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+ Words That Speak

September 22, 2011

1. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word – Acts 6:3-4

2. Lately I’ve viewed it as a personal goal to help enhance the leadership of those around me. If I can help other people be better leaders, I’ll feel like a blessed man – John Stumbo 6/23/11

3. I believe that God has a purpose for my life on the other side of this illness. I believe that God wants to use me to bless others. I believe that there is a ‘divine providence” at work in my life and in this illness that God will eventually reveal to me – 7/29/11 Boise, Idaho

4. John Stott’s answer to “How I would like to be remembered?” As an ordinary Christian who has struggled in his desire to expound, to understand, to relate, to apply the Word of God

5. This life, therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being, but becoming, not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified – Martin Luther, 1521

6. Hyper-focus on Jesus each week, pastor, and your service will have the most fascinating subject in existence. Jesus can’t be boring – Jared Wilson tweet

7. Every local church is the people of God, the body of Christ, built upon the foundation of Christ (I Cor. 3:11,16; 12:27), because in that location it is the same as what the church is in its entirety, and Christ is for the local church what he is for the universal church. in the various local gatherings of believers, it is the one church of Christ that comes to expression – Herman Bavinck

8. Go deeper in my relationship with Jesus, then teach, pastor, lead & pray out of that – live, serve, lead, influence out of a deeper well

9. Keep your eyes on Jesus – Kelvin Gardiner = live prayerfully before Jesus, seek his direction, listen for his voice, do what he says, go where he says to go

+ Reading

May 13, 2011

I love to read. Right now I have seven different books going, five of which are shown in the picture to the right. I'll be the first to admit, seven is too many at one time. My normal is more like two or three - one to two books going at home and one to two more at work. I read according to mood and time - the time of the day or night and the mood I'm in.

Here's a short description of what I am reading right now. Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr. I can't remember where I first got wind of Rohr's latest book but the title immediately grabbed my attention. So far, twenty-four pages into it, I have not been disappointed. Rohr writes about how our failings as we grow older can be the foundation for our ongoing spiritual growth.

Contemplating the Trinity: The Path To The Abundant Christian Life by Raniero Cantalamessa. This book is my latest find at the Mt. Angel Abbey bookstore. Cantalamessa was appointed as preacher to the papal household by Pope John Paul II and still serves in this role under Pope Benedict XVI. The book contains a series of meditations given to the papal household in 2001 and 2002. Comparing the Trinity to the ocean Cantalamessa writes, "We cannot wrap our arms around the ocean, but we can enter into it." These meditations invite us to turn to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a means to overcome hateful divisions, unhappiness, false beauty, and hypocrisy, and as a means to enter more deeply into prayer, communion, and our quest for eternity.

Every Riven Thing: Poems by Christian Wiman. Wiman is the editor of the journal Poetry and the author of two previous collections of poems, The Long Home and Hard Night. I came upon Wiman in a recent issue of The Christian Century where I discovered that he was raised in the church, drifted away as an adult, and recently returned to the faith of his childhood due to a bout with cancer. These poems came out of his encounter with cancer and re-awaking of his faith. This morning I read aloud the first two poems in this collection, Dust Devil and After the Diagnosis.

House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer's Journey Home by Mark Richard is the winner of the PEN/Hemingway award. From the books flyleaf, "In this otherworldly memoir of extraordinary power, Mark Richard, an award-winning author, tells his story of growing up in the American south with a heady Gothic mix of racial tension and religious fervor." The following quote led me to buy Richard's book, "...a place where only God knows how close you came to what could have been, and only His grace saved you from it. It's the lesson of Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the oven of the insane King Nebuchadnezzar; sometimes God saves us through fire, sometimes He saves us from the fire, and sometimes He saves us not at all."

Stuck: Navigating The Transitions of Life and Leadership by Terry Walling. I started this book last summer, set it down, but recently picked it up again with a re-newed interest in its contents. I feel like I am in a transition time in my life, family, and ministry. So far I am finding Wallling's insights helpful for my journey.

The two books not pictured above are Onward: How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz and The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. The Starbucks book is fascinating reading from Schultz on why he returned to Starbucks as their CEO three years ago and what he did to help turn the company around when it was beginning to spiral downward from its glory years. Greene's book is one of his best novels about the whiskey priest, a story of God's grace and how it sometimes works through extremely flawed humanity.

One month from now I hope to have all seven books read. Each addresses an interest, need, like, or curiosity in my life at the moment. I am thankful for eyes to read with, a mind to think with, and good writers who stretch, challenge, and entertain me.

