Pastor of Fishing

I found this chapter to be very compelling within my own being.  More and more as I begin to dig into the concept of the Spirit I am reminded at the vastness and how just sometimes it does make me wonder how much do I want Him?  Is the He leading me?  I am going to process a couple spots in this chapter because I feel they need to be highlighted and looked at with some more pointed scrutiny.

 Loving the church
 His thought that he posed, “How much do you love the church?  As you look around at your brothers and sisters do you think to yourself,  I love these people so much I pray God empowers me in some way to encourage these people toward a deeper walk with Him “  Wow!  I am finding myself more and saying this prayer.  Why?  I am in love with the church, and yes some days more than others.  Recently it has been harder for me to “love” but I am.  Consistently going to prayer for empowerment is a deep process that is becoming more and more apparent as my days continue.  The other day I caught myself wanting to go to heaven for the shear purpose of leaving this rock of a planet and enjoy the peace of being with God…yet am I not here to create the Kingdom on earth?  Wow talk about a revelation!  It definitely was the kick this war horse needed to be spurred on.

 So what does it look like for us to take interest in what God is doing in others?  It boils down to asking questions about people’s lives.  This is why I have been so bent in the Sunday school class to get people to share about what is happening.  The Spirit is working among us and I so want to hear how!  I want to seek the Spirit for the right reasons…to create the Kingdom here on earth.

 Miracles
I have heard recently (past 2 weeks) a few people say where are the miracles of the bible happening around me.  The theme is they want to see the miracles as they played out in the bible happen to them in their world.  I tend to see a danger in this as the Chan points out.  The “miracle hunting” that is happening more and more within the postmodern church.  I am seeing this hunger to see this happen, yet the lack of how is God to use me now?  This miracle hunting has created a misguided pursuit in priorities.  Emphasizing how we enter into the presence of God and know that He is the one that is calling the shots is rather important…hmmm what does this mean for how I pray?

 Followers or Leaders
 So did the Spirit lead me into the pastorate or myself?  That is the question asked to me with this chapter.  Digging into who I am and how I am walking with God at this point is important to me.  Having two weeks to prep for this Sunday’s sermon has really gotten me into the mindset of being vital in ministry.  God wants me and He wants you!  WOW could this be the key to why we serve?  Not out of obedience but out of our hearts to be wanted and loved?  What does it look like if we are find our being loved through experiencing the Kingdom? Hmmmmm more ponderings on this one.

 Esther…did he have to put her in the book?
These are stories that do not move me anymore…they ache me instead.  Reading these types of accounts tend to make my heart pain.  How easy do we have it?  Yes we, not just I but we.  We have a life that is so simple and safe.  Daily we take for granted that we could have been born into a world like Esther, instead we get this nice cushy life here in America.  We do not understand just how good we have it, yet we forget how much God is doing in our world.

 Conclusion of it all
Basically this chapter has summed up how the Spirit is in my life.  Daily manifestations of the Spirit are being seen, but are we noticing and acknowledging them.  Seeing people being focused on the wrong things and not asking for the empowerment and listening has become the norm.  This Sunday as I prep for the sermon I am continually digging into the concept that it is through our prayers and the interactions with the Spirit and the church that we will see the glory of God!

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It was a dark night; the stars were blotted out by the looming clouds of the spring night. Once again we find our pastoral hero on his porch plotting out the ways to hunt down the elusive Missional Church. It seems to be a never ending battle for our hero, day in and day out fighting the lukewarmness of those around him and assist them in rising up as warriors of Christ! I admit this is how I feel some days. The concept of a Missional Church has been dead and buried for so long in the Christendom mindset of this area that I feel like a superhero battling evil doers. In the end I need to strive at what it is that my church will become as a Missional Church.

As a pastor I do not have an option as I write this to shy away from the fact that the church is the local Body of Christ. It is our duty to go and make fishers of men. This concept is one that over time has been lost. We have created positions within the church and expected certain people to be pigeon holed into their certain tasks and that’s just what we do. We form our committees to oversee committees and continue to just grind away at the Church Machine. The Missional Church is not this!

The church that God wants for my church is a church that is fighting against the evil within this world. Evil is taking on various forms within the local and global communities. We see this daily as we open our web browsers and read the news (TVs and newspapers are so archaic) as death lingers in the headlines and the economic crisis looms within the shadows haunting our checkbooks. Yet our God is greater! First the church needs to take a stand to this fear mongering attitude. The church needs to be a place of hope and truth. Through biblical truth can we fight the oppression of fear that Evil so wants us to have.

Of course with this fear rides complacency. We see these examples within our environment and a consumerist culture. My church needs to be a church that takes a stand against this tide. By the end of the year the church will have a plan in place for better environmental and social stewardship. This must go hand in hand as our Lord has commanded us to care for those around us and this earth. It seems that too many times we are only serving ourselves and what is convenient.

We tie all of these together with the relationship that we have with Christ. We as a church need to encourage and focus ourselves on the love affair with God our Creator. How amazing it will be to have people free within their relationship with God. Free to explore the wonders of this earth and their life. Free grasp that God loves them and all those around. Free to have the ability to shout from the mountaintops the Good News.

All these things will not come easy, but it is what I am called to within this church. I have been blessed by God to focus 14 weeks of my life on the subject of church and what it is that God wants us to do collectively. I tell you my brothers and sisters, the kind of church in mission I would want to be a part of in the future is my church.  I have no other choice but to act upon the things my Lord desires for me.

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One thing that gets me the most in my ministry is the DUH temptation. Let me explain. I frequently am finding myself saying, “DUH, why did they do that!?!”. I get very frustrated with various folks when they do stupid stuff. Its like Jesus saying, “DUH PETER, why did you lop off the ear?” I get this way from time to time. I find that it happens usually at a time when I am deep in something and feel like I am doing toomuch and others are doing too little. When in the end its my fault for not training them right. DUH MAN (yes I get DUH at me more than others!!!!   So it goes. There y’all go my one temptation of frustration with my ministry as a pastor here at my church, the congregation of believers that are just a little screwed up…but not as much as their pastors! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

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Ok, first I am going to use this as my definition of nation as per Wikipedia:
A nation is a cultural and social community. In as much as most members never meet each other, yet feel a common bond, it may be considered an imagined community. One of the most influential doctrines in Western Europe and the Western hemisphere since the late eighteenth century is that all humans are divided into groups called nations.[nb 1] Nationhood is an ethical and philosophical doctrine and is the starting point for the ideology of nationalism; a nation is a form of self-defined cultural and social community. Members of a “nation” share a common identity, and usually a common origin, in the sense of history, ancestry, parentage or descent. A nation extends across generations, and includes the dead as full members. Past events are framed in this context: for example, by referring to “our soldiers” in conflicts which took place hundreds of years ago. More vaguely, nations are assumed to include future generations.

Is America a Christian Nation? Part of me really wants to say yes just to throw down in the mix of it all. I read alot of things that makes me think we are…now do we do it well? No but it seems that our nation was founded on the concept of Christian principles. We created an acccepting nation that welcomes people in. We have a mentality and spirit of the Golden Rule. Governmental buildings used to have biblical speech on them as well as using the Bible to solidfy the concept of telling the truth.

80-85% of the nation align themselves with Christianity. This begins to make me think that it is an affiliation more than a belief. I feel that American is a more Christian biased nation. It is a place that Christians are much more accepted than others of faith. It is also a nation that Christians have created alienation to the other religions and fringe groups.

In the end America is overall affiliated and aligned with Christianity. We wouldn’t have this stereotype for nothing in the world. Do we really look like Christ? No. Not at all, but I think within the nation the people of our country do think that American is Christian. God Bless America? The song that just shows our Christian affiliation.

Our past has Christian roots, I don’t see other religions having such a cultural impact as I do Christianity. Only until recently did the Fundamentalists gain power and influence that showed the negative of Christianity. The alienation of people and a overall elitist attitude.

Today, our nation is changing to a spiritual nation of monotheism. We are acknowledging God and mostly affiliate with Christianity, but there is a greater gain of influence of other religions. As time goes on according of the definition of Nation we have to look at the past, present and future.

In the end I think American started out with this Christian alignment but now it is straying more and more, its stuck in this religious identity. It wants to use spritual influence within its ceremonies and laws, yet wants to be inclusive. In the end it could become the downfall to the nation? No identity with religion?

Eh, anyways that’s my two cents.

Oh, just another thought…did the capitalistic society of America align itself with Christianity because it sells well?  Just another thought…Saw that on another post somewhere…

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My church, a congregation that is a restart upon an existing congregation from a previous Mennonite church. We see this transition in a congregation that dates back to the late 1800′s. The replant created this open heart surgery of sorts to how the church operates. In some ways the improvements were good, and in some ways bad. I will let you into my world to see two examples of how we fight with the attitudes of modernity and post-modernism.

It was within the first few months of attending here that I saw a severe problem within the church body. It was this shallow form of friendship. People were not shallow themselves but rather were not engaging their spiritual walks with each other at a deeper level. Almost a sense of distrust to go deeper. I had seen it before growing up in the Mennonite church. The culture of being close at the time of need, but not on a daily basis. Remembering back from my childhood this was how my parents and their friends were. Even just recently I had a parent ask me if they should be truthful about their past sins if their children ask. Its almost a false sense of real.

Combating this type of problem took some radical behavior on my part. I stood up during a prayer and share time to introduce myself to the congregation and told a little bit about myself. In turn I invited any men that wanted to be my friend to see me after church. Two men came and to this day are good friends of mine. I had to break the mold and step outside the norm for that church to try and climb over “the wall”. The tearing down of structure and going to a more fluid church has had its negative effects. Now our church lacks structure and order amongst its ministries. With the move towards a more post-modern mindset we see this lack of structure and hierarchy to be very flawed. The modern church era hung its hat on the concepts of creating this elaborate ministry structure that ended up becoming such an institutional monster that it needed to be fed constantly. With big monsters come big waste and we see many volunteers get chewed up and spit out with burnout. At the same time the lack of structure creates this nebulous feeling of who’s in charge. Exceptions become hard to control because none are set.

These two examples show how there needs to be a balance between the two extremes. What is happening right now is my time is being taken up by tearing down this wall. Creating a structure that is similar to the church of Acts. A church that has expectations of its leadership yet flexible to handle the curve balls that are thrown. I am spending time just to meld the old and new into a cohesive force to be reckoned with. It seems to make sense why so many churches just close their doors. This transition is one that is difficult and harrowing at times. It is through all this that we will grow stronger and create a church that will have a generational impact on our town.

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