Catagories...

I have had a couple conversations these last few weeks with folks who have visited the congregation I serve on a Sunday morning for worship, that have reinforced for me the notion that most people equate church to a one hour block on Sunday mornings. That leads to a next assumption that worship style defines you as a church, both of which I think are wrong.

The particular congregation I serve has two services of worship on Sunday morning. The first service is more relaxed and casual. The music is typically more modern in style (I’m trying to avoid the word “contemporary” as hard as I can.) Kids make noise, I preach from a bar stool down in the seats rather than up on the platform. We sing together, we pray together, we hear scripture, we laugh together on occasion cry together as well. Our second service is more of a traditional Methodist service. I typically wear a robe and stole (for you non liturgical folks - a stole is a fancy long scarf usually in the color of whatever season of the church calendar we are in). We follow a pretty set liturgy, most of our music we sing originates out of the hymnal.

So... we had a very nice visitor who came to our more traditional service. On that particular Sunday it was about 90 degrees outside, so that means that inside the oven that is Orchards United Methodist Church it was approximately 375 degrees. I opted not to wear the robe. After worship my wife was talking with a woman who was very interested in us. “I saw you were wearing a modern watch (Thank you Target $7 clearance table) , and you announced that you were leading a book study on one of Brian McClaren’s books, but most of the people here were older... so I was thinking what is going on here” As we talked more she was very into categories. She defined herself in very clear categories and wanted to know what my categories were. (BTW My Myers Briggs letters are ESPN, or is it Briggs and Stratton I can never remember) I also discovered that she was very interested in the categories as they related to the “Emerging church” movement... ooops i mean “conversation” to which she made the comment that she and her husband had joined “the conversation”... I kinda wondered if they sent out a mailer to people to notify them of this fact.

I personally have found quite a bit of life and spiritual renewal for my self in the midst of the emerging church’s “conversation”. I personally have been attracted to and "pastored" in such a way that fostered compassionate, missional communities, and focused on Jesus as the center of our faith. The verse that has been tattooed on my heart (figuratively) is “Love the Lord your God... love your neighbor as yourself” Ok so there are my categories... as best as I can shoe horn myself into them.

So as we talked more about those things she said “ ya know you could really easily turn this congregation into an Emerging church...” and she listed off some things that we could change to our style of worship. I then realized that she was equating our time in worship with what we are as a church. In her process, if we follow this form, or change our categories to worship in an “Emerging” style we will be Emerging... maybe even emerged... Crap! Then what will we do? I’ll have to find a whole new category.

The way my congregation worships together, the style we are comfortable in during that first hour has a lot of similarities to the way church’s who label themselves as "Emerging" tend to worship together. But beyond that, beyond the doors of our sanctuary, out side the one hour block on Sunday, we are still learning what it means to love our neighbor, what it means to be part of a compassionate, generous community, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Regardless of the way we worship, the style of music we sing, the color of the table cloth and the scarf the pastor wears, if we never have lives that reflect a faith grounded in the love of God, made real in our communities and families then our categories are are just white washed sepulchres. (oooo i impressed myself there by tying this all together with a scripture reference!)

Have a great week friend... Love God and love everybody else!

Fireworks, Reunions and The Police

Hi friends!

Yes I am still alive, as some of you e-mailed me to find out. It has been a busy summer for me and I haven’t had time to sit down and put any thoughts up on the blog. I try not to just post boring meaningless things here on “mark’s mind” ( Most of you really don’t care that my 10 year old son is quickly gaining ground and is about to cross the threshold of being better than me at Wii tennis)

I have a little break in the pace of life at the moment, so hopefully next week I will be able to contribute a bit more.

As for now... here is the meaningless stuff (well to you... not to me :-) )


Our Annual Conference for the PNW Conference of the UMC was in Moscow this year. Idaho... not Russia... I spent some time in Moscow, ID many years ago in a former life... when I was a student at Washington State, 8 miles down the road in Pullman Wa. Idaho’s drinking age was 18 at the time, while Washington’s was 21.. hence the reason i spent so much time in Moscow. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I almost got into a fight while eating lunch . Well the last time I was actually in a fight was in Moscow, ID, in a bar when I was 18. I drove by it and got sentimental while i was at Annual Conference. I’m kidding... there are actually more memories of that time in my life that I would like to get rid of, than remember, and I’m not very sentimental about them... That the subject of another blog... moving on...

On the way back from Idaho I was able to stop in the Tri-Cities area of Wa. where I grew up and spend some time with my family there. It was great! I forgot how much i love the desert of Eastern Wa and the Columbia River running through the middle of it!


We again operated a huge fireworks tent as a fund raiser for the congregation I serve. Well, to be precise we operated 3 tents in a shopping experience called “Boom City”. Three tents, no waiting. unlimited variety... The problem was that with the economy the way it is not many people were in the market to buy things that you set on fire. We did about half the sales we have done in years past... Oh well...

We spent the 4th of July down in Southern Oregon with my wife’s family. Lots of good relaxing days in the In-law’s swimming pool. My wife’s 20th High School reunion was the same weekend, so we went to a dinner for that. I didn’t know anyone, but It was pretty fascinating to see how cliques reform, and people really don’t change all that much. It was pretty interesting to be an outsider looking in. Second only to the Tri-Cities, Southern Oregon is my favorite place to be.

Last Friday, Jennifer and I went to the Police concert at the Amphitheater in Clark County. Wow! What a great concert. The opening act was Elvis Costello. I was very disappointed with Elvis. The sound was terrible. I never understand why opening acts have the crappiest sound set up. I literally couldn’t understand a word he was saying and barely recognized most of the songs... “what's so funny bout what?... oh! Peace, Love and Understanding ... I think i recognize this...” BUT The Police were Awesome! For three 50+ year old guys they “brought it” as my daughter says. One of... if not THE best concerts I have been too. The place was packed and hearing 15,000 people chant “Yeeeoooo, Yeeooo, Oh, Oh” to Walking On The Moon with Sting was pretty amazing. Andrew Summers still plays the guitar incredibly and Stewart Copeland can hit a giant gong like few others!


In August we will be heading down to Disney Land for my son’s 11th birthday and my 40th Birthday. (Feel free to wear black arm bands to mourn the passing of my youth on August 3rd if you like)

So that's the update on all that is going on in Mark’s life. I hope your Summer’s are going equally as well!

Have a great week friends!

I thought I was a nice guy...

I think some people just generate strong emotions in people. I’m not sure if I’m one of those people or not but I generally like to think that i’m a mostly nice guy - at least after I have my latte’ in the morning.