+ Russia

April 22, 2011

Hammer and sickle, the symbols of the (former) communist party in Russia. Heather and I walked over the bridge carrying this symbol to visit the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The original church was destroyed on Stalin's orders in 1931 to become the site for a monument to socialism known as the Palace of the Soviets. Lack of funds, flooding from the nearby Moskva River, and the outbreak of World War II got in the way of its construction. The Russian Orthodox Church received permission in the 1990s to rebuild the cathedral. It seemed that everywhere we went in Moscow we encountered vestiges of communism such as this symbol on a bridge and Russian Orthodox churches dotting the skyline of the city. Atheism and faith stand side by side in what is now one of the most expensive cities in the world in which to live.

The Russian people seem indifferent to human conversation or interaction with strangers. Perhaps this is a carryover from years of mistrust of one's neighbor due to communism and the danger of letting one's true thoughts be known. I vividly recall riding the metro (subway) one evening packed with rush hour commuters standing and sitting shoulder to shoulder. No one talked, not just on this ride but on every experience we had riding the metro. I've ridden the metro in Paris, not known for its friendly people, but never observed anything like I did in Moscow. We were told, though, that once you make a Russian friend, everything changes. They are open, transparent, and faithful in ways friends are not here in the West.

It was an honor to speak to a group of international workers with the Alliance. They came from five different cities scattered across Russia and Ukraine. Living so far from home they were family to one another and enjoyed each other's presence. Some carried a long history together. The culture, language, weather, expense, and unresponsiveness of the Russian people are trying. Discouragement comes easy. Barriers to faith require commitment, perseverance, and a reliance upon a strong sense of God's calling. I felt humbled to speak to them, often feeling like they had more to teach me about loving and serving Christ than I had to teach them.

Now that I am home the most and best I can do for them is pray for them - marriages that need renewal, children who need healing, backs that need strengthening, headaches that need to go away, problems that need wisdom, and situations that need new vision. People who just a month ago were only names and faces on a website today are people who I carry in my heart in prayer for God's grace to strengthen them in Christ Jesus.

+ Things Local

March 14, 2011

Eugene Peterson has been one of my heroes for almost as long as I have been a pastor. I have twenty-four of his books sitting on my bookshelf. Peterson first started and then pastored Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland for twenty-nine years. After he resigned he went on to teach at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Regent College. He is now retired and lives on Flathead Lake in Montana in the family home that he helped his dad build in 1948.

I just finished reading Peterson's latest book, The Pastor: A Memoir. I love his writing for the following reasons: 1) he truly is a writer who takes language seriously and knows how to use words; 2) he is biblically and theologically rooted and almost never leaves you without a biblical story or text to ponder in anything he writes; 3) he is culturally astute and perceptive and is not afraid to point out where and how he believes the church has wandered from its moorings; and 4) he is well-read across numerous disciplines such as poetry, fiction, philosophy, language, theology, and biblical studies which means I always learn about a new author or book to read when I read Peterson.

Two lines from his memoir grabbed me when I read them over the weekend: "The life of faith cannot be lived in general or by abstractions. All the great realities that we can't touch or see take form on ground that we can touch and see." Earlier he defined that unseen and untouched realities as "God and souls - immense mysteries that no one has ever seen at any time."

Throughout his life and especially in The Pastor Peterson emphasizes and writes about "things local." The space and time in which God's salvation story is written into our stories. Thisness and hereness. Peterson defines the pastor as "the person placed in the community to pay attention and call attention to what is going on right now between men and women, with one another and with God - this kingdom of God that is primarily local, relentlessly personal, and prayerfully without ceasing."

To be honest, I feel like I see dimly. Like I have missed out on so much as a pastor - as well as a human being - by being so caught up in trying to make things happen that I miss what is already happening right in front of my nose, orchestrated by God himself. Peterson sounds a call to all of us to slow down and be present to the present moment for that is the moment in which God is at work if he is, in fact, at work in any of our moments. Thisness and hereness.

What does this mean for me as a husband, a father, a friend, and a pastor? For me as I pray, journal, study Scripture, write my sermon, or lead an Elder meeting as well as shop for groceries, talk to my neighbor, run four miles, calculate college expenses for one of my daughters, or sit around a campfire with my friends?

Peterson always stops me in my tracks. Causes me to think and evaluate. And long for something better and more glorious than what I often settle for.

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