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"But I say to you who hear, 'Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you." (Luke 6:27)
Put yourself in the place of the Lord. You want to get across to your people the importance of fellowship inside the body, how to keep relationships strong, and how to correct them when they get out of whack. So, what do you do?
Do you tell your people to love their children? to love their parents? their sweethearts?
They already do. Jesus said even bad people love their own.
Instead, Jesus tells us to love our enemies---the absolute last people on earth we would think of loving. We tend to think of our enemies as completely unlovable, the guy who did us wrong and is planning worse, the kind of people we want to hate or fear or resent and are thinking of getting back at.
Love my enemies? Are you kidding, Lord? I don't even like them.
The good news is He does not tell us we have to like them. Some of them He doesn't like very much either. 'Like' has nothing to do with it. It's about love.
We have to love them.
This is not an option. The command to love our enemies is found three times in the gospels--Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27 and 35. The principle, however, is planted all through Scripture. We're stuck with it. This is something our Lord Jesus Christ fully expects from His disciples.
A friend who teaches seminary students the art and craft of sermon-building and delivery sent out an SOS the other day to a lot of his pastor friends. "What is the single most important piece of advice you would give to beginning preachers?"
What I said was important, but certainly not "the most important piece of advice." What I said was that once he gets the sermon, he should go for a walk or a drive and preach it to himself. And not one time, but several times over several days.
The advantage of this is that by preaching it aloud, he is able to see where the message is weak, where it dies, where it needs strengthening, and where he has to close an exit because he was about to chase a rabbit down that dead-end lane.
The reason I chose that piece of advice, it should be clear, is that I wish someone had told me that when I was beginning to preach.
Instead, what I would do is labor over a scripture, hammer out an outline, work some subpoints into it, and then hope for the best. However "the best" never came along. It was always mediocre.
In the weeks since my friend asked and I gave that piece of advice, I've thought of something far more urgent in preparing a sermon. In fact, what I'm going to suggest comes before the sermon even begins to be prepared.
Under the influence of the tabloids at the super market checkout, I toyed with the notion of calling this "What Pastors Don't Tell You About Those Stories They Tell."
It's all of that. In fact, what I'm going to say about stories we pastors tell from the pulpit is not universally accepted as the right thing to do. Some might accuse us of dishonesty or worse. I beg to differ.
Read it, then give us your assessment at the end.
1) Some stories the pastor tells as happening to someone else actually occurred to him.
Case in point. Last Saturday morning, while leading a deacon retreat for a church I once pastored, one of the men volunteered a testimony that gave me far too much credit for his coming back to Christ and getting active in the church. He's in insurance, and was the agent for the fellow who had hit me and injured me slightly. At one point, he said--I have no memory of this--I asked if he thought the insurance company would be willing to replace my broken glasses. Something about that, evidently, impressed him, that I was not greedily grabbing for all I could squeeze out of the insurance company, and God used it to get his attention.
As I say, I have no memory of any of it; I barely remember the accident.
When I arrived back home, my wife said, "You can't tell that story, though." I agreed. In a sermon, it would appear self-serving or self-promoting, as in "look how wonderful I am." So I won't tell it.
Oops. I just told it, didn't I? But it was to make the point: if I ever put it into a sermon, the story would work better camouflaged. I would tell it as though it happened to "a good friend of mine." It did, of course; I'm a good friend of me.
That little technique--relating a personal story in the third person--allows a minister to make excellent use of some of his best illustrations without appearing to be boasting.
2) Some stories are composites.
We've all seen it and some of us have done it.
The pastor strides to the pulpit, opens the Bible, reads his text, announces his subject, then begins with an apology. "I have no right to speak to you on this subject." "Many of you know more about this subject than I do." "I'm not sure why the Lord laid this on my heart, but I'm going to give it a try."
That sort of thing.
It feels to the well-meaning pastor like transparency, like he's leveling with his people, admitting what they already know--that he's human and fallible. A fellow struggler. One of them.
It feels to most of the congregation like, "Well, if you don't know, we sure don't. Get it over with and let's go home."
I rise this evening, pastors, to say to you that this kind of false humility has no place in the Kingdom of God. It most certainly has no place in the pulpit where God expects His servant to be bold and His people expect their pastor to be faithful.
What it does is cut the ground out from under everything the minister is about to share. It diminishes the authority with which God fully intends him to proclaim His Word. He ties his own hands and weakens his effectiveness before he even begins.
One day in 1965, John Steinbeck sat at an outdoor cafe in San Francisco with Howard Gossage, a friend in the advertising business. He said, "Yesterday in Muir Woods, Charlie lifted his leg on a tree that was fifty feet across, a hundred feet high, and a thousand years old. What's left in life for that dog after that supreme moment?"
Gossage was quiet for a moment, then he said in his slight stutter, "W-w-well, he could always t-t-teach."
At this time of the year when school has resumed, half the people I know are talking about teaching and teachers. Some friends are themselves teachers and another large segment are the students, everything from pre-K to post-doctoral. Some are thrilled to be back in school, others feel they have been sentenced to Angola for another nine months. That period is ideally suited to bring forth new life in other realms, however in the classroom nothing is guaranteed.
It can be time well invested, life-changing even, or it can be a prison-sentence.
As a lifelong student with two full decades in classroom instruction and the rest in the laboratory of life, learning and teaching have been two of my most enjoyable pursuits.
In fact, I'm signing on to teach a couple of classes at our New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2010, one in worship leadership and the other in interpersonal relations, both skills absolutely required in those who would shepherd the Lord's flocks. Both subjects are dear to my heart. Both classes will be shared with another professor--a real one, I'm tempted to say--to give the students two perspectives and, since the classes are several hours long, to give the teachers some rest.
I'm excited. But I've done this before, actually--taught seminary students--and know that it's real work.
If you think being a student is hard, and my grandchildren do, the teacher's assignment is far more difficult.
No one lives by faith to the extent teachers do. If they judged the value of their work and the effect of their teaching by what they see sitting before them in the classroom, many would slip quietly into the faculty lounge and slit their throats.
Cruising down the bayous of lower St. Bernard Parish, Jason Melerine had his crab boat up to 20 mph. Suddenly the vessel caught a piece of sunken hurricane debris, jerking the outboard motor off and giving Jason and his helper the jolt of their lives.
A front-page article in today's Times-Picayune says there are 6,000 underwater snags in the waterways of our part of the world, remnants from August 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
It's a sermon illustration in the making.
The other headline that catches the attention of readers is part of the continuing saga of Michael Jackson's doctor's legal predicament. "Coroner: Array of drugs killed Jackson."
Imagine the prestige MJ's doctor--Conrad Murray, cardiologist from Las Vegas--must have sported when potential patients learned who his celebrity client was. Wow. Doubtless he had a long waiting list of people wanting him as their doctor. Anything to be that close to their favorite celeb. I expect there's something inside all of us who are insecure about going to doctors in the first place that says, "If he's Michael Jackson's doctor, he has to be the best!"
Preachers, this one has your name all over it.
My friend Bob has been dealing with a difficult family situation. It's not as though he needs the grief, because Bob is getting up in years and his health is bad.
Bob said to me, "I can't wait for heaven."
I said, "They don't call it 'rest' for no reason."
That's a reference to Revelation 14:13. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on....that they may rest from their labors."
When I was a kid, a song we'd hear occasionally was called "The Big Rock Candy Mountain." We heard it, smiled at it, hummed along and thought nothing more of it.
Turns out that was the hobo's national anthem during the Depression. And it gives us his idealized picture of paradise.
The absolute most foolish thing the lay leadership of a church will ever do is to bring in a new pastor, turn everything over to him, and abandon him.
"You're God's man; it's in your hands now."
Sounds good. But it overlooks one massive fact: he's a sinner and you have just handed him a temptation he may not be able to resist. You have endangered your church and put his entire future ministry at risk.
Take just the area of finances, for instance.
If you want to corrupt a preacher--not all of them, but it will work with a strong percentage--give him the say-so over the checks that will be written from the church. Do not build in any kind of oversight.
Hand the minister a credit card and pay the bills when they arrive with no questions asked. I can almost guarantee that fully one-third or more of ministers will cross that invisible line into questionable territory.
The news out of Compton, California, this week reports another pastor arrested for abusing the church's trust. This minister took as much as $800,000 from the church, according to the FBI.
The FBI? They call the feds in on these things? They do. This is not a private little matter between a pastor and the mayor or the police chief, who may even be a member of your church. This is serious stuff. The Compton pastor will spend several years in the federal penitentiary.
You might think all the members of that church would be upset at the preacher. You'd be wrong.
Every minister with any experience at all could write a book to pastor search committees. They would urge them to focus on one pastor at a time, always keep your word, do not sugar-coat how things are in your church, bring along a packet of material on your church and community to leave with the candidate, and give him names and contact information on past ministers who have served your church so he can do his own background checking.
It's a scary thing, being selected for a pastor search team, what we used to call the "pulpit committee." That title changed when it finally got through to some people that they were searching for more than someone to fill the pulpit; they were seeking God's shepherd for their flock.
Over nearly a half-century in the ministry, I have dealt with at least an average of one such committee per year. In fact, during one three year period, I counted up the number of contacts I had had from pastor-searchers: 36, one per month.
I've seen them all, from the absolutely fantastic to the disastrously inept.
Personally, I can think of a-hundred-and-twenty-three things I'd like to say to this little group of folks entrusted with the future of their church.
I'll confine myself to three words of counsel.
--Don't fall in love too easily.
--Take your own sweet time.
--Run lots and lots of references, then run a few more.
The headline in Saturday's Times-Picayune read, "Feud simmers in Fla. church." The story was one we hear so often and one which I dread with everything in me. This time, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale is ground zero.
When longtime pastor D. James Kennedy died in 2007, the church leadership set out to find God's man to lead their church into the future. Some of us who have been around a while had observed the Kennedy era from start to finish. By his own testimony, he had been a mediocre preacher until God got hold of him and filled his life. Out of this came the "Evangelism Explosion" program for training laymen to share their faith. Soon, the church began to experience great growth and Dr. Kennedy was given celebrity status in preaching conferences across America. In the last few decades of his ministry, he was constantly on television. From that pulpit and in print, he preached a message of conservative Christian doctrine and conservative politics through which he called this nation to return to Christ.
Now, the new pastor is the grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham by their oldest daughter Gigi. His name is Tullian Tchividjian. The newspaper even tells how to pronounce his name: TUH'-lee-uhn chuh-VI-dee-uhn.
"But some Kennedy loyalists, including his daughter Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, are upset with the direction Tchividjian is taking the church and have called for his ouster." (T-P article)
So, what is this heretic doing that would provoke such a hostile reaction?
First, he looks different. "His hair is spiky, his beard sometimes scruffy, his skin tan. He has forgone wearing a choir robe at services."
In other words, he looks like half the young pastors in America.
Second, "he has rejected politics as the most important way to change the country."
A letter circulating through the church from the dissidents charges the young pastor with deceiving the leadership when they first considered him for their pulpit. And just how? They're not saying.
Is it theology? Is Tchividjian preaching false doctrine? Nope. Apparently, they have no trouble with that.
There is the matter that the new pastor brought in the staff from his previous church (New City Presbyterian) and "they have taken complete control."
The letter accuses the pastor and his staff of "violations of ethical standards that have guarded the purity of the church for decades."
What violations, what standards? They're not saying.
When invited to a meeting to discuss these matters, the dissidents did not show up.
Now, I'm tempted to say here "I don't have a dog in this fight" and leave it there. But I do have one. Every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ has something at stake every time a church goes through this kind of internal conflict.
If indeed there are important ethical or biblical standards being violated, then the plaintiffs--if they're not to that point yet, it would appear they're getting close--should speak up and say so.
If not, I have some counsel for them: walk away from this.
It ain't your father's church, dear.
In all probability, any Sunday not listed here is available. My cell phone is 504/615-2190. My email is joe@joemckeever.com.
(NOTE: Unless the Lord leads otherwise, I prefer not to do two revivals back to back and not more than two revivals in a single month.)
THE YEAR 2012 --
.
July 28 (Saturday) -- drawing at a block party for Old Zion Hill Baptist Church, near Hammond, LA. Joe Wiggins,Pastor. (officially 2 - 4 pm)
July 29 (Sunday) Preaching for First Baptist Belle Chasse, LA 10:30 am.
August 5-8 (Sunday thru Wednesday) -- revival, East Fork Baptist Church, Kentwood, LA. Mike Shumock, pastor.
August 10 (Friday) 9 am NOBTS adjunct faculty orientation.
August 12 (Sunday morning) 11 am preach at First Baptist Church, Springfield, LA. (the church is pastorless)
August 26-29 (Sunday thru Wednesday) -- revival -- First Southern Baptist Church, Beardstown, Illinois. Brian Kenney, pastor.
September 1 (Saturday) teaching at NOBTS from 12:30 to 3:20 pm. "Interpersonal Relationship Skills for the Ministry." CLASS NO. 1.
September 8-12, 2012 -- Auburn, Kentucky. Pastor Rusty Thomaston. On Saturday, we'll have a community event, and then Sunday-Wednesday be in revival.
September 16 (Sunday morning) 11 am preach at Springfield LA First Baptist Church. (The church is pastorless)
September 21-26, 2012 -- Revival -- First Baptist Church, Durant, MS. Bobby Hood, Pastor. Saturday night banquet, followed by revival Sunday-Wednesday, night and morning services.
September 28 -- Friday night -- the annual GLOBAL FEST fundraiser for Global Maritime Ministries here in New Orleans. At First Baptist Church-N.O. I'll be drawing (for donations to GMM) all evening long.
September 29 (Saturday) Teaching at NOBTS from 12:30 to 3:20 pm. "Interpersonal Relationship Skills for the Ministry" CLASS NO. 2
September 30 (Sunday) Preach at Bedico Baptist Church for Pastor Mark Tolbert.
October 7-10 (Sunday through Wednesday) Revival at Oakridge Baptist Church,St Peters, Missouri. Steve Davenport, Pastor.
October 13 - Saturday night, Global Maritime Ministries is having a fundraiser in Shreveport (Calvary Baptist Church is hosting.). I will be drawing all evening for donations to GMM.
October 14 - Sunday, preaching for Barksdale Baptist Church, Bossier City, LA. Pastor Calvin Hubbard. (details later)
October 27 (Saturday) Teaching at NOBTS from 12:30 to 3:20 pm. "Interpersonal Relationship Skills for the Ministry." CLASS NO. 3
November 4-7, 2012 (Sunday-Wednesday) Revival at Trenton (KY) Baptist Church. Dean Anderson, Pastor.
November 11 (Sunday morning) Preach at FBC Smyrna, GA (Steve Kimmel, pastor)
November 24-25, 2012 -- Mt Olive Baptist Church, Knoxville, TN. Dr Deron Cobb, pastor. Speaking to churchleadership on Saturday night, preaching Sunday morning service, and then doing the Sunday night "Thanksgiving" service at The Foundry, a fascinating eatery in Knoxville. (second time with this church)
December 1 (Saturday) Teaching at NOBTS from 12:30 to 3:20 pm. "Interpersonal Relationship Skills for the Ministry." CLASS NO. 4
AND THE YEAR 2013--
March 9-13, 2013 -- Faith Baptist Church of Lake Placid, Florida. Bill Cole, pastor. We'll do a kickoff banquet on Saturday night, followed by revival Sunday through Wednesday.
