Pastor’s Point: The Lost Art of Editing

We’ve all heard the popular phrase, TMI, or Too Much Information, used in contemporary culture.  It usually refers to a person’s inability to limit (or edit) what they share with others to what is either appropriate or necessary to make a point.  In the realm of the written word, the editing process is huge and for several reasons.  Time and space are critical, and accuracy is everything, unless you have a rather large legal department and lots of money to spend on lawsuits.  When this process is neglected, you get results like these actual headlines, with commentary included (author unknown).

                                    Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says  [No, really?] 

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers  [Now that's taking things a bit far!]

Miners Refuse to Work after Death   [Those no-good-for-nothin' lazy so-and-sos!]

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant   [See if that works any better than a fair trial!]

War Dims Hope for Peace   [I can see where it might have that effect!]

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile  [You think?!]

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures  [Who would have thought!]

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges   [You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?!]

Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge   [He probably IS the battery charge!]

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft    [That’s what he gets for eating those beans!]

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks    [Taste like chicken!]

Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy   [That was really giving of himself!]

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors    [Boy, are they tall!]

And the winner is.... Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead    [I certainly hope so!]

In the case of these misleading headlines, a little proofreading would have gone a long way to limit the miscommunication. But what about such a thing as proofsharing? In the context of a community where we routinely share our needs and concerns, what are the ground rules for that?  As important as it is to communicate honestly and clearly how we can support and pray for each other, each of us needs to be careful to edit or limit things of a personal nature which we share with a mass audience.  The apostle Paul gives us some pretty clear guidelines in one simple verse of Ephesians 4:  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Sometimes what is helpful in building me up actually results in tearing others down.  Likewise, while I personally may benefit from getting something off my chest, it may not always be met with the same reaction from my listeners.  They could feel contaminated, so to speak, or torn between how to support me and yet think graciously of another person/situation.  

When we take time to edit what we say about a personal situation, we must consider what is helpful and edifying for all our listeners.  We carefully choose words which do not invite judgment or condemnation on another person, even if we feel they might be causing us harm or difficulty.  It could be an insensitive boss, a neglectful spouse, a wayward child, a boorish in-law.  Regardless, remember that they are not here to defend themselves and every disagreement has two sides.  Rather than use a large group setting to air details of hurt feelings or negative situations, find a more appropriate venue (close friend, small group, counselor or pastor) to go into specific details. 

In a previous church, we employed the ABC rule for prayer requests:  Audible (for all to hear, including the hard of hearing), Brief (remember, others also need/wish to share), and Christ-centered (in other words, edifying—what will build up the Body of Christ?).  Another helpful checklist might be TKN - Before you say it, Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?  As part of our life together in this worship community, let’s continue to foster an atmosphere of openness and honesty, but let each of us use our own editing process as we seek to share appropriately with one another.  If not, we just might be accused of TMI.

 tad

Pastor’s Point—A Little Q & A *

One of my favorite passages in God’s Word is from the 6^th chapter of Micah.  If you have ever found yourself asking God, “what is it you want from me, Lord?” this provides a pretty straightforward answer.  I believe it also can inform what our life together as a community of worshiping artists can/should look like.

⁶ With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Worship has always been about giving…or giving up something.  Offering something.  Sacrificing.  Back in the garden and before the fall, God made sure we understood this.  Talk is cheap.  At the end of the day, all Adam and Eve really were given to demonstrate their worship to their Creator was a simple act of obedience.  A simple act of restraint, really.  “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.”  Pretty uncomplicated.  Pretty straightforward.  In reality, what could the first family offer to God?  Just the simple demonstration that yet another 24 hours had past and they had willingly avoided eating fruit from the forbidden tree. This was really the only true worship they could offer.  Anything else they gave back to God was already a gift from Him.  Almost like giving your kids a $20 bill to go buy you a tie.  Not all that satisfying…for you or them.

The OT prophet Micah got this, when he records one of the most profound Q & A’s found in the Bible.  Given that our God has made everything, and has supplied our every need, what could we possibly hope to give Him in return that would mean anything to Him? Well, to quote Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady, “I’m tired of words; show me.”  Justice, mercy, humility.  God, through Micah, is  saying ‘don’t just talk about it—do it.’ Practice these things in your personal life and particularly in your interactions with others. 

Acting justly in the context of the worship ministry implies simply doing the right thing: keeping commitments (who was it who said 90% of life is showing up?), being punctual, honing your craft, giving your personal best, not showing partiality, etc. 

Consider for a moment just one area of our weekly routine—attendance.  Peter Drucker once wrote that “there is no correlation between potential and performance.”  What he meant was that ultimately we are not measured by what we are capable of doing but what we actually do.  As teammates, it is important that we not only worship together regularly but also prepare together regularly.  Why?  I can think of few other ministries which rely so heavily on teamwork to accomplish their mission.  And I know of few other teams in life which “perform” at a very high level if “practicing” together isn’t a high value. 

For most of you, this is a non-issue.  You are actually to be commended for your sacrificial example of regular attendance.  For some of you, however, this is an area in which you struggle.  Perhaps you might even question if you are missed, or worse, you have concluded you don’t personally need regular rehearsals.  Still others may have allowed yourself to commit to too many things and find yourselves having to making weekly choices for which commitments you can keep.   Let me encourage each of you to revisit your schedules and commitments and prayerfully consider what is appropriate for you and for us as we offer what the scriptures call “a sacrifice of praise.”

The second requirement our God considers good is simply to love mercy, to foster a grace atmosphere. Interestingly enough, it falls directly on the heels of the cry for justice.  While God calls us to right living as the prescription for what is best for us, He knows all too well that in our humanness, we are prone to fail and disappoint each other.  Rather than “lower the bar” or standard in his first requirement, He simply keeps before us the need to keep on loving, for love “covers a multitude of sins.”  To love mercy means to treat others as we wish to be treated, assume the best motives, even when the behavior is different than expected, and be quick to forgive when behavior or motives fall short.  Loving mercy is intensely active and passionate, not passive and wishy-washy. 

And finally, we are individually and collectively to walk humbly with our God.  What a great phrase…every word as rich in meaning as the next.  Rather than playing the Holy Spirit for you, let me encourage you to pause right now and invite Him to lead you as you meditate on those five simple words.

WALK humbly with our God.

Walk HUMBLY with our God.

Walk humbly WITH our God

Walk humbly with OUR God.

Walk humbly with our GOD.

At the end of the day, just like in the garden, worship is a verb.  It is less blah, blah, blah and more bless, bless, bless.  Micah discovered this: Act justly.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly with our God.  Our worship and arts ministry is designed to help you grow in these three areas.  We do not simply unite around a common task—though we have one.  We do not simply pursue excellence, though God is worthy of nothing less than our best.  And we do not practice our art for the sheer joy of it, though for the gift of the arts in our lives we are immensely grateful to their Giver.  Rather, we choose to eat, pray, study, celebrate, laugh and cry…together, all so that Christ may be glorified in us. 

I pray that each of you might come to discover your unique and valuable role in this family.  It might be your voice.  It might be your love of technology.  It may your enthusiasm for playing your instrument for the Lord.  But, then again, it might be your smile.  Maybe it is your ability to listen and care.  It could even be your ability to trust God in prayer.  Whatever it is, you are God’s treasure and have been placed here by His design.  May God be free among us to create the tapestry of His choosing.  And may each of you come to know how much you matter to us and to God.    

tad

* adapted from previous article Micah’s Message written by Tim Dommer                                                                                       

Pastor's Point: Eyes on the Prize

Have you ever wondered why people start every new year resolving to make certain changes, only to abandon those plans and quickly return to their original state of being?  I can’t speak for everyone, but in my experience it has a lot to do with a lack of one particular commodity—perseverance. 

Like some of you, I’m a great starter.  I like trying new things.  I especially like talking about trying new things.  At times, I even like taking risks.  But then something happens.  I meet opposition to my plans.  I encounter difficulty.  I get sidetracked.  And eventually, what started as an awesome idea quickly winds up on a pile of good intentions.

Imagine, if you will, the resolution that was placed before Jesus, God’s Son, as he entered his earthly life. Way back in Eden’s garden when the first batch of humans decided to blow the best deal ever and long before Frank Sinatra ever uttered “I did it my way” for the very first time, these creatures decided to break ranks with their Maker.  God’s judgment was swift, expelling them from their utopian lifestyle, but even worse, giving them nothing less than what they asked for: a life separate from Him.  But God’s mercy was too great to leave man with no options. And right there He promised to make right again what we had screwed up.  In that moment, His resolution was made clear. To the Satanic serpent who deceived His beloved, He said:

I will cause hostility between you and the woman (Eve),
and between your offspring and her offspring (Jesus).
He (My Son) will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

In my darker moments, I imagine a heavenly conversation where Jesus quickly retorts, “Easy for you to say, Dad.”  In fact, scripture never gives even the hint of a dispute between the Father and the Son regarding this plan.  Such was the level of trust and love between the two.  What we are told is that Jesus willingly took up the task, emptied himself (now there’s a theological discussion for you), and accepted the greatest rescue mission ever assigned. Paul writes in Philippians 2:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God

 something to be used to his own advantage; rather,

he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

We’ve all heard the clichés.  “Keep your nose to the grindstone.” “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” But faced with this particular assignment, one can only ask “how did He do it?” Our culture is so quick to assign “hero” status to anyone who, in the face of injustice or adversity, casts fate to the wind and charges into the fray, regardless of its effects on one’s personal well-being.  But here’s the thing.  These decisions are often instinctive, made in either a moment of calamity or as part of a short term scheme or strategy to right a great wrong.

What puts Jesus, his incarnation, life, suffering and ultimate death in such a completely different category from other heroic acts is this: he lived, breathed, and focused on his mission from the moment His human mind could handle conceptual thinking.  As a child, He was taught the Torah, the first five books of what we today call the Bible.  He also learned the Psalms and became familiar with all the prophetical writings made available to Him, including the passages He would quote from Isaiah 61 to inaugurate his ministry, as well as the ones which described in graphic detail his eventual death in Isaiah 52 and 53.  And yet, He stayed the course.  Why?  The writer to the Hebrews proposes this as the reason in chapter 12:

…Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

  For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners,

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

And what exactly was the “joy” that was set before Him?  The same writer records in an earlier chapter:

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while,

now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death,

so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God,

for whom and through whom everything exists,

should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. 

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

What was the so-called “prize” on which Jesus kept His eyes for thirty-three years as a human being, and eons before as Creator of all that is seen and unseen?  You and me.  We were the prize.  You are the prize.  I am the prize.

So make your resolutions and maybe even break your resolutions.  But start 2014 with the deepest sense of gratitude for the One who kept His eyes on the prize…and never looked back.        

tad