I had two odd experiences this last week that challenged my thoughts about myself. First, last week while I was eating lunch at a local restaurant, sitting at my table quietly eating while I read a book a group of hard workin’ guys obviously construction workers sat at a table next to me. Now, I have framed houses and worked in lumber yards in the course of my life so I’m not a fragile flower when it comes to conversations at the work site. As I ate a beautiful young woman walked across the parking lot out side the window. Immediately the table of guys took notice... no surprise. A few comments of a sexual nature were made... not in good taste but like I said I’m no stranger to the work site banter. Then another was made more graphic and a third and a fourth and ... Finally I put down my fork and said to the group “hey guys have some class huh?”

Now in the world in which my mind lives the proper response from my rude restaurant mates would be “Oh I’m sorry...” or some other similar response. Unfortunately the world where my mind lives doesn’t exists... The actual response I received was “F*** you!” there were several other comments tossed back at me as well. At that point I know I should have just kept quiet but I responded back “What is this the 2nd grade playground?” One of them was in the process of getting up to get some more food and stopped at my table and responded “why don’t you just shut the F*** up (insert name here that wasn’t really at all close to Mark)” I said “I will if you will” After a long pause and a the "tough guy" stare, he left. I really thought I was going to have to throw down and get into a fight with three guys in a pizza restaurant at the salad bar. I wasn’t always a Pastor, I have been in a couple of fights but not since I was about 21... and I’m not 21 any more... I haven’t been 21 for a long time. It has been a while since I took a punch, or three or several... luckily it didn’t come to that but I really thought it was for a moment or two.

Second, It has finally been sunny and (kinda’) warm in the Portland/Vancouver area so I have been able to FINALLY get out and ride my motorcycle. Two days after my “enlightening” conversation at lunch, I was riding my motorcycle down the street to work. When I ride I am a pretty defensive rider. I have been hit by a city work truck and have had to dodge several other vehicles while riding in the past so I keep a sharp eye out. As I was rolling along. I noticed 2 Yippie dogs (I think that is an official AKC breed. I may be wrong) in an unfenced yard next to someone working in a garden. As I got closer one of the dog’s (Yippie #1) noticed me and began yipping. Soon Yippie #2 noticed and decided that I couldn’t hear his yipping adequately so he began to run towards the street with Yippie #1 close behind. The owner shouted at the dogs to come back neither paid any attention. I assumed that the dogs would stop at the side walk when they reached it, but to my surprise they did not. They both bolted past the side walk at full speed and into the opposite lane of traffic in their mission to destroy me. As they entered the street a large Buick coming the other direction slammed on the brakes and and SCREECHED to a halt about .33 inches away from Yippie #2. Both dogs stopped quickly and then aborted their mission to destroy the rider on the Ninja driving by and returned back to the yard safe and sound.

I hope that you all have had a more peaceful summer that doesn’t involve fisticuffs or dog bites!

An hour on Sunday morning??

From time to time I am asked to make presentations on the act or preaching and worship, usually as it relates to younger adults (Which i think is ironic since I am going to be celebrating my 40th birthday this August... black arm bands are optional as we bid farewell to my youth!) Recently i was asked to consult with a group as they formulated a couple seminars for people wanting to explore worship to a greater degree.

In thinking about worship there are several things we can consider. Some of those things sing incredibly important on the surface. In light of what worship is truly about they may not look as grand as they one did. Often we focus on an hour of our Sunday morning as “worship”. In that hour we concern ourselves with things like formats, style, what music we listen to, what version of scripture we will read from, how long we stand, how long we sit, as well as a host of other things. All those things have a practical importance. I can remember standing for 1 1/2 hours at a worship service at a Greek Orthodox Church in Ohio, praying for a opportunity to sit down. An elderly woman stood next to me like a rock reciting litanies unfazed by being on her feet for so long. I’m not convinced any of those things really get at the heart of what worship is.

I truly believe that worship is not merely confined to a one hour (or in the case of a certain Greek Orthodox Service... more than an hour) block on Sunday morning. I believe worship is something much larger. It is an attitude of thanksgiving, joy and honor we have for God that is expressed in various ways in our lives, well beyond Sunday mornings. In fact i don’t think that the grace we find in worship comes because we meet on a specific time at a specific place but that God chooses to meet us there, and in the various places our life journeys take us. Along those same lines, worship isn’t judged as “successful” because of the quality of the music played, the songs sung, the ability the congregation has to read beautifully and responsively from the Psalms, or how the service “flowed”. The test of true worship comes from the missional and life transforming activity that happens in the lives of the community which follows from worship.

In a life of worship we are constantly reminded of who God is and who we are. We are drawn into lives that are transformed by joy and the Spirit’s presence. Out of such worship filled lives we see, as scripture describes, “ rivers of living water “ that quench the thirst of a parched world.

I hope that as summer rolls around, no matter where you may find yourself on a Sunday morning, all of our lives will be an act of worship, and we are filled with gratitude joy and life as a result.

Two wheels of fun

Hi friends. Well I have been away, doing things other than contributing to this blog. I have been spending most of my spare time working on my motorcycle. We have had to spectacular weekends so I have been riding a lot. Well... riding and repairing and riding again.

A few weeks ago. I rode with a group of people up to a spot near mount saint helens. The ride was beautiful and a lot of run until my carburetors got clogged in a little town called Cougar (actually in the wood about 8 miles away from Cougar where there is no cell phone signal) Anyway after a nice 4 hour stint on a bench outside the one gas station in Cougar I had my friend Scott help me trailer the ol’ Ninja off the mountain. (Thanks Scott!)


After one full day off and several after work evenings of tearing into the fuel system and ignition system, and some advise and encouragement, when I was frustrated, by friends on the PNW Riders forum, I got her up and running like a champ.

So last weekend, I got everything all screwed back together and spent most of it riding. Friday I took off early from work and headed up the Columbia River Gorge. Saturday, I returned to Cougar and Mt St. Helens to redeem that ride. It was beautiful! Then Sunday night after a “stump the pastor” night ( I once a year meet with our church’s youth group and they can ask any question they want of me) I headed back up the Gorge with my friend Rich who has recently returned from Afghanistan.


Now it’s cold and rainy again, so I am back in the garage delrusting a new fuel tank and prepping it for paint and working on the exhaust waiting for another sunny weekend.

Have a great week friends!

Sharing a confused look...

Here is the "pastor's note" for my congregations newsletter this month:


I was watching cartoons with my daughter Adeline the other day and an old Tom & Jerry cartoon came on. This particular cartoon was created in 1947. If you are familiar with the plot of every Tom & Jerry cartoon, Tom is a cat that spends all his time trying to catch the mouse Jerry. Typically explosives, knives, various contraptions, and lots of raise bumps on cartoon heads are employed in before said mouse catching strategy.

