Rob Prince's Blog, page 57

People are not Pawns

Disclaimer I:  I am not a chess player.  I played some chess when I was a teenager. I am certain that any half-witted chess player could beat me with half their brain tied behind their back.

Disclaimer II: I am not a lawyer (that’s my sister and nephew in the family).

Disclaimer III:  This is not meant to be a political post. I love republicans. I love democrats. I love green party folks, libertarians, socialists, and communists. Jesus said something about how far the extent of our love to others should reach when he said, “Love your enemies.” I am pretty sure Jesus means love everybody no matter how they voted in the last election or their perspective on God and country.

OK, with these three disclaimers behind me let me simply write:

People are not pawns.

People are people, created in the image of God.  (The previous sentence includes all people no matter what their passport says. No matter what language they speak. No matter if they acknowledge God’s existence or not.)

People are not negotiation tools.

People are not expendable.

People are to be treated with love and respect.

Didn’t Jesus also say: Love your neighbor as yourself?  In case you forgot the answer to that rhetorical question: Yes, he did say that with his words and actions, he said it.

Moreover, God cares about how we treat people. Jesus also said, “Whatever you have done for the least of these you have done to me.”

The problem comes when some folks begin to see themselves as the Kings, Queens, Bishops and Rooks but everyone else as the pawns.  Pawns are fodder. If you lose one or two protecting the king and kingdom, well that’s just part of the game.

Jesus reminded us that He is the Good Shepherd.  He is the type of shepherd that leaves the 99 sheep to look for the one lost sheep. The implication is that in his Kingdom every single sheep matters. In other words:  People are not pawns. People matter. All people.

Life is not a game where the last king standing wins.  In Jesus Kingdom, the King laid down his life for the worst of us. Why would the King do this?  Because people are not pawns. People are people created in the image of God.

I think sometimes we forget this.

Got Holiness?

This spring, Karla and I have bought numerous bags of mulch.  We got them on sale, loaded them in our cargo van (aka Karla’s car) and brought them home. We’ve put 45 bags of mulch (maybe more, I lost count) around our flower beds and shrubbery. All done it to make our yard look nice and clean and for the most part it has been mission accomplished.

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There is a house in my neighborhood that has a sign in its front yard that reads “Got Mulch?” It is advertising for a company that does what Karla and I did for ourselves. The company puts the mulch in your flower beds and you don’t have to make four or five trips in your cargo van (aka wife’s car) to the home improvement store to accomplish this goal. I don’t know the cost of their services (maybe next year I will check them out), but I doubt that it will be cheaper than Karla & Rob’s Mulching Company.

 

Why the mulch mumbles? The family that has the “Got Mulch?” sign in their yard, I assume like Karla and me, wanted their shrubbery and flower beds to look nice. No weeds. Just shrubs, flowers and mulch. But here’s the deal:  They haven’t mowed their grass. I don’t mean that they didn’t mow their grass last week.  As if they were on vacation and whoever they asked to mow their grass forgot to do it. I don’t think the yard has been mowed all year. The grass is a foot high. Maybe higher. It’s so high that you have to look through the jungle of a front yard to catch a glimpse to prove that they indeed “got mulch.”  They “got mulch” but I assume they “don’t got a lawn mower” (poor grammar noted).

 

 

Which leads to my question: Why spend the money to get mulch if you aren’t mowing your yard?  It’s this like the old philosophical question “if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” If there is mulch around your bushes but no one can see it, do you really “got mulch”?

Maybe my neighbor’s mixed messages are not so unique.  I see the same thing happen in people’s lives. People focus on minor things, yet ignore major problems. I’ve known folks who say that say they want to be followers of Jesus, yet spend very little time with him.  Got Jesus?  “Well occasionally” is not the acceptable answer.  Or people that claim to live holy lives, but are angry, resentful, and bitter.  Got Holiness? “If it doesn’t cause me to change, ask forgiveness or challenge my preconceived notions, then yeah I got it.” Ummm… no you don’t.

Holiness involves allowing God to look over the grassy fields of your life, and if there is anything unpleasing to Him, then it’s giving God permission to mow down any over grown or unpleasant thing. That was David’s point when he prayed in Psalm 139:23-24:  Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

 

It’s saying “don’t let me simply spruce up my flower beds, while I ignore my lawn.”  It’s praying keep all areas of my life holy and pleasing to you, not just a few areas of my life. Search my blind spots, point them out and make me the person you want me to be. That’s holiness.

The Current State of the Flint Water Crisis: A Pastoral Perspective

I arrived back in Flint in October of 2013.  The Flint Water Crisis began six months later on April 21, 2014.  That’s the date, under the state’s supervision and guidance, the city switched from the Detroit water source to the Flint River. So nearly my entire time in Flint, the citizens of Flint have been living with the effects, the blaming, the promises, the back and forth accusations, the lawsuits, the anger, the distrust that flowed along with the leaded water in the Flint Water Crisis.

Most common sense thinking people look at what happened in Flint and say, “How can that happen in America? How can the richest country in the world allow for a contaminated water supply?”  Some people have been held accountable for their actions (or inactions) that resulted in this crisis.  Some court cases are still on going. Probably more are yet to come.

Water has always been a vital commodity.  In Jesus’ story about the end times when God is separating people like a shepherd separates sheep and goats (you want to be a sheep not a goat); Jesus commends those sheep who followed his example of compassion and concern for others. Jesus said, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink”(Matthew 25:35). The implication is that He was given something good to drink.  Not poison to drink; not contaminated water to drink, but rather He was given something good to quench his thirst.

Trying to live out Jesus words, a lot of money and water donations have come to Flint from many different sources from all over the country. Some inspired by the words of Jesus, some not. Some private. Some governmental. Our church worked with the Convoy of Hope to bring a lot of bottled water into the city. We helped our inner-city partner Joy Tabernacle receive a total church filtration system.  We gave funds to purchase healthy foods to be given away that would help mitigate the lead contamination affects in people. We gave out water and filters to our church folks and anyone in need.  We tried to do our part, in other words.

Citing improvements made to the water system since the crisis began (90% of the residents now show acceptable levels of lead), recently the state stopped the water bottle distribