Pastor's Point: Lessons from Bert

As a worship pastor who spends much of my time seeking ways to help others discover and express intimacy with God, I have had no shortage of personal experiences from which to draw my own beliefs about such matters.  That He has left me His Word as the compass and authority for my life would be gift enough. But He is not limited to its pages.  At times, He meets me through the words of a hymn or poem, viewing a stunning work of art, or listening to a symphony. Often, He pulls back the curtain and shows off some of His amazing handiwork in nature when I am not even looking for it.  But the revelations of greatest impact that have made me want to know Him more have actually been in listening to His still small voice.  No, I’m not talking about “voice-s”, lest you begin worrying that the porchlight’s on but nobody’s home.  I am referring to those quiet, inner spirit kind of nudgings that God give us through His Spirit, that actually comfort, exhort, and in some cases direct us.  Jesus himself said in John 10: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow Me.”

If God desires intimacy with me, surely it is a living, active, and current thing.  While much of my knowledge of Him comes from His Word, and all subsequent “leadings” must agree with that revelation, our relationship is not limited to that collection of family history and love letters.  In other words, He still wants to communicate with me moment by moment…by His Spirit.  But this form of communication takes time to develop.  Like any intimate relationship, time is of the essence. 

Describing what he calls “The Cycle of Intimacy,” Wayne Gordon, a pastor of an outreach ministry in urban Chicago says this:  “Knowing God is a process that can no more be exhausted than the exploration of the universe.  There is always another blazing aspect to discover in God.”  He speaks of the cycle of intimacy with God as outlined in John 14:23: ‘If anyone loves me, He will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’”

Here, then, is the cycle:

                1)            the more we get to know God personally, scripturally, as He really is, the 

                                more we will fall in love with Him. 

                2)            The more we fall in love with Him, the more we will want to hear His voice, to 

                                please Him with our lives, and surrender more of ourselves to His love and 

                                power. 

                3)            The more we walk in obedience, the more God will make Himself known to us 

                                and manifest His presence in our lives. 

Notice I didn’t say, the more we obey, the more He will love us.  That is simply not possible, for God is love.  But with listening and obeying will come intimacy…intimacy with the living God.

While I could share vast numbers of examples in my life where my response to God’s voice was all too passive and impotent, I do recall learning a valuable lesson from God about this cycle of intimacy when I encountered a man named Bert.  Bert was a crusty old curmudgeon I happened to be visiting in the hospital several years ago in Chicago.  I was serving a church there as the pastor’s assistant, and as luck would have it, when the pastor left town things often happened that I was not equipped to handle.  Not in the flesh, anyway.  It so happens that the year before this visit, I had officiated at the funeral of Bert’s wife, who had died, sure enough, the minute the pastor left town.  Now a year later, I was called to his bedside by his daughter, who, knowing he was near death, asked that I come pray for him.

Bert was not a believer, mind you, at least not to my knowledge.  He wasn’t a church go-er, much less a member, not of our church or any other.  He wasn’t even a nice man.  He had few friends, his family had all but disowned him, and he even once had told me he wanted to kill the doctors who he blamed for his wife’s death.  As I walked into his room that afternoon, I was struck by my utter lack of qualifications to help this situation or bring any comfort to anyone.  I was also struck by the fact that there was no one there to comfort, for there lay Bert…alone, in a coma, the death rattle from his advanced emphysema growing increasingly slower and weaker. 

And then it happened.  As clearly as anything has ever been communicated to me, God revealed to me that Bert was not beyond redemption, that before he slipped into eternity he needed to experience God’s unconditional favor, and that he had sent me to be the messenger.  But I would not get off with merely reading aloud a few scriptures.  No, the Lord wanted me to literally get up on Bert’s bed and hold him in my arms and just say over and over, God loves you, Bert, He will forgive you, Bert.  Trust Jesus, Bert. 

Of course, then the dialogue began, “God!  What if someone walks in?  Or worse yet, what if Bert wakes up?!?”  Despite the protests, I knew what I had to do.  As I lay there hugging and loving this crusty, rattling old man, I learned a new depth of God’s unconditional love for me, for all of mankind. If His pursuit of me, of us is that strong, that He will send someone to our deathbed so that we might know and experience His embrace to the end, what manner of love is this? 

In my experience with Bert, loving God merely meant taking the risk of looking a little silly.  But when I laid him to rest three days later before a grand total of six mourners, I longed for more opportunities to experience this wonderful God.  Through His Spirit, God had revealed Himself to me in a way that caused me to love Him more and want to go deeper with Him. 

“Brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies (all that you are and have—every faculty you possess) as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not let the world around you “squeeze you into its mold,” but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then (and only then), you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

tad

Pastor's Point: Let's Get Engaged

 What’s going on this weekend?  Well, for starters, it’s Growing Further Weekend, our annual opportunity to welcome ministry partners from around the country (every other year it’s global).  It’s also our second week with Engage during Sunday morning community time.  Around 350 people took advantage of the chance to reach out to others at Hope in an effort to get better equipped to reach those outside Hope.  This Sunday, during our community time, we will be looking at a teaching by Vik Marballi around the theme—Jesus, the only Way. 

As the body at Hope jumps into this new initiative, I thought it a good time to remind you of one of our core values as a team of leaders: “Finding common ground with the seeker.”  This is a clearly taught value throughout scripture, both for us individually and as local communities of faith.  The apostle Paul reminds us in his letter to the church at Corinth that “though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I become like a Jew, to win the Jews.  To those under the law, I become like one under the law, so as to win those under the law.”  (1 Cor. 9:19, 20)

Growing further weekend reminds us that God intends for His kingdom be forever expanding and growing.  “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” after all, and the last time I checked that pretty much extends to everyone on the planet with a pulse.  And Engage is one vehicle designed to help us do that very thing with those both inside and outside the faith.  But how do we get started?  How do we take that first step to walk across the room and begin to build a relationship with those we don’t know or who don’t know Christ? 

Twenty years ago, we were taught to share the 4 spiritual laws with anyone and everyone who would give us the time.  Or we were encouraged to ask a couple of probing questions, like “If you died tonight, where do you think you would go?” and “If God were to ask you, ’why should I let you into My heaven,’ what would you say?” With our post modern culture becoming more and more secularized and increasingly skeptical of authority, biblical or otherwise, we followers are being forced to look at different entry points to the discussion. 

Rather than the approach of “I know something you don’t” being the opening salvo to a total stranger, Paul suggests we start by incarnating or identifying empathetically with the culture in which we find ourselves.  For some that could be your work culture, your neighborhood, your family, even your recreational buddies.  But the bottom line—start with something you share in common, NOT what separates you.  Jesus did it constantly in his ministry.  He hung out with sinners, told stories to which they could easily relate, asked lots of questions, and then be willing to really listen to their answers. As the master discipler, Jesus consistently communicated that he understood their inner longings before trying to fix them. 

A perfect example was his conversation with the woman at the well in John 4.  He could have begun with, “What’s a (bad) girl like you doing in a place like this? Don’t you know that you’re talking to the holy Son of God? In case you don’t know, I’m kind of a big deal.”  My guess is the temple scribes were not into publishing religious tracts back then, but even so I doubt that would have been Jesus’ method of choice in this encounter either.  Instead, He found the common ground.  Not of ethnicity, not of age, not even of religious pedigree. He started with what unites us all—we get thirsty.  “Will you give me a drink?”  He started by admitting He needed something from her!  Simple, but it provided Him entry into her world.  And he took time to listen.

For you and me in a worship and arts ministry, the outside world may not understand exactly why we use our gifts for this worship thing on Sunday morning, but they can understand our love for music.  It touches us all.  So our crossover point with those individuals can be the common ground of art, not their faith or world view.  One of my current personal goals in this area is to establish relationships with artists and musicians outside the faith, at least outside the faith community.  Right now I am seeking artistic advice and technical counsel for our Christmas production from a young, very gifted artist/actor/writer in the Cincinnati area.  Don’t believe he’s a Christian, but for starters, Deb and I have attended three different performances of his.  We’ve had dinner together and have regular correspondence through texting and emails.  I have also approached him about being interviewed for our Christmas program video, and answering the question “What do you long for in life that money can’t buy?”  All this takes time, but I believe it really is the fulfillment of Paul’s call for us: “to the Jew, become a Jew.” 

Will you join me as our ministry area begins to discover ways to open its doors and hearts to people unlike us in their faith experience, not as fellow worship leaders, but as fellow artists on various endeavors and projects which can help us build a bridge to their world.  May I challenge you to pray for wisdom and creativity as we begin to walk across the room to those in our sphere of influence.  Whether it’s getting closer to one another in Christ’s body or learning how to better connect with the ‘outsider,’ let’s get engaged.

tad

Pastor’s Point:      The Power of Words (adapted)

A wise king once wrote: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” It seems a direct contradiction to a perhaps more familiar proverb which says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  Oh, really?  Words don’t hurt?  Try telling that to the families of children who have been bullied into isolation, depression, even suicide.  In fact, words are very powerful and carry with them the potential to render great harm or good to the recipient. 