In this particular cartoon there was a slight variation to the theme - Jerry had a baby mouse with him;Nibbles.(His name was changed to Tuffy later in the series as I found noted on several Tom & Jerry web pages) I don’t know if Nibbles is Jerry’s baby, or if he a nephew or what, i’m not as informed on the family structures of cartoon mice as I should be... Anyway, as we all know, cartoon baby mice wearing cloth diapers complete with safety pin the size of your leg, need to drink milk... as do cats... thus the problem. Jerry wanted the saucer of milk for Nibbles, and Tom wanted it for himself... Lit the hijinx begin. The Tom chased the mice all over the house trying every way possible to exterminate them. Anvils were dropped , sticks of dynamite were exploded, at one point Tom even had Nibbles at gunpoint. Tom fired the gun narrowly missing the Nibbles and blowing off all the fur from his own smoldering tail. Then in a plot twist Tom swings at the baby mouse with a spatula and smacks him on the behind. Nibbles’ eyes grow large and big alligator tears begin to flow as the baby begins to cry from being spanked. That's the last straw Jerry appears furious at someone spanking the child and proceeds to beat the day lights out of Tom with hammers, chairs and dishes. The cartoon ends with Tom bandaged from head to toe complete with crutches, handing over the saucer of milk to the baby mouse.

Adeline and I both turned and looked at each other with puzzled looks. Adeline said “OK that's just stupid... Jerry freaks out over a swat with a spatula, but doesn’t care that Tom was using bats and guns to try and shoot his baby!???” I was thinking the exact same thing. Now I don’t want to get into a long discussion of violence in cartoons. I grew up watching Wily Coyote purchase bomb dropping hot air balloons from Acme like many people my age. What I was struck by in watching Tom & Jerry was how different communities have become. 50 or 60 years ago it was totally acceptable to have characters point guns at each others heads as a comedy gag. The communities we live in are entirely different than they were a generation ago.

Our taste in Cartoon humor isn’t the only thing that has changed. The way we view our world, the things we value and don’t value, the attitude we have about ourselves our families, our faith and beliefs have all changed so much.

Two weeks ago I witnessed a similar exchange. One person talking with another about one aspect of his faith that was incredibly important to him. As I watched the interaction the young woman listening had the exact same puzzled look that Adeline had while watching Tom & Jerry. I could almost hear the voice in her head saying “But what about this part of my life, or this way I view others, and the world?” To her credit the young woman didn’t lash out and try to negate or nullify the other persons values and beliefs, as many of us do sometimes with out thinking, but I could tell that the faith the person was so devoted to didn’t ring true for her.

As our communities change I pray that we all realize that the timeless message of Jesus, offers hope to every generation. I pray we will never loose sight of a savior who meets us where we are, and interacts with us as his beloved children.

Have a great May friends and look out for Cats bearing dynamite

The question... 2.0

Last week I mentioned a “conversation” I had with three high school kids on a pier in Seattle, as the asked me the question - “what will happen when you die?” as part of an evangelism program. Friday night at a Bible study that meets at my house, one of the women who attends voiced guilt she felt about not “sharing her faith with people”. It wasn’t a hedged in comments of “my faith is personal ... between me and God” or any of the other excuses we often throw out when we feel guilty about not being more “Evanelistic”. Her concerns came from a place of not wanting to alienate her friends, by always pushing Jesus on them, or running into that attitude people have when the Christian faith is mentioned - the Christians hate gays, or don’t like people like me, or only want our money attitude.
Here is the ironic thing, I would find it unimaginable to know Natalie for more than an hour and not know that her faith in Jesus is a huge guiding factor in her life. But because she wasn’t being confrontational in her conversations with people about Jesus, or because she doesn’t have a check list of friends that she has asked “do you have a personal relationship with Jesus”, or worse yet asked the big what happens when you die question, she feels guilty.

I just started reading Brian McClaren’s book “Everything Must Change”. I purposefully have not picked it up until lately because, to be honest, I have been pretty disillusioned with the Church in the Western world. This last year I have become disgusted that the biggest issue for many of us in the church is “who is going to paint our church building” or “the piano player at church plays too slow” or any of another million things of no significance at all, while at the same time millions of people have died of Malaria in Africa, or a hundred kids walk by our building everyday on the way home from school to be abused and/or neglected. I didn’t want to pick it up because I was working on a pretty good mad as it was, and really didn’t want any more gunpowder for this keg that was ready to blow already. (Sorry counting to ten... breathing deeply.... serenity now...)

Anyway, I was talking with a couple friends this last week on this topic. As we sat around the table we asked what are the biggest problems our communities face? In an effort to make first steps, we didn’t want to tackle wars in the middle east , or dependance on fossil fuels, or other global concerns, but what does my neighbor struggle with on a daily basis. As a disciple of Jesus I believe scripture speaks to us about those things and as disciples we can do something to address them. In that question I found some sense of peace and some ease in my frustration. I decided that the fuse had gone out on my keg, so I’ll pick up Brian’s book. Low and behold in the first chapters of the book Brian lays out the premise of the book based on two questions 1)What are the biggest problems in the world? 2) what does Jesus have to say about these problems? CRAP! He wrote the book before I could! Dammit!

If you haven’t pickled up “Everything Must Change” I recommend it (although I am only about half way through it.) And If the titles scares you... It should... When Brian says everything must change, he means it. So do I!

So in asking our local question there were a few things that seemed to rise to the top of all of our discussions. 1) Safety for kids in our neighborhoods 2) Financial issues, more specifically debt and addiction to a consumeristic identity. Out of those discussions I have proposed a couple ideas to the members or Orchards United Methodist Church to address those problems our community faces, and there is some traction and excitement about them.

Wouldn’t it be great to be a community that is not known for convincing people they were headed to hell, but as Jesus says in John 13:35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Have a great week friends!

The question...

Hi friends,

I have been in Seattle for the last week. Part of the time on vacation with my beautiful wife and two above average children. The last part of the week I was interviewing candidates for ministry as a member of my Conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry.

The Vacation time was a blast! We spent some time at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field . I have been a huge aircraft fan since I was little and have always loved Air Museums and the Boeing Field one is one of the best in the country. At first my wife and kids were kind of just going along to humor me, but I think everyone in the family said it was the highlight of the trip.

After the trip to the Museum of Flight we had a birthday dinner for my wife at the Rain Forest Cafe which was a lot of fun. Complete with giant cake and ice cream desert with sparklers! WhooooHooooo!

