter's mother-in-law.  And just after that, Jesus healed hundreds of broken people, well into the night in Capernaum, from that home's front porch.  When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, on the third day, the Bible tells us that Jesus revealed himself to the women in the garden, and then, he bee-lined it to Galilee (I assume to Peter's mother-in-law's house in Capernaum) to be back in his - home.

So, what can we say to those who have lost homes this past week, here in Colorado Springs.  First, that we are very, very sorry that you have to go through this terrible time.  No words will be able to replace or even comfort that lost reality in your life.  Second, God did not cause these fires, and God has not caused your home to burn down because of anything you did in your life.  Terrible occurrences just happen in this life, as Jesus reminds us, when he says, "The sun shines on the just and the unjust and the rain falls on the just and the unjust."  Most important, remember, that home is not a place, or a space, but it is a concept, it is a dream, it is a conscious state of mind.  Though you may have lost a place that functioned as a "home" for you, and I do not want to even begin to dimish the significance of that place, - "home" is actually much bigger than that.

Home is Camelot!  And Camelot is a dream, that is a reality, and yet it is ineffable!

I am praying with you, whatever "home" is for you, and however it may have been singed or burned.  I am praying that God will moor you once again to his real home - which is eternal - and with us in this time and place.

All For Now,

GB

Vision Heals

This is my second blogpost written from my I-Pad. We are still very much in transition between two places; two houses, two churches, two call-settings, two lives. Computers are the new plumbline of civilization, and where there is no computer or wi-fi connection, there is virtually no life.  But, without a computer, I have been thinking about an interesting polarity that I am experiencing in my life right now.

On the one hand we are leaving a place, Highlands Church, that must feel a little shaken, and wounded, by the recent announcemnent that I have just stepped down as their senior pastor.  There must be the need for some healing, at Highlands, to be sure. Yet, at the same time, Highlands is a place that is reaching for new and exciting ministry avenues. There is a vision there about the future. 

Here on the other side of the Rockies, we are entering a place, First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, that must still be feeling a little shaken and wounded by the news that Jim Singleton is leaving.  Jim is their much beloved and extremely hard working lead pastor who is stepping down to become a full time professor at Gordon Theological Seminary..  And yet, as with Highlands, there is at First Pres. Colorado Springs a profound sense of excitement about where the church is going, what it is about to do, where God is leading it.  There is vision.  And so, in both cases, I have relearned the age old and important life and leadership lesson, that....

Vision Heals!

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit by the bedside of a dying friend. This person has been a Christ follower for many, many years, and has contributed an incredible amount to church and the kingdom. There was a sadness in the room as loved ones cried, and friends held each other's hands, and nurses wafted back and forth through the room, plugging and unplugging machines.. My dying friend was in pain. Not knowing what exactly to say in this situation (even pastors get tounge tied sometimes), I asked my friend, "What do you think heaven will be like?" My friend looked at me, unable to speak, but with an immediate glint of hope in his eye. It was as if the very vision of heaven, in the midst of the tubes and wires and anesthetic, helped him to rise above the pain of the current moment. I learned again that...

Vision Heals!

Just this past week, I prayed with a woman who has a debilitating chronic illness. This woman used to be vital, and strong, and very effective in her work setting. She asked me to pray that she might get her "old job" back again, by some miracle of God. But then she said, "no that will never happen, I will never be THAT well again."  After a moment or two more of conversation with my friend, I said, "Why don't we pray for the future and not the past. Why don't we pray that God will do something new in your life, in the midst of this illness.  Why don't we pray that the future will be just as rewarding as your "old job", but even better in it's own way. We prayed, and once again, a burden seemed to be released, and I witnessed that...

Vision Heals!

What areas of your life need healing? How might God breathe the essence of vision through that area of brokenness to bring life? The Bible says that, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." The corollary to this must be that where there is a strong vision, healing and abundant life overflow.

All for now,
GB

Crowd Surfing!

