Pastor of Fishing

Ugh…did he really have to write this chapter?  I always wanted to be that guy…the one that just gets all the information of God dumped right into my lap.  I want my plan all laid out and told to me in an instant.  A great download of the Spirit that prepares me for everything to come and is a simple easy package.  Open and read the contents inside for a wonderful trip with God…UGH!

 Commitment to a daily following…a chance to look over the next 10 minutes is something that truly pushes me to ask the question what does the next 10 minutes hold for me.  When it is all said and done I have to truly look at the concept of not having a “little God” in my life…hmmm

 Ok so I am picturing the view of what it means to run from Hell to the arms of God?  Do I truly run on a daily basis to get as far from the edge as possible so I don’t even give the hint of going towards Hell? MAN! Really?  It is now begging the question “What now?”  How do I push myself out of a semi-moral realm?  I have this some days.  I have these moments when I just don’t care.  I don’t want to get pushed or to follow…I…want…to sit.  Oh trust me everyone says sit, its ok, right?  Its ok to just take a week off from listening to God and just ignore the Spirit and frankly just end up in a world that is well..Godless RIGHT?

WRONG!

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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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In starting this book I was very taken back by the way Chan interacted with the Jehovah Witnesses.  It wasn’t his method but more his post game analysis of himself.  I began to remember in my own life when I found treasures of Scripture that went against what I was taught growing up.  One of these area for me is money.  I found that the call God puts on us for stewardship is so far from how I personally actually practice it.  The scriptures open my eyes more and more to the submissive nature I lack when serving the Kingdom.

Chan calls us to be analyzing the way we interact with the Spirit.   He brings up this notion that we don’t necessarily acknowledge or see evidence within our own churches of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit that is talked about in the Epistles tell us of an amazing power that putis our sin to death.  The Spirit is able to gift us supernaturally and assist us when we humanly could not perform the task at hand.  Should our lives not look radically different from our old?  Maybe for some of us we have been Christians so long we have no old life…and we have become stale?

There is a piece of text that I want to bring up regarding church growth, “Even our church growth can happen without Him.  let’s be honest:  If you combine a charismatic speaker, a talented worship band, and some hip, creative events, people will attend your church.  yet this does not mean that the Holy Spirit of God is actively working and moving in the lives of the people who are coming.  It simply means that you have created a space that is appealing enough to draw people in for an hour or two on Sunday.  It certainly does not mean that people walk out the doors moved to worship in the awe of God.  People are more likely to describe the quality of the music or the appeal of the sermon than the One who is the reason people gather for “church” in the first place”

I want us as a class to focus this week’s discussion on the facts of the Holy Spirit working in our own lives.  Tell us some tales when He has been present as well as maybe some areas you need to start acknowledging.  I mentionedd my finances before…one area also for myself is the methods of giving a sermon.  I feel very inadequate to preach and be in the position of the church at this time…it is truly the Holy Spirit that keeps showing up and covering the bill in my life.  I encourage you this week to truly seek time with the Lord before all else…make sure you spend time relating to the Spirit before your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend, before your job, before your kids, press into this beautiful gift of God called the Holy Spirit! 

Live in the Spirit…not next to it!

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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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