April 24-28, 2013 -- The NASBS (National Assn of Southern Baptist Secretaries) has its biennial meeting these days at Ridgecrest Conference Center outside Asheville, NC. I'll be leading 3 workshops (on cartooning, prayer-walking, and benevolence) while trying to sketch as many of the several hundred "ministry assistants" as possible. One of my favorite groups in the whole world.
May 2, we think -- a pastors/wives banquet for the North Shores Baptist Associations, in the Hammond, LA area. Dr Lonnie Wascom, DOM.
June 10-12, 2013 -- The Southern Baptist Convention meets in Houston, TX.
And that's where we are at the moment!
Thanks for your prayers! Click my name on the home page of the website in order to get contact and bio information.
Carly Fiorina made all the news four years ago when Hewlett-Packard's board of directors fired her as CEO. Until that moment, she had been one of the brightest stars in the corporate world. Her memoir, "Tough Choices," written in 2006 (and which I purchased last Sunday for a dollar in a discount bin at my neighborhood Dollar Tree), tells the fascinating tale.
I recommend this well-written book for women in business, but for anyone interested in learning about leadership. The insights are worth a semester in any leading business program.
At the height of her frustration with HP's board, Fiorina writes, "I steeled myself for what lay ahead. Once again I began saying the Lord's Prayer every night, over and over again, just as I had as a little girl."
That stopped me in my tracks.
I was pleased to see this industry leader who had not long before been named by a national magazine as the most powerful woman in business on her knees, seeking the help of Almighty God.
And yet, I found myself wondering about her praying the Lord's Prayer again and again. She is an articulate woman and has no trouble phrasing her thoughts and expressing her mind. Why would she pray that prayer--which I'm all in favor of--but not speak to the Lord in her own words?
She didn't say, and I'll leave it there, except for one thing: I affirm her. If praying the Lord's Prayer works for her, then fine.
I am not sent to tell people whose prayers are accepted and whose are not.
You have no idea how liberating that is.
By now, I've been called for jury duty perhaps a half dozen times. And every time, I think the same thing: this is an exciting and highly inefficient system.
Take today, for instance. I reported for jury duty in the Jefferson Parish Courthouse along with 99 of my neighbors, none of whom I had ever met, shortly after 8:00 a.m. We were given choice parking in the new multi-level garage, and signs directed us into the brand spanking new courthouse. We entered through the glass doors just behind the magnificent statue of Thomas Jefferson. Inside, several security check-throughs were in place. We emptied our pockets and passed through the detectors as though we were boarding Delta or Continental. Down the hall, we entered the magnificent waiting room--furnished with cushioned chairs and decorated with mosaics on the walls--and checked in at the desk.
At 8:30 we were welcomed and shown a 10 minute video on the history of juries and what might be expected from us. "Down to your left," said Bert, the assistant parish clerk, "you'll find free coffee and spring water. Vending machines are there, and plenty of magazines to read. You'll have a break in the morning and an hour for lunch. The ladies on the desk will validate your parking ticket."
I'd brought along a book to read and a notebook with which to work on a couple of articles. The large room allowed for people to get up and walk or even sit at tables and visit with one another. Television sets strategically placed beamed Regis and Kelly and later "The Price is Right" to the jurors. After a bit, I got out my pad and walked to the counter and introduced myself to the ladies as the cartoonist.
"Oh, you're back. I still have the drawings you did of me the other time." So, again today, I sketched them all--Pam and Lou and Lolita and the others--and a few jurors who saw the action and wanted in on it. And then, about that time....
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your presence today. We will not be needing any juries today. You are dismissed." It was 10:30 a.m.
The best dollar I've spent in years was for Carly Fiorina's book "Tough Choices: A Memoir." Sunday after church, my granddaughters spotted a Dollar Tree store and because they had one like it in New Hampshire, where they're from, we ran by for a few minutes. Near the checkout stand was a bin with books on sale. This hardback, originally priced $25, was going for one precious dollar.
