How to Pastor Your Pastor

A Message from 1 Thessalonians 5.12-15

Thank you for having me here this morning. I’m in a great position right now. I get to preach from a text that encourages the congregation to respect and care for their preacher. Now I can get away with that since I am only a pulpit supply; a hired gun, if you will. And no, your pastor did not pay me to preach this message. I picked the passage myself. You can read along in your bibles, 1 Thessalonians 5.12-15.

“Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”

So the Apostle Paul writes to the church.

• The challenge is that one can always find fault with a pastor.
• If the pastor is young, he lacks experience; if his hair is gray, he’s too old to relate to the young people.
• If she has five or six children, she must be too busy to pastor; if she has none, you wonder if she’s a feminist.
• If he preaches from a manuscript, he has canned sermons and is dry; if his messages are extemporaneous, he isn’t deep enough.
• If she uses too many illustrations, she’s neglecting the bible; if she doesn’t include stories, she’s too erudite.
• If he preaches the truth and condemns wrong, he’s cranky; if he doesn’t preach against sin, he’s a compromiser.
• If she preaches all the time, the congregation gets tired of hearing her voice; if she invites guest ministers, she’s shirking responsibility.
• If he can’t please the majority, he’s hurting the church and should leave; if he tries to make everyone happy, he has no convictions.
• If she drives an old car, she shames her congregation; if she buys a new one, she’s setting her affection on earthly things.
• If he receives a large salary, he’s mercenary; if he gets a small one, they say it proves he isn’t worth much anyway.

Quite a dilemma, don’t you think? It’s tough being in ministry today given the many and varied expectations prevalent in a typical congregation. One especially has to be a bold preacher to tackle texts like these. Or a guest preacher. Even then it’s a bit risky – you might never invite me back. Yet despite the dilemma, I want to do just that. And I’m going to apply the umpire’s axiom. I’m simply going to call it as I see it.

Pentecost

There's a rumor afloat.

A strange new group in town is attracting members left and right. Every day people are joining this group and forming what can only be described as a spiritual movement. When I first heard about it all I knew was that it had something to do with a prophecy being fulfilled…

The rumor is that the "Last Day" is upon us. This group is convinced that a prophecy written hundreds of years ago has finally come true. It's a prophecy about everyone being filled up with God. And like I said, this movement is growing.

Why are so many people flocking to this strange new group? Well, just a few weeks ago a crowd of over hundred people took to the streets speaking all sorts of different languages. These men and women were shouting out in tongues not their own. A friend of mine saw it happen and heard the words. He told me he thought they were drunk.

But then this man named Peter took center stage and quoted the prophecy which they claimed had come true. And the people – over 3,000 people! – who heard him speak believed what he had to say. A new spiritual movement was under way and more are joining every day.

I'm the kind of person who gets excited about things like this, but I'm also a bit skeptical when so many people get interested in something so quickly. So I decided to do a little investigation of my own. Here's what I found out.

Here Comes the Son ... of Man

Here Comes the Son ... of Man
A Sermon from Mark 10:42-45, Phil 2:5-11 & Daniel 7:13-14

My nickname growing up was Bug. Probably because I pestered my older brothers and sisters. I was the last of seven kids - an afterthought nine years after the last afterthought. So I grew up spoiled, or at least that's what my siblings tell me.

They said I bugged them about everything. I could ask more questions! Where are you going? What are you going to do? When are you coming back? Can I go with you? Why not? If you've got a baby brother or sister, I bet you can relate. They sure can be a pest at times, a bug.

Well, by the time I reached junior high I realized that Bug wasn't that flattering a nickname. I must have been a slow learner. So one year at camp I came up with what I thought was just the coolest name. Brooklyn. Call me Brooklyn. It's no use asking why, I don't know. But everyone else had a handle and I wanted one too. So I gave myself a new name. It didn't catch on.

What was your nickname growing up?

Back from the Precipice

Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?(Proverbs 24:11,12 - NIV)

When teaching from the Book of Proverbs a few years ago, I discovered some amazing gems of wisdom that I had never seen before. Just proves that the teacher learns more in preparing the lesson than the class does in receiving it!

