Mick Mooney's Blog, page 9

Confessions Of An Ex-SuperPastor: All My Confessions

All 10 Confession of ‘Losing The Christian Economy: Confessions Of An Ex-SuperPastor

Hi all,

I’ve written 10 confessions as part of this ‘Losing The Christian Economy: Confessions Of An Ex-SuperPastor’ and at the moment I don’t feel I’ve got much to add to the series. So, I’ve decided to put it on hold, or possibly this might be the end – who knows?

Here is the list of the 10 confessions are below. Also, I’ve decided to focus on writing very short stories for the blog from now on, so you can check back in daily and see what new stories I’ve come up with. You can also add your email in the sidebar if you haven’t joined my subscribers list and I’ll send you the stories each Monday.

Confession 1: Losing The Christian Economy: An Introduction

Confession 2: What Happened When My Religious World Crumbled

Confession 3: How Protecting My Ministry Vision Caused My Heart To Harden

Confession 4: How I Thought I Was Superior To My Wife Because Of My Bible Knowledge

Confession 5: The Religious Disneyland Version Of My Faith Walk & Why I Walked Away

Confession 6: How I Traded In Religious Egypt & Was Led Into A Desert With God

Confession 7: How I Lived My Life – With My Head Buried In My Ministry – As A Slave

Confession 8: How I Built A ‘Bible Based’ Church – And Why That Was Wrong

Confession 9: How My Vision Meant More To Me Than The Voice Of The Holy Spirit

Confession 10: How I Lived A Religiously Programmed Life & Why It Was So Destructive

If you’ve been reading along, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

* Do you think I should continue with the ‘confessions’ series?

* Do you think it feels complete now?

* Have you enjoyed reading along? Did you connect with it?

* What themes should I/could I address and add to the story?

* Any other thoughts you’d like to share? Go for it! It’s always great to hear from readers and get feedback from you, so make good use of the comments section.

Young Enough To Value Love Over Theology: A Short Story

“If I had to choose between love and theology,” Jack said as he rested upon the soft grass, “I’d choose love.”

“That doesn’t sound like something Pappa’d approve of.” said Stevie.

“Too right! He’d think I was fit for a flogging most likely, but I don’t care. He’ll never know. He’s so caught up in his head he doesn’t notice anything else anyway.”

Little Stevie looked troubled. “Pappa notices me,” he said.

Jack laughed, but not in a mocking way, just in a big brother kind of way. “He sees you at dinner, and he sees you when you are in his way. But trust me Stevie, when he’s thinking and talking about theology, he doesn’t see anything but himself.” Jack stood up and spread his hands in the air, imitating his fathers standard preacher’s voice. “Go-ad is almighty. Go-ad is who you should fear.” He turned to Stevie, “I don’t care about his ‘Go-ad‘ of fear, I want to know the real God, the God of love.”

“Doesn’t Pappa know the real God?” Stevie asked in genuine confusion. “He’s the preacher of our town, how can he not know God?”

“Well,” Jack replied, chewing on a bit of grass, “the way I see it, he prefers his own interpretations of Scripture. It’s like a stone in his head, and its more valuable to him than the revelation of God’s nature of love.”

Stevie looked uneasy. “We better get back, Mamma will get all mad if we’re late for supper.”

Jack picked up his bag, stealing another glance at the river. He reached over and messed up his little brother’s hair. “You’re right, little man. We don’t want to make Mumma mad.”

“Jack,” Stevie said, “How do you want to live your faith, then? If not with Pappa’s theology to guide you, then what?”

The wind whistled along the riverbank. Jack enjoyed its melody for a few moments, before answering, “I’m going to let love have first place in my heart, so my heart can be led by love. If love wants me to understand Scripture, it can teach me. If not, then I don’t mind. I don’t need nothing but the love of God in me.”

“Isn’t the love of God enough for Pappa, too?”

“It should be, but all I see is his passion for his interpretations of the Bible; I ain’t ever seen him appreciate and understand love.”

“Pappa’s not a bad man, is he, Jack?” Stevie asked with concern.

