The Perfect Pastor

 ….The Perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes.  He condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone’s feelings.  He works from 8 a.m. until midnight.

….The Perfect Pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week back to the church.  He is 29 years old and has 40 years’ worth of experience.  Above all, he is handsome.

….The Perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teen-agers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens.  He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.

….The Perfect Pastor always has time for the church council and all of it’s committees.  He never misses the meeting of any church organization, and is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.

….The Perfect Pastor is always in the church next door!

If your pastor does not measure up, simply send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their pastor too.  Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of your list.  If everyone cooperates, in one week you will receive 1, 643 pastors.  One of them should be perfect.

 Whatever you do, don’t break the chain!  One church broke the chain and got its’ old pastor back in less than three weeks.

1. Sermon Archive – the Matthew series is up-to-date with some PDF sermon files, notes, inductive Bible Study links, and MP3 audio files.  Be sure to check things out in that section. 
2. Worship Planners – I’ve got an updated schedule of sermon texts through June.  It is just the the Bible text so if you’re looking for more details about where I’m headed for the sermon, be sure to call or e-mail.  I should be able to send you something. 

Blessings!

PL

As part of my own devotional life, I’ve been practicing a discipline known as the Daily Office which happens to follow quite closely to the chruch calendar.  So this year I’m more attentive to these seasons which is why I am choosing to write a blog entry on this season–Epiphany–knowing that some of my friends and fellow church members might be as unaware as I have been of the church calendar.

Ephinay begins on January 6 and it is marked by several events and themes in the life of Jesus including the visit of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and the wedding feast at Cana (the beginning fo Jesus’ ministry through signs and wonders).  Each event helps us see just a little fuller picture of who Jesus was…and is.  This season (which some only celebrate for one week and call the rest of the season ordinary time) focuses on the minstiry of Jesus: the calling of the disciples, the teachings of Christ, his miracles, and finally his transfiguration.

Along the journey of this season we catch glimpses of the uniqueness of Christ.  We see that Jesus was more than simply a prophet or mere teacher–he is the Son of God…the Messiah!

With my mind wrapped around the missio dei (or, the mission of God) and related themes in my doctoral studies, I can’t help but catch the unmistakable missional bent to this season.  Jesus, the light of the world, calls us to let our light shine before others (Matthew 5:14-16).  The Magi followed a star to find him some 2000 years ago signaling the broad scope of Jesus’ mission where nations of the world would come to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Epiphany calls us to live this missio dei…to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s arrival to every culture and to those living in the neighborhood as well.  We are to be those who reflect the light of Jesus to our family, or neighbors, our community, and around the globe.  That’s part of what it means to be the church–to be sent out as the manifestation of Jesus to a watching world. 

People are watching.  What message is your life communicating?

So this entry is as much a shout out to the team as anything.  Please appreciate all of them…not just pastors.  We’re only as effective as the team standing and working beside us.  Yet, of course, appreciation for pastors too is really appreciated.  We need it.  When folks are not happy, we are sure to hear about it…somehow.  And when folks are happy, every once in awhile they’ll pass along a kind word or note.  For the record, I have a drawer with just about every one of those notes…because some days I just need to read them to keep going another day. 

Sometimes people have actually taken the time to ask, “How do we appreciate our pastor?”  It’s a tough question for a guy like me to answer…but I stumbled across a blog from someone else today with some really good thoughts.  And I pass it along for those who care to know what might be especially meaningful to your pastor in honor of Clergy Appreciation Month.  Here it is!

You see them each Sunday. For some, you hear them preach regularly. You seek them out on special occasions like marriage or funerals. Sometimes you look for their help for counseling sessions. Most of the time, they are expected to be there when you need them. What about appreciating what they have been doing? What about a month allocated to show them that you appreciate their services in the Church or parachurch setting?

The month of October is specially set aside for such a purpose. You can read more about Clergy Appreciation Month here and here. The history of ‘clergy appreciation month’ can be read here. Depending on the availability and the convenience of Church members and friends, affirmation, prayer and various kinds of support can be done at any time. If you have thought about your own pastors and wanted to encourage them, but not sure when is the right time, how about doing something for them this October? Remember, you do not need to give them material stuff. A word of encouragement to them goes much farther. Between dollars and the word of encouragement, the latter is far more priceless. I am sure you can do that.