One precious word I rediscovered (from Proverbs 24:11) is God's call for me - for us - to pull back from the precipice those who are tripping toward death. The signs are obvious. A friend's life is spiraling downward. A family member is flirting with disaster. A neighbor is shutting God out of her life. We all know people who are staggering toward the slaughter.

What to do? Intervene. Social workers know the routine: Situation. Phone call. Visit. Evaluation. Drastic measures. Intervention. Someone has to step in and set right what has gone wrong.

We're talking life and death. An issue of eternal significance. And we're to act. Immediately. We are called to rescue those who, if they don't hear and respond to the message of Jesus Christ, will be separated from God forever. We can't plead ignorance. We can't wish it away. We can't opt to do nothing. We are faced with a hazmat disaster and the time to respond is now.

How? Through positive, personal, prayerful, persistent intervention.

Positive. The gospel is good news, full of hope, delivered with joyful hearts and encouraging words. When we share the wonderful story of salvation, disapproving frowns are replaced with smiling faces.

Personal. The gospel is relational, tailored in its presentation to the unique situations of its audience. Our lives are open letters engagingly written by Christ, not forwarded carbon copies of stale and tiresome news.

Prayerful. The gospel becomes effective in someone's life through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we pray for a person's salvation, we're praying for a miracle that only God can perform.

Persistent. The truth of the gospel will stand up under scrutiny. As people explore the claims of Christ we can demonstrate love and patience, confident that God is at work. Our job is to continue to witness with our life and lips.

Have we weighed our hearts? Are they heavy for the lost? Having been rescued, are we now reaching out to others who are staggering toward death?

© 2006 Lyndon Perry
Permission granted to reprint this article provided copyright information is included.

It's Not About the Bike

The human spirit surprises me.

Aware of the devilish and awaiting the heavenly, I often overlook a simple matter: Our mortal soul is a remarkable thing. Lance Armstrong's battle and victory over cancer, his well-documented racing comeback, and his unfathomable 7 consecutive Tour de France wins is a moving saga, reminding me that courage and struggle are profound human virtues.

Lance's first book, It's Not About the Bike, is not just for dedicated athletes or survivors of the disease. For the race in which we find ourselves is really a metaphor for life; it is not limited in scope to sports or sickness. In fact, it's a human race - full of tragedy and disappointment, surely - but buoyed by triumph and celebration. Armstrong's perspective is a crucial part of the story of the human spirit and I appreciate his candor in sharing it. It inspires me to dig deep and work through some of my daily and often mundane struggles.

But there's more to this story. I pray that Lance will one day experience the next chapter, or sequel, and taste true victory in and through Jesus Christ.

After reading this inspiring book, I get the impression that Armstrong knows that death and defeat don't deserve the victory lap. Yet in life's race and at this point in his personal tour it seems he believes that the best we can hope for is to confront death "straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage." (p. 272) In the final analysis, any triumph we experience is due to a reliance upon the self.

But if ultimately, in this dangerous race through mortality, it is simply a matter of standing firm in the face of adversity, then I fear our hope is built on something less than lasting. In the end, death wins. Yellow jerseys fade. Courage expires. Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. (from Ecclesiastes 1.2)

Except the eternal. This is the victory that Jesus offers. Life now and life eternal. Yes, as Armstrong states,

"People die. That truth is so disheartening that at times I can't bear to articulate it. Why should we go on, you might ask? Why don't we all just stop and lie down where we are? But there is another truth, too. People live." (pp. 4, 5)

Again, this part of the story - our pursuit of life - is an inspiring story that he tells fairly well. And yet I long for Armstrong to keep reading, keep listening for the rest of the story. The message that, not only do people live, but people Live. This triumph does not rely on self or courage or grit or luck. It comes as a gift, one that can't be earned, for it is a victory over Death that has already been won for us by Jesus Christ.

Maybe I'll be able to talk with Lance about this someday. He already knows it's not about racing; I just want to tell him that it's really about Life.

© 2005 Lyndon Perry
Permission granted to reprint this article provided copyright information is included.

New Hearts and Frozen Chickens

A few years ago NASA developed a special gun for launching dead chickens at the windshields of military jets in order to test the design and strength of the glass against collisions with airborne fowl.