The second part of my week was spent talking with candidates for ministry about the written materials they have submitted to the Board. I walked away form those meetings very enthused about the quality of pastors we will have serving churches in The Pacific Northwest Conference in the next few years, and it gives me some hope that the progress I am many others in our church are making in steering this battle ship of a conference towards renewal and revitalization, could happen.

I had an experience on Thursday night after dinner. It was about 7:30pm or so and I had just completed a long day of interviews along with my colleagues. After dinner I drove down to the Marina at DesMoines Beach Park just to look at the water and pray and kinda’ collect myself. So while I was leaning over the rail three young high school aged people (a girl and two boys)approached me and asked “Sir would you be willing to answer some questions for a religious poll we are taking?” Ok, after the initial oddity of a high school girl calling me “Sir” wore off I said sure. They proceeded to ask me questions; Do you believe in God?... Do you believe God cares about people?... Then the tried and true question... If you died tonight... (Which by the way is probably a bad question to ask someone alone at 8pm at a marina. I wanted to answer “Why? You guys have a knife or gun in those hurley hoodies?” To tell you the truth, these three kids were so timid I think if I had shouted “BOO!” loud at them they would have all three crapped their pants and run for the hills)

As a pastor I admit I have a sadistic side. There were a few minutes where several scenarios played out in my head. I could act like the king of all sinners, and challenge them on every point of their argument, then ask where I could score some drugs... As tantalizing as that sounded, I opted not to do that. Then I thought I could play the miraculous convert. After they said two words I'd tell them a horrific story, but because they asked me what would happen when I died, I was a born again convert.... I opted out of that one too. When the poll asked if I belong to a church or place of worship, I confessed that I was a pastor, and they all sighed a little and relaxed. (It wrecked my opportunity to screw with their heads but oh well..) So anyway, when they finished their poll, and I gave them the good answer that my evangelical heritage drilled into my brain, about having a ticket to heaven if I die tonight, cause Jesus died for me, I actually got to talk to them a little.

I asked them how the poll had been going? Their reply was “not too good.” You could have knocked me over with NOT surprise. It was getting dark and I didn’t want to keep these three kids out on a dock, and I didn’t want to crush any fervor they had for their faith, but I can’t imagine anyone would really be too excited about talking with three kids, who were obviously scared out of their heads to talk to people about their faith, and especially using the “what will happen if you die?” angle. These kids were nice and I felt bad for them. It reminded me of the experiences I had as a youth with youth pastors who told me that I needed to go out and win arguments with people about sin and the afterlife. It made me sad. No concept of God caring about our lives now, No questions about transcendence or transformation... nothing for someone now. It was all about heaven and ..”someday”.

It reminded me of another experience I had in seminary. I was to write a paper after having interviewed three people regarding their decision process to become a Christian. So I asked three of the members of the little church my wife and I were attending in Central Kentucky at the time; Two long time members and pillars of the church, and one high school aged girl. When I asked them about how they came to make a decision to be a Christian, they all told me stories of someone who loved them and cared for them. Two of them said it was a grandmother who was most important in their decision. The other told the story of a member of the church who has since passed away but who was instrumental in their decision. When I asked all three what they thought was the most important thing someone needed in order to make a decision to follow Jesus - all three answered (In so many words) “You will go to hell if you don’t say the sinners prayer.” Even though that played little, if anything in their own decision to follow Jesus.

Friends I hope the faith that the world sees in us is not merely about someday. I hope that “hell” and “death” aren’t the first words out of our mouths when we talk about Jesus. I pray we love God with all our hearts and minds and souls, and love our neighbors as ourselves!

Have a great week friends

Party Shirts on Parade

Hi friends,

I hope your Easter celebrations were wonderful! Today is kind of my relax and recoup day after holy week and Easter. Our Worship Services were wonderful on Sunday at Orchards UMC. We have a tradition that started about 5-6 years ago at the church I wanted to post up here. In my family when there is a party that we are going to, Dad (me) wears one of his collection of bowling or hawaiian party shirts. Since Easter is about the most significant celebration I can think of I wear a party shirt every year to worship on Easter Sunday. My kids usually get the final pick of which shirt I wear.

Several people in the congregation have picked up on the tradition. So Easter morning is a sight to behold, not only for the celebration we take part in, but for the celebration represented by the shirts worn. Here is a brief photo collection of some of the shirts that made an appearance on Sunday.

Have a great week friends

Easter didn't happen

Hi friends,

As I write this it is Wednesday afternoon, and I like thousands of other clergy people, am gearing up to jump into the teeth of Holy Week and Easter. I have often said that one of the ironic things about being a clergy member is that often I find myself so busy doing “church stuff” that i miss out on some of those meaningful moments that I am in fact called to hold before people. Easter and Holy Week is one of those occasions. There is the Maundy Thursday Seder dinner, the Good Friday Tenebrae Service, the Sunrise Service the Easter Services... (I also have a wedding on Saturday... this is the last time I will say “oh that date is pretty early, sure I can do that wedding”, without checking to see how early Easter is this year!)

One thing that I have found interesting this year, is to listen to what other people have to say about Easter. Is it just me, or have you noticed that there is more advertising around the notion of gifts to be bought for Easter this year than in years past?. I have always been down with the chocolate Easter bunnies. I know there is the whole pagan worship mixed metaphor thing there, but there is something satisfying about biting the ears off of a chocolate bunny! It seems that Easter is the next target for the consumer driven culture we are a part of. It makes me wonder what those saints who came before us would think of the baskets full of video games, candy, gifts, new dresses and shoes, when they were giving their lives to another empire that was ruled by a risen Jesus. It makes me wonder what they would think of our ability to turn Jesus and Easter into a metaphorical and existential self help program that leads us to pin stripe suites and shiny cars, when they were proclaiming the bodily resurrection of Jesus and that death, the ultimate weapon of tyrants and empires of injustice had no more power.

Having heard those voices proclaiming Jesus as the ultimate self help guru, and Easter as consumer Christmas Ch 2 I’ve decided to title my Easter sermon this year “Easter didn’t happen” for two reasons 1. The Jesus as gateway to Hummer H2's and pinstripe suites isn’t the Jesus of our Holy cannon, The easter devoid of resurrection and re-creation seems to be absent from our scriptures as well. And 2. Even if we proclaim the bodily resurrection of Jesus and all its ramifications to the empires of this world, it isn’t merely an event of the past that “happened”. It is a reality that is happening and will happen in the future if we truly cling to the miraculous, revolutionary message of of a risen savior and reconciliation of all creation. One of my favorite Charlie Brown comic strips ends with Charlie saying “The greatest burden in life is to have great potential”

I hope Easter is a holy day for you and that these last few days of lent usher you towards a life of resurrection, hope and life!

