Take Two

This has a lot to do with preachers but also has to do with speaking in general so feel free to indulge.  I am speaking church Bible study tonight so that’s probably the Genesis of this post but I also speak for conferences for work and church and this method works for me probably 80% of the time.  My study for tonight started this morning at about 4:00 AM.  I had a thought in my brain that would not let me go back to sleep and so I went down to my office (the joys of working at home) and looked up the verses that were the crux of my thought.  After that, I went back to bed.  I got up this morning (having left open my Word document and PC Study Bible) and did a little more adding to the message.  Since I have work things to do today, I have taken time to address those things all the while adding thoughts as they come to my mind.  In total, it will probably take about 13 hours to finish this particular lesson.  Like a stew, because it has been allowed to simmer and formulate over the course of the day, it will (hopefully) go over better than if I had forced it out this morning.

This is not to dismiss the times when you have inspiration and churn out a message or thought as fast as it enters your brain.  I have those as well but my experience has been that those are the exception and not the rule.  For most of what I write to speak (either church or work), it is a process of several (disconnected) hours.  I have also found that I have much better clarity when I take the day to meditate on what I’m going to say.

Okay, back to the stove.

A brief side note before the post.  As you may have noticed, I haven’t done much church/ministry blogging in a while.  This is not because these are not important.  It’s because I don’t multi-task well.  My time (and travel) have been so consumed with work I really haven’t had time to be involved in things at church.  Fortunately, we were able to rectify this today.

This morning Michael and I spent a couple of hours with LJ doing reconnect for our church.  For the uninitiated, reconnect is a follow-up program which we use to follow-up on all of the kids who have visited either Sunday School, Wednesday Junior Youth, Open Gym, or one of our other outreach programs.  If you remember the days of knocking doors in a suit (go on, you know you do), this is nothing like it.  Basically, we went with a stack of church business cards, flyers for tomorrow’s dinner and ice cream social, and a cooler full of flavor ice.  We go to the kids’ houses, give them a flavor ice, and see if they (and by extension their parents) are coming to church and if they need a ride. No fuss, no muss, no pressure.  It took about two hours and, because of the number of people committed to do it, it only requires one Saturday morning every 4-6 weeks.

One very cool (and humbling) aspect of the program is that you get to see the home life of the kids you are working with.  Most have very little in material goods but their faces light up when they see LJ and the church van because the church has changed their life for the better.  Not only do they receive biblical instruction, but food, clothing, school supplies, and any number of other needs they might have.  It has been transformational.

Allow me to inject just a little editorial comment here.  I am more and more of the opinion that the church must become an agent of social change.  And apparently, I’m not alone.  My friend Reg has blogged about this extensively.  If the church is to be effective, it must show the community that it cares about them and is prepared to serve them.  Only then, will it be interested in our theological message.  In John 6, Jesus fed the crowd before he preached.  I think the modern church should do so as well.

Enough of the editorial.  Had a great time at reconnect today.  I think a nap may be in order and then Bible study with our friends tonight.  Awesome.

I am working on my Bible study for tonight and wanted to share something from Matthew 1.  This, of course, is the genealogy of Jesus recounted by Matthew.  It is unique that only four women (all of whom, gently put, had issues) are mentioned in his account.  They are:

o Thamar (or Tamar)- Daughter in law of Judah who played the harlot (Genesis 38)

o Rachab (or Rahab)- Canaanite harlot from Jericho- hid Israelite spies and was saved (Joshua 2)

o Ruth- Moabite who became a widow at a young age (Ruth 1)

o Bathsheba- Relationship founded on adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11)

I think Matthew is highlighting the redemptive work that Jesus came to do while he writes to the Jews.  Each of these women, for various reasons, would seem to be disqualified to being in the lineage of the Christ and yet, there they are.  I think this is because God loves messes.  He loves to intervene, fix, and create something beautiful from our messes.  While Matthew legitimatizes Jesus by emphasizing his lineage from Abraham and Judah, he also inserts an editorial if you will on why this Christ has come.

Pretty cool stuff.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Charity and I are starting a Bible study with our new friends from church tomorrow night.  Growing up in church and attending Sunday School every week, it is easy to assume that everyone knows the characters of the Bible: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, etc.  This is not the case.  We preach from the lives of these characters but there are folks on our pews who don’t get the illustrations because they don’t know the characters.  That’s why every (good) novel starts with character development.  You need to know who the story is about to appreciate the story.  So, we’re going to attempt to shed some light on the characters of the Bible.  I am very excited about this.

Appropriately enough, I’m going to start with the historical Jesus.  It is interesting to read the Gospels and know from what perspective they were written (ie, Matthew is written to the Jews which is why he includes the geneology of Jesus in his first chapter).  Most seasoned church folks know that this is important but to the average person, it means nothing.  It just delays the Christmas story.  Also, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba are included in the lineage of Jesus.  There are wonderful redeptive stories there if you take time to read them and dig them out.  We plan on doing that over the next few weeks.

I can’t wait.

Along with all the business travel, there have been some church things going on as well.  If you get a chance, go to our church website and watch the sermons from today.  Our pastor preached on “A Cross-less Calvary” on committment and sacrifice.  Brother LJ preached from Micah 6 tonight on “God’s Requirements”.  Both were excellent and worth a listen.

Our camp meeting was this week.  I didn’t get to any of the evening services (see previous posts on travel) but I did get a chance to speak at camp on Thursday morning along with the other department heads and share my vision for Sunday School.  Our superintendent preached on “The Manifest Destiny of the Church”.  Go here and go forward to the seventh video for the Ohio Summit Service.  Check out the other services as well.

Charity and I are beginning a home Bible study with some new friends at our church.  I enjoy teaching Bible studies perhaps more than pulpit preaching because of the give and take nature of the intimate setting.  I also feel like I learn more when studying for these sessions because there are questions that are asked and answered.  I’m really looking forward to the Bible study on Tuesday.

Hopefully I haven’t overloaded your feed readers.  We’ll be back to the one(ish) post a day starting tomorrow.

(Note: this blog entry is taken directly from the Maxwell Leadership Bible {which I cannot recommend strongly enough} and was interspersed with my reading for today.  I hope it enriches you as it did me)

God calls every leader to be a servant, but not every servant is to be a leader.  So, how do we take the step to leadership?

In Hebrew, the word we translate as “leader” (nagiyd) comes from a root that conveys the idea of servanthood and being an example to others.  The word is variously translated in Scripture as captain, ruler, prince, governor, and noble.

Leader vs. King

The Hebrew term for “leader” stands in shrp contrast to the word for “king”.  The fairly neutral Hebrew term for “king” (melech) allowed for the possibility of independence, for being a maverick.  Samuel warned against this very thing when the Israelites asked for a king.  A melech might be a renegade, but a nagiyd was under authority, subject to a higher power and fulfilling the wishes of that higher power.  Saul was melech, while Samuel was a nagiyd.

To be a captain, ruler, prince, governor or noble of the people of God, a person must first come squarely under the authority of God.  We can go no further without first understanding this element.  Yet a second element is just as important.  The Hebrew term nagiyd also means to stand boldly to announce, to manifest- the natural outgrouth of receiving commands from God.  The leader is to boldly stand and communicate God’s commands with conviction.

God’s leader is first to be a servant of the Lord, then an example, then a proclaimer and communicatior to the people.  And no one did this better than Samuel.

Although it seems like an eternity, just 10 months ago we were in deep turmoil within our organization regarding advertising on television (which I must say, to me, in hindsight seems foolish).  I was talking to a friend yesterday and we agreed that, for the leaders who left, it was not about television it was about power.  You don’t form an entire organizational structure in one month.  Get real.

However, lest I get on my soapbox, I thought I’d show you what one of our presbyters here in Ohio has done with this new found outreach.  I think it’s pretty cool.

the Sticks conference from newhopewired on Vimeo.

Here’s a conference I may just have to attend, especially since it’s happening right up the road in Loudenville, Ohio.  Check out the website and see what you think.

1 Corinthians 1:20-21
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
KJV

I am just back home after preaching this morning and evening for my friend Mike Wilson in Delaware.  We love the church and they are like family to us.  It is always an honor to be there.

I was reminded of the above verses after preaching two sermons today.  Candidly, to judge for myself, they were not my best effort.  And yet for both services I had folks come up to me and tell me of specific issues in their lives that the Lord ministered to them via my preaching.  It struck me that, in God’s inifinite wisdom, he can use less than perfect oratory to address the needs of his people.  I am convinced that He often ministers in spite of our preaching rather than because of it.  In my mind, surely there is a more effective way to communicate the Word to the church.  And yet, in thousands of churches across the country (and the world), millions of preachers and teachers break the Bread of Life and feed the hungry.  To some, it is foolishness.  To the hungry, it is life.

I don’t understand how it works but it just does.

Gabri running from the spray

Originally uploaded by ryaninmtv

Deuteronomy 6:4-7
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
NKJV

My pastor spoke at our Bible Study last night on “Why we do what we do”. Specifically, he spoke of the feasts that Israel had to attend every year and noted that there were times when we needed a spiritual refreshing. With our camp meeting coming up in a week and a half, it was a timely message. Since we have an awesome line up (Wayne Francis, Eli Hernandez, Jeff Arnold), my arm really doesn’t require a lot of twisting.

It also made me think about why I continue to serve in Sunday School. The pay is lousy (especially for the amount of time involved in the summer), the parents make you want to go nuts, and at times it seems like you are speaking to an audience of one (yourself). However, look at all of the kids in this picture (including my beautiful baby up front). We had the chance, over a week, to impact 225 lives. I have no idea what their life at home is like but, for a week, I can influence them, love them, and bring them hopefully into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. There isn’t enough money to pay for that.

On Friday of camp, I was presented with a shirt that a large number of the campers had signed in black. There were also 38 signatures in red. These were the campers who had received the Holy Spirit during the week for the first time. Our bishop, Brother Jordan, asked what it would take to buy the shirt. I informed him it wasn’t for sale at any price.

I just got to unpacking some of my stuff from camp (I know, it’s been a week but I’ve been busy) and I unpacked that shirt. I am reminded again of why we do what we do. In my day job, we charge an extraordinary amount of money for me to address the problems of our clients. But in ministry, we don’t always get that payoff. That’s why I’m glad I have that shirt. It reminds me that money could never buy what we are able to share.