My Future Assistant

The other day, we were in the mall shopping and saw a little boy in a wheelchair. My five year old Emma pointed at him and asked me what was wrong. I told her I didn’t know and that it was rude to point. She asked why. I said, “Would you like to be in a wheelchair and have little girls pointing at you and whispering?” With no hesitation she said, “Yes!” She has no problem being the center of attention and couldn’t imagine that anyone else would.

So it is without concern for her privacy (and with permission – yes even from a 5 year old) that I share this conversation we had today on the way to the doctor. She has been home from school for two days, and it turns out she has a throat infection. We’ll give her a round of antibiotics, and she’ll be fine. On the way to the doctor, we had a really fun conversation.

Me: “What are you going to do when you grow up?”
EJ: “I’m going to work with you and Mommy.”
M: “That’s great. You know, you could probably work as my assistant. Or, you could be my youth minister.”
E: “I think I’ll just do children’s church (Our kids come down for a very brief object lesson or story).”
M: “That’d be great, you could do them all for me. What would your first one be on.”
E: “I’d bring a bunch of seashells…no…maybe a crab shell.”
M: “Great! What would the lesson be?”
E: “I’d teach the kids about health.”
M:”Oh, OK. What would you teach them?”
E: “Dad…just wait until I’m grown up and you’ll hear it then!”
M:*laughter*

I am waiting on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to find out the connection between a crab shell and health in her first Children’s message. I’m sure it will be a fascinating connection. 🙂

Churches of the Mega Variety

Here is a map from the New York Times showing the concentration of mega-churches in the United States (h/t Allan R. Bevere). Interesting, eh?

I see we have several in OKC, a few in Tulsa, one in Lawton, and one down on the Texas border in southern Oklahoma. Anyone out there know where that is? It looks like it’s around Durant, but I’m not sure.

Advent with Eugene Peterson

I’m re-reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places for Advent this year. I continue to be amazed at the pastoral wisdom that Eugene Peterson has packed into the pages of this book. As I read slowly through the pages, I’m more and more convinced that spiritual theology is one of the most important disciplines for the pastor.

A passage I read a few days back has really stayed with me, and I want to share it here. In it, Peterson is discussing the ways that accepting Jesus as the definitive revelation of God makes it impossible for us to make up our own individualized spiritualities. Peterson may very well have been writing during this time of year when he wrote, “…we can’t get around him or away from him; Jesus is the incarnation of God.”

In the first words here, he goes back to the theme I’ve been hitting hard lately of the importance of “place” (a better word than context, I think). Incarnation is incredibly important for elevating the value of being a particular person in a particular place:

Jesus prevents us from thinking that life is a matter of ideas to ponder or concepts to discuss. Jesus saves us from wasting our lives in pursuit of cheap thrills and trivializing diversions. Jesus enables us to take seriously who we are and where we are without being seduced by intimidating lies and delusions that fill the air, so that we needn’t be someone else of somewhere else (p. 33).

However, it’s the expansion of this that really strikes me,

Jesus keeps our feet on the ground, attentive to children, in conversation with ordinary people, sharing meals with friends and strangers, listening to the wind, observing the wildflowers, touching the sick and wounded, praying simply and unselfconsciously. Jesus insists that we deal with God right here and now, in the place where we find ourselves and with the people we are with. Jesus is God here and now (pp 33-34).

These are the “Christ-practices” that are essential for any good pastor. I would even suggest that the pastoral life well-lived also inculcates these practices in the group of believers they shepherd. If you’re like me you’ll probably find some who don’t do these things, but you’ll find many others who already do them, but don’t realize that they are part of the amazing good news of God! Part of our job is to help people understand how many of the simple practices of their daily lives are caught up in the narrative of God’s mission to reclaim the world.

Maybe this year, as we prepare to remember God’s Incarnate Son, we can cling to the Christ-practices of the here and now. Maybe we can embody the way Christ’s Incarnation shows us a faith is earthy and real as we become more and more like the One who came and is to come.

Location, Location, Location

I hadn’t really noticed that I’ve been working on a theme until my friend Chris noticed the way “place” has tied together my most recent posts. Today, I came across a wonderful article by Bishop Kenneth L. Carder that builds on what I’ve been thinking lately. In Choosing Where to Be Present: A Sign of Excellence, Bishop Carder gets the tie between mission, context, and place exactly right.

The article begins with Bishop Carder recounting a conversation with a former bishop:

“What advice do you have?,” I asked a veteran bishop as I prepared to assume that same office after my election in 1992.

“Choose carefully where to be present, especially your first Sunday,” he replied. “Where you decide to be will be remembered longer than what you say or do when you get there. And, where and with whom you spend your time will shape your view of the church and your role in it.”

He goes on to discuss the way presence is an essential aspect of ministry and leadership. Further, he ties this in wonderfully with the idea of the incarnation:

God chose to be present in a young peasant girl in tiny Bethlehem and in a vulnerable baby, born amid darkness and poverty in a cattle stall. The Incarnate Son of God chose to be present in the hurting and dangerous places and among the outcasts and marginalized. Furthermore, he promised, it would be in those very places—among the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned—where we would meet him and that nations (and churches) are judged on whether they are present in places of poverty, disease, brokenness, and confinement.

For most of us, however, being present in such places requires us to make intentional choices. We have to go out of our way and move beyond the routine places of our lives to encounter the people who live in poverty or in jails and prisons. Our schedules and locations reflect our relative affluence and privilege and the formation and exercise of our leadership are largely determined by our privileged locations.

The first thing I thought about when reading this is one of places where I have responded faithfully to God’s call. There is a little rent house just north of our Church. Since we’ve lived here (2 years, 6 months), there have been four different families living there. It must give God a good laugh that I have to stare right at it as I walk to my office from my house. Because in spite of being pretty introverted at heart, I almost always “hear” God whispering, “Well…what are you waiting for? Go meet them.”

It take some time, but I have worked up the nerve with everyone who has lived there. Little do they know as they’re moving in that they are entering a little outpost in God’s Kingdom. It has become my mission for everyone who lives there to know more about God’s love than when they arrived. They may never step foot in our sanctuary (and most don’t), but they’ll know that in the big red building next door, the folks worship a God who loves people and won’t leave them alone.

So, with that in mind, today, instead of asking how you’re spending your time, ask where you’re spending your time? Are you hanging out with the rich and famous of your congregation, or have you spent time with anyone who will never contribute to the building campaign? If your answer is less than satisfactory when answering to a God who became incarnate in a stable, then join the club. I have to ask myself this all the time. I pray that I never quit asking. May God increase our faithfulness each day.

Probationary Interviews

By the way, I passed my third and final round of interviews leading up to ordination. It has been a long process, but it has been a pretty good one for me. To be sure, it will be great to be fully ordained and stop being a “Probe.” Just haven’t thought to post anything here until now. 🙂