Month: August 2008

The waves of life…

So, things have been insane around here lately.  We canceled our Polish dinner/dessert fund raiser, due to a low number of people able to make it and the costs not being worth the potential income…  So instead we are doing a $15 challenge, and will be making a lot of announcements about that until either all the money comes in, or September 15 gets here.

We are in constant prayer over this trip, it seems with all of the life stuff coming along it has been difficult to focus on the fund raising.  It’s almost a full time job in itself.  A lot of the time I just want to give up, it’s stressful and not easy to communicate a need without sounding like we’re begging or whining.  Between working full time and day to day ministry things, the one thing that is our biggest passion is getting the least amount of attention.

In other news, Emma is being dedicated on Saturday, very exciting, I’m also on worship team this weekend, so that’s a double cool thing.  However, the week ahead has a lot, thankfully Friday is free now 🙂  TTFN.

Preasure mounting

All of this ridiculousness going on in our friends lives’ is beginning to drain my energy, the only thing I feel like doing is worshipping with all my heart, screaming out my fears, my sorrow, and my concern for our dear friends.  Right now to find a simple joy would be nice.  We know there are far worse things in the world, and some of our friends are experiencing those things, Alexis and I are humbled by each event, praising God for his goodness and sovereignty.  There isn’t much anyone can say or do in these kinds of circumstances except pray.  My heart is heavy, my soul is anxious, my spirit is thirsty, and my mind is confused.

A bit ridiculous

Alexis and I facilitate a small group; we’ve been meeting since last October.  Since that time we’ve had amazing and sad times.  At times it can seem almost like a Job complex, deaths, jobs, medical issues, financial mountains, relational hurdles.  None of these are your regular run of the mill things; all have had major consequences, rocking peoples’ lives.

When we look at everything is begins to get a big ridiculous – yet, in all of it God has shown his character, his love, and most of all we have seen his good.  While we recover from the latest series of events we will continue to go deeper, allow God to do his work, and deepen our ties with each other.  I know that everyone in our small group knows that what we have is authentic, loving, and a true reflection of Church.

Titles in the Church

Maybe I’m over sensitive, maybe I’m jaded, but one of my biggest pet peeves in the Church is the usage of titles – “Pastor Joe”, “Sr. Pastor Bob”, etc…  It bugs me because it is such a cultural thing to “elevate” people.  By adding titles to positions in the Church I think we alienate the humanity of the person.  Scripture does not have an extensive use of these titles, most of the time the apostles and other New Testament Church folks used them to point out a gift in a person, not the position.  Today we seem to use these titles on par with Doctor and President.

Paul did make a point to differentiate the different offices of the Church, and he did call himself Apostle, yet within context it wasn’t as a title.  I see Paul’s use as more of a point of the authority Christ gave him, in which some were arguing against at the time.

I do believe it’s important to recognize a gift in a person, and I think it can be done in a less “elevated” way.  So when pastoral (and other) callings need to be communicated on paper and in voice, I think something like “Joe – Men’s pastor” suffices.  I cringe every time I hear someone call out “Hey Pastor John”…  Moreover, when a pastor refers to him/her self, then I really have to control my thoughts and love the Church.   I know that when the time comes and I am a pastor, I just want to just be called Travis, people will know without question who I am, not what I am.

Questions and things that bother me

I’m hoping to motivate some thoughts in my mind for future blog posts…   So the following is a list of questions and things that bother me in some way or another.

  • Disunity in the Church
  • Misinformation in the Church
  • Is that Christian or just religion?
  • The above caused by poor communication
  • The above caused by assumptions
  • Relationship or religion?
  • People not willing to reconcile relationships
  • People stuck in poor relationships
  • Self-focused churches
  • Grace forgotten
  • Truth forgotten
  • When fear drives decisions
  • When God is not saught in decisions
  • Would Jesus really do that?
  • When people seem to think they are entitled to something
  • When Jesus’ follwers forgot to operate in the Kingdom
  • When Jesus’ people operate as the world does

The Bible Answer Man…

I was listening to the Bible Answer Man today and unfortunately I don’t have enough time to fully write what I want to communicate.  However, the topic was on “false revivals”, and while the underlying issue certainly has some warrant, I did not agree with all of the arguments.  I for one am a believer in a lot of things deemed “Charismatic and/or Pentecostal, however, I do agree with the Bible Man’s viewpoint that there are a lot of false prophets and revivals out there and that a true revival is a revival of the truth of the Bible.  But I did not agree with the sounds bytes used, the slandering of people, and the “throw the baby out with the bath water” approach.

While he stated he was not being sensational, it certainly came across that way as a 20’s something, it turned me off completely, even though he had good, legit points… I continued to listen though, and I have much more to say on the topic.

Hello, My name is Richard Cranium

Yeah, figure that out.  You know what I mean?  No?  Well the nickname for Richard and where is the Cranium?

Yeah.

So I found myself at the end of my rope last night, I exploded in anger at Alexis about some pretty trivial things, albeit, it was the principle of that matter that I really wanted to address, but of course in my reaction didn’t really communicate that.

Thank God for his grace, we’re both still licking our wounds, and it will take a day or so to feel normal again.  Last night was another episode of meticulous and detail oriented verses free spirited attempting to reconcile over things that are not on the radar for either.