I once had the misfortune of squandering an entire semester in an English Lit class, simply because of poor choices to procrastinate and avoid reading the material. The result: failing a college English course in my sophomore year—and English was my minor!  As a junior, I transferred to a new school, retook the course I had failed, and met a new teacher.  Personally, I struggled with whether or not I was really as unintelligent as getting an F would normally suggest. You can imagine the shock when I got back my first paper in my new class with a big red A atop the page and this simple comment from my new prof:  “Your superior talent is quite evident.”  In six simple words, I shed my shame of being a loser to really believing something was working upstairs after all.  I never forgot it, aced the class, and went on to teach English for ten years upon graduating from college.

Do words matter?  Consider the thoughts of greater minds than mine… 

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. –Jesus

 Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, 

 and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. --Robert Frost

The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet. --Ann Landers

There are two types who say very little: the quiet type and the gabby type. –Unknown

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.    – Plato

Do not be quick with your mouth; do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.

God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.  As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words. Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.  –King Solomon

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness. --Margaret Millar

Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speech by something outside himself-like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks. --Jean Kerr

After all is said and done, more is said than done. --Unknown

The words we say will teach if we practice what we preach. --Unknown

When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing. —Unknown

If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind - give it more thought. --Dennis Roth

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.  --Mark Twain

Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence. --Spanish Proverb

Never miss a good chance to shut up. –Will Rogers

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. --C.S. Lewis

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.

-- Adlai Stevenson

Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. —Charles Spurgeon

            One half the troubles in this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.  –Josh Billings

If you think little of a person, you ought to say as little as you think. –Benjamin Franklin

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.  

--Harriet Beecher Stowe

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. --Colossians 4:6

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.  Ps. 19:14

Couldn’t have said it better myself.  Speak life into those around you today.  You never know when it just might be a lifeline. 

tad

Pastor's Point: I wouldn't be caught dead...

You’ve certainly heard the phrase before.  Perhaps you’ve even used it in conversation.  I wouldn’t be caught dead…  In reality, unless the Lord comes first, everyone of us will be caught dead doing something.  I had a college buddy who got a letter from his mom informing him that their church organist had literally died in the middle of the service that Sunday.  Needless to say, it was not a joyful noise. 

As a retired pastor, my own grandfather, William Frederick Dommer, died instantly of a heart attack administering communion to a woman in a hospital. That’s the thing about death—no matter when it happens, there is always a where.

But this phrase, I wouldn’t be caught dead is usually heard in the context of some despicable job or life situation in which we could never imagine ourselves.  Years ago, I served a church in the Chicago area as a minister of music and full time teacher in their Christian school.  Once, while taking my eighth grade students on a field trip to a factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I actually made the unfortunate and arrogant statement that “I wouldn’t be caught dead” working on an assembly line doing something menial and boring like that.  Almost a year to the day later, I was standing in a paper mill, counting notebooks and packaging them for shipment…eight hours a day, six days a week. 

It followed a fateful decision to leave that church position in Chicago and embark on a consulting ministry with a pastor friend of mine.  Long story short, the free-lance ministry never gained traction, and I found myself jobless with a wife and three young kids in Appleton, Wisconsin.  The factory job was my last resort.  In fact, I wasn’t found dead in that paper mill, but for close to nine months I found myself slowly dying inside. 

How could I have so misheard God?  How could I have been so presumptuous as to leave one job without securing another?  How could I take such a risk with my wife and family involved?  And what good was I now to God, when all my education and training was for “ministry?”  I’m making no music.  I’m not teaching young minds the things of God.  I’m not leading people in worship.  And to add insult to injury, any attempt at rational Christian thought was drowned out by the noise of high-speed machinery and worse, the loud blaring rock music over the factory PA system. 

Among the many decadent and depressing lyrics to which I was subjected was a song repeated several times daily by the rock band Pink Floyd.  Into my already dwindling self esteem rang out this mantra…                                                                                                                                  

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave those kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave those kids alone!
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Well I was no longer a teacher, but that is exactly how I began to feel.  In the kingdom of God, I had become just another brick in the wall.  So I cried out to God, admitting my sense of worthlessness, repenting of squandered opportunities and wasting His time in this God-forsaken place. 

It was then that God spoke to me in a way I had not heard before and have treasured ever since.  It went something like this: Tim, your value to me is not in what you do…in how much ministry you accomplish.  Your value to me is simply that you are my son.  I pictured, for a moment, those words ringing over Jesus after His baptism…this is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.  At the beginning of…not the end of…His public ministry.  God’s pleasure in Jesus was rooted in relationship, not behavior.  If that were not the case, God could not be pleased with any of us.  As the Psalmist says in Psalm 130:  If you should [keep track of] iniquities, who could stand?  God’s introduction of Jesus to the world was not “TA DA! Meet the Savior of the world!” but rather, “Here’s my Boy, in whom I am well pleased.”  The Father delighted in His Son simply because He was His Son. 

