Step By Step (Joseph Yoo)

Was watching the news this past week and they featured a story about Christians gathering in Sacramento at the capitol building to fervently pray for California over the decision to overturn a certain proposition. These Christians were praying, crying, yelling, rocking back and forth and just fervently praying to God for our state. In public.
I admired their courage. I admired their commitment and dedication to their beliefs.

But I had to wonder… when was the last time Christians gathered at the capitol building to pray and plea for the rights of the homeless and the poor? Maybe it’s just my theology and what I am passionate about, but I still think that the issues of poverty and homeless is a bigger cry of injustice and an issue that Christians should rally around and pray for.

At the same time, a voice whispered in my head “what are you doing about it?”

Take a listen to this song

I’m tired of people having church growth as their number one goal for their church.
Personally, I think that’s a lousy goal to have.
Why not focus on what Jesus said in the Great Commission and what the UMC motto is: to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?

“But,” some will say, “Healthy churches will grow.”
Okay, I’ll give you that. But you know what? So will unhealthy churches. So will toxic churches. Maybe their growth won’t be for an extended period of time, but a toxic/unhealthy church will grow.
Look at the human body analogy. Healthy cells multiply and grow, but so do cancerous ones. And cancerous cells can grow and spread rapidly.

So, having church growth as your primarily goal… I don’t agree with that. We have better and far more important things to worry about as a church than increasing our numbers. Like feeding the poor. Clothing the naked. Standing up for the oppressed. Doing something about injustice.

While on this subject, a pastor from Korea, who is serving at a mega-church, was asked “How did your church grow so big?” He replied that church growth wasn’t his goal, but everyone morning of everyday was spent in prayer.
I think we pastors, myself included, often put prayer on the back burner. As a speaker once said “if you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy.” I think we would do our church, ourselves and our family a favor by focusing on prayer and making prayer a priority, rather than focusing on what’s the next big thing we can do to bring people on to our campus.

Ministry happens one knee at a time.

Refresh Ministry

Promote Your Page Too

Earlier this month, I had a late dinner at Denny’s with good friends in the ministry.
We talked about our ministries and things we are witnessing in the faith community and things that we like to see happening, not only in our churches, but the faith community, overall.

We reflected on the fact that too many pastors lock themselves in their offices. The early Methodist movement grew and grew with the circuit riders. But the face of Methodism changed when the pastor changed his horse for a house. Now people expect pastors to be in their study. Don’t get me wrong, I feel that having office hours are extremely important. But it bugs the heck out of me when pastors and parishioners sit and discuss about how to reach “outsiders” without ever engaging people outside of the church campus. If you want to know what “outsiders” are looking for in a church, don’t you think it’ll help to engage an “outsider” in a conversation?

We then talked about the financial problems that many churches are facing, like the declining of funds and demands of pastor’s salary.
Someone then said, “Maybe I should find a full-time job and do ministry part-time, to help both the church and personal finances.”
He didn’t mean that he’d go find any other job, but a job that will help his ministry. A job that would force him to interact with people of the community and non-church goers, or members of other churches and faiths. A job that would get him in the community, not chain him to the church office.

The conversation has been echoing in my mind here and there.
I mean, after all, that was Paul’s way of doing ministry, wasn’t it? Paul was a tent-maker. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that Paul was preaching while making someone’s tent.
He was able to reach many more people by not containing himself in the synagogues and looking beyond the Hebrew people. And probably and easy way into conversations with Gentiles.
“You need a tent? I can make you a tent, and while you wait, I have a story for you to listen to…”

Jesus was a carpenter. He knew all about getting specks of sawdust in your eyes and planks of wood.

Paul was a tent maker. Jesus was a carpenter. Peter was a fisherman.
And today, we have professional clergy…

from our weekly emails to youth, parents and those who have a heart for youth ministry at Valencia UMC. If you want to receive these weekly updates, please email me at jyoo@umcv.org.

A couple of youth on facebook joined a fan page called “you are loved.” And the truth is, you are loved. Whether you feel like it or not; whether you feel you deserve it or not… you are loved!

Through my struggles and pain, I’ve been sort of coming to an understanding of how much God may actually love me.
Here’s the thing. Since I was in high school, for reasons unbeknownst to myself, I wanted to have kids. I knew that I wanted to be a dad with a litter of kids running around. I was weird and different like that.

So when we got married and moved to Hawaii, I  wanted to plan for a family right away. But with the wife having to go back to Washington, DC to finish her last semester of seminary, she wisely told me that we should wait for just a little bit.

Now it’s been about two or so years since we’ve been trying for a mini-me. And nothing.I’ve been frustrated with God on wondering why this isn’t happening for us. I find myself thinking like Hannah (1 Samuel chapter 1) and Rachel (Genesis 30:1). What’s worse is that everyone around us seems to be getting pregnant. Some weren’t even trying to get pregnant. So they call or email, and for a little while, my happiness for them is fake. Eventually, I do get really excited for my friends’ new chapter in their lives and look forward to meeting their ugly little kids. I’m kidding. About the ugly baby part.

But in this pain and frustration, I begin to sort of see a glimpse of God’s love for me.

This kid that I want, it’s not even born yet. At this point, I don’t know if the kid will ever be born. But I love it (him or her). I already do. I can’t explain it to you, but before the child is even in its existence, I love him or her. I know that s/he’s going to be born to a father and mother who will love him/her deeply and as best as we can.

Whether the kid will like it or not, s/he’ll be loved. She has no choice but to be loved by us. And there’s not a single thing that she can do about it.

I think that’s just a small glimpse of God’s love for me and you.
Before we were born, God knew us and loved us deeply.
We were born into the grace and love of God.
Whether we like it or not, God loves us.
Whether we feel we deserve it or not, God loves us.
And there’s nothing that can separate us from God. Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So as you go about today and this week, just reflect on God’s love in your life. Take time to bask in God’s presence, love and grace. Reflect, also, on how God’s love is being displayed through you and your life/actions.

And always remember: you are loved. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

• Let’s be Radical
• being invitational doesn’t end with the sermon series. we need to be invitational every day of our lives
• Evangelizing doesn’t have to be this awful thing we often perceive it to be. it can be done in a loving and caring way. we don’t have to use signs or bullhorns or tracts or be aggressive or forceful or intrude, etc. don’t let the stereotypes prevent us from sharing the Good News
• the BLOCK PARTY was amazing. thank you for all the people who got this party up and running and all the people who attended and invited friends to come
• we served about 700 hot dogs to our friends, neighbors and family. wow. that’s a lot of hot dogs.
• great games,  great music by all our musicians, great fellowship. it was just a great way to let the community know that we are here and that we’re not that weird.
• I’m  not 15 anymore. Hurt my butt going down the water slide. Learned my lesson.

On to the post:Some time last week, Rick Warren tweeted something that got a lot of people up in arms. He deleted the tweet after the “mayhem” it caused on his twitter feed and the Christian blogosphere.

Here’s what he tweeted:

I challenge any church in America to match the spiritual maturity, godliness & commitment of any 500 members of Saddleback

And here were some responses to that tweet: (taken from here)

“Christianity is not about who’s better than who–NONE ARE GOOD!! all deserve the wrath of God in hell”

“dude this is the most immature thing I’ve ever heard from someone I respect so much. What is this, jr high”

“Churches everywhere are waiting for an apology from @RickWarren.”

“Rick either needs to get someone to filter his tweets or he needs to fire the person who’s doing his tweeting”

“Besides the sheer arrogance of it all, one thing which struck out the most was the utter man-centeredness of this tweet.”

“I would delete the challenge. Sounds too much like “pride.” Media will run with it brother.”

I had discussions here and there with people, such as my wife, my senior pastor, my friends.. and some agreed with what the people were saying about Rick Warren.
Now, I’m sure if Rick Warren had more than 140 characters to say what was on his mind, perhaps people would have been more clear on his intent. Here’s what he wrote in response:

Paul COMPARED the Macedonia church’s commitment to Corinth’s & challenged them to MATCH it 2 Cor. 8:1-8. Wise teaching tool

After a weekend of mulling this non-issue over, I don’t think I agree with many tweeters who blasted Rick Warren. Honestly, I was a bit annoyed that I thought about this as much as I did, because, like I said, it’s a non-issue.
Now, I get that his tweet can come off as arrogant and prideful, but my wife said “how many of those tweets do you think were out of jealousy and envy?” Perhaps there was a sense of that in people’s heart.