I should begin by writing that since my laptop and computer are now packed up, ready for the move to Colorado springs, that this will be the first (and maybe last)blogpost I write from my I-pad. Please excuse the editing errors, I will blame them on Apple's spellchecker...

 For the past month or so, I have been contemplating and thinking about what the most important ingredient is in whether a ministry is successful or not. That is, I have been asking myself the question of what the most immortant dynamic in whether a pastor, or spiritual leader, is fruitful, effective, healthy, and happy in a particular call setting. Obviously this question is forefront in my mind as I move from an existing call setting to a new one. What is it that makes a great pastor? And, of course, the answer is - God! But what else? And I have arrived at an answer. A good/great pastor requires a great congregation. A pastor cannot exceed the support, spiritual maturity, effectiveness, faith, prayer life, of his/her church. Being a good pastor (I will refrain from the word "great" since only God is great, and humans are only very occasionally just "good") needs the support of a congregation. Here's the image that keeps coming to me.

 It's like Crowd Surfing!

 Have you ever been to a rock concert, when, at the most exciting moment in the show, the lead vocalist puts down his instrument (I've never seen a woman crowd surf before), and launches himself into the audience, and at the very same moment, a hundred pairs of hands reach up and catch the singer? What usually happens then is that the singer is moved throughout the audience, being held up and volleyed along by the people. If the people drop the singer, the singer falls to the ground, to be badly injured. But if the audience all work together to hold the singer up, he is safe, and actually has an enjoyable ride through the crowd. Being a pastor is like crowd surfing. Every week, from the front of the church, the pastor launches him/herself into the congregation, in the sermon. If the congregation are in prayer, and spiritual health, and have open hearts and minds, ready for the work of the Holy Spirit, the pastor is moved through the crowd, effortlessly, caringy, hopefully, and lovingly. It's actually a fun experience! And God uses this dance, to change lives, and renew hearts and souls.

 So, don't be surprised some Sunday if yours truly launches himself into the congregation, whereever I am speaking -for Crowd Surfing!!

 The question only remains, will catch me? I know you will! And God will be in our midst.

All for now,
GB

Today I Am 40..!?!?!?

So, today's my birthday.  Actually it isn't just any birthday, but it is a significant one.  The odometer on the jalopy of my life just turned another digit on the dashboard - today I turn 40!  My life may now have been described by any worldly metric as, lasting "a long time".  The number 40 in Biblical terms has always been a symbol of "a long time".  Noah sailed his boat on the water for 40 days - or just "a long time."  Moses led the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years, or "a long time." Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days - or "a long time."  So, I have now been around "a long time."  Or as one of my twenty-something staff wrote to me in a birthday card - "Man, you're old."

And, not just old, this year, my birthday is coinciding with so many different and life-changing events.  In two weeks we are moving from Paso Robles to Colorado Springs to take up a new pastoral call and to live in a new place.  This will singly be the most significant spiritual and professional move of my life.  No pastoral call I have had before has meant as much to me as Highlands Church has; no future call will offer more opportunity and sheer Holy Spirit embed possibility as the one in Colorado Springs.  If there was a time to shift proverbial life gears in one's life, 40 might just be one of those moments.  As another pastoral friend observed, a New Church Developer like me in Moorpark, California; "Who knows if you were not born for this time and this place?"

Also, two months from now Star and I will be having our second baby.  This baby coming into our lives by natural means is a miracle upon miracles, the kind that only God Himself could have brought.  A baby of this dimension coming into the lives of an "older couple" (think Abraham and Sarah) is actually the sort of miracle that God would normally have marked with a celestial happening in the sky, like a star or a comet or something.  Come to think of it, there was a momentous lunar eclipse in the sky last week, wasn't there?  Probably no connection to my specific life, but you never know:-).