Have a wonderful Easter friends.

Waiting...

Hi friends,

I made a commitment a while ago to post something on this blog each week. Some weeks are harder than others to find things that are worth blogging about and wont just add to the existential landfill that much of the internet is these days. (wow, i sounded like a grumpy old man there... that is happening more and more... GET OFF MY YARD!)

Anyway, on a more serious note I am personally in a bit of a funk today. I have been writing quite a few things lately, but this isn’t an appropriate venue to publish them. I feel like i have lots of kettles on the stove right now and none of them are done simmering yet, but they all take a lot of my time and emotional energy, and I am feeling a little thin and tired. Plus its the middle of the rainy season here in SW Washington and i miss the sun, and need to be riding my motorcycle much more than I am.

I have always been someone who relies on my abilities, and I struggle quite a bit with allowing God to totally be Lord of my life, mostly out of selfishness, and impatience. At the moment I am in a place of having to wait on God’s timing, and I’m not good at the whole “waiting” thing.

Maybe next week I will have more deep thoughts to share, or at least some shallow ones.

Have a wonderful day friends

A Good Day!

Every once in a while you have one of those days as a pastor where you really feel like you accomplished something. Ministry Is a strange thing because you can put lots of effort into something and not really see any result. Not because nothing happens, but because you aren’t always there to see the change happen, or sometimes a spiritual milestone for someone doesn’t happen with fireworks and parades. Sometimes God completes a work that I may have only been step 2 of a 24 step journey this person has been on.
Anyway on Saturday I got a glimpse of the wonderful nature of what God’s grace can be like. I performed a wedding for a couple who I met in an unusual way. I met Eric and Tina almost two years ago. They showed up at our worship service one Sunday morning with coats and suitcases in tow. They wanted to know if it was all right if they put their luggage in the closet during the service. I said of course and struck up a conversation with them. As it turned out they had been sleeping at a winter overflow shelter a block or so away, that volunteers from our congregation were manning that week. They had met some of our members at the shelter and decided to take them up on their invitation to come to church that Sunday. To make a long story short, our congregation welcomed them, some full well knowing their situation, some having no idea the struggles they were facing. I was able to help in their process of finding work and a place to stay other than on our porch or at the shelter. In the process of meeting and befriending this couple, the life of generosity and love that God is calling some of us to in this congregation, was gaining faces and names. It isn’t merely a great idea or a philosophy, it is friends we love.
So on Saturday Eric and Tina marched down the aisle and exchanged vows and rings, I got to stand next to Eric and hear him say “oh wow!” when he saw his bride for the first time in her wedding dress. I served them communion and as a congregation we prayed and asked for God’s blessing on these, our friends as they begin this next step of their lives together. The congregation hosted a reception for them and we ate cake and cheered for them. It was a great day!
This time of year gets to be a bit of a blur for me. Lent is underway and Easter is fast approaching, I have work to do for the Board of Ordained Ministry, and the Board of Congregational Development for the conference I am a member of, so the process of planning this wedding and meeting with Eric and Tina was mostly another event on my blackberry. It wasn’t until Saturday Morning that the joy of this wedding struck me, and how good God is.
I just wanted to record these thoughts today for someone else to see.
Have a great day friends!

Not so easy oil change

I had an experience that I wish I could say was unusual but it seems pretty common at its heart. I took my chick magnet of a 97’ green Ford Taurus to one of those quick lube type places to get the oil changed before I had to drive up to Seattle for a Conference Board meeting. All was well, I paid my $19.98 for the oil change and the next day hit the road. When I pulled into the parking lot in Seattle I noticed the smell of burning oil, not a huge white cloud of smoke. (I have owned that car in my past). Just enough that I could tell there was oil burning somewhere. I wasn’t in a position to grab my coveralls and lay down in the parking lot and crawl under the car to investigate. Since my oil light wasn’t on, and the car seemed to drive fine, I just let it go - went to my meeting and drove back to Vancouver that evening. I got home and the same smell was there. I hoped that maybe the oil change guy had just spilt some oil on the manifold when filling it or something, but I figured 5 hours of driving would have burned up any spilt oil. I went to bed and decided to tackle it in the morning.

Got up the next morning, went to the garage looked under the car and there was a pancake size oil puddle under the car ( The ma and pop style restaurant pancake size, not those little 4 at a time size pancakes). It was right under the drain plug so I figured that the oil change guy just hadn’t tightened the drain plug. I hopped in the car took it back to the shop told them the situation. The guy at the counter was very nice. He got me right in and yelled down to the tech who was working in that 7th level of hell oil pit below the cars to check for an oil leak. I hear in about 2 seconds “Nope it’s not our stuff, there is oil all over the back of the engine...” The guy by my window repeats the message I just heard coming form before mentioned pit of despair. “Great now I have to go to the mechanic and shovel money into the car to figure out why oil is shooting out the back of my engine.” I was thinking.

I am a pretty mechanical guy, so before I took it to my mechanic, I figured I’d jack up the car and just take a look for myself to see if it is something simple like a gasket leak or more involved. I jacked the car up, got on my crawler, slid underneath and sure enough there was oil all over the oil pan streaking back to the catalytic converter where it was smoking. BUT, as I am laying under my car I can see about every two or three seconds a drip of oil coming from the oil drain plug. I grabbed an old shop rag wiped the oil off of everything checked for any other trails from other leaks found exactly ZERO. I put my socket wrench on the drain plug gave it a half turn and wallah!! leak stopped.

WARNING Grumpy old man alert!!! What the hell? So the oil lube guy was either incompetent and couldn’t see the drip of oil coming every two seconds from the drain plug, or was so afraid to make things right which might require some extra work that his automatic response is “It’s not our stuff...”

Have you ever been in the position to do something that is good, or is the right thing, but decided that it was too inconvenient? I find this attitude everywhere. What is even more sobering is that as I work with local churchs I hear it all the time. “That would be great but I don’t have time...” “I am not willing to be in charge...” “It would be great if YOU did something about that...” “That's pretty inconvenient. What if we did something less than that?...”

It is now the second week of Lent and like many years before, the congregation I serve has many members who are observing Lenten disciplines like prayer and fasting, reading scripture, introspection and meditation, and confession. For many of us we find that Lent is that time where we really discover what our lives are dedicated to. If you are like me you find that the things I am really dedicated to aren’t the things I should be dedicated to, (Or better said THE THING I should be dedicated to).