French engineers were eager to test this gun on their new high speed trains. But when they launched their chickens, they found that their shatterproof windshields were no match for the dead birds. The French engineers sent their specs back to the US for analysis. NASA's response: "Thaw your chickens."

We laugh, but life can serve up some major fast balls. Although we'd like to believe that our personal, family and business lives are shatterproof, we know better. It only takes one hard shot - a death, illness, divorce, or job loss, just to name a few - and we're in a tail spin.

God can rescue us, though. He desires to salvage our broken lives and fortify our "inner man," the secret place in a person's heart that aches and sputters even as we try to maintain a tough and confident exterior.

And, although we like to imagine ourselves as self-sufficient, we know that we need rescuing. The scuds that life launches at us have done some damage. In response to the daily pressures of home and work, our hearts have grown cold and callused. Our inner man has grown faint. We need God to re-engineer our lives in order to withstand the "frozen chickens" that assault our souls.

This is, in fact, God's specialty. God desires, and is able, to re-ignite the fire that once burned in your belly. Or ignite it for the first time if you've never had a fever for life. Maybe you're living life by default. Yet you suspect there's a better existence out there, if only you could discover it.

I'm convinced God has the answer. He is the answer. He says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (This quote from the bible is Ezekiel 36:26.)

Through the person of Jesus Christ, God offers a pulsing, vital heart that is able to weather everything life unleashes. Don't worry, God isn't some divine Dr. Frankenstein bent on controlling his creation. He wants the best for us. And he makes it possible for us not only to survive our home or work environment, but to thrive as well.

How does it all begin? By receiving a new heart. Are you ready for a transplant? Then move a step closer to Jesus Christ. His heart is beating toward you; your strength is in his strength. He can jump-start your soul, pull you out of your nose-dive and set you back on course. Accept God's heartfelt gift today.

© 2005 Lyndon Perry
Permission granted to reprint this article provided copyright information is included.

Finding Religion

Heard an amusing story, probably apocryphal, about W.C. Fields upon his death bed.

A friend caught Fields, a notorious agnostic, flipping through the bible. "What are you doing?" his friend asked. "Finding religion?"

"Looking for loopholes!" came the reply.

In Luke 10 an expert in biblical law approached Jesus looking for loopholes. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" he asked to test the waters.

Love God; love your neighbor.

Impossible, when it comes right down to it. And this duty to one's fellow man, so inconvenient!

"But who is my neighbor?" he asked, spotting a possible out. Depending on the definition of neighbor, this command might be do-able after all. In response, Jesus tells a story about serving those in need.

" . . . So finally, there was this Samaritan," Jesus concludes in a surprise twist of plot. A surprise, that is, for the listeners who were snug in their relational blankets. For Jesus asked this law expert, "Who played the neighbor in this story?"

Hmm. Well. [Cough, cough] I suppose the Samaritan was the neighbor.

So answer your own question - Who is your neighbor? The plot twist reveals that it is not so much the person in need whom we are to love, it is the alien, the Samaritan who acted neighborly. Our neighbor then is the outcast; the person with whom we wouldn't naturally associate.

This path of service is a difficult path. Especially for us mortals who are bent on securing immortality through self-righteous acts. But if that's what we have to do... So we clarify the question: Will this hard path lead to eternal life? If so, let's buckle down and get to work.

But the bible answers, honestly, no. For even good Samaritans fall short of perfect obedience to God's standard of perfect love. Loving one's neighbor will never move us toward salvation. It's merely an expression of it.

This, then, is the real test. Is our relationship with Christ overflowing into every relationship (with those we care for and with those we don't) out of a response to his love? God will place the outcast in our path, will we stop and care for this person? It's a daily take-home exam; and one that I often fail. But there's freedom even then.

No, I haven't found a loophole. I've simply discovered that in Christ I'm set free of the tyranny of trying to secure eternal life through self-effort. You see, at one point, I was that alien on the side of the road, helpless and dying. And the Good Samaritan stopped, bound up my wounds, and soothed my soul. In response to his great neighborly love, I now, imperfectly yet aided by God's Spirit, watch for others who need to receive the healing touch I've experienced.

This is finding religion.

© 2005 Lyndon Perry
Permission granted to reprint this article provided copyright information is provided.