Defining Ministry

So I am taking a pastoral leadership class this summer, the books that I am reading are painting a portrait of a certain kind of minister. It seems as if the book is saying that as a minister you should wear a three piece suit, kiss hands and shake babies (I think I got that one mixed up) and have a clear "pastor voice." The book even went as far as to say that you should seek to please everyone in your congregation.

So if I am to be a Pastor is this the mold I am to fit into? A superficial "yes man" who is nice to everyone and is as squeaky clean as the day my mother gave birth to me?

Don't get me wrong I don't mind wearing ties or being nice to people, but really? Jesus didn't wear a suit, and I am pretty sure they were not even invented then. He wasn't nice to everyone. He called a woman a dog, and the religious Pharisees snakes. He turned over tables and beat people with whips. He Shook babies(Just having fun with the last one)! Jesus did not fit any mold, but he did what he saw the Father doing, he did what God would have him do whether or not it fit a certain religious standard. In fact, the religious people saw him as rebellious and as a sinner because he failed to comply with their outer code.

I think the only mold that a spiritual leader needs to fit into is the one that has a thriving relationship with Jesus Christ, and the one that seeks to live a holy life of integrity and honesty. The outer will go to the grave, the inner lives forever.

Divine Healing

This Blog is a response to a question posted on a facebook status, the question is "If a church (or any ministry) has a "healing service" but can't really verify any of the "healings", what does that mean?

My response,

I do believe that God still is at work supernaturally healing people through people, but we have to remember the original purpose for healing(s) that were done by Jesus. They were to demonstrate his authority over the diseases and prove his divine union with the Father. Today there... See More are people who get fanatical and say that God will heal anytime anywhere (sometimes for a nominal fee) I don't believe this. Jesus did not heal everyone, and the ones that he did heal eventually faced physical death even though they were healed temporarily. Therefore, sometimes people are not going to get healed physically no matter how much faith they put in Christ. And the people that do will end up dying one day anyway. Divine healing is a temporary benefit of the one healed, and a eternal benefit for the one who witnesses said event and believes in Christ as his or her Savior/Forgiver/Leader.

As far as verification for healing, I have seen people get healed and get a clean bill of health from the doctor. My grandma with congestive heart failure for example. However, she died a few months later. So I guess what I am trying to say is the eternal benefit is better than the temporal. And that yes, people should not make a "show" out of this wonderful gift that God sometimes gives.

Personalities and Worship

Creative personalities want to worship God creatively. This involves dancing, singing, doing dramas, and skits. Playing in a heavy metal Christian band.

Critical personalities want to worship God in an organized, orthodox, liturgical way. They are mostly unemotional and sometimes overly critical of those who are.

Direct personalities want to worship God with intense passion, and zeal. They want to do whatever it takes to insure that "His kingdom comes." They are militaristic in their ministries.

Steady/stable personalities want to ensure that everyone is loved and accepted in the church. The way they see worship as praying one on one with as many people as possible and giving as many hugs as possible.

Influencers want all people to be included in the service, and they want them to have a positive experience. They are worried about being accepted by their congregation, and will conform to whatever the general atmosphere is in a particular church.

The problem is, each one of these personalities can see church worship through their own preferences. The solution is to keep in mind that we are not all the same, and we each find God in our own way.

Many churches I have been to are churches with a lot of the same personalities. "Birds of a feather flock together." Think about it, if a church has a rockin band, raise their hands, dance, and jump around they are labeled Pentecostal. If a church is slightly below that and has more of a passion to teach the correct doctrine they are labeled baptist.

The emotional are grouped with the emotional, the outcasts with the outcasts, the intellectual with the intellectual. It is like we are all organized. I think it is up to each believer to learn from all groups.

Worship is...

I am finishing up my internship this week. I have learned many valuable lessons during this time, and been encouraged more than I have been in my entire life. I come out of this semester hopeful about my future. As I look behind I have few regrets, as I look ahead I see endless possibilities. God is good. He is working behind the scenes in my life working together those things for the good (Rom 8:28), having thoughts higher than my thoughts and ways higher than my ways.