So as I was starting to work up a good mad about my lazy oil change worker, I realized that I have said “nope its not my stuff...” too many times myself - over things more important that an oil grain plug.

I hope this is a wonderful, enlightening and holy season of Lent for you friends!

Fat Tuesday Leaves Its Mark...

It’s hard to believe but this last week we celebrated Ash Wednesday as a congregation. I know this is a sign that I am old now, but sheesh, it feels like last year’s Ash Wednesday was just here! (All be it Easter is very early this year, thus making Ash Wednesday even earlier) Which brings me to the whole subject of Lent in general.

I have kinda’ learned an appreciation for Lent later in life. As a kids it always had a feel of being one of those “don’t do this or that” kinda seasons. We all know what happens with kids and teen agers when we tell them don’t do something... thus Fat Tuesday was born.

Ok, I have to tell a story kinda on topic before I go on. My kids were sitting in the back seat of the car in the garage waiting for mom to come down and get in the car so we could leave for our Ash Wednesday service at church. So my son asks “Dad what is Mardi Gras? Is it the same thing as Fat Tuesday?” Half heartedly I gave the 73 second version of what Lent and Ash Wednesday are about. Both my kids are pretty Liturgically savvy so they got the concept. I added. “I think Fat Tuesday kinda’ got to be the way it is, because some people merely see Lent as a time to give up something. So the Tuesday before Lent starts they get one last shot to do whatever thing they are giving up for Lent...” My son quickly grasped the irony of someone giving up something harmful for just 40 days and bingeing on it before you start the fast. My daughter.. which may be a sign of things to come... got more into the Fat Tuesday mindset when she said “ You know those ‘It’s a Girl’ things on my shelf in my room?” “Oh you mean the cigars I got and handed out when you were born?” I replied. “Ya I’m gonna come home and smoke all those for Fat Tuesday.” After I talked her out of the idea, which didn’t take very long... thank God! I had to laugh at the image of my daughter running home trying to smoke a dried out, 8 year old, two dollar, “its a girl” cigar... I know that makes me a terrible parent on so many levels, but hey, I think my little girl and me share a kindred heart on all those levels.

Ok I was going to have something thought provoking to say about Lent but I lost it . I hope ya’ll have a holy and meaningful season of Lent. Have a great week friends.

It may be a while till I am on the PBA tour...

Not a lot to write about this week, but I thought I would share something that struck me as funny this week.

This Monday was the MLK Jr. Holiday for most of us. My Wife and kids had the day off from school and Monday's are my usual day off so we decided to do some family things on Monday. One of the things we did was go bowling.

Vancouver Wa has a pretty large population of blind people, at least it seems so to me. I see more blind people here in the malls and in the community than any other city I have lived in. I assume that it is because for over 50 years the Washington State School For The Blind has been located in Vancouver. It's truly inspiring to see people without, or with very little eyesight overcome obstacles those of us with sight take for granted. Anyway... in the lane next to us at the bowling alley were three blind people bowling. Not all of them were completely blind. At least one of them could tell what pins were still standing by looking very closely at the scoring monitor at the table. (The days of scoring on a piece of paper are long gone my friends) It was fascinating to watch them bowl and help each other by saying "The # 3 and 4 pin are still up" and have them throw a ball and hit the # 3 and 4 pins.

Anyway... as in most bowling allies, now your scores are projected on a screen for God and everyone to see. When we were done, it dawned on me that I got beat at bowling by a blind guy. To add insult to injury our lane had the bumpers up for my 7 and 10 year old and I still didn't score as high as the blind guy in the lane next to me. I'm not sure if that is a testament to how good the guy in the lane next to me was at bowling... or how much I suck at it... or a little of both, but I just thought I'd share my public humiliation with you.

Have a good week friends!

Writing a good story...

Hi friends,

Well, as I write this, I’m sitting in the terminal of Portland Intl. Airport waiting to board a flight to Houston, and then to Fayetteville Arkansas to attend the New Congregational Leadership Institute. (cool name huh?) Since I am just sitting here watching planes take off and land, I figured I’d do something constructive, and add a little something to my blog since it has been a number of weeks since I have put anything up (Since before Christmas).

I have written a few things but decided not to post them up on the Blog (at least for a while) I need some time to see if some of my written thoughts are a little too personal to share with the world.

Anyway, I thought I would share a little bit of something I’ve been rolling around in my head for a while. I have mentioned before that one of my favorite authors is a guy by the name of Don Miller who lives across the river in Portland, I have met him once and he seems like a good enough guy in person as well. One of the things I appreciate about Don is that he has a pretty well developed theology of story. Even before I read any of Don’s books, or heard any of his presentations, I was working on this idea of God/story/life on my own. Don has given me a few more handles to grab a hold of on this topic.

It seems to me that every good story has some elements in it that make it good no matter what culture you are a part of. A Hero (or protagonist), a desire, passion or a goal of some kind, some conflict that causes change either for good, a comedy, or for bad, a tragedy, and then some climax that resolves the story. It seems that God kinda wires us to resonate with those elements. They reflect something in our own lives and story. I was talking to someone who said she thought the story of her life was happiness, I think we all want happiness, and joy, but that is a way boring story. It seems that the conflict is the place where the life is in any good story. The change that happens to our protagonist, or to us in our story.

I was listening to a podcast from Mars Hill church in Mich. and Don happened to be the speaker that Sunday. Lo and behold, he was speaking on this topic of faith and story. One thing jumped out at me as I was listening. Don commented that many good authors or screen writers will write the climax first, then figure out how our protagonist gets there. It got me thinking about story and life... What do I want my climax to be? Don joked about it, he said “Don gets a new Volvo... But that's a boring story” So I have been thinking a lot about what the climax of my story is.. and how am i getting there.

I hope your stories are full of life and love and spirit. Have a great week friends

Mark

Tired of waiting...

It’s been rainy and miserable, as far as weather is concerned around here. You may have seen on the news the devastation the floods in Western Washington and Oregon have caused. I am a bit south of where most of the big damage took place in Washington. So I am lucky that I am just complaining about gray, rainy weather and not complaining about my home being underwater or worse yet that my house is in the street because a mudslide left it there, as others are. I am counting my blessings.

I am reminded that this season of the year is full of paradoxes. As we are preparing to celebrate the incarnation of God on Christmas there are families living in shelters flooded out of their homes. While people stand in line for 3 hours at the local Target store for a Wii, other people stand in line to claim beds at the homeless shelter. While I proclaim that Christ is born and reconciles and redeems all of creation, families are feuding in my congregation. I was listening to a radio program on the way into church on Sunday morning and an author of a book about the way Christmases are celebrated during war times was being interviewed. He had a quote form Gen. Patton, made on Christmas day during the Battle of the Bulge in which the, not particularly spiritual or religious, man said “The sun is shining, the sky is blue, it’s a beautiful day for killing Germans, which is ironic considering whose birthday it is.”