We have been bought with a price, not with silver or gold, but with Jesus’ very own blood, to secure that relationship.  It was, after all, while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.  That’s how much we matter to Him.  Do you believe that on a deep level?  I know for me personally, it took me ending up in a place “I wouldn’t be caught dead” to really discover my true value to God.

tad

Pastor's Point: The Power of a Moment

Have you ever wondered what you’re going to be when you grow up?  Whether you’re an adult or not, many of us struggle with this question throughout our life.  Part of it is this: as fallen creatures, made in the image of God, we intuitively know we are in process.  But also contributing to our restlessness is an awareness that even while time is marching on, we are prone to devalue or even waste it.  Christian songwriter Chris Rice expressed it this way:

What am I gonna be when I grow up?
How am I gonna make my mark in history?
And what are they gonna write about me when I’m gone?
These are the questions that shape the way I think about what matters

               

But I have no guarantee of my next heartbeat
And my world’s too big to make a name for myself
And what if no one wants to read about me when I’m gone?
Seems to me that right now’s the only moment that

matters

The chorus of this song, “The Power of a Moment,” went like this:                                                                                                                                                                            

You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
Teach me the power of a moment.

These words suggest that we don’t naturally default to placing a high value on time.  The One who has ordained the number of our days has to teach us to live in the moment.  Left to ourselves, we tend to live as if time will never run out.  Much like the makeup opportunities we have for everything from missed piano lessons to college entrance exams, we assume that we can always do just about anything later.

The prophet Isaiah warned: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.” The apostle Paul reiterates this in 2 Corinthians 6:2 “In the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”  I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”  If none of us can really control how much time we have left, then what we can choose to do is make the most of what we have—namely, this moment!  Honestly, we don’t even have the rest of today, tomorrow, or next week guaranteed to us.  I think about a friend I had, in the earlier days of my ministry, who was picnicking with his wife and two young children, suffered an aneurysm, and died before he hit the grass under the table.  My point is not to be maudlin or to scare you into action.  It’s to encourage you to maximize each moment God gives you.

Think back to your childhood.  For a moment, don’t reflect on periods of time (your first summer camp experience, your favorite Christmas, the year your parents split up, etc.).  Instead, let your mind lock in to certain specific moments that have really had an impact on you.  For many, if not all, of you, it might be the day you received Christ as your Savior and Lord.  Maybe it was the birth of your first child, or the day you left home.  For others, it could be a historic event, such as the day JFK or Martin Luther King were assassinated, or the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded before our very eyes. 

But what about those moments which seemingly came out of nowhere which not only impacted you but also really shaped who you are today or how you look at life?  I still remember my Aunt Millie cupping my face in her hands and telling me I had “smiling eyes.”  I think I was nine.  I still remember it like it was yesterday.  And yet there was an even more powerful moment in my childhood which left an indelible print on my mind and heart.  It involved my mother and me.  It was not planned.  It was not pretty.  But it was profound. 

Our family of eight lived in a small parsonage (preacher’s home owned by the church) in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  The smallest room in the house, other than the one bathroom, was the kitchen.  It was separated from the dining room by a swinging door.  On one special occasion when we were preparing to have company for dinner, I was helping set the table (don’t think too highly of this action—I’m sure it was conscripted service).  I remember being in a bit of a hurry, and as I rushed into the kitchen for more tableware, I swung the door into my mother, who was standing on the other side holding a bowl of beans.  Like I said, it was not pretty.  Nor was her reaction.  She screamed at me, and I, being the young stud that I was, ran screaming up the stairs to my bedroom.  Soon after, I was summoned back to the kitchen to my mom’s waiting arms for a big hug and an apology for her tirade.  She admitted that it was obvious I was only trying to help.

In truth, I believe that moment was so powerful mainly because her physical gesture of approval was so rare. She had a very difficult time expressing those kinds of tender emotions, having grown up in the home of an abusive, alcoholic father.   And yet in a moment, she decided to swallow her pride and dial into my pain.  In a moment, she modeled the need for even big people to admit their faults to little people.  And she chose to kneel down, make a physical connection, and reassure me of her love, even when time was running out before our guests arrived. 

Are moments powerful?   Chris concludes his song with these words:

I get so distracted by my bigger schemes
Show me the importance of the simple things
Like a word, a seed, a thorn, a nail
And a cup of cold water.

Who in your sphere of influence needs an encouraging word from you today?  Who needs a cup of cold water?  Who needs to hear that thorns and nails were endured on their behalf by a loving Savior?  Look around.  Don’t miss…better yet, take full advantage of the power of a moment.             

    

                                                                                                                                                    tad