Carly Fiorina--for those who don't keep up with goings-on in the business world--is one of the smartest women on the planet, rose to a high position with AT&T, and then was hired to take over Hewlett-Packard in the late 1990s as their new CEO. After a few years, the board fired her. The termination was a shot heard 'round the world.
I've marked up the book. On page 26, I wrote in the margin, "Each time she overcame her fears, she was stronger." On page 43, she speaks of men in her corporate world who were called "42 Longs." That referred to their suit size, but described "a manager who looked and acted the part but was more show than substance." On page 70, I wrote in the margin, "She saves her tears for the important stuff."
When Fiorina took over Hewlett-Packard, she found a company that sounds and appears like a number of formerly great churches I have known over the years. That's what rang all the bells inside me, the connection with the world I live in. On page 181, I wrote at the top of the page: "Like a dying church living on memories of past glories?"
Carly Fiorina describes what she found when she arrived to take over this company which had been founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, originally in their garage. For a long time the men ran it as a benevolent dictatorship, but now they were off the scene and the company was struggling to find its new identity. Here is her description on arriving....
The jury returned today with a verdict of guilty for rapper Corey Miller. A couple of years ago there was some kind of scrape--I've consciously avoided the details of that--in which one of Miller's fans was shot to death and he was arrested and charged with the crime. A trial resulted in a guilty verdict, but an appeals court ruled that the defendant's rights were violated and he was given a new trial. Same verdict.
The absolute strangest aspect of this entire thing, however, is the stage name of the rapper: C-Murder.
If you plan to kill someone, I'd suggest you find yourself a benign name like Hep Y'Brother or Love1another.
Reminds me of the sports car that was scooting in and out of traffic on the freeway endangering everyone not long ago. As he flew past, I said to my passenger, "If that guy is in a wreck and it ever goes to trial, he's guilty before it gets started. His personalized license plate says 'Aggressive.'"
Speaking of irresponsibility, two items.
My pastor friend and I were talking about his new assignment. I said, "I cannot tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how to fail--try to please everybody."
He laughed, "That's a problem. I've always wanted to please everyone around me."
That trait, I say to myself and to my colleagues in the ministry, can be fatal.
I'm tempted to say here that the desire to please everybody is a characteristic of all ministers, but that is not the case. In fact, some preachers I know are quite the opposite and feel affirmed only when someone is mad at us.
In between is the road. Stay out of the ditches.
The time was the 8th century B.C. and the preacher was Isaiah, a man who apparently could function well even with his approval rating from the congregations he served dipping below zero. He and Jeremiah had that in common. It's a rarity, believe me.
I sure don't have it.
Brand-new Baptist Director of Missions Duane McDaniel entered a local store the other day. A clerk said, "I detect an accent that's not from around here."
Duane said, "We must moved here from Honolulu."
"You moved here from Hawaii?"
"Yep."
The clerk called, "Hey, Charlie, come here! This guy just moved to New Orleans from Hawaii."
Charlie comes over, takes a good look at Duane, and then says dramatically, "Welcome...to...hell."
The Jefferson family probably thinks it's hell these days.
Nine-term Congressman William Jefferson was found guilty last week in a federal courtroom on 11 charges of corruption and racketeering. A jury nailed him for misusing his office in order to line his pockets (and stock his freezer, you may remember).
Jefferson will be in court in October when the judge reveals the number of years he will be serving for his crimes. Most people expect between 15 and 20.
Decades ago, the mayor of New Orleans, Dutch Morial, called the future congressman by a nickname that stuck with him all these years, identified his achilles' hell, and proved to be his undoing: "Dollar Bill."
In the Sunday, August 9, 2009, "Parade" magazine, movie celeb Brad Pitt is talking about his life with Angelina Jolie. They are all the rage of the tabloids, they appear to be in love, they live together but are unmarried, and they're the parents of five children, three of them adopted from various countries.
Wherever they live--in France, in L.A., and in New Orleans--Pitt says he tries to get involved in helping the needy. In New Orleans, his organization is leading the way in innovative techniques for building new homes for those devastated by Katrina.
And yet, this couple is a favorite target for anyone with a soapbox and a sermon, it would appear.
Pitt says, "I resent people telling others how to live! It drives me mental!"
"Just the other night," he says, "I heard this TV reverend say that Angie and I were setting a bad example because we were living out of wedlock, and people should not be duped by us! It made me laugh!"
He might have laughed, but he was angry. "What d--n right does anyone have to tell someone else how to live if they're not hurting anyone?"
Those of us in the ministry know exactly what was happening with that preacher, I surmise. He was making a point, a biblical one, no doubt, about the sanctity of marriage or the importance of obeying the teachings of scripture in one's personal life. He thought of Brad and Angie and threw that in to make his point.
A few years ago it was Elizabeth Taylor and her--how many, eight?--multiple marriages. In the 1990s, it was President Bill Clinton and his philandering ways. It was Michael Jackson, it was Marilyn Monroe, it was Madonna. In the 1940s it was Errol Flynn and the usual Hollywood crowd.
It's cheap preaching.
Wish I could take credit for this heading but I swiped it. In an internet article, a pastor of another denomination was urging his congregation to sing in the worship services. Even if you have no singing voice and take steps to make sure you are never heard attempting to sing, he said, in church no one sounds bad.
I'll buy that. Now if I can only convince half the people I know.
I have only two things to say in making that point. But they are two really, really big points.
One. When a group of people with mediocre voices blend them together, something almost magical takes place. Perhaps the strengths of some compensate for the weak areas of others, but the combined voices produce a strong and powerful musical effect.
Last Wednesday night, I spent two hours with the sanctuary choirs of the First Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi. I say "choirs" because they have one for each morning services. Together, there were easily 200 people in the rehearsal room. An impressive sight, a lovely group of people.
Now, I know very little about the musical abilities of any of those good people, but I know a lot about church and have decades of experience with church choirs, and I'm going to let you in on a secret: most of those choir members are not all that good. Oh, they can carry a tune, but not one in ten is of solo calibre.
Together, however, they are incredible.
That great choir stands as the ideal metaphor for your congregation in worship: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
When functioning as it ought, the heart of the Christian is so constructed that when he sees a need, his immediate impulse is to stop what he is doing and minister to it.
But what if the Father has something else for that believer to do, something more appropriate for this believer's skills and heart and desires, something further down the road, something not apparent at the moment?
What if the Father does not want the disciple turning aside to minister to every need he/she notices along the way and needs him/her to--you'll understand the expression--move it?
In that case, the Father's primary plan seems to be to close doors in front of the believer.
Closed doors--when you are in a desperate search for an open one--can be frustrating and discouraging.
A letter arrived this week from a friend in another state. He is not a pastor but a minister of music and worship leader, and a good one, if I'm any judge. The gist of the letter said, "No one seems to want what I can do for their church. They all seem to want younger men who play the guitar and put on a show. I'm a traditionalist and not comfortable with contemporary trends in church music."
"Right now," he said, "I'm working with a church of another denomination, and the work is going well, although the pastor is being non-supportive. I want to get back into our denomination, but nothing is opening up. I'm frustrated and my wife is bordering on anger."
He did not ask for advice and I did not offer any. I promised to pray for him, and I have.
I can't get him out of my mind or off my heart.
Mrs. Vaughan was a lovely senior lady and the grandmother of Cindy Hardin who was dating our oldest son. Because we adored Cindy, we came to know Mrs. Vaughan and to treasure her. She was white-haired, soft-spoken, and a member of the neighboring Methodist Church.
That morning, noticing her name on the hospital list as a new patient, I stuck my head in the door and asked how she was doing.
"Oh, it's nothing, pastor," she said.
"What happened is that I passed out yesterday. When I came to, I was lying on the floor. I live alone, you know, and so before pushing the LifeLine to summon help, I decided to take inventory and see if I might have had a stroke."
"I pulled myself onto the bed and moved my arms and legs. They worked. I wiggled my toes and my fingers and they were all right. Then I began to sing. I knew if I could still sing, I was all right."
I laughed, "I want to thank you for that incredible insight into life. If you can still sing, you're all right."
As your pastor, faceless/nameless friend reading this, I've come today to tell you something about your song you may never have known or perhaps forgot. I hope you will take this to heart.
One: God wants you to sing.
Singing is all through Scripture, beginning with the song of Exodus 15 on the heels of Israel's triumph over Pharaoh and ending with the "new song" of Heaven in Revelation. Someone has said that ours is the singingest religion in the world.
No doubt you recall the well-known passage of Ephesians 5 which calls on believers to sing: "...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord...." (vs. 19)
Perhaps you have heard the super-spiritual among us tell singers in church that "this is not a performance; you're singing to the Lord." They're half right; it is to the Lord.
We are also to sing to one another. We provide the audience for each other's songs.
God has so arranged His work that when we do something unto Him--whether it's praying or praise or mowing the lawn or bringing an offering or singing--we touch each other and encourage one another.
So, go ahead and clap after the solo. You loved it and the singer needs the encouragement.
Two: God gives us the song.
A reporter interviewing me by phone said, "I've read some of your blog. You're something of a provocateur."
Not sure if he coined a new word there, but I confess to liking it.
Provoking people is a lot better than lulling them to sleep.
We're commanded in the Word to "Provoke one another to love and good works." (Hebrews 10:24)
So, we could say I have a biblical mandate for this!
Incidentally, the NIV translates that word "provoke" as "spur one another on." Whether this brings to mind the spurs on the heels of the barnyard rooster--a frightening weapon, believe me--or those decorative silver things on the cowboy's boots which he digs into the flank of the horse to get that extra effort--either way, it communicates the same point.
Therefore, today, instead of solving any problems or answering any questions or blessing any souls (like I'm ever able to do any of those!), I'd like to try to provoke readers into some Bible study.
Here are 10 provocations to get you to open the Word of God. They are being tossed in your direction in the hope that at least one or two will stir you (spur you?)to get your Bible down and dig a little deeper than the superficial, random stuff some of us engage in and call "studying the Word".
10. In church, we talk about salvation as a matter of "believing in the Lord Jesus." But what if He doesn't believe in us? Does that matter? John 2:24-25 speaks of people who believed in Jesus, but He did not return the favor.
9. We speak of salvation as a matter of "knowing Jesus." But when our Lord referred to salvation by turning that around. He made it a question of whether He knows us. In Matthew 7:23, He says to some, "Depart from me...I never knew you."
I was sitting on the platform, ten feet off to the left and rear of the pulpit, studying the 300 people in the congregation. In five minutes, I would walk to the podium and, as the guest preacher, bring the sermon. The thoughts running through my mind were not helpful.
"They know all these things. I'm talking about the church in this sermon. And these people are at church on a Sunday night, of all things. I might as well go into a diner and speak on the joys of eating. Or to a gym and talk about the need for exercise."
Then, sanity returned. I knew this was not the case at all.
Nothing cleared my focus better than remembering the times I sat where they sit. Many a time back then I needed a strong reminder from the Lord's spokesman of the proper value to be placed on the church, of how solidly God feels about it, of the price Christ paid for it, of the assignments He has given it, and yes, reminders of the sorry way the church is being treated by some of its friends.
There was a great need for this message, and on this night I would deliver it as strongly as I knew how.
I gave it my all. The response at invitation time--not always the best barometer, I know--indicated the sermon had hit its target.
The best barometer, and one I'm not privy to, would be the behavior of the members of that congregation over the next few weeks and months.