Now, I am not advocating CAM simply because I am a pastor. I believe that servants of God ought to be honoured in a special way too. In fact, you may even help them do a better job in serving God.

“The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” (1 Tim 5:17)

So if your church has elders and pastors, or teaching staff or leaders in the ministry of preaching or teaching, Clergy Appreciation Month is for you to show your gratitude for their ministry. May the Lord bless you richly as God uses you to bless your leader. Below are 8 ways to show your appreciation to your leaders. [Credit to PromiseOfGod ministry.]

HOW TO APPRECIATE YOUR PASTOR/ELDER

1. Cut the criticism;
2. Pray Regularly;
3. Express Appreciation in Writing;
4. Use your skills to bless;
5. Squelch Gossip;
6. Offer to meet a need;
7. Be Openly Responsive;
8. Throw Away Your Measuring Stick.

Beginning the second Sunday of Advent, I’ll be starting a series on the Gospel of Matthew which will take us through the Advent season, Christmas, and beyond.  I’ve heard a lot of interest in simply going through a book of the Bible from beginning to end and Matthew is a fantastic gospel to spend some good time in.  I also believe there are many missional connections in Matthew’s gospel which will allow me to share more with the congregation about what the journey toward missional life together might look like.

We’ve started a Sunday PM series on the Heidelberg Catechism that we will continue at least through October (this will take us at least through Part I of the HC).  We will break away from it for November & December and return to in in the new year.  There is another series I’ve got in the works for November/December that will help us look at the BIG PICTURE of the story of the Bible.  It’s well worth the attention (and attendance) of a morning series but is more of a teaching type of series so it fits better in the evening.   I hope it will draw out a few extra folks at least for that series of evening messages.

So what are some of your questions or curiosities about heaven?   I’d love to see a thread of comments on this one.  I promise I won’t quote you by name should a sermon series emerge out of this.

By the way, I’m hoping this becomes a meaningful avenue for many of our church family (and other visitors too, of course) and I hope you’ll take the time to engage in some dialogue by leaving comments.  It is important to me that the next 4-6 years of my studies bless not just my own heart and soul but also speak to and inform Almond Valley, blessing, encouraging, and empowering Almond Valley as we seek to engage with the mission of God here in Ripon.  It is as much for me as it is for you that I embark on this training through Fuller Seminary.  So, join the conversation.  I want to hear from you. 

Until the next post, be inspired by a few thoughts from Dr. Roxburgh…especially as we continue through Holy Week.

Pastor Lloyd

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For more information on Dr. Alan Roxburgh and the Roxburgh Missional Network, visit their website at:  www.roxburghmissionalnet.com

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Rancorous Times & Holy Week

Driving through Ohio last week I was struck by all the signs on people’s lawns decrying “ObamaCare”. Many of these signs, like television scenes of public officials shouting at each other and putting one another in the worst light, seem to indicate we are living in a time of heightened conflict and polarizing rhetoric no matter which side one falls across on a series of issues. It was surprising and disconcerting to be in Germany among Christians of differing ages and from various churches and see the way in which the rancor around the words ‘missional’ and ‘emergent’ had travelled across the Atlantic to quickly poison dialogue in a very different context.

These are hard and confusing times for all of us – no matter our politics, racial/ethnic identities or religious views. We all find ourselves in this new space where the maps that once worked so well for us no longer describe the land in which we find ourselves. This will always bring out the extremes along with the need to set straw arguments in order to demonize the other. It’s hard to believe we are in Holy Week, walking with the One who chose not to fight in all the usual ways but to embrace and give his life for a radically different imagination. The anger and blame among Christians of differing views seems to make a lie of the Cross.

I am particularly struck by the ways we continue defaulting to simplistic solutions. The one’s I notice come in two forms. The most obvious is the way we create false polarities. We are either for ‘freedom’ (of a certain kind) or against it. We are either part of a dying ‘institutional’ church or the new, ‘organic’ movements of God. I am deeply suspicious of these simplistic solutions. My experience of life is just far too messy and grey to imagine that these either/or polarities have any connection to what I see going on across North America at this moment. In the midst of all the rancor and confusion about where we are, whose philosophies are right and which kinds of churches have a future I detect something very different.

The other form of solution giving I observe is what I call the straight-line-theory. It keeps popping up in all kinds of ways these days. Someone will make a commentary in the media about the ways in which a series of actions will inevitably lead to an obvious conclusion and why can’t the silly people on the other side see it! The one that frustrates me the most just now (probably because of the people I’ve been with over the last twelve months) is the claim that the so-called old mainline denominations are dying and don’t have a future. This is a classic illustration of straight-line-thinking. It goes something like this: Look at all the stats! Extrapolate them out and these denominations are clearly on the way to extinction. Look at their leaders – they just don’t get it! I remember news clips from British newspapers several years ago using the same arguments. All the stats pointed to one, singular conclusion: the Church of England had no future. These straight line prognosticators, the lovers of stats, could never imagine a different story; but, in God’s economy the unexpected is happening. In the UK these dowager, old, not-with-it churches are coming alive in all kinds of unexpected ways.

We are not watching the end or death of old mainline denominations. We are at the end of a long night; we are coming to the beginning of a new dawn for these churches. This doesn’t mean that their head offices have suddenly figured out the solutions to decline – they haven’t. But then new futures hardly come from those directions. The reality is that God has been, and still is, at work in these older church systems. My theology tells me that when these systems find themselves pushed outside their places of power and success this means the Spirit of God is at work again in these system breaking their boundaries and undoing their established imaginations. But this is not about stats; it’s about the Holy Spirit. In God’s great, capacious story we should recognize that this disrupting, with all its attendant confusion, is the way the Spirit of God invites these systems into the place where new imagination breaks forth.

End or death of these denominations? Not for a minute! The problem with the prognosticators is that they’re driven by stats and straight line thinking not by a theological imagination. God is up to something in these denominations. Gestating among them in younger leaders and many, many good leaders across the system is a new imagination. Innovation and transformation hardly ever comes from what we call the ‘top’ but this doesn’t mean nothing is happening. It is! last week I was with some twenty four mid-level judicatory execs in the eastern US. They are leaders in one of these so-called dying denominations. What struck me is that these leaders get that the system is in crisis; they get that they are past easy fixes or one more model and program brought in from the outside. Forming, churning, gestating in them is something else – a sense that God is not finished with their church and they are ready to be engaged in figuring out this new future the Spirit is forming. Just this week I spoke with another group of leaders from a different mainline church. They also know the problems and issues. These are good, intelligent people and they understand God is forming something radically new inside their DNA. Don’t count these groups out. When I read the Scripture I keep being confronted by the reality that the very places we are ready to declare dead, of no future value, are the very places where God’s future breaks forth. If Holy Week and Easter Sunday mean anything surely it is that this is the way God works in our world. Hold on – the old dowagers are not done yet!

Last weekend I was in Denver with a group of pastors and lay leaders from some seven congregations in the PC USA (I think it qualifies for one of those main denominations the stats obsessed have marked for the palliative care unit of the church). I was energized by the imagination that catalyzed among these people. How else can I express it but to say many of these people get that the church needs to be transformed and if you were in that room Saturday afternoon you’d know that this is precisely what the Spirit is already up to among them. I was so struck by the way the imagination for a new future is among these people because I saw it among them. Does it take work? Of course! Will it require sacrifice and change? Undoubtedly! Below is a picture of the Denver group. I just love the bunch of them! Forget the prognosticators; turn away from the rancor. The God who raised Jesus from the dead knows nothing of straight line thinking or false polarities. A whole different narrative is at work here. How have we managed to forget Holy Week and Easter?

Digging Deeper on Justice

Belhar Confession (English)

Belhar (Spanish)

Belhar Devotional - a 25-day devotional provided by the Reformed Church in America