about boxes

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Churches with a desire to follow Jesus, and who see their core identity as being sent with God’s good news for the world, think a lot; and we have a tendency think outside the box. I was teaching on being a missional church and a student said, “This idea of being sent is so different than what I grew up with. When I was growing up I went to the Presbyterian box, and my friends went to their Methodist box, and then you went home.” Church boxes are tools of conforming, and serve a tremendous purpose in socializing and teaching Christians about how we are to act, what to wear, and more specifically what the Bible says about God. Inside the boxes we are taught and we share with each other about who we are. They have not been very helpful when it comes to sending people, because the walls we have serve as boundaries to the socialization of Christianity, and that has often been understood as keeping Christians in and keeping the world out. It is simply very difficult, socially and spiritually, to see ourselves as persons being sent from a box, because boxes are safe and secure and when we are on the inside we feel special and unique about being Christian. This activity every week conforms our identity as a people of God, and it is incredibly powerful and important for many Christians, because it has become the one place where there has been consistency in “being Christian.” Outside the box, or as some people say, “The real world,” is where Christians live everyday, and where we are supposed to be sent with our teachings. More often than not, we simply do what the world says we should do in the workplace or at school, and then put on our busy calendars in the box marked Sunday, “Go to church.”

Living as a missionary everyday, sent with your faith and love in God as a guide into people’s lives, is an adventure beyond compare. Living as missionary people causes us to ponder our days in light of who God is, who we are as disciples, and what we are supposed to do or say in the mission fields of our lives. It creates an outside the box thinking, where we are encouraged to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern God’s good and acceptable and perfect will; everyday. Missionary’s thoughts are transformed in this way:

• We think about God and what the desires of God’s heart are and we pray for our minds to seek God in everyone, everything, and everywhere because we have good news for the world.

• We think about Jesus and how we are supposed to be as a Christian and we model God’s love and forgiveness for everyone we meet no matter who they are and where we discover them. We pray for our hearts to be shaped into the likeness of Jesus.

• We think about the Holy Spirit and where the Spirit is sending us, and we pray for the Spirit to create moments in time and space, and an openness in someone’s heart, for us to deliver the good news; and we pray for our hearts to be ready to answer Christ’s command to love them and share with them the joy of our salvation.

Missionaries have to think outside the box, because we see and know God is going before us, calling us into the lives of the people around us with the faith, hope, and love of God … and when we show up to the box on Sunday, hopefully with someone we spoke with during the week, we have much to share and rejoice in with all the other missionaries.

Just a thought,

Pastor Tom

about pioneers and settlers.

The terms pioneers and settlers were used to describe new church developments a few months ago. I like that language. It is descriptive and helpful for a church growing into being missional (a church vision of being sent into the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ; helping the world reconcile itself to Jesus).

Pioneers are always on the move. They need to be flexible to the situations around them (entering hostile territory, weather, sickness, frustrations with being on the road for what seems like forever, excitement and opportunity of new surroundings every day, setting up camp and tearing it down, and always sharing hospitality with other families). Community convictions and family ties in this time of pioneering became the backbone of the towns and cities they settled, and most certainly shaped who we are as a nation. Many people in America today still have a desire to pack up everything in a u-haul and move to either a city where there is more opportunity, or to the country where there is peace and quiet. Certainly in Las Vegas, we experience thousands of these pioneers every month. The kinship and unity created by simply being on the road together, and the deepest of trusts binding these families in support and help, along with their dream and hope of something new, something better, something more, encouraged and inspired them to keep on keepin’ on, even in the bleakest of times and the hardest of situations.

For seven years SPC has been pioneering as a church. We set up camp and tear down every week. Several times a month we visit other family wagons for meetings and conversations and prayer, as we keep our dreams and hopes before us. We move along week after week spending time talking about what this wagon train of pioneers called SPC needs to be doing, and how we can get other families to join with us as we follow God. The trust we are developing as a congregation needs to be in God who has called us on this journey together, and with each other as we reach out and invite people in. God is shaping us and molding us into a community of faith who will eventually settle, and then open our front doors, offering the same hospitality we share now, for other settlers to move in and stay awhile.

Like any pioneer, we long for the day when we can build up and create a village of settling Christians with programs and a vibrant campus. For now, as we move ahead with God’s will of being a community of faith, the ties and community being created will be the back bone of our settled faith community; of this we can be assured. What a joy and a struggle to be pioneers together. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

Just a thought,

Pastor Tom

about pastors

Pastors are a funny bunch. Since I am a pastor of the Presbyterian clan, I can speak a little about us. One afternoon while I was counseling a family at their home with their 14 year old who had been abusing alcohol, mom and dad were quieting the young man to sit still and be good in the presence of the pastor, because I was holy or something, and I think they wanted me to put the fear of God in him. After the pastoral counseling time and prayer, I shared with the young man that it appeared he was upset that I had been summoned, and I wanted to know how we were getting along, and if he was going to be okay with God and this pastor in his life. So, I asked him what he thinking and feeling and he said, “I thought you guys wore those robes all the time, and when you didn’t have it on, I thought I was in real trouble.” He then said, “Some of my friends were talking about you guys, and don’t you like have plastic on your white furniture at home?” Kathy and I invited their family over for dinner the next week, and I wore shorts and a t-shirt and made sure the house stayed a little messy.