And, as it happens, my birthday this year also falls upon the exact day of Memorial Day, May 28.  I have always loved the debate about the exact origins of Memorial Day.  For over 100 years there has been an arm wrestling match between two cities in the southern part of America over who actually started the day.  Both cities have the name Columbus (Columbus, Georgia - Columbus, Mississippi) - and both cities flank the great Mississippi river, like proverbial stopping points of Huckleberry Finn.  The story on the beginnings of Memorial Day goes that years after the Civil War, when families were still mourning the loss of their loved ones, women from the town walked from their homes, strewing flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers.  On the first Memorial Day there seems to have been a reminiscence of times gone by, of lives lost, of relationships changed, of things passed away, of being around "a long time", and yet moving beyond that "long time" - to something new, reborn even.

Before I close this meandering blogpost - maybe it is a condition of old age - I want to quickly reflect on what all of this means.  Or, to put it in the terms of the Israelites in the book of Joshua - "What do these stones mean?"  In short, I have no idea.  But this I am sure of - I am grateful that God has been with me for these 40 years, He has blessed me as much as Abraham himself, I am amazed at what He has done through a fallen vessel like me, and flummoxed that He seems to have more in store for my life - and yours, as those who know me, and work with me, journey together, after this elapsing of, "a long time..."

All For Now,
GB

God Will Send a Tow-Truck

This past weekend my car broke down.  Well, "broke down" isn't the precise definition of what happened - my car's ability to accelerate disappeared completely, making it almost impossible to drive.  My car could drive, as long as it had previously developed enough speed by going down a mountain pass, and was able to coast for a long distance, and had a strong wind at it's back.  It turns out the fuel pump was defunct and thus unable to get gas to the engine (I will refrain right now from a more obvious theological point and blogpost about the need to be connected to God's Word and how that is our fuel to our engine...).  The repairs department said that it was a relatively easy fix, but that their shop didn't have the necessary car part, and that I would have to drive my car two hours (or tow it, at a cost of $1,000 plus from their shop to another fix it shop).  I decided to risk it, save the money, and coast...(I'm very Scottish that way).

As I coasted my car from one fix-it-shop to the other, I suddenly became very nervous.  What if my car breaks down completely, right here in the middle of nowhere?  What if my car just blows up?  Aren't fuel pumps the thing that carry fuel?  Isn't fuel combustible?  Isn't mine malfunctioning?  What if nobody ever hears from me again?  What if I become homeless?  (Did I mention that I can let my imagination run wild at times?).

But then, an incredible thing happened.  As I was coasting along with my flashers on, a tow-truck pulled up along side me, and then he pulled right up in front of me, seeming to escort my dilapidated car down the road.  The draft behind the tow-truck actually helped me to drive more easily.  And then, miracle upon miracles, that same tow-truck proceeded to drive in front of me for the entire trip to the fix-it shop, over two hours away.  Honestly, I felt like Air-Force One being escorted by an F1-11 to an airport runway.  I felt like a little ugly ducking, being escorted through the skies by a great flock of white swans.  And I discovered once again, an abiding truth about faith and life:

God Will Send a Tow-Truck

One of the main difficult truths about our lives is that hardships will occur - bad things will happen.  Sickness will infect, wars will erupt, violence will ensue, famine and droughts will decimate, tornadoes and tsunamis will engulf, hatred will enflame, cars will break down.  These are tough realities of what it is to be human.  Jesus himself promises us and is realistic about the fact that these things will happen; "The rain will fall on the just and the unjust" (Matt. 5:45).  Why these life challenges must befall us is a much debated question.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do bad things happen period?  Depending on where you fall on the theological spectrum of these questions, your answer will surely fall somewhere in between random happenstance and sovereign determinism. The spectrum of explanation for why hardships occur in human life falls somewhere between the well worn maxim,       "(grey matter) happens" and "God allows all things to happen for a reason."

However, in the midst of our difficulties, God's promise is that He will provide.  God will produce manna in our wildernesses.  God will make springs shoot out from rocks.  God will send doves with olive branches in the middle of floods.  God will give us pebbles and sling shots in the middle of wars.  God will send earthquakes to loose us from our prison cells.  God sent a savior to live with us in the middle our messed up existence.

