Why I Love My Job

Yesterday someone came by the church selling something. We talked for 45 minutes, and he never showed me a brochure, never opened his briefcase. Instead we talked about God, faith, friends, our joys, our struggles. It was a great conversation and is why I love my job so much: because I get to talk to people about God. That's really what it's all about for me. Just talking to people about God. That's what I love, and I get paid to do it.

I have the best job in the world.

Elie Wiesel speech

I just posted about how we're going to do a series on The Big Questions, and a friend forwarded this. This is Elie Wiesel speaking at Buchenwald the other day. He talks about what the world has learned from Buchenwald, what it has not learned, and about hope. Worth a look.

The Big Questions

Yesterday we started a new sermon series called "The Big Questions." It is what it sounds like. We're going to look at The Big Questions, such as 'Why Is There Evil?' and 'Why Do We Suffer?' and 'What Is the Meaning of Life?'. To be honest, I can't believe it took me this long to do this series. After all, people have been asking these questions for gazillions of years. You'd think I would have done this a long time ago. Heck, once I thought of it I figured every pastor, everywhere would have done a sermon series to answer them.

To my knowledge, no one has.

Obviously, someone has. I'm definitely not the first. There has got to be plenty of churches where these questions have been answered. But I don't know of any, and I think in most churches they have not been answered. Not directly, anyway. Not this bluntly. As I've prepared for this series, I've wondered why. Why do pastors shy away from answering these difficult questions? Why have I myself waited so long to do a series like this? Unfortunately, I am at a loss to explain either of these. I don't know why churches shy away from The Big Questions, and I don't know why I am only now answering them in a sermon series.

I suspect, though, that somewhere in the back of my mind is fear that these questions really are unanswerable. That the reason they have existed for so long is because we cannot offer an answer. I can't back this up with any paperwork, but it makes sense. Why would anyone try to answer the unanswerable?

In my prayer and my meditation in preparation for this series, I've come to the conclusion that these questions are answerable. I don't think I have the perfect, whole, complete answers to them. You'll have to ask God for that. But I do think that there are answers available if we open our mind to what God says. That means filtering out what God does not say, which can be the harder task because of so many things folks take for granted that are not biblical. So we're going to plunge into this series and I'm going to offer what God has shared with me about the answers to these questions. Hopefully we can video the sermons and post them on YouTube. Assuming, of course, that I don't completely blow it. Which is possible, but I'm not worried about it. I'm going to study, listen, and try my best to say what God tells me to say. The answers won't be perfect because I'm not, but I think they will be helpful to folks wherever they are on their journey.

So here come The Big Questions! Visit our website for upcoming topics.

Be careful with this one

I'm warning you now, if you click on this link, you could very well spend hours here and laugh a lot.

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/

The author does a wonderful job of poking fun at Christians and their churches in insightful and funny ways. His bit about here worship leader hair product and Rob Bell glasses made me laugh so hard Coke came out my nose. You might not get all of the jokes, but hopefully you'll get enough to see the wisdom in his humor. And if your spouse doesn't see you for days because you're looking through this site, remember: you were warned. :-)

Success!

People often define success in church planting as creating a self sustaining congregation with it’s own building. We don’t. Here is an example of what success means to us:

Last week I found out that one of our ministries is actually larger than the church. It’s called Raw @ The River, and it’s a ministry started and led by one of our folks to help people be healthier through diet. After only three weeks, more people are part of that group than are part of the church. That’s wonderful.

Our vision is to be a church that is out there serving people and making a real difference in their lives. This is how we plan on attracting people to The River- helping them, serving them, loving them in the name of Jesus. It’s what Jesus did, so we figure it’s a pretty good way to go.

Having a ministry that is larger than our church shows that our ministry goes way beyond our walls. We are not just meeting the needs of our members. We are not inward focused. We really are an outward thinking, outward thinking, outward acting church. Eventually, we hope that some of the people we are serving will see the Holy Spirit alive in us and want to know more. That is how we plan to grow. That could take awhile. Until then, I’m just thrilled that we are succeeding. That our ministries are touching others and making a difference in profound ways. Because for us, that’s what church is all about. And that means that regardless of whether or not we ever become a self sustaining congregation with our own building, we have succeeded.

The Legacy of Bob Birkholz Lives

Yesterday, someone from our parent church asked me to lunch. I accepted, and today we got together. It was nice. We went to the new Irish pub near our house. A friend of a friend described us as living within 'staggering distance,' the pub, but we just had lunch. Honest.

Turns out that the reason he invited me to lunch was to see how I was doing. That was it. Just to see how I was doing. He knew about my friend Tom's suicide and wanted to see how I was doing. Which was wonderful.

My wife's father died in 1996, but that was one of the things I remember about him. It's funny to think of it that way, though, because I only met him once and that was never something we talked about. Yet Beth has shared over and over how hard his death was on their pastor because her dad- Bob- had made it a habit to take his pastor out every now and then just to see how he was doing. It's a legacy that she's never forgotten, and one that I too have never forgotten.

This is often a lonely business, folks. Which sounds weird because we're always surrounded by people, and most of them (though hopefully not all) are Christians, so you would expect Pastors to have huge support networks. But we don't. As a result, huge numbers of clergy get burned out every year. For some scary stats that seem to be well cited, go here. There are other reasons why pastors get burnt out, but fact is that we need support. Pastors just gotta have support.

So take your pastor out to lunch sometime. Take them to Starbucks and buy them a "Super Tall Extra Fat Chocolate Expresso Something Or Other" and ask them how they're doing. When they're struggling, offer to help. I'm even going to go so far as to suggest treating them like you would anyone else. If they're hungry, give them food. If they're naked, give them clothes (please!). If they're feeling lonely and burnt out, help them out. You might not think we need it, but we do. And when we get it, it's appreciated.

So thanks, my friend. And thank you, Bob Birkholz. And thank you, for reading this and caring.

Penn on Proselytizing

This video is by the magician Penn, from Penn & Teller. He is an atheist. It is not what I expected at all, and is well worth watching for anyone who professes to follow Jesus.

Right and Easy.

Right now it's 21 degrees outside (with the wind chill). From 6-8:30 tonight, I'm going to be outside visiting the homeless, bringing them food, friendship, prayer, and a chance to get off the streets. And it's going to be cold. If you're in Michigan right now maybe you don't think that's very cool, but it is to me. And there's two thoughts in my head:

1. They're out there, so we should be out there.
2. It's going to be C-O-L-D.

But I'm going, because it's important. Because tonight might the night for someone. This might be the night they turn their back on a life of addiction and sleeping under bridges and instead commit to a different way, a better way- the way of Jesus. Maybe. I'm going to find out, and I'm going to freeze while I do. I'm not looking forward to it, but I know it's the right thing to do, so I'm going. Right and easy are not always the same thing, and in this case I choose right. I reserve the right to change my mind for whatever tomorrow brings, but tonight I'm going.