I have been in ministry for 21 years, and I think Presbyterian pastors are the caretakers of confusion. We sit with people at the tables of leadership and are crowned moderator, and really all that means is to walk people through a three hour meeting so they can all tell about what God is doing. We then help them as they take care of confusing problems and perplexities of important pieces in the church, and watch them vote what they believe is God’s will. It is a magnificent process of spiritual discernment, and it can often create for some people, including the pastor, more confusion when it is said and done. I think God has it that way so we can remain completely dependant on God. We believe everyone has access to God, even though we would like to be able to revoke that privilege for some, and that everyone in their faith journey with God can find and discover and share in God’s direction for the church. So, we are lively listeners in the state of confusion, and God’s will is done in spite of our best efforts.

We are the purveyors of pain. We are often sent into people’s lives to help them get back on track with God, and that means helping people confess sin and tell the truth, and come before God almighty. The forgiveness that comes is not easy and can hurt as they let go, and let God take over again, and the transformation that occurs in your lives is so powerful and overwhelming for many pastors, that all we can do is weep and pray that our lives can somehow be as transparent and real before God. I think God does this so God gets all the glory and the joy of living in a relationship reconciled and returned in grace.

We are nomads of nirvana wandering in areas of nothingness, because all we do and say is always supposed to be for the glory of God, and when we mess that up and speak for ourselves, we center on our navels, and that is not too glorifying for God. The magnificent genius of the priesthood and pastorate is we are always in a state of nothingness with God, where God is everything holy and wonderful. The only thing special about pastors is that we have everything everyone else does including sharing in God’s gifts and the fruits of the Spirit. People come to us for special and important moments (baptisms, celebrating the Lord’s Supper, counseling, funerals, weddings, worship leadership, casting vision, truth telling, spiritual direction, prayer, Bible study) where God continues to be the center of their lives. We don’t have any special markings or special phones that allow us a unique access to heaven and God’s ear … and we don’t have special glasses to view scripture through which you all must come to us for the right answers. You simply trust that we are connected, and you have faith in us that we can come to God on your behalf; and oddly enough, we trust the same about you. This is one of those profound moments in a pastor’s life where we do not know what to say, except thank you.

We are searching suspicious looking servants hustling back and forth from God to you with hope, love, joy, frustration, and sin. Often we stand in the center of life looking for God, and holding people’s hands around us asking how we can be of help, and all the while looking intently for Christ in everyone’s faces and eyes.

We are humble guides to help people walk closer with God, and most of the time your lives and faith teach us just how far away we are from God. We power pray politely so everyone has access to God and is not offended, even though there are times when we would like to cry out to God on behalf of our lives in pain, and let it all go, and be messy and human. I admire those pastors who tell it like it is and who are not afraid to be transparent. We all want to be touched by God and prayer is powerful, not only because pastors use fancy words, but because God beckons us to talk with God.

Pastors perspire as we struggle to inspire people to live as children of God in a not so godly world; and that means we pray a lot. This means that our sermons are carefully crafted (some times) to draw upon God’s word to speak to your heart … and the frustrating and liberating power of this exercise every week is that God takes it all, and God does with it what you all need to hear … in spite of our poor or perfected attempts at preaching. We intercede in people’s lives and problems and joys and celebrations casting shadows in the light of God and the Bible; and that means we read a lot about God and about humanity and history. This means we are often alienated, even from other pastors, because we know too much about ourselves.

Someone once said to some pastor a long time ago after church, “Must be a great job only working on Sundays.”

Just a thought,

Pastor Tom

about hands.

Our hands and fingers are story tellers. They carry the touch and feel of our life experiences, and they help us with what we need, reach for what we want, help us make a living, show which way we should go, and to help us express how we feel. Our hands protect us and can protect others, they can be used to help other people in a time of need, and as comfort and compassion. Our hands can also harm and be used to express discipline and frustration in ways that are hurtful. Our hands are a gift from God, and they can be used many different ways as they help us tell our life story.

I was mesmerized this past month during communion (a time in our community gathering where we share in a tradition of eating some bread dipped in wine or grape juice, and pause to remember the joy and sacrifice of what Jesus did for the world, namely dying for the world's sin and setting the world free). I couldn't take my eyes off of the hands who came to tear the bread and dip it in the cup. Each hand with fingers scarred or painted, some had jewelry and others came with nails bitten. There were calloused hands, and some without a finger, and some whose hands were crooked and bent. Some were dirty, some spotted with age, some shaking and others quick. There were those who were small and young and soft and gentle, and others that were short and others that were long. Every hand told a story of their life as they reached into the plate, took their piece of bread (a spiritual moment of touching Christ's body) and dipped it into the cup (a spiritual moment of touching Christ's blood). I was awed by the beauty of our God who welcomes all of our hands into God's love. I was caught in the reality of communion; our hands with God and with each other, in the forgiveness and hope and joy and struggle of our life. Each of our hands telling our story, as they touched God's story of grace and mercy, was a powerful spirit filled moment where heaven met earth in our hands; touching the face of God, and feeling the hands and side of Jesus Christ. It was a moment in our life where it appeared that God and God's people were reaching out to each other, and no matter who we were or what our hands had been through, we were welcome at God's table together. What a joy to be able to offer our hands to God in prayer and praise, and as a gift and sacrifice of our labor and life story as they engage the Holy in communion. Perhaps, our hands are blessed to become a blessing of hope for the world, where God's story can be told through our touch, and work, and caring, and direction, and expression.

Just a thought ...
Pastor Tom