God Will Send a Tow-Truck

I would love to end this blogpost by saying that after the tow truck escorted me to the fix-it shop, he then rolled down his window, winked at me, tooted his horn, and said, "God bless you, my son, now your safe and sound."  But that didn't happen.  And that would be embellishing the story beyond reality.  In truth, God helped me and my fuel pump depleted car to make it to the fix-it-shop in one piece.  And along the way, God gave me the assurance that He was providing for me in the midst of the journey.

All For Now,

GB

Donkey Prayers

I was speaking to a friend recently who was going on and on about how much she "dislikes" Christians.  (Don't you love conversations like these?).  The friend, and I mean friend, all of us need people in our lives who don't see the world exactly as we see it - I call them my Spiritual ombudsmen.  The usual list of complaints followed the initial invective of the word "dislike".  "Christians," said my friend, "are culturally shallow, they have a history that is full of violence, they are hypocrites, and they are judgmental.  Christians are disengaged, uninformed, uninterested in the real problems which face the world."   I had heard the list before.  My response to such critiques has always been the same, "I never try to defend Christians.  Christians are people too, and none of us is perfect.  But I will defend Christ.  Christ is always perfect."

But, then my friend threw out a critique that I hadn't heard before, and one which has caused me to stop and think a moment before I responded.  She said, "And the thing I dislike the most about Christians is that they pray about so many dumb little things.  They pray about parking spaces and hang nails and for good tables at restaurants and for isle seats.  I mean, do you think God really cares about these little things?"  Hmmm, she had a point.  God is pretty important, He does rule the world, and He may not actually have time for a lot of our littler prayers.  But then, I made a great discovery in my Bible this past week, which is a response to my friend's critique, and I believe a word from God.

God often takes our small prayers and converts them into great big plans for the kingdom of God.  I call these small requests that we make of God our;

Donkey Prayers...

Donkey prayers are tiny, piddly, little, minor prayers that are so small that we are almost embarrassed to mention them.  Donkey prayers are prayers for a good wi-fi connection, that my indigestion will go away, that I will have lots of bars on my cell phone, that I won't run into traffic, that I will write a good blog post... and the list goes on...

The first donkey prayer in the history of small prayers was an errand that we read about in the book of Samuel, where a man named Kish sends his son, by the name of Saul, on an errand to go and find the donkeys that have run away from the family barn.  Saul and his servant friend look high and low for the donkeys but they do not find them.  The Bible says, "They passed through the mountains of Ephraim and through the land of Shalisha, but them did not find them.  They passed through the land of Shaalim and they were not there.  They passed through the land of Benjamites, but they did not find them." (1 Samuel 9:4)  Finally, in desperation, the boys go to visit a prophet, a man of God, a seer, a visionary named Samuel, to get advice about where the donkeys are.  In modern day parlance, we would refer to this visit to Samuel to get advice about a donkey as a silly prayer.  These boys are going to God for advice about a very small and insignificant thing - donkeys.

Now, a day before the boys go to the prophet, God actually speaks to Samuel and says, "Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over all my people Israel."  Sure enough, the next morning a young boy, the kid in question named Saul, would walk in with his servant and ask the prophet Samuel for advice about his donkeys.  Samuel then tells Saul that God has chosen him for a much higher purpose, to lead a nation, to be a king.  God would turn that prayer about donkeys into the beginning of the monarchy for the Israelite people, a monarchy that would lead genealogically to the savior of the world, Jesus, some 600 years later.

So, my friend, if you are reading this post, I will close with this.  Yes, Christians can sometimes be short-sighted, yes they can sometimes be small, yes they don't always see the larger picture, yes they can suffer from tendencies towards hypocrisy.  I count myself in that group.  However, I would not be so quick to dismiss their small prayers, because history has shown that God has the power to turn very small prayers - our donkey prayers, into great things for the kingdom.

All For Now,
GB