As I have written many times before, I love the seasons of the Christian calendar. I love how they remind us of the patterns and story of Scripture, and in a way allow us to relive them every year. I love the season of Advent especially. I love the excitement that grows and the sense of expectation that we are moving towards something. I love watching my kids fill in the characters every morning on their advent calendar. What troubles me about Advent is that the sense of expectation and excitement, is often replaced with a sense that we are waiting for something. We are waiting for Christmas... Waiting for God to do something miraculous... Waiting for the Prince of Peace to do something... Waiting , waiting, waiting. To be quite frank with ya’ll (as if i’m not at other times) I’m pretty tired of waiting for something that has happened already. Something that has the potential to transform the world if we would really allow it to change us. I’m pretty tired of being an Advent Christian, and of Advent Church’s that are waiting for someone to do, for something to happen.

Is it any wonder that when January rolls around, and the decorations go back in storage, the world seems pretty much the same way it did back in October or November... because we are still waiting. How about instead of waiting, we began to love God and love our neighbors, even in January and May... and August...

I wanted to share a quick little anecdote that I read on a bulletin board I frequent quite often. It seems a father and his son were walking out of the mall a couple days before Christmas. The son said to his dad as they exited the doors “Dad, do you have any money?” The dad gave a big sigh and replied “Are you kidding me? We have been shopping all day, We ate lunch at that special place you wanted to. We got cocoa 20 minutes ago. I even bought you the toy you have been asking for.... No I don’t have anymore money!” to which the son responded “Ok dad I just wanted some money to put in the Salvation Army Bucket...” The father posting this experience said “Wow, I am a Jerk! I gave the kid a $20 to put in the bucket...” I have been there too, I think we all have. I want Advent, to be different. I want to quit waiting. I want it to remind me that God’s grace is here, and that the world is different because God’s spirit resides in me.

In the spirit of Advent, do something good because Jesus lives today.

Have a great week friends!

Comfort Vs. Tazers

I was driving into a parking lot yesterday and on the bumper of the car in front of me was a sticker that read “Don’t taze me bro!”

It was obviously poking fun of the John Kerry speech in Florida, where a university student was tazed after asking a question of the former presidential candidate. The event was captured by various amateur videographers on phones and other media and quickly appeared on You Tube causing quite the stir.

I know I am several months behind the times in even commenting about this event. Most notably because while others saw it as humorous, I was horrified by it. The pleas of this student saying “don’t taze me bro!” - then hearing the zap and the screams, gives me nightmares. I have a dry, somewhat odd, sense of humor, but for me the train to humor doesn’t go through this station. It was kinda one of those events that I hope is unique and wont happen again, so i just kinda’ let my stunned horrified silence sit. Until yesterday when i saw the bumper sticker. For the record I am not a bumper sticker fan. Sticking a piece of vinyl on your car with a saying that will most likely piss someone off, or that you think is funny (I stress “you”) just makes me question someone's decision making skills.

ANYWAY, back to my thought about this event. I like millions of people watched the video. I know nothing of the student’s background or reputation, but it seemed to me that the student was asking a question of Senator Kerry that made the Senator very uneasy, and also made the audience uneasy... and wouldn’t stop asking the questions. I have been to events like this, where people hijack meetings or gatherings with questions. I’ve seen crowds boo and drown out the questioner. I must admit I have boo’d a few myself in my day, all of which is part of the free speech thing we value so much as citizens of the United States. In my mind, you have the right to ask a loaded question, I have the right to boo when you do. It seems when someone asking a question, albeit not tactfully, and confrontationally, becomes reason to be tazed, I think something is wrong, and I point you to the before mentioned train schedule to humor... it doesn’t stop at this station.

That is the first layer of grief I feel about this event. Even more troubling by this scene for me, is that we are so addicted to comfort even in public discourse. I agree that words have weight and meaning and can injure, but as i see this video that's not the case here. It was merely a matter of Senator Kerry and the audience being uncomfortable with the questions and the way they were asked. And because the student made them uncomfortable they he was arrested and tazed. Wow, I’m glad tazers weren’t around when Jon the Baptist called the Pharisees “a brood of vipers”. Imagine Jesus telling the religious and political leaders “you are not son’s of Abraham, because you don’t do what he did”... for that matter any conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees .

It seems comfort is our ultimate value today. Maybe that is why we have watered Jesus down to a pastey, white robed, whimp crying on a rock gazing at heaven in the garden. If you make me uncomfortable it’s ok to taze you, or at least pull you out of the room by force. Maybe the “don’t taze me bro!” event is a microcosm for the comfort of our churches. Maybe at the root of the soft music , soft sermons phenomena, is this love of comfort.

In my years of ministry I have heard parishioners say the words “If those welfare moms can’t find a ride this afternoon to get here, then they don’t deserve a Thanksgiving basket...” and “If you remove the pews on the front row and put chairs up there I am leaving the church,” Imagine Jesus walking into that conversation... I don’t know what to do about comfortable church or the general addiction to comfort for our whole culture, to be honest. Maybe that's why it took me several months to even address this topic. For those of you that cruise through this blog I’d love to hear your thoughts on this addiction to comfort... really i’m asking...

Finally the last most deep layer of distress over the “don’t taze me” event is that no one stood up and said “Stop”. Instead people watched with jaws dropping. It seems that the situation could have been diffused pretty easily and it would have never escalated to the scale it did, with some wise words, and actions, Again I know nothing of the background etc. of the situation. What breaks my heart is that when the words “don’t taze me” rang out through the hall no one stood up and said “ya don’t!” In fact now you can laugh about it as you glue “Don’t taze me bro!” on your car’s bumper or wear it on your t-shirt. (Wanna be disappointed with the state of our culture?? Google “don’t taze me bro!” and see what you find)

Your mileage may vary,

Looking forward to a better world, a better church, and a the kingdom of God.

Mark

Best Day Ever #4

Hi friends,

I don’t have much creative, or thought provoking to write about today, but i did want to mention that I had one of those “best days ever” yesterday. I have maybe three days that I would call my best ever. One is the day back in college when I won the conference championship in the 200m with a time that was in the top 8 in the nation at the time. Another was that day on my honeymoon with my (then new) wife Jennifer as we walked around Victoria BC being in love. Another was about 5 years ago when we took my two kids to Disney on Ice. The looks on their faces and the smiles and cheers they let out will always be etched on my heart. Last night I have another day to add. Jennifer and I took my 10 year old son to his first concert - Switchfoot and Reliant K. Seeing my son jump and sing and cheer and bump his fist complete with white man’s overbite was in a word AWESOME!