But here’s what I’m thinking.
There’s a small verse in the Bible that challenges me every time I read it. Which is probably why I find myself sort of avoiding that verse. (ha).
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Cor. 11:1)
Had Paul lived today, and was a pastor of a mega church, and tweeted that, what would be the response of fellow Christian tweeters?

That verse is challenging to me, because I can’t say that. I want to get to a point where I’ll be able to say follow my example… but for the most part it’s, please do as I say not as I do.

I’m proud of my church. I’m proud of our staff. I’m proud of the work our members do. I’m super proud of my youth. They just bring a smile to my face and heart. And I don’t have any qualms of saying, hey, our youth are one of the best UMC youth in the Cal-Pac Conference. I don’t have a problem of saying,” hey our church is doing real great things in our community, come check out what we’re doing” to our other UM church in the conference. Is that egotistical and arrogant?

Saddleback is doing great things in their community. They are reaching out to many people in the name of Christ. I know some of our churches in our conference can follow suit. All of our churches (even the mega ones) can stand to do MORE.
I saw Rick’s tweet a challenge to do more. And maybe I’m the only one that read it that way.

But, I think we should all strive to live in such a way that we can confidently (and humbly) say, “Follow my (our) example as I (we) follow the example of Christ”

Yesterday I was at my office (read: Starbucks) and the staff was cleaning like crazy. It was beyond the regular cleaning that they do. I mean, they were cleaning the cracks, nooks and wherever their rags, brooms and mops would reach. One of the guys furiously rubbed the back of a chair to get off Lord knows what. His intense cleaning led me to say, “Dude, that’s some intense cleaning.” Turns out that the No. 2 of Starbucks was heading towards their store. They wanted to make sure that everything was in place and everything was spic and span for the No. 2. He even admitted, had it been a regional manager, they wouldn’t be cleaning this intensely.

Which reminded me of my childhood.
My room was always messy. Not as messy as my brother’s, but messy. And when we would have guest coming over, my mom would be on our cases to clean our rooms. Don’t know why we ever cleaned our rooms. 1) The guests never came and looked at my room and 2) it was just gonna get messy again. Why show them a side that wasn’t really me? Why put on a front? Why, Mom, why make me liar? Of course, it was either clean my room or 1) get nagged until my ears fell off, and then clean my room or 2) get nagged and then hit by my mom and then clean my room. Either way, my room was gonna get cleaned. My brother never fell for my bribes to clean my room. He was always selfish like that.

The two cleaning stories then reminded me of people who often didn’t want to go to church until they got their act right.
“I’d come to church, but I’m just not ready right now.”
“Oh, church would be great, but I should get my life straightened out before I go.”
How many of you have heard something similar to those statements?
Sadly,  some places of worship places those sentiments on people’s hearts. They want clean and proper folks in their pews. Which leads me to say, all of them in the church are liars. Which then leads me to say, they need the church, so they’re at the right place. Which then leads me to say, stop being so judgmental and pray for forgiveness.

We should be reminding people that those who don’t have the answers, those who don’t have their acts or lives straightened out, the best place for them to be at is the Church! And we, as the church, would be seriously dropping the ball if we don’t get that message across.
God doesn’t want you to come with your best foot forward. God just wants you. As you are. God loves you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Not a single, damn thing.
This God is the God that finds beauty in brokenness; uses the weak to lead the strong; gives unmerited transforming love and grace, and so forth.

Ideally, we don’t have to clean up, we don’t have to wear our Sunday best, we don’t have to have our lives straight, we don’t have to have all the answers, we don’t have to be the Huxtables to be in the presence of God. God loves the Bundys and the Huxtables the same. (Please tell me you know who they are…)

Pastors, leaders, church goers: we all say “come as you are” or “open hearts, open minds, open doors” but what would it look like, how differently would it be if we really, really, really, really, really, meant it?
Some of you may start getting a little worried because “those” people may start coming (back) to church.
How scandalous is our God, when “those” people, while not welcomed in our nice suburban churches, are welcomed with opens arms into the kingdom of God.

“Come as your are.”
Dem some scary words, when we mean it.

Before we go on with the blog post, some reflections from Sunday:

• I know that my senior pastor is smart. Why? Because he thinks like me. Lol. 80% of people come to church because they were invited!
• Both worships were simple and great. Thanks to Andrew H. for leading a wonderful and God-filled time of praise and for Shannon B. in the first worship, sharing her God-given gift with the entire church.
• Sharing is caring. So let us share the good news that we have received.
• Thanks to the awesome class of 2011 for preparing the dinner for the class of 2010! It was a great time had by all!
• Block Party August 15th! This is one non-intimidating way to invite your friends, neighbors and family to our church! And it’s free!
• From Perry Noble, Found people find people!

On to the post.
So, last night, as we were setting up for our senior banquet (to celebrate c/o ’10), a lady walked in and asked if someone could open the sanctuary so that she could pray.
Instead, I offered her our prayer room and led her there.
She began to share her story. Her cat was attacked by a coyote earlier in the week, and she got bit by that coyote as well, in trying to help her cat. They took the cat to the vet, and the cat did not survive.
She went to ER to get shots and make sure that there will be no other ill effects due to the coyote bite. As she left the hospital, she saw our church that is right across the street from the hospital. She crossed the street and walked on to our church campus in hopes that she can enter and pray. It was around 5 in the morning, and she checked all the doors and found that all the doors were locked. She was about to give up, when she tried a door to the sanctuary, and it was unlocked.
She walked in, said a prayer, got a drink of water from the water fountain, and started to head out. On her way out, she saw the prayer cards that we have for those who may have prayer request. She filled one out and left it in the basket. On Sunday, she was still very distraught about losing her cat and just needed a place to sit and pray.
I told her to give me a minute and I went to our prayer closet to get her a prayer shawl.
I handed her a prayer shawl and told her that our prayer shawl team makes these with prayerful thoughts and the love of God. The idea is that as you place this over you, you are surrounded by prayers. She immediately started crying and held on tight to the prayer shawl asking, “Are you sure about this? I can have this? Isn’t there someone else who needs it more?”
And I responded, “I’m absolutely sure that this prayer shawl belongs to you. Our prayer shawl people make them for this purpose: for people who wants to be surrounded by prayer. Please take it and I hope that you find comfort and strength in knowing that God hears you.” She thanked me and I left so that she can be with God.

Now. There was a moment in our conversation where my mind was racing and scrambling and not really listening to what she was telling me.
These are the thoughts that were racing through my head:

• It was 5 in the morning, why was the sanctuary door unlocked?
• And why wasn’t the sanctuary alarm turned on?
• Was the sanctuary unlocked since Sunday or did someone use it on Monday?
• Wait, seriously, why wasn’t the sanctuary locked?
• Did anyone else get in?
• Should I go check the sanctuary after I finish talking with her?
• Seriously, how come the sanctuary wasn’t locked?

Then, I realized that I was lost in my thoughts and returned to hear what this lady was saying.
I have to admit, I feel terrible that that’s where my mind went as soon as she told me that she was in our sanctuary at five in the morning.
I’m thankful that we were able to provide a need for her, a sacred place for her. And truth be told, I’m thankful that she really needed the room for prayer and nothing else. But I couldn’t help but continue to think, ‘why was the sanctuary unlocked?’
Perhaps it was divine intervention, and God unlocked the door for her, because she felt that the church was necessary for her to truly engage God. I believe that can happen.

I’m saddened that this is the times that we live in. Churches have to protect themselves from vandalism and from theft, so they have to keep their campus locked.
I’ve had experiences where one of our rooms were opened 24/7, but we had to discontinue that because one day we found used needles and beer bottles left in the room.
I’m saddened when I see churches completely gated off with iron gates and fences. How does that look welcoming to anyone? But, that’s the reality and the world we live in.
It’s this tension that’s been tugging at my heart since my conversation with the lady. At what point does protecting the church get in the way of the mission of the church? My last church in Hawaii was targeted for theft many, many times. The youth lost thousands of dollars worth of equipment due to people breaking in and stealing. We didn’t have funds to keep replacing stolen items, so our security got heavier.
And that’s a funny sentence for me to type, that a church’s security got heavier.
For me, it’s a lose-lose situation. We can’t help some people in the community that are in need because sometimes we have to protect our own flock. But there so many holy and ministry moments that we miss out on.
Because one of our doors were left unlocked, we were able to provide a sacred space for a stranger in the community in need. She was able to engage in God, and I was able to engage in her in conversation and offer her a prayer shawl.
But, in the back of my mind, I still can’t help but think, “Why was the sanctuary unlocked?”