“Nah, he ain’t a bad man. He’s just a proud man. He loves his ideas as much as he loves imposing them on others. But that’s not going to be my life. No sir, I once heard someone say that God is love, and I believe it’s true. So whatever I do or say in life, I’m always going start with love.”

“Jack,” Stevie asked, “doesn’t Pappa understand love?”

They reached the road. Jack kicked the nearest pebble and watched it clank down the street. “I’m sure he thinks he does, little man.” As the sun set upon the horizon, and all of heaven shone upon them, Jack mumble to himself once more,“I’m sure he thinks he does.”

Jesus With His Whip In The Temple (short story)

Today’s short story is based on the Scripture account of Jesus in the Temple: In the temple courts Jesus found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” John 2:14-16



“Settle down!” Peter cried out, as people fled the Temple in fear. Before them a madman was on a rampage. Jesus spun around, his eyes locked onto Peter.

“You want me to settle down? Can you not see what is happening here? God’s temple has become nothing more than a way to earn a few more coins; a way to create income!” He belted the floor with the whip; the same weapon he had just driven most of the Pharisee’s out of the Temple with. Its sound echoed off the magnificent stone walls.

Someone else dared to step forward and confront the madman with the whip. “This is still God’s House,” an old man said. “How dare you desecrate it. If you were from God you would do no such thing. I’m an old man, I care not for money or power, but this place is holy! Who are you to do such a thing?”

“This place,” Jesus called out in reply, not just to the old man, but to everyone who was listening on the outskirts, “is not holy; it is God who is holy. It is his people who are holy. This place, with all its marketplace and divisions is nothing more than a den of thieves!”

“Blasphemer! Blasphemer!” People began to cry out.

“He is no blasphemer,” a woman screamed at the crowd. “He is a man who is mad as hell at the state of our faith. We’ve lost our way, and it shows in the way we have traded prayer for commerce. Everything now comes with a price; we cannot live out our simple faith with our Lord, now we must pay for everything! Can you not see the priests getting fat of this way of religious living? They tax us in the name of God, they create new ways of draining more coins from our pockets, and you call this man a blasphemer? No! He is a man of faith, true faith.”

Peter hid his face in shame. This was not how it was meant to be. Jesus should be thinking about his reputation. If he towed the party line, respected the way things ran, he could be high priest one day. He could then have a position of authority and bring about change. He could do so much, if he would only bow down for a short period of time to the powers that be.

“Please Jesus, put down the whip.” Peter begged.

Jesus turned, still breathing heavily, his eyes not yet calm.

“Tell me Peter,” Jesus said, “who then shall I give it to?

Suddenly the woman who had just addressed the crowd ran up and grabbed Peter by his coat. “Don’t you see?” she asked. “Don’t you understand anything? There will always be someone with a whip in their hand. Most will use it to enslave you; this man is using it to set you free.” She tuned and addressed everyone listening. “Doesn’t anyone see what this man is doing for us all?”

“Blasphemer!” The men at a distance cried out. Others joined in.

“Blasphemer, Blasphemer!”

A Spirit Led Life, Remembering Your True Nature Of Love, & God’s Place Of Rest

Last weekend I flew to Chicago and back. I was there for 4 days, and spoke to the community at Grace Covenant Christian Center each day. Thursday we did a great study on the book of Acts, but unfortunately it wasn’t recorded, so you’ll have to wait on that one till I get the chance to share it again. The other three messages were recorded.

Friday’s message: God’s Place Of Rest

Saturday’s message: Remembering Your True Nature Of Love

Sunday’s message: A Spirit Led Life

If you’d like to listen to them you can download them all here.

I plan on writing more about my trip soon. It was a really great time. The community there were beautiful and it was a pleasure to hang out with them throughout the weekend.

Special thanks to those who traveled far and wide to Chicago for the weekend to be part of it all. It was great meeting you all face to face and being able to spend some time drinking good coffee and chatting.

Special thanks to Bob and Carla Woods for hosting me throughout my time there and letting me share with the whole community. I really had a blast.

On a final note . . . long live the Chicago deep dish pizza.

I Am A Christian. I Am Weak

I am a Christian. I am passionate about God. I understand the reality of God’s gospel. I trust in his spiritual giftings in my life. I trust in his power.

I also can admit I am weak. Often, I am terribly weak. I am able to be honest to that reality – and in that honesty, I find it easier to embrace God’s promise of rest.

Why does it make me rest? It’s because I recognise that I have limited love. I want to love more, but I am weak. Yes, I love my family, but even Jesus said that’s not doing much. But when it comes to love, often I fall short with most things. And yet here is why I rest: because through understanding God’s grace and being able to fully receive his acceptance of me just as I am, I can freely be honest about my limitations, and this honesty concerning my limitations also allows me to recognise God’s limitless ability so much clearer. Being honest about yourself, for the good and bad, is a heavenly gift to us. It allows us to lose our mask and imaginary personas. It’s like what Paul said:

“But God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Like Paul, I understand I am a weak individual in need of a greater love to embrace me (and Christ does) in order to make me stronger. And it is happening. Jesus is making my love stronger. Jesus is showing me how to live a life of love. But it takes time. A time that will last my whole life. In the meantime God is O.K. with my weakness, in as much much as I am O.K. With his strength.

Christ in me is my love, and I rejoice that that his love is unending, unfailing and unlimited.

I am limited. I am weak. I would like to do more, but often I fail. I fall. I see how I can help, but (for a number of valid and invalid reasons) I don’t. But, the thing is, I understand that I am not able to save the world. I am not able to love the world completely. I can not reconcile the world.

I am limited. The gospel is a glorious spiritual reality, but I am still bound up in a jar of clay that is fragile and cracked. As Paul said, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.”

I have an unlimited God dwelling within very limited ‘earthly tent’, but I don’t lose heart or confidence because of that, rather I embrace it. I understand the hope. I believe in the power. I trust in the unfailing love of God within me and at work in me, but I also understand by myself I am weak. Whatever good is done in my life, it will be an act of God working his strength through my weakness.

That is why I find rest in God’s love, because it can and will do all the things I cannot.

I am weak, but he is strong. And he is in me, and we are one. So if we are one, then I can be honest to my own weakness, and at the same time freely embrace Christ in all his strength. I’m thankful God is the strong one. I hold onto him all the more because of it.

Give Them Love

Give someone love, and you give them courage. Give them love, and you give them freedom. Give them love, and you give them faith. Give them love, and, every time you do, you give them God.

How A Father Sees His Child Growing & Spiritual Growth From God’s View

My little daughter just went through a growth spurt. She put on weight, he has started saying her first words, she suddenly has several more (adorable) facial expressions.

So now, when this all is so evident, our family and friends are all commenting on how much she has grown. It’s true, she has grown, but I noticed how differently I see her growth compared to others.

I’ve seen her growing every day. Every hour sometimes. I’ve seen every tiny change. I’ve marveled at how she is becoming just that little bit more aware, how her smile is changing ever so slightly, how she is able to roll just a little bit quicker (she’s fast now! From one end of the room to the other, POW!).

I realise that this is part of being a parent. I’m aware of my daughter all the time. She’s always on my mind. I’m always watching. And so I see the natural and beautiful progression of her life, that she is not actually growing in ‘spurts’, she is growing continually, all the time. It’s just that for most they aren’t paying the same kind of attention to her that I am, so they only notice when her changes are easy for the eyes to see.

It got me thinking about spiritual growth in relation to my heavenly Dad.

I think he’s the same way. Everyone in the world may think I’m not growing, or they notice with they see what seems like a big progression in my personal and spiritual life. But, just like my daughter, I don’t really have ‘spurts’ of growth, it’s just that is what is easy to spot. But for God, my heavenly Father, I believe he sees the natural, continual growth in my life. He’s not wondering ‘when’ I’ll grow, he sees it happening continually. It may seem small, but to God is the perfect amount of growth needed.

Just like I don’t ever think of ‘pressuring’ my daughter to grow quicker, neither does God to me. Just as I have this inner assurance that she’ll naturally grow into the wonderful woman I already know she’ll one day be, so too does God have this confidence in my life.

Both those who know nothing about you, as well as those who know you pretty well will probably only ever notice the ‘big’ growth moments in your life. That’s OK, we do the same to them too. But remember, when it comes to your heavenly Father, he’s not waiting to see the ‘big moments’ of spiritual growth. He is watching and participating in every single moment of your spiritual life, and he sees in every moment, you’re growing, for growing is just a natural part of our spiritual life, just like growing from a baby to a toddler to a child to an adult is natural. There’s no need for doubt of pressure. To God, is all about the pleasure of being with you every moment as you grow.

I realise I should never even think about growth in my life, for it can’t help but happen. I should do what I want my daughter to do too. Rest and enjoy the beautiful relationship between being a child who has a Daddy who loves completely, and unconditionally.

The Most Amazing Artwork Giveaway ever. It Could Easily Be Yours!

“Sunrise” by Mathias Meinel. Click the painting above to view more of artworks from Mathias.

The above painting is a masterpiece. I’m really not kidding. Mathias has a gift of expressing so much depth in his paintings that if you stand 8 feet away, you’ll see a different painting than when you stand 2 feet away. I don’t know how he does it, but I’m glad he does. So, it’s no secret I’m a huge fan of his work. What is truly amazing, is he is also a fan of my writing, and has offered to give this beautiful piece of art away to one lucky reader to help bring more awareness to my new novel ‘God’s Grammar’.

Originally I thought to make a raffle for everyone who writes a review of God’s Grammar, but after thinking about it, I think it’s better to simply make the draw for anyone who has bought a copy within the month of September.

So here is how you can be in the running to win this artwork, currently valued at €500, and will most likely be worth thousands, if not hundreds of thousands in the future. (Mathias asked me not to brag about him or his work, he’s such a humble guy. But I can’t help it. The guy is a genius.)

1. Purchase a copy of God’s Grammar from Amazon and send your email receipt to: bonus@godsgrammar.com

2. Just make sure you do step one, and you’ll be in the running to win ‘Sunrise’. Easy!

I also made the price of God’s Grammar at a discount for the month of September. It’s currently only $2.99. This price will stay the same until the end of September, so if you want a copy at the bargain price of $2.99, then grab a copy now. (Remember, you don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books, you just need to download the Free Kindle Reading App and you can also read them on your computer.)

Here’s the link for God’s Grammar on Kindle: God’s Grammar: A Novel on Kindle

Now, remember to send me your email confirmation, and you might just win this great piece of art!

How I Lived A Religiously Programmed Life & Why It Was So Destructive

Confession 10. For full list of previous confessions click here

You know what I think the whole point on being a Christian is? Here’s what I believe: It’s about having genuine, loving relationships. That’s it. It’s so simple I completely missed it my whole Christian life. I fell into this crazy trap of replacing God’s desire for me, into pursuing my own religiously inspired desires for God. Let me explain.

God wanted me to have time, space and confidence to have loving relationships with others in my world, but, instead of taking this great opportunity, I spent all my time trying to save the world for God. That made me busy, really busy; so busy the last thing I had time for was building genuine, loving relationships. The irony of the whole thing is the only way people actually do come to know God is through interacting with genuine love. But I had no time for genuine love. What I had was polished and professional programs to offer. Whatever someone’s need, my church had a program to slot them right into.

Upon reflection, I realize most people felt like a hot potato when they came to my church. None of the leaders had any time to invest in a genuine relationship, but they knew where to send them. And so like cattle, people were moved into the right program.

Programs . . . what was I thinking? My hope was in programs!

What I’ve come to believe is God’s hope is not in programs, his hope is in love. Again, so simple. So simple I missed it. But I didn’t just miss it because it was simple. I missed it because I didn’t even know how to do it. You see, I had grown up in church programs. I understood how life worked in accordance with everything being programmed. I thought you made friends by being in the same programs. I thought loving relationships happened before and after programs. My life was programmed. Basically, I was programmed. Like a robot.

Jesus said he came to set us free, and when he sets us free, we’ll be free indeed. Free to love. Free to learn the value of love. Free to enjoy genuine, loving relationships. This was basically impossible for me to understand while I was a full time pastor, for my life was full of people, full of action, full of one program after the next. But all this ‘full’ revolved around making sure the programs keep on rolling. We were all busy together. Our bodies were close, but our hearts miles apart. It wasn’t until I left the professional pastoral life that I slowly came to understand love. And here is how it came to be.

God refused to re-program my life.

You see, when I left the programmed way of church life, I honestly expected God to bring new Christian brothers and sisters into my life. I expected a new form of Sunday meetings to flourish. I expected my Christian faith to function. I thought losing all the church programs would cause a great revival in my own spiritual life, and things would kick of in some new and wonderful way. So I waited.

Weeks past. Nothing.

Months past. Nothing.

A year past. Nothing.

At this point, I wondered what was taking God so long to organize things for me. One evening, completely frustrated I decided to talk with God about it. And his response to me shocked me. Here is what I feel he spoke into my heart.

“I’m not going to program your life. You have to desire your life. You have to desire to love.”

This was so bizarre it took me days to even figure out what God meant. Then it struck me. It wasn’t the church programs that was the problem, it was my mindset. My mind was programmed. My mind was waiting for someone to program things for it. Even though I had left the institutional church, I still had an institutional mindset. I desired for my Christian life to work. I was still thinking in regards to ticking boxes. I wanted to tick the box that said I had a good worship life. I wanted to tick the box that said I had a weekly ‘fellowship’ time. I wanted to tick the box that said I was doing things right, like a Christian should be living. What God showed me was my Christian faith wasn’t about ticking boxes, it was about living a life of love.

But did I desire to love? Man o man, that was a hard question to answer honestly.



What I realized after this whole experience was I didn’t even know how to love others. I knew how to build programs with others. I knew how to stand next to someone, but focus on something else. But I never really learned the value in just enjoying other individuals simply for who they were. No agendas. Nothing to build. Nothing to keep them accountable to. Nothing to ask of them. Nothing to challenge them with. Nothing but friendship. Nothing but a genuine, loving relationship. This I found not only hard, but impossible to do. I literally had to become like a little child and take baby steps to learn this basic human function.

This to me is the greatest tragedy of building church communities around programs. The community themselves get so used to everything being set up for them, they never learn the basic human function of seeking out and enjoying genuine friendships. When I left church, nobody wanted to still spend time with me. Why? Because they couldn’t do it before or after a church program. They knew I had no interest in returning, and so I was a lost cause. Is this what genuine friendships look like? Is this how they function?

But you know what, I’m not a lost cause. Far from it. I know this. And I know it about others too. I no longer think in programs. No more in or out. No more hidden agendas. No more superior attitudes. I see everyone as an equal. I seek to learn from others all the time. I’m still learning how to have genuine, loving relationships. Although I was frustrated for a long time, I’m now so glad God didn’t re-program my life. I’m glad he let me discover the real value of life is to value and actively pursue and enjoy genuine, loving friendships.

I no longer spend my life pursuing my religious desires for God. I now spend my time pursuing God’s desire for me. To love. To have genuine, loving relationships. To be free.

Yes, I’ve come to believe that to love freely, without an agenda or conditions, is to be free indeed.

For full list of previous confessions click here | Visit the story’s facebook page

Pondering Our Life In Relation To Love And Fear

There are two desires in life we all try to fulfill:

1. To love more

2. To fear less

Within those two desires, are two deeper dreams. They are dreams, because they seem impossible to bring into reality. They are.

1. To love completely

2. To fear nothing at all

The desires seem somehow achievable, it’s just about lowering or increasing the percentages. 5% more love here, 8% less fear there. It’s possible, so we think. But the dreams are about absolutes, not percentages. 100% love, 0% fear. That, we assure ourselves, is an impossible equation.

But . . . what if it isn’t?

What if it was the way God created us to live?