When Jesus Needs a Fire Extinguisher

A few pastoral reflections.
1. Always test fire related special effects on the real stage before the real event.
2. Maybe fire related special effects are not a good thing for church services in general.
3. Always have a singer who can keep singing incredibly no matter what.
4. Always have a guy who will run up and grab the flaming stone door and rush it out of the sanctuary.
5. This will be one of those events that is permanently seared into the memory (and carpet) of this church.  (I was --- old when the stage caught on fire at the Easter production.)
6. Did Jesus just kick down a burning door and walk through a wall of flames?  That's cool, no matter what you say.

Leadership Tip: Choose the Right Form of Communication.

Should you write, email, text, IM, Facebook message, call, or go in person?  It all depends.  Who are you trying to reach?  How well do you know them?  How urgent is it?  What have you tried so far?  What is that person's preferred mode of communication?

Email is great - except when it isn't.  One of the regular complaints I get from beginning leaders is that they tried to gather a meeting or to recruit volunteers, but no one responded to their emails.  Some people are great email responders, and some just read everything and reply to almost nothing - especially if a reply requires thought or commitment.
One way to increase the effectiveness of an email is to combine it with a text message.  This reminds people to check their email.  (Some just don't check very often.)  Also, it is a small flag noting the urgency of the issue.  However, if the reply can be done with a text message, you might consider skipping the email altogether.    One nice thing about text messages is that people can still receive them while in meetings when they can't answer the phone.  Also, they can save them up and respond to you later when they are on a break.
Another option for email is to start with a mass email to get the easy responders.  Then, move to text message to get the next set of responses.  Finally, close out the slow responders with direct phone calls.

For people in your email contact list, a five minute Instant Message conversation with Google Chat or something similar can be the most effective way to touch base with a short Q and A session.  This avoids the annoying relay of emails with one short question after another.

Ending the Cover-Ups (2 Samuel 11)

Read 2 Samuel 11.

I wanted to preach a nice, fairly traditional sermon on temptation and how to avoid it.  That is a fair and relatively easy application of this text.  But I couldn’t do it.  I sat down at my computer to write, and I ended up just surfing the web or playing games.  For two days, I tried to write the nice sermon about avoiding temptation - the expected sermon when dealing with this passage, but I just couldn’t get the words to come out.

Then, on Wednesday afternoon, I started digging into the passage again.  I went online and read every sermon or article I could find on this passage.  Danielle Shroyer, a pastor from Texas, knew the way to my heart when she asked: “Anybody brave enough to preach this one squarely?”

  What?  A controversial sermon on a difficult topic?  I never do those. OK, I’m in.

The David and Bathsheba story is famous because it deals with the big three: money, sex, and power.  It’s famous because it describes the messy fall of a hero.  It reads like a soap opera, and that’s why we like it.    

But this story isn’t just about the massive failure of one man and its many consequences - although that is the outline of the story.  If David and Bathsheba were simply about adultery, then - as Tim Elliot said at lunch on Thursday - this sermon could have one simple point: “Don’t do it.”  

This story is more complex and more painful than that.  We are not allowed to stand at a distance as people not concerned with this story - not when we really hear it.  This story is about the misconduct of a leader and the cover-up that followed.  And that, unfortunately, is something we know a lot about.  Just consider this very brief inventory of high profile abuse and cover-up in the past few years.

Between Anointed and Abandoned (2 Samuel 1:17-27)

[This week Logan Kruck is preaching at our church.  He has graciously allowed me to share his sermon here.]

Superman Dies!  How can it be?  Superman can’t ever die!  Don’t you read the stories?!

Those who know me know that I love comics.  I read them all the time.  And Superman is the comic hero of heroes, the standard of what it means to be virtuous and good.  But, when I was 8 years old, I read this comic and was shocked.  Superman was dead.  It’s hard to separate fiction from reality when you are 8.  All of your favorite characters are very real to you.  So, when Superman died, a real hero died.  What could I say?  What should I feel?  As a child, when your hero dies, you feel very alone, as if all the good in the world died with him.  What do I do from here?

Listen now, to the words of David

Your glory, oh Israel, lies slain upon your high places!  How the mighty have fallen!

This isn't the song of Israel on opposite side of the Red sea watching Egypt drown.  It is not, "Horse and chariot are cast into the sea!  How the mighty God triumphs!"

It is a different song.  It is a song of shock and lament.  It is a song out of the midst of the horror of battle.  And our king, our representative to God, is dead.  

Leadership Fundamentals

An MDiv student just interviewed me about leadership.  Here are my answers. 

1. In your opinion, what does good leadership consist of in your organization? Good leadership is: "to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:12-13). My job is to help our people do their jobs which helps us all grow up into the people God wants us to be. This plays out by investing heavily in our pastoral team, working closely with them to help them grow as leaders. Also, I need to spend time helping our board be equipped and inspired to lead - not just to fill a post. This is always something that I can do better. My natural tendency is to try to be the loan leader rather than to lead by equipping leaders.

2. What qualities are needed to effectively lead at the top?
  A) Humility. First and foremost, we must know our own weakness, fallibility ...