Is that wrong for me to think?

This sermon may make the final cut for my ordination.

Instead of a Show – Jon Foreman

I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show

Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when you’re singin’ ‘em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show

Your eyes are closed when you’re prayin’
You sing out aloud with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There’s blood on your hands

You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don’t fit in your plan
Quit playin’ religion games
There’s blood on your hands

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Let’s argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let’s argue this out
You be one of the clouds
Let’s argue this out
Quit fooling around

Give love to the ones who can’t love at all
Give hope to the ones who’ve got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can’t stand at all

I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Quick. Go look at the nearest cross that you may have in your office or at home. I’ll wait.
Did you go check?
If your cross is anything like mine that is sitting on a bookshelf in my office, it’s probably nicely polished, neat and very clean cut.

Don’t you think, often times, that we sort of project that kind of Christianity to people? The Christianity that is nicely polished, very clean, very neat… very.. safe? Or maybe that’s the kind of Christianity that our parishioners want to hear about.

But, there’s nothing neat and polished about the cross. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that the actual cross that Jesus was crucified on was nothing like the ones that we see hanging in our homes, offices, necks, cars, etc. (On top of that, I don’t see Romans making their instrument of death looking so nice and neat.)

Nothing about the cross is nice, neat, polished, and/or clean. The cross isn’t an easy thing to bear/carry. And I think we sometimes make the mistake of leading people to believe that the cross is something simple to carry.

There’s nothing safe about the cross and there’s nothing safe about following Jesus.
I need to go find me a rugged cross, to remind me that bearing the cross can be rugged, dangerous, messy and, well at times, hard as hell. But that God is with me with each step I take.

It’s Friday night.
I’m at Starbucks working on my sermon for this Sunday.
My week has been thrown off due to this untimely sickness. I haven’t been to a Starbucks on Friday night in ages.
It’s different on a Friday night. You see more couples coming in and going out. Some stay and linger in each other’s company. Some just come to get a drink before their next destination.
You actually see more families, too.
As  I was people watching and pondering on the task of preaching, I begin to think about the last time I was at Starbucks on a Friday evening.
It was early college years and the Starbucks at Mililani in Hawaii with a friend who actually works at the Starbucks today. I’ve been blessed with many good friends, and am thankful that they have put up with me for so many years. Well, some I’d had to put up with. (Yes, you Spencer.)
I met most of my friends in marching band. I once thought that my biggest mistake in high school was that I decided to be in marching band my senior year and not play football. But looking back, had I played football instead, the friendships I have may not be here today. Everything worked out. As it always does…

Anyway, back to Starbucks, we had nothing to do on a Friday night. Apparently we were both losers of some kind back then, with nothing to do on Friday nights. We were not that much of a clubbing nor drinking type. We weren’t that much into going around and picking up chicks. (That’s because they always came to us. Ha. If that were only true…) So, we decided that we’ll go grab some chess pieces and head out to Starbucks, because some of the tables were designed like a chessboard.
So there we were, two young, college aged men, on a Friday night, peak date time, hanging out at Starbucks playing chess. It was so dorky. I mean, who does that? I’m sure people who walked by us thought that too. But, it was fun. I had fun. And it was memorable. Almost 10 years later, I still remember it.

It’s true when I say that I don’t really miss Hawaii. I don’t miss the island fever that followed me everywhere I went. I don’t miss the beaches that much. I miss the option of having the beaches. I don’t miss island life.
But I know that Hawaii will always be home because I left a big chunk of me in Hawaii with the people that I care about who still live there. I miss my friends and missing out on big moments of their lives, such as having kids. I miss the option of calling a friend to go hang out at Zippy’s in the middle of the night. And the poker nights… er.. not that we gamble…

Anyway, though I don’t get to see my friends often, I miss them and think about them daily. I’m grateful for the people in my life. They are truly a blessing.
I hope to be able to go visit Hawaii soon. To see the babies that my friends had, to catch up or just plain talk story. And maybe stop by a beach.