God is showing me that it okay just to be who he created me to be. I don't have to impress him or anyone else. His love is not conditional, but sealed with nails.

With that said, my blog is obviously going in a different direction than before. I am no longer doing Oswald Chambers journaling, but am now back to sharing-life-with-the-masses. This blog is about sharing my observations and stories from my life, my opinions, and my thoughts about my journey.

With that said, the other night I attended a chapel service. I helped set up communion and served the elements to the receiving students. There was a part in the service where people were invited to, "Come up and give God the precious in there lives." As I looked objectively at this activity I noticed the diversity of people and how they responded to this "alter call." Some came very willingly and expressed gobs of emotion, people cried, lifted their hands, danced, and bowed.

Others stood with their hands in their pockets. They seemed like they were obligated to be there, but really did not want to be. Still others sat in their chairs showing no response at all. Such diversity in one room.

Of course worship is not entirely about raising hands, singing songs, or giving lip service to God. Worship is not entirely prayer, fasting, speaking in tongues or feeding the homeless. Worship is not entirely reading your Bible, encouraging your friends, or loving people. Worship is not entirely about responding to altar calls, doing what the pastor tells you to do, or not cursing. Worship is not entirely about abstaining from sex before marriage, masturbation, or overeating.

Worship is Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

This includes all of the above and then some. To be a living sacrifice you have to be willing to die. To die to your personal opinions and preferences. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to be holy and pleasing to God. You don't have to do any of the above to make God love you any more than the next person, but if you REALLY want to KNOW GOD doing the above is not a bad idea.

What I am trying to say is, if you have never done something (such as raise your hands), why not try it? I am sure it is not going to hurt God's feelings if you do or don't, but you never know what kind of affect it my have on you. God does not have to respond to your gestures of "worship" but what if he does? It would change your mind about him forever.

God's presence is not invoked by some magical power, but doing some of the above exercises helps prepare the hearts and minds of the believer to receive from God by having open minds and open hearts.

Weakness

If you have whine in you, kick it out ruthlessly. It is a positive crime to be weak in God's strength.

As Christians it is our weaknesses that perfect the power of God, for even if God had a weakness it would be stronger than the strength of man (2 Corinthians 12:9;1 Corinthians 1:25).

As Christians we need to come to a point where we realize that we are nothing without the power of God working in our lives. This power is not through the wonderful accomplishments that we have done for God, rather the realization that we can do nothing without his help. This divine dependence is something that we as the church need to remember if we are to see the church awaken once again in this postmodern generation.

Eternal Life

Christians have hope that no other religion offers, the hope of eternal life in the presence of God himself. The hope of Christians is that we someday obtain this promise through Christ who was the first to be raised from the dead. We will share in this.

Resurrection is an interesting topic. Is is one that I don't hear preached a lot, but it was the goal of Paul to know the complete revelation of Jesus Christ and share in his resurrection from the dead (Phil 3:10-11).

This should be a lesson to Christians, that one hope that we have for certain in Christ is that we are going to live forever. This excites me and give me hope beyond this life. It is true that the sweet by and by, should not distract us from the nasty here and now, but to remember the gift of eternal life is to remember the very core of our belief, that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son that whosoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.

The Cross

The center of salvation is the cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much.

-Oswald Chambers

Salvation is free to anyone and everyone if they put their trust in Jesus Christ as their replacement for the punishment of their sin. For us it is free, for God it cost him everything.

Jesus in Gethsemane had much anxiety about his encounter with death on the cross. The anxiety was not specifically because he feared death or the pain that he would experience, rather it was because of the fact that he knew for a moment he would be abandoned by his heavenly Father. Jesus cried, "My God My God, why have you forsaken me?" In this moment Jesus was stripped of his divinity and he that had no sin was made to be sin for you and me.

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow.