The Road Goes Ever On and On

Mercy and the Upwardly Mobile

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."

Jesus seems to be saying that it is important to show mercy because you are definitely going to need it one day.  But mercy doesn't seem to be very popular right now.  We live in the spin zone, where everyone tries to impress everyone else.  I find this especially true in the coporate world, and sadly, in the church world too.  If you want a job in a falling economy, you are competing with thousands if not tens of thousands of others.  The pressure to appear super-human or perhaps even as a demi-god of organizational genius is tremendous.  If you have the slightest flaw, well, we can find someone apparently flawless.  And don't even think about putting anything honest or personal on facebook or twitter; the corporate world is watching.  Talk about living in glass houses.

A near cousin of corporate perfection is christian perfection.  For heaven's sake, don't let anyone see your flaws, especially if you are a pastor or church leader!  Don't let people get too close, or the cracks will show.  Hire only the best qualified, Christ-like saints available.  At the slightest whiff of carnality or humanity, call the next candidate. Once hired, If they disappoint or reach their potential prematurely, let them go.  We can't waste time fooling with second-string workers, the harvest is plentiful now.  Oh yes, the church can be just as merciless as the cubicle.

But if you look at Jesus discipling a band of tax collectors, fishermen and blue-collar workers to be his leaders, it makes an amazing contrast.  Look as Jesus patiently takes a towel and washes the disciples' feet after they argued over "who is the greatest."  Look at them failing Jesus in the hour of his greatest need at Gethsemane, yet they go on to lead his church.  See Jesus as he gently restores Peter to productive ministry after his denial.  When Jesus made disciples, it was merciful, time-consuming, grossly inefficient and messy.  And  I thank God for mentors who like Jesus and had enough mercy to deal with my mess too.  Somehow they understood that people are more important to the kingdom than the church's vision statement.

I believe that when God's people create an atmosphere of mercy in his church, it presents one of the most beautiful and inviting witnesses of the gospel on the planet.  And it brings God's kingdom to earth like nothing else.  The world is starving for mercy.  Let's share it!

What are you lookin' at?

A pastor I greatly respect mentioned in one of his sermons recently that he didn't allow fast-food wrappers to pile up in his car.  The reason?  It was a bad witness for the gospel; it showed disorganization.  He also mentioned that he kept his weight in check because that was a bad example too.

I like this pastor.  But these comments bothered me.  He wasn't preaching heresy or false doctrine.  However, the implied message was condemning:  if you aren't on top of your game, if you don't have your crap all together, you aren't worthy to minister the gospel.  Granted, he didn't say that, but that is what a recovering perfectionist like me heard.  Let me stress that he has been very open about his own stuggles, but it did remind me of other pastors I know who are very careful not to show any flaws.  He unknowingly hit two areas I struggle with, which made me think about how "presentable" a pastor must be.

Maybe it is dangerous to filter sermons through your own dysfunction. But if that were truly the case, God would have made us all deaf.  Which is my point.  I find it easier to listen to pastors or preachers who admits his struggles.  He joins me with the rest of the human race, and I receive that gospel message because it comes through a flawed, fellow human being like myself.

It hasn't been my experience that the gospel makes me perfect, at least not yet.  I struggle with my eating habits and keeping my weight in check.  I struggle in handling my finances.  I have good days and bad days as a parent.  If there is a secret in living a perfect life now, I haven't found it.  As Anne Lamott says, "some days you feel like a tread mark on the underpants of life."  And it is sooo refreshing when a preacher is vulnerable, transparent and authentic about his own struggles.  Nothing else exerts a more powerful attraction to Jesus than an honest disciple.

It could be that I'm trying to justify my shoddiness.  But there is just as great a danger in exalting the vessel above the message.  As Paul said, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake . . . But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" 2 Corinthians 4:5,7.  Our brokenness doesn't invalidate us from preaching the message.  The world knows Christians aren't perfect, so maybe it's time we embraced the fact ourselves.  It would make us a lot easier to live with.

Core Values

"Men will always be making mistakes as long as they are striving after something." - Goethe

National Community Church, pastored by Mark Batterson in Washington, D.C. has a list of core values.  One of them is, Everything is an Experiment.  I like that.  Why is that most people have crystallized by middle age into rigid thinkers?  When I meet a free spirit, a risk-taker, I usually gravitate to them because I don't meet very many.  Most people my age are trying to fund their 401k's or living safely till they die. That sucks.

We never arrive.  We are always growing and changing.  As Winston Churchill said, "Success is never final; failure is never fatal.  It is courage that counts."  Christians, secure in the furious love of God, should be the most daring people on the planet.  And some are.  I've met missionaries who take a huge risk to lead their families into an unfamiliar culture.  I've met pastors who loaded u-hauls to plant churces where they didn't know a soul.  These are courageous souls.  But so many of us are afraid to step out.  Why?

I honestly believe that God expects more failure from us than we do from ourselves.  I for one hate failure.  I take it personally, and fear what others may think.  But God knows our frame, he understands our humanity.  Secure in his unconditional love, we should be willing to risk failure; it doesn't define us.  As John Hobbs, a man of God I greatly respect, once said, "I may fail, but that doesn't make me a failure!"

The Steve Jobs Dilemma

At the risk of stating the obvious, Steve Jobs is the face of Apple.  When news of his health problems spread, Apple's stock took a nose-dive.  He will be taking a medical leave of absence until July.  Our prayers are with him.

The situation makes for an interesting discussion.  How healthy is it for a business, church, organization, or government to be dependent on the "indispensable man?"  As Charles de Gaulle said, "The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men."  Steve Lohr in Sunday's New York times wrote a good piece on the situation here.

Specifically for churches, is this a good way to go?  Of course the body of Christ needs gifted people.  But at what point do you say a gifted person is building his or her own fan club, or building a team? 

Apparently, Jobs did well at recruiting gifted players onto the Apple team.  God forbid, but if he cannot return to work it seems his company will do well without his day-to-day presence.  Hopefully the gifted people in churches will also pour themselves into their leaders and not just building a following.  I've seen charismatic leaders make themselves indispensable.  And I've seen their organizations suffer when they are gone.  It is much harder, and takes a lot more self-confidence, to work at building an organization that will outlast your tenure.