Jackson is more of a Reliant K fan than a Switchfoot fan, and I am the opposite, but both shows were great and the opening band Ruth from Battle Ground, Wa (just a few miles up the road from where I live) was surprisingly good as well.

If you are not familiar with any of these bands, they are the bands that I call Christian friendly. They have quite a bit of airplay on commercial radio stations, but definitely have a christian/spiritual message to their music. As a result there were lots of Church buses parked in the parking lot when we arrived at the venue (Which was horrible- I’ll say more in a minute) and lots of church youth groups in attendance, which was not horrible. I’m 39 years old and my wife is 37 but we don’t normally hang out with people our age, typically our friends are about 10 years younger than us. But I am too old to be spending much time on the floor of a rock concert pogo-ing for three hours, so Jennifer and I and my 10 year old son stayed up in our seats. Anyway, the friends who we went with all headed down to the floor and we stayed in the stands to hold our spot with the chaperones and “adults” from the youth groups that had traveled to the show. The reliant K and Ruth concerts were fun and pretty non-threatening to the people sitting around us, but I have enough of a prophet in me, to absolutely love the facial expression change when Switchfoot took the stage. Their sound is much harder, their message is much more counter cultural and I relished in the fact that my son was pumping his fist in the air as they sang. The older folks around us were not quite “hip” with the lyrics to “My American Dream” or statements by Jon Foreman (lead singer) like “thrift stores redeem American commerce” or songs like “Dirty Second Hand”. I had dreams of my son pumping his fist being the revolutionary calling the church to account for its greed and support of things that grieve the heart of God. I know I am reading way too much into a ten year old’s first concert... but let me dream! Like I said it was a good night!

The only harsh on my awesome night was the venue of the concert! Wow the Pavilion at the Oregon State Fairgrounds sucks, at least for concerts. It's a big ol’ metal rodeo barn so the acoustics are terrible (although the bands did great with what they had to work with). The Concessions workers were terrible and acted like charging $3.50 for as cup of ice with 5 oz of soda in it was an inconvenience to them. Parking is horrific with one gate allowing all the cars in or out. We ended up parking outside on residential streets after spending 30 minutes waiting to move about 1/2 block in the car to get into the one gate. And security was the worst I have seen at a concert. The floor of the stadium was PACKED and all night long we saw young kids getting passed up to the front and escorted out by paramedics because they were being smashed in the crowd. I understand that those things happen and have been to several concerts where crowds get like, that but as soon as it happens security typically gets a hold of the crowd and starts working to get the situation under control. Not last night. For three hours there was a steady stream of kids being passed up and escorted/carried out by paramedics. Even my 10 year old said there is no way he wanted to go down there. If you are considering attending a concert at the Pavilion I would suggest you wait till the concert is at a better/safer venue.

So anyway I’m adding day # 4 to my best days ever list. Rock on friends, and fight the power.... :::pumping fist while i do the white man’s overbite::

Things I learn at the airport

On occasion I like to spend my lunch hours over at the Portland International Airport and watch planes land and take off. There is a little parking lot along marine drive right by the runway where I can sit and watch planes come and go. My dad and I used to go out to the airport and watch planes land and take off. I think that was the foundation for my love of airplanes. Every now and then I take my two kids with me and we drink hot chocolate or a coke and watch the planes too.

It's a good place for me to unwind and just think. There are a few lessons I’ve learned sitting there by the runway and I thought I’d post a couple of them here.

As many of you know birds around airports are a particular hazard. I assume seagulls and jet turbine engines don’t get along. PDX, like most airports I assume, has a system for keeping the birds off the grass around the runway. It seems to me as I sit and watch, seagulls are a particular problem, since the north edge of the Airport is about 100 yards from the Columbia river. Seagulls tend to wonder over the fence and land on the grass and access roads around the runway. About every 15 minutes or so a truck drives by on the access road and scares them off. Once in a while the driver will put it in 4 wheel drive and drive out on the grass and scare a flock away as well. The most dramatic way they politely ask birds to leave is by firing a series of air cannons. I don’t know if they are set to timers or if they fire them when the number of birds gets to a certain level. You can hear the first loud BANG at one end of the runway and the cannons will begin to fire in line down the length of the air field. BANG!.....BANG!.....BANG!....

Needless to say it scares the birds and they all take off in a group usually flying over us parked by the runway watching planes. For those of you that live near a river or lake or ocean you know what scared seagulls do when they fly over shiny parked cars.... they crap all over them! Especially scared birds.

Ok here is my lesson I've learned. When something scares me I tend to crap on people (figuratively of course) I think all of us do. When we feel like we are losing control or we are threatened by something we crap on people... We treat them badly. Churches do it a lot. When congregations find themselves in strange situations or facing uncomfortable changes they start to crap on each other. There are few places that I see people treat each other as badly as they do inside the walls of the church. I don’t know why that is. It's like we are scared seagulls!

It reminds me of King David. If you are familiar with David’s story there was a brief time in his reign when he was run out of town by an uprising lead by his son. As he and his little band of followers are leaving town a peasant on the side of the road, named Shimei begins to insult and chastise David. One of his generals says “should we kill him for cursing God’s anointed?” and David says in a sense “no, I deserve to be chastised a bit” and they move on. In my mind even though David is temporarily put off his throne he still knows he is king. Ultimately he regains his throne and rules over the united kingdoms of Israel for a number of years. Finally when he is old and about to die, he calls his son Solomon to his side and offers him some advise on being king, but he adds a bit about who he should trust and who he shouldn’t and says “There is also with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a terrible curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; you will know what you ought to do to him, and you must bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.” (1Kgs. 2:8-9) David swore he wouldn’t kill Shimei, so he tells his son to do it! What is different? David is in his chambers surrounded by wealth and all, but I think he is scared. He’s survived wars and battles and uprisings but he knows he is not going to survive much longer so he starts to crap on people, and he orders the death of a man he has held a grudge against for decades.

When we are scared we crap on people. As I contemplate changes in my life and ministry I know that there will be times when I feel like I have no control and I am a seagull flying with cannons blaring behind me. I pray that I wont resort to crapping on people when I’m scared. I pray that for the rest of us who find ourselves as ministers of Gods grace we wont act like scared seagulls either. That we can model a faith for those whom we serve that relies on God’s Spirit, not merely our abilities.


Have a great week friends.... BANG!