We Can Be Better

Sometimes I become disillusioned with people, most particularly church people. I am a church person, so I include myself in the disappointment...I sometimes become frustrated with all of us. I wonder why we try to make church all about ourselves instead of about others. I question our motives sometimes. I'm not sure we're really in this to build up God's kingdom as much as we are to build up our own. We seldom consult God about what He wants and generally settle for striving to accomplish our own goals and wish lists.
If it weren't so sad to listen to us talk it would be humorous. We say one thing and mean another. For example, we say we want all viewpoints represented but what we really mean is that we want our viewpoint represented. We say we're concerned about some people having too much power, but what we really mean is that we want more power. We hide behind saying that people are complaining and concerned but what we really mean is that we're complaining but don't want it charged to our account.
When I think about it honestly, it's no wonder lots of people don't want anything to do with the church. I read a book recently entitled, "They love Jesus, but not the church." I think that's pretty much right, because even as a pastor, that's how I feel sometimes.
My guess is that Jesus doesn't like the church very much sometimes either...but whether He likes us very much or not...He does love the church. You see, the Bible says, "He loved the church and gave Himself for it." Wow...even though He could see all of our faults and could tell how far off track we'd get, He still loved us...those of us who are the church.
So even though it's easy to find fault with the church, it's also important to remember how important it is to Christ. I guess that means we should also commit ourselves to trying to make it the best it can be, even though it's made up of some seriously flawed people. I'm one of those flawed human beings, but I'm going to re-commit myself to making the church a better place. How about you?

Just Thinking

It's been nearly a year since I blogged. People don't seem very interested in blogs...at least not my blogs. Some people say they make money by writing blogs, but I think I'd get pretty hungry counting on blogs for my living. I try to be thought provoking, but perhaps my mind is the only one which is processing the information that stirs me to blog. I haven't really thought about blogging much lately, I've been kind of busy. This morning while updating the website I saw the link for blogs and thought, "You know, I probably should take that off the site. I don't really blog anymore."

But then, it was kind of like a voice from cyberspace said, "Try again." I didn't really want to. I have a lot to do today, but perhaps blogging is more for me than others. Maybe from time to time it just helps me to put my thoughts out there where I know I'm accountable for what I'm thinking and feeling. Maybe it's cathartic. I don't really know but today I feel compelled to write..so here goes.

If you know me at all, you know I love to preach. I'd rather preach than almost anything. When God made me, He put something in me that drives me to study, prepare, create and then deliver what I hope are encouraging, spiritually uplifting and challenging words. Perhaps one of the things I love most about preaching is when I have kind of an "out of body" experience. It's hard to explain but there are many times I feel like God has taken over, not in a scary way, but directing my thoughts and words. When this happens I usually feel like I'm watching myself preach. I find myself thinking, "where did that come from, I didn't plan to say that!" I'm not one of those preachers who doesn't prepare and then hopes God will come through. It's not like that at all. I'm always prepared. I'm always ready. Yet, I always find myself thinking, "Lord I hope you take over today and preach through me." Most of the time, I feel like He does, to one degree or another, and I never feel jealous or cheated because He took center stage. I'm always grateful that He allowed me to be part of the process.

But here is what I'm wondering about today. That process is so natural when it comes to preaching and teaching. Why is it so rare in my everyday life? I have to believe this is what Paul was talking about when he said in Galatians 2:20, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Shouldn't my life exemplify a pattern of living which reflects the nature of Christ rather than mine? Shouldn't my life represent His love, compassion for people and acceptance of all? Shouldn't I be moved to meet the needs of people around me? What about putting others before me, not worrying about the inconvenience of ministering to others at awkward times, or breaking with religious traditions that keep me bound to legalism and unable to see past the end of my self-righteous nose? Why are those attitudes so hard to adopt as my own? Why do I struggle with allowing Him to take over the other parts of my life, like He takes over on Sunday morning?

I'm not sure I have the answer...but I do have a goal. I am going to make a conscious decision each day to let Him have control of my words, thoughts and deeds. I really do want my life to look more and more like His and less and less like mine. I pray that is your desire as well.

Just thinking...
Pastor Rick

Walking on Water

Yesterday was an awesome day at Faith! God spoke, in rare fashion. I love it when He does that! But perhaps, best of all, He spoke to me...as I was preaching. Now if you've never preached before, it's going to be hard for you to grasp what I'm getting ready to say, but sometimes (and I wish it was every time), sometimes...God is speaking to me, while I'm speaking to others. It's kind of weird, like having an earphone in one ear listening to God while you're hearing yourself go on and on in the other ear. Anyway, yesterday was one of those days and I knew that I had to deal with some "stuff" in my own life as I was asking others to do the same.

We'd been talking about "getting out of the boat" for three weeks. I knew that in my life there were some areas where I had held on for safety. Not only did I not want to step out of the boat, I didn't really even want to rock it! I've see a lot of bad stuff happen when pastors rock the boat. I've really seen more than my share of it and quite honestly, it's ugly.

But, all of that considered, God was speaking to me very strongly saying, "Are you willing to get out of the boat?" Wow...a thousand things when through my head (all while I was trying to preach). Am I willing to do it if it costs me...big time? At some point in the sermon, I became willing to say yes...no matter the cost.

What about you? Are you willing to pay whatever the price to step out of the boat, with all of its comforts, your friends, your security...and leave that all behind in order to walk on the water with Jesus? I hope so. Tell me what you think. What do you struggle with leaving behind?

Lining Up with God's Purpose

As those of you at Faith know, we are in the middle of a series called "Extreme Makeover: Church Edition." I actually preached a similar series at a previous pastorate but as I've prepared for this series each week I've ended up rewriting each sermon. I've seen and begun to understand God's purpose and plan for His church differently than ever before. It's very exciting.
Yesterday, I preached about how we, the people who make up Christ's church, are the framework or the walls. 1 Peter describes it as the "living stones" who are built on the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ. As those who are built on the foundation of Jesus, it is important that we line up with the Cornerstone, that we follow the same "line" as the foundation follows. A building built at odds with the foundation will not stand very long, especially if it is expected to withstand adverse weather conditions.
Practically speaking, this means that we, the Church, must be in line with God's purpose for the church as revealed through His Son, Jesus. This is where things get a little "sticky." I believe that means the Church must constantly be aligning and realigning itself with those ideas and principles that best represent who Jesus was and what Jesus did. In other words, it's not about what I want or prefer. It's not about what I think the church ought to look like or be like. It's not even about what will make me or people like me happy. It's not the responsibility or obligation of the church to line up with me...or...(dare I say it)...even you. It's the calling of the church to line up with Christ!
So here's the question I'd like you to ponder and respond to: What does that look like? If the church begins to look more and more like Christ, what will change? What will be different than it is right now? Give it some thought and then join the discussion.

Counting the Wrong Numbers

This past week I was moved as I watched a clip from the movie "The Guardian" starring Kevin Costner. I used this clip in the sermon because I thought it illustrated so wonderfully the fact that we as "the church" spend an awful lot of time counting the wrong numbers. In the movie, Kevin Costner's character is asked several times about his "number." His number is supposed to be the number of people he has rescued from peril as a Coast Guard-ian. When he finally reveals his "number" he replies, "22." Surprised, the young recruit is taken aback as he assumed the number would have been much higher. "22 is number of people I lost," Costner says, "it's the only number I kept track of."

We have a tendency in the church to count the ones we rescue instead of the ones we lose. Probably because we can feel better about ourselves if we talk about the 20 we rescued instead of the hundreds we lost. In Costner's case they were lost only to the sea, they only lost their life. In our case, those we lose are lost to the enemy and they lose their eternity.

Perhaps we could all take a little time this week to ponder those who we walk past, those who are hurting and in need, those who need to be rescued. Perhaps instead of passing them by while feeling good about past accomplishments, we could focus on those that we see today, those that God causes by divine appointment to be where we are, when we are there so that we can reach out and help them.

Just something to think about.

Thinking about following Jesus

I just finished watching a video about the new face of worship. It was really quite interesting. I guess for me it was about what it means to follow Jesus. For so long the church has made following Jesus about following people, or following tradition or even about following a denominational agenda. You know, following Jesus doesn't have to be about any of those things. Sometimes following Jesus is just about following Jesus!
Here's the question that I'm asking myself right now and I encourage you to ask yourself the same question. Here it is: What does following Jesus really mean to me? Where does that take me? What does that look like?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Pastor Rick

Lostness

Friends:

I am just finishing up a few days of class as I work on my degree at Campbellsville University. This week I've been taking what's called "an intensive" which means I get eight weeks worth of class work done in four days. It is intensive, to say the least, and a bit overwhelming.

This course is about church planting and actually deals with the first year or two of a new church's life. One of the things that has really touched my heart this week is studying what happens to most new churches in the first couple of years of their existence. Most churches are started with the best of intentions and usually have as part of their original mission statement, either written or implied, to reach the "lost," or in other words, to reach those who are far from Christ with the message of His love.

Two things really hit home. The first is the degree to which our society is "lost." Most of us have no concept of just how many people really have no personal relationship with Christ. Some may attend church occasionally or have their names on a membership list somewhere, but the overwhelming majority of people in our nation, perhaps as high as 90% by some estimates, have NO REAL RELATIONSHIP with Christ! Now most of us find that hard to believe, and at least one reason why we do is because most of us have few if any meaningful relationships with those who are lost. All of our friends and family are Christians. Most of our business relationships that we can control are with Christians. As a matter of fact most of us, by choice, spend most of our time with others who believe what we do. Because of that we forget just how lost the world really is. Not long ago some ministers were asked to write down the names of 10 friends who were lost. Most of them could not. Why? Because most ministers only associate with Believers. That probably is not true of church members to quite the extent it is with ministers, but the principle still holds, we have become numb to just how lost our world is.

The second thing that really affected me was that most new churches lose their mission and their commitment to reaching the lost with the glorious gospel after just a short time. On average, a new church reverts to about the same rate of seeing new Christians as older churches within just a couple of years. Why is that? I believe it's because we sink back into the same ruts as in the past. We begin playing church, going through the motions...we come in, sit down, get up and go home, without ever having our hearts challenged to reach the lost world for Christ. Our hearts get hard, our tear ducts dry up, and our passion for seeing others birthed into God's kingdom grows cold.

We need to pray that God will rekindle our passion. We need to ask to see the world as Jesus sees it...lost. We need to pray for courage and love in sharing the gospel. Will you join me in that prayer? Will we agree together to not allow our Family of Faith to become too busy to reach our community with the gospel's message? I hope so.

Walking by Faith,

Pastor Rick