I look at the plain brown tables at the Starbucks I’m at.
As I think about the Woman at the Well and take sips of my Cafe Soy Misto, I keep going back to a Na Leo Pilimehana song, “I miss you, My Hawaii” because I do.

I was flipping through old journal entries and came across this from a while ago.
I can’t remember if there was something specific going on in my life, or if it was a general “write what’s on my mind” type of entry.
But after reading a couple of passages in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, and how David was always under pressure from the people around him, the journal entry fit in with my devotionals today.
Here’s what I wrote:

Here’s something that I know.
As long as I stay faithful to God, as long as I seek God’s way, as long as God’s will is mine, in the big picture of things, everything will be okay. I won’t be able to make everyone happy. People are going to complain. People are going to be mean. People are going to criticize. People are going to misunderstand your motives, your sayings… you. And there will just be people out there who flat out won’t like you. But if you spend your time trying to get them on your side, trying to please them, trying to make them happy, you’ll burn out. Fast. And your ministry will be more about you than God. The one thing they can’t ever take away from you is what God is doing through you. But if you stray from God, if you continue to seek to please others than God, you have nothing to stand upon. So stay grounded in prayer and grounded in God’s word. Go to God before you need to make a decision. Let God flow through your life, and let God run your life and your ministry. People will always throw rocks at you. Some will be the size of pebbles and some may leave a scar for the rest of your life. But God will continue to be your shield and try as they may, they will never be able to take that away from you. Just remember. It’s not about you. It’s not about them. It’s about God. And if you seek God’s will first, in the end, all will be okay. Remain faithful to God who is more faithful than you can imagine.

Hmmm… as I type this post, there may be some who think I’m crazy and maybe there will be some who will agree with me.
But honestly, I don’t really care. (Ha!)

While I don’t like using the term “Spiritual Warfare” (I’m not smart/coherent enough to think of a better term), I fully believe that it is out there.
I do believe that there are spirits out there that are not from God and often get in the way… Do you get where I’m getting at? Or have you already written me off?

Well let me give you an example from personal experience.
Every time something momentous in ministry or personal life is about to happen, something happens that may deter it, or make me cautious and think multiple times in going through with it.
You can say that it’s a coincidence. But I think it, at least for me, it goes deeper.

I can recount many times looking back in ministry, when we made a breakthrough, right before that, crazy and unexplainable things happened.

SSP this year was no different.
I talked to my dad and he shared with me that during the week, praying for me and the youth was incredibly difficult and he was a bit worried. Then I told him all the things that had happened. And we’re both from the similar school of thought, and he just suggested that I just be extra cautious this week and be extra prayerful.

Not only that, there were some crazy stuff that happened at church while we were gone as well.

I like to believe that this summer is a turning point for the youth ministry and for Valencia UMC.
There were a couple of moments where I was actually a bit scared to get back in the car during SSP. But it never stopped me, and this seemed to be one of the best experiences at SSP had by all.

Perhaps you’ll think that I may be stretching things and connecting dots that aren’t meant to be.
But you can’t take away my experiences and what I believe.

I’ll be praying hard for our church in that we can really seek God first and foremost and do the type of ministry that pleases God.
Perhaps this was a wake up call for me to let me know that I don’t pray nearly enough…

Either way, God has got my attention.

We returned safely (huge relief) from SSP (Sierra Service Project) yesterday.
But, boy, was it an adventure. At least for me.
On the way to SSP, a semi truck ran over a piece of tire debris on the road. I guess the truck was going fast, because the debris flew straight toward us. I thought it was high enough that it’ll fly over my car completely. But I was wrong. The piece of tire hit the top right corner of the window, leaving a crack that stretched all the way to the bottom of the windshield. It hit us hard enough that pieces of glass were found on the student riding shotgun. But, everyone was safe. Maybe we got a bit rattled. We made it to Flagstaff, where we were going to stay for the night.
Thankfully, the Flagstaff airport had a mini van available for rent. We called to get the windshield fix, and they said that the car could be fixed by Wednesday.
No biggie, we had a mini van that we rented to temporarily replace the one with a huge spider-web crack in the windshield. The window people told us to leave the car (Ford Flex) at the hotel parking lot, to which the hotel manager said that was fine with them.
So off to the reservation we go. To Teec Nos Pos in AZ.
All went well until the last day of work. We had just finished the concrete ramp that we were supposed to build, and we all piled up in the to the mini van (which was a replacement for the rented Flex) to go to lunch when *POP*.
I got out of the car to see that the front left tire of the rental for the rental was completely flat.

I have to admit, out of anger and frustration, the kids might have heard some non-PG words.
I was still fuming when one of the staff looked at me and said “What’s with you and tires?” It took me a second to make the connection, that on the way here, we had a minor set back with flying tire debris.
Of course, this would happen to me!
It was funny and we all had a good laugh about it. Although, being in the middle of the reservation made it difficult to replace the tire. But everything worked out. For now. We’ll see what I’ll have to deal with when the rental company calls me about the tire.

So when it came time for us to go home, naturally, I was a bit nervous about all the things that can go wrong.

But thanks be to God, we made it home. Safe. Car and people in one piece.

This morning, I got up to take  the Flex to the carwash so we can return it to the person who generously got it for us, close to being new.
I’m sitting outside reading, when one of the employees came up to me and asked if I had a spare key because the key was locked in the car. *Doh*

I was at the carwash for about 2 hours waiting for the locksmith they called to come and unlock the car.
But I wasn’t mad. It was just really funny. And I felt like God was just toying with me today.

But everything is said and done. I’m glad to no longer have the Flex with me, as if that was the source of my luck. I figure since bad luck often seems to come in threes, I should be okay. For now.

Needless to say, these were only a few things that contributed to the great week that was SSP.

C’mon. Be honest.
We all have once thought, “If it weren’t for the people, ministry would be so much easier.” And I’m sure it’s the truth, to a point.
Also, there are times where we’ve felt that we needed to do things for things to be done right.
Put it in someone else’s hand… outcomes are unexpected. The outcome we desire might not be remotely close to the actual outcome.
But, trying to be the lone ranger is a dangerous road for any pastor, leader or unpaid servant  to be on.
When you try to do ministry by yourself, in the end, you will end up killing yourself and the ministry. It’s a no win situation.

The God honest truth is, there are people out there, within our ministries, that do things better than us. There’s no point in denying it. There will always be someone that is better at something than me. And we shouldn’t be afraid of that, but instead, we should embrace it.

I was reading the book of Daniel and before the Daniel is presented to the king to interpret the king’s dream, Daniel gathers his friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) and “urged” them to “plead for mercy from the God of heaven” before Daniel faces the king.
In Esther, before she faces the king, she has all the Jewish people to pray and fast alongside with her.

Going solo limits all that God can do and down the road, will limit what we can do, as well.
There is no shame in asking church members to pray together for the church and ministry.
There is no shame in asking for help and input of others.

Ministry isn’t meant for one person to do everything, but for people to come together and to find harmony in one spirit and in one purpose amongst the dysfunction that each person may bring. But it’s a beautiful sight to see such broken people come together in the name of God and working with one heart, one mind and one spirit.

I like stand-up comedy and have been watching Last Comic Standing.
When I went to seminary and realized that I needed to take preaching classes, I rented various of stand-up comic’s DVDs and watched how they told stories and studied how they talked, how they entertained, their body language, how they commanded the stage and so forth.

Recently, Comedy Central aired the most recent Chris Rock’s special on HBO Kill the Messenger which originally aired in 2008. And I already seen it when it came out on DVD.
It made me laugh the first time. And it made me laugh the second time.

As I was watching the second time, I started thinking about all the complaints people have about preachers and their sermons, particularly, the complaint that sermons are too long. The “experts” say that our sermons should be 10-15 minutes or we’ll lose our congregations. I’m sure that many church-goers would like short sermons. I’m not saying that that’s bad.

But here’s the thing. Chris Rock’s special was 90 minutes long.  He talked the entire time. Here’s the other kicker: people PAID a good tons of money to see the man speak for 90 minutes. And even watching the second time, it didn’t feel long (and that included waiting through commercial breaks). And Chris Rock spent a lot of time talking about current issues (current in 2008) and politics and other things about society that he wanted to comment on. For 90 minutes. And people paid to listen to him.

All I’m saying is that, we as preachers can do that too. Just because “God” is mentioned or that it happens in church should not have people automatically start tuning out. In fact, the message should be more interesting, inspiring and engaging because God is the focus of the message.
I think we can cop out by saying, they (the congregation) don’t want to hear this message for a long time.
A lot of practice, a lot of research, a lot of testing, a lot of TIME is put into writing a joke for these comedians.
I once heard a preacher tell me that he “just can’t find that much time to work on my sermons.”
To which I asked, then why are you preaching?

If we put prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer and more prayer, research, prayer, time, prayer and effort, we will deliver powerful, engaging messages.
If people are tuning out when you’re preaching, whose fault is that? We have to stop blaming our congregation and the shortening spans of American people, and start really asking ourselves, are we putting in the effort, time and prayer?

So, last week, probably Friday, we were at my parents’ house.
Because they don’t have cable, I was watching the musical act for Jimmy Kimmel Live, which happen to be Ozzy Osbourne.
Not my type of music. At all.
But here he was, this 61 year old man, rocking in front of an audience that’s predominantly half his age. It was a trip seeing all these young people rocking out and head banging to Ozzy singing.

Then I started thinking about all the other aging rock stars who are still very popular and their music still resonates with people of their generation and this generation.

I mean, I don’t think there will be a day where I’ll stop listening to U2. And I still run into kids who listen to U2 and buy their albums.
These musicians still find a way to be relevant and still find a way to speak to people of a different generation through music.

Which, in my head, begs the question: why are some UM churches no longer relevant to the younger generation?
These musicians change and adapt over the decades, but they never lose that quality, that distinction of being them. The greats are still able to speak to the younger generation and yet not sell themselves out.

So why do we constantly find ourselves, in the UMC, struggling to be relevant to the younger generation?
They say music is a universal language.
But, how much more universal can you get than the love of God?
If Ozzy can still speak to the younger generation, shoot, I think we can too.

Blog posts have been sparse this week because I’m still out and about taking a nice (needed) break with the wife.
We hadn’t been on vacation since July of ’09 due to our being appointed to another church mid-year.
So this was nice to get away, and thanks to VUMC for giving us a chance to.

Happy 4th of July

I believe it was Craig Groeschel who wrote in a blog post that the United Methodist Church might have been better off spending the 20 million or so on planting new churches rather than this ReThink church ad campaign.
I, for one, have stated that I was never a big fan of this whole ReThink church campaign. Don’t get me wrong. I love the whole concept and idea and the whole “what if  Church was a verb?”
I guess for me, I just couldn’t reconcile the 20 million dollars spent on the whole advertisement that, at least from my experience, no one outside of the UM circle has heard about. And maybe that’s just in my small, closed, bubble of a world.

But I did like what Groeschel said. That money might have been better off in trying to plant churches that will do church differently rather than having existing churches change their way of ‘doing’ (being) church.

I still believe that rather than spending 20 million dollars on the advertising campaign, that 20 million dollars might’ve been better invested in getting already existing pastors trained to rethink church.
I ran across a story about Starbucks in 2008. About 7000 Starbucks closed their doors for 3 hours and during those 3 hours about 175,000 employees were RETRAINED in making coffee. Sort of like ReTHINK BARISTA!
Why?
Because Howard Schultz (head honcho) saw that the Baristas were losing their edge in coffee making. The quality experience of Starbucks was declining because the Baristas attention were no longer on coffee alone. Their attention was also divided by music selections and emergence of food items. So Schultz felt that they needed to retrain the baristas so that their coffee making abilities were back on the excellence level.
Schultz also decided to cutdown on variety of pastry/food/sandwiches Starbucks made because the smell of food was competing with the smell of coffee.
Schultz saw the necessity (over the risk) of closing 7000 Starbucks for three hours. The benefits outweighed the costs.
He did what he felt was necessary for Starbucks to start making great coffee again.

After reading this story, something like this, I feel, would benefit the United Methodist Church greatly.
Of course, I have no idea how to implement such a thing.

My friend, and also fellow Wesley grad, Andrew had two recent posts about effective clergy and getting rid of guaranteed appointments.

Perhaps investing money and time to retrain/refresh/renew/reenergize/re-whatever ALL UMC clergy and help us to rethink church would only benefit our Body all the more and make us more effective (or as Perry Noble wrote, make us a difference maker rather than just a paycheck taker.)