Kingly Identity

I've been drawn to the story in the paper the last few days about a nurse's aid from Pennsylvania recently crowned king of a small country in Africa. Can you believe it?! One day you're taking orders from a boss, punching a time clock and the next day you're a king! You can read the full story here, but the parallel to the Christian story is remarkable.

Philippians 2 talks about Jesus "being in very nature God" but gave that all up to become a human servant. In other words, Jesus relinquished his rights to the Throne of the Universe to become a human servant of others. The Jesus story of Philippians 2 ends with Jesus re-assuming his rightful royal position but having left an example for us to follow. Paul put it this way, "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves... your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:3-5)

The Jesus Way is full of upside down logic like this. Jesus says if you want to find yourself, you need to lose yourself. He says the last shall be first. In the Jesus Way the servant way is the kingly way.

Perhaps if I lived with a clearer inner assurance of my true identity as a royal heir of Jesus' kingdom I wouldn't feel so compelled to pound the table and demand my rights. Perhaps if I lived in the daily reality that I am a child of the King, I wouldn't complain so much when I don't get my way.

I suppose it won't be long until Charles Wesley Mumbere's story becomes a Disney movie. And when it does, I'll probably be one of the first in line. In the meantime, I resolve to live more kingly myself - right here in my real life now.

just a fad???

A friend of mine posted this video on his Twitter account today. As an immigrant to the digital world, I continually struggle to speak the language of social media which is native to my children. While I am grateful for the stabilizing influence the church can, and perhaps should, exercise within a dynamically shifting culture, there seems to be a disconnect between the burgeoning world just outside our door and the kinds of conversations we have within. For the last several weeks I've received angry comment cards from a beloved church member about why I still haven't capitalized the word "god" on my "if god twittered" sermon series PowerPoint slides. Before that it was an outcry week after week over why we were using the words "sin and sinners" in the Lord's Prayer rather than "debts and debtors." No wonder the church is increasingly irrelevant to people who haven't grown up within it. Why does the church always seem to be about five steps behind in the conversation?

Director of Young Family Ministries

Another "Josh" is joining our staff team! Just days after securing Josh Young (the husband of our new Associate Pastor) as our Director of Student Ministries, I am pleased to announce Josh Trahan as our Director of Young Family Ministries.

This hire brings to a close a year of transition following Kim Corson's departure in order to pursue PhD. studies at Texas Tech. In the interim, Shannan McFarlane energetically and creatively served as our Interim Director of Children and Family Ministry.

Josh and his wife Courtney have four children ages six, five, three and two. They hail originally from Pensacola, Florida but have spent the last few years in North Carolina where Josh recently completed his Master of Divinity at Campbell University Divinity School.

He is a great match for Clear Lake Presbyterian Church as Josh's desire is to serve a congregation that is "Christ centered, biblically based, and outreach focused." Sounds like us, eh!?

Tim Tam Slam (aka T2Slam)

When I was at Fuller Seminary several weeks ago for one of my Doctor of Ministry classes (my final class, actually!) I met several pastors from Australia. One of the Aussies introduced us to the "Tim Tam Slam." You can do a Google or YouTube search for more information. However, the T2Slam involves biting the ends off of a chocolate wafer cookie (Tim Tam - available only in Australia) and then sucking hot coffee or hot chocolate into the cookie like a straw. As soon as the liquid comes through the cookie you slam the wafer into your mouth before it dissolves. When you do, there's a veritable explosion of flavor in your mouth. (Well, not really, but it sounds more appealing if I put it that way.)

So, this Aussie woman who taught us the Tim Tam Slam sent me two boxes of cookies to use with the church staff. Today was the day. We all did the T2Slam before our staff meeting and devotions. What a hoot!

Can't wait to welcome our new staff members, Rachel and Josh. Maybe I'll have to get some pix of them doing the Tim Tam Slam!!

Real Beauty

The highlight of my day was visiting an elderly home-bound member of our congregation. Her body was crippled and her speech slow from a stroke, or a series of strokes, years ago. Her mind, however, was sharp and crisp.

Scattered throughout this tiny apartment in the assisted living facility she calls home were pictures of children, grandchildren, and of her beloved husband Bill. It's been more than nine years since he passed away - nine years since she was held in his arms. They were married in 1946 when she was just a freshmen in college.

It was the way she talked about him now, in the present, that struck me. She kept saying over and over "Oh, how I love Bill... I love Bill so much."

In my world obsessed with appearance and in a culture that idolizes youth, I saw real beauty today in the life of this woman. Thank you Sarah for that gift.

Great Airports of the World...not

“Great Airports of the World is not a book that you’ll find on anyone’s coffee table,” Reggie McNeal said yesterday.

I’m at Fuller Seminary taking a class called “Missional Leadership” with Reggie McNeal as part of my Doctor of Ministry degree program. Yesterday Reggie was talking about how the shift between being an internally verses externally focused church is all about the destination.

Airports are not doing their job when airplanes and people are trapped in the terminal. After all, no one hops on a plane to take a trip to an airport! We use airports to get to the places we want to work, play or meet certain people. That’s why no one will ever make one of those fancy coffee table picture books called Great Airports of the World. Airports are not the destination.

In a “church-centric” (vs. “kingdom-centric”) view of the Christian life, the institutional church is understood as the destination. In this view, the objective is to see how many people we can get to come to our church. And so we create programs and jazz up worship to attract the crowd. A kingdom-centric view of the Christian life understands that God is establishing a kingdom on earth and God is using the church to accomplish it. As others have said, “The church does not have a mission. The mission has the church.”

A friend of mine at our church said to me the other day. “Steve, I used to think the point was to try and get people into our church. Now I think the point is to get people out of our church!” My friend Josh isn’t looking to get rid of cantankerous church members. Rather, he understands that the church is in the service of our great missionary God who has a mission to bless and redeem the world God loves.

Can't drink enough coffee

I'm having one of those mornings when I can't seem to drink enough coffee. My mind feels groggy and my body slow. I keep pumping caffeine in hopes that more synapses will connect. (Which means this probably isn't a great time to be blogging to the world. Who knows what I might end up writing!?)

Memorized Scripture works a similar sort of wonder on the synapses of my soul. Memorizing Bible passages doesn't come easy to me and my personal catalog of mentally accessible Scripture remains painfully thin. However, I can't deny the effect that Scriptural java has on my being. When my soul is groggy, confused or fearful, pumping Colossians 3 or Hebrews 12 (my java du jour) into the veins of my spirit has a way of bringing me to life. Drawing from memorized passages like these (passages, more than just singular random verses) quickens me to another reality in a way that just reading them from the Book does not. Routinely drinking in old favorites like Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer feeds my dependence on the Jesus life.

Here's to waking up and smelling the coffee! (My deepest apologies to all you tea drinkers out there...)