Sermon hat trick

I heard three sermons today. So, as you might imagine, I’m feeling pretty holy.



This wasn't one of the three preachers I heard today, but it is cool that he has two microphones!

Pastor Matt and I took our interns to a Lutheran church as part of our effort to introduce them to different styles of following Jesus. That service, which featured real, but nasty, wine, ended just after nine am. This gave me enough time to zip over and slip into Union Chapel just as announcements ended for the first service. Gregg’s sermon was sharp, but not longer than usual. (Surprising since he’d been out of the pulpit for three weeks!) A quick hop across the parking lot and I was ready for message number three at CommonWay.

The first sermon had to do with prayer. While I’m a big fan of prayer, I’m afraid most of the content was pushed out of my brain by the latter two sermons.

Sermon two was the first in a three part series on service and volunteering. It centered around Moses’s call at the burning bush, particularly God’s question to Moses, “What’s in your hand?” The key point was that God has put stuff in our hands and given us opportunity to use it for His kingdom. We can if we will. What’s in your hand?

The third message (far and away the longest!) dealt with Christ’s reign in our lives and how it works out not only in good times but also in bad. It featured a brilliant real life example of letting Jesus carry out his character building work when life is bleak and challenging. The speaker was honest and authentic, without being maudlin. I appreciated it.

Are you wondering which was best? Keep wondering. In the unlikely event that someone besides my mom reads this blog, ranking them could only mean trouble!

Looking for God's Kingdom in Louisville

I’m writing this afternoon from Louisville, KY. The family is on a bit of a pilgrimage with some friends to sit in on two meetings with evangelist Todd Bentley. We’re in line right now at 3.30 pm, waiting for the doors to open at 5.30. Both the temperature and the humidity are right around 100, and I’m wondering if I’m nuts. In spite of the heat, people are singing, crying and praying for the sick right in the line. Wild.



Joseph and the line between us and the door.



This lady has a lucky green ticket that got her and whoever had one into the building 30 minutes ahead of those (like us) who were totally green ticketless!

I don’t know what you’ve heard about Todd Bentley or the goings on in Lakeland, FL, but it’s fun to think about God’s kingdom growing in fresh ways in our midst.

One thing that struck me, both as we’ve watched the revival online, and today here in Louisville, is the degree to which the focus is placed on Jesus. I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing, so I have little to compare it to. I do know that my cynical side would expect the focus to be on the main guy or on the healings. There’s a bit of that going on here, but not as much as I feared. The proof of that pudding will be if similar stuff happens on a similar scale without the Bentley-boy showing up.

Which is a key reason why we’re here. We’re wondering if God might desire to work in similar ways in our church.

Cool healing: A war veteran who’d been in a wheel chair or electric cart for 41 years, got up, walked, leapt and praised the Lord. His wife confirmed this was a whole new deal for him. She then got prayed for healing of a couple major issues. It was precious to watch them hug onstage, enjoying their divine two for one deal.

Heartbreaking sight: The service wrapped up, leaving a possibly Bengali couple onstage holding an obviously troubled child of one or two. They stood there, nearly alone, looking confused, as the focus of the meeting shifted away from the stage. I prayed that God would meet their needs some way.

Walking away from the meeting, I thought that it was probably good that Jesus came to the planet when he did. Early in the gospel of Mark the whole town gathered at Jesus' door and he heals many who had various diseases. What would happen today? When thousands can fly or drive to a place where people are getting healed, how would Jesus have handled it?

For that matter, how does Todd Bentley handle walking away when there are unmet needs? But the guy’s got to sleep. A friend once talked about the stress he felt while running an eye hospital in Azerbaijan. There were always more people than he could help. Every hour he didn’t work meant that someone who might have been helped remained sightless. That’ll keep you up at night.

May God give his people the wisdom to do the work he’s designed for them to do (Ephesians 2.10) and not stress about the rest. Jesus gave us a good model for this. He said, “I can do only what I see the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does..” (John 5.19)

Yurt Snoozin'

I’m blogging tonight from the yurt. I’d rather be sleeping right now, but two things are keeping me from it: 1. How often do you get the chance to say you’re blogging from a yurt? And 2. My yurt-mates, Emily, Alia, and Abigail are still in chat and chuckle mode. (This is fake sleeping below!)





We’re hanging in the yurt tonight because ten of our friends are in Kazakhstan and we want to remember them and pray for them. They’ve gone off for a brief trip to love on some young folks who are “graduating” from an orphanage.

This is something I never thought of for the first 42 years of my life: Orphans eventually outgrow the orphanage. "Graduate" is a nice word for what happens at that point. You’ve heard how tough it is for some former inmates to adjust to the world outside of prison. Imagine growing up your entire life in the regimented environment of an orphanage, then all of a sudden heading out into the real world. To soft pedal it in a big way: It’s a bit of an adjustment.

So our friends are over there helping some friends make the adjustment. I can see Jesus doing that sort of thing. In fact, I can see Jesus in them now, doing the sort of stuff he likes to do.

Because we care for our friends, and want in some measure to care for these graduating orphans through them, we set up the yurt in the gym at church. It fills up most of the stage and covers some of the powerpoint screen, but the worship team is flexing. Over the course of ten days maybe thirty of us will spend the night here. If you're in driving distance and want to stay tomorrow (Friday) night, let me know.

Punch the button, not the attendant

My friend Matt and I were on our way to breakfast recently. Matt's claim to fame is that he nearly died on a Tibetan mountain pass when his car broke down one time. He, his wife and son were saved by the thoughtful actions of their driver. He pointed the disabled car toward the fading sunlight and, using the hood, redirected sufficient rays to thaw the frozen line. Matt has other claims to fame, but that was the coolest one I heard during this particular breakfast.

At any rate, on the way to food, we stopped for fuel. I would think by now we would have standardized the gas pump. Apparently not. This one, with it's unique variety of questions to answer, selections to make, and buttons to push, nearly stumped us. And that's saying something: Matt's an engineer and me, well, I graduated from Ball State University.

Once the gas was flowing we noticed the button and sign shown below. Apparently we were not alone in our frustration with the complicated pump. It looked liked someone had tried with great vigor to "speak with an attendant," enough vigor to snap off portions of the button!

I love orange shirts

I recently attended a conference at Wheaton College. I'd been to the school before, but didn't really know where anything was. My friend Matt and I parked within a dozen yards of a banner denoting our conference. But it turned out that was mostly a good place to hang a banner, not really the main place where the meeting was being held.



As we walked up toward the banner we were met by a couple young people in orange shirts. They informed us that our first order was to register in the gym. "Follow the sidewalk that way," the orange shirt pointed and said. Matt and I strode off obediently. Just at the point when I was thinking, "Where's the dang gym?" another orange shirt materialized and said, "Need to register? Just this way." At the gym, an orange shirt opened the door. At dinner a particularly intrepid orange shirt held open two doors at once to let in the thronging masses. Like signs in the Paris Metro, the orange shirts seemed to always be where I needed them.

I wanted to bring one home with me.

How cool would that be? Someone who knew the schedule, knew where the places were that you needed to be, and held open the door when you got there. And all this with a smiling face. Amazing and wonderful.

It makes me wonder if the orange shirts all came from Utah or maybe Enterprise Car Rental.

Lessons in Influence from the Book of Esther

Last Saturday I had a cool opportunity to sit with a few others, listening to our senior pastor Gregg Parris talk about what it means to be a leader. He spoke briefly about some of his success as a leader. He also spoke in depth about several of his devastating failures. I’ll blog some of those stories in coming days.*

Drawing from the book of Esther in the Bible, Gregg presented us with eight leadership lessons. I missed many of the connections to Esther, so you may want to read the book for yourself. It’s a fascinating story.

Eight Lessons in Influence from Esther

Pray to see things as they are. Often times the stated issue isn’t the real issue. Gregg said the younger you are when you learn this, the better off you’ll be for the rest of your life. Ask, “God, what is really going on in this conflict?”

Influence influencers. Gregg said that this principle is why he showed up on Saturday morning to speak to our small group. He sees potential to influence in our little band of interns. (No pressure, guys!)

Be courageous and self-sacrificial. You will never be a great leader unless you’re willing to suffer. Those who suffer with grace do so because of their courage.

Timing and preparation are crucial to influence. You have to pick your battles. And you need to be prepared. With regard to issues of the kingdom of God, timing is everything.

Be crucified to personal ambition. Authority to lead comes to the degree that you lay down your life for the people you serve. If you will take care of the depth of your relationship with God, he’ll take care of the breadth of your influence.

Be positive, not destructive. Destruction is what happens when we’re not positive. Think the best of people.

Get control of your pride and ego before exerting influence.

Trust God with the results.

If I had to choose one or two of these to consider in my life, maybe to focus some growth and training on, I think I’d go with “Pray to see things as they are.” I could also do with a greater sense of personal sacrifice and courage, but I’d rather not think about that.

One thing I see at work in my life, that I delight in, is the privilege I have to influence influencers. I spend a good bit of my time speaking to and writing for people who love Jesus and want to respectfully invite others to follow him.

How about you? Any of these you’d like to grow in? Any you’ve seen God give you or build in you lately?


*OK, truth be told: Gregg didn’t talk about failure and I wouldn’t blog it if he did. I just put that in there to encourage you to keep reading!

Grateful for God's provision

Here’s something I’m thankful for today: Food. Yummy food in ample quantity. Many people around the world do not have ample food, tasty or otherwise. If there’s food to buy, they lay awake at night wondering how they’ll afford to get it for their kids. Other people can’t enjoy food right now like my friend who struggles with anorexia and my dad who finds little or no appeal in food as he battles cancer.

But I’m thankful for the food I’ve enjoyed today: Fresh blueberries to put on my cereal this morning; tasty kettle-fried potato chips with the box lunch at the conference I’m attending; and as I walked to the workshop in which I’m typing this, some young volunteer was passing out Dove ice cream bars. Wow. Culinary utopia and dinner hasn’t even happened yet.

Of course I’d trade it all to see my friend and dad share a large pizza or a bag of White Castle hamburgers. And whole cities, nations where the food is running out? Well, that’s hard to even imagine.