Messy Christianity

I must say, as I look at Jesus’ building relationships, that it is time consuming, requires an intentional willingness to see where people can be and not just where they are now and at times can just be messy. Jesus looked into the eyes of rough fishermen and saw that they could become apostles. We must be willing to do the same thing. We must look around us and see those people who can shine like stars if someone is willing to invest in them. If we are going to connect with one another, we must be willing to make room for one another, our idiosyncrasies, our personalities, and sometimes even our faults. We ought to bear with one another. We ought to build relationships with one another. None of us are perfect. We all have issues, and we all have difficulties in our lives. We all need friends. We all need someone to look after us. We all need someone to look after. There is fulfillment in relationship. The scripture tells us that we’re to have hearts of compassion, that we’re to have hearts of love, that we’re to have kindness and humility and gentleness towards one another. We are to even feel this way toward those who have complaints against us. In other words, find the people you can connect with and connect with them. We’ve all had problems; we’ve all failed in many ways. The point is we should connect with one another and we should bear one another’s burdens because Jesus has chosen to do that with us. When we read the Gospels we see how often the disciples blew it, fell short, let Jesus down, showed little faith, and Jesus still connected with them. He still found reason to disciple them and keep them in the circle. At times they all showed faithlessness. But Jesus kept His relationship with His disciples. His kindness should be a catalyst, a motivation, to reach out to one another in kindness. We must find people with similar interests and connect with them. It is the responsibility for every Christian to build strong relationships with other Christians and pre-Christians ... even if it gets messy.

What is your vision?

As we look at the word of God and church history, there seems to be a pattern. Men and women with great visions from God started with great dissatisfaction about what they were seeing that did not line up with God’s plan. · Moses’ complaint was God’s people should not be enslaved, and God’s response was: “Let my people go.” · Gideon’s complaint was God’s people should not live in oppression from their pagan neighbors, and God’s response was: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” · Elijah’s complaint was God’s people should not be serving other gods, and God’s response was Mount Carmel. · Jesus’ complaint was that religion was dead; God gave Him the vision of abundant life for all who would come. · Paul’s complaint was that God’s people were reverting to the ways of the flesh and the bondage that behavior brought on, and God gave him a vision of “who we are in Christ.” It is told that Abraham Lincoln decided to run for president after viewing a disturbing scene. He was standing at the docks observing a ship pulling in to dock. After docking, African men, women and children were taken in shackles to an auction block and sold, often splitting up families three ways or more. Lincoln was so upset he clenched his fist causing his fingernails to cut into his hand and blood was literally dripping from his fist. His complaint turned into a vision that produced the Emancipation Proclamation. Possibly the greatest complaint since Jesus was that of Martin Luther. Luther became so incensed by inequities that he observed in the church it drove him to study, which produced his Ninety-Five Theses and his assertion that “the just shall live by faith.” That complaint didn’t just produce the Lutheran Church, but rather is the seed for Protestantism today. As we drive along the streets of our city we go past the fruit of Martin Luther’s dream in every neighborhood. The question is: what is your complaint and has it become your vision?

The Pastor as a Change Agent

The following is a portion of an article I recently had published in the Assembly of God Leadership Magazine, Enrichment Journal entitled “The Pastor as a Change Agent: Remaining Relevant in a Constantly Changing Cultural Environment”. To read the entire article, go to: http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201301/201301_EJO_ChangeAgent.cfm Society is changing at a faster rate than ever before. Because of this, the church of Christ must be willing to change its methods if it is to remain relevant. The challenge is to change the methods, which are temporal, without changing the message, which is timeless. Many within the church resist change for fear of compromising the message of Christ. For this reason, the 21st-century pastor must see himself as a change agent that can implement effective changes while making them palatable to church members. We must view change as a process and not an event. What good does it do for the leader to yell charge and rush to the top of the hill only to find he or she arrived there alone? A more progressive approach to change is the better part of wisdom. This takes adequate planning and this is how we, as pastors, can become change agents. The process will involve understanding change management, adopting an adaptable approach to leadership style, and empowering people to think strategically. Following this process will help pastors become change agents ensuring the church remains relevant and proclaims the important message of Christ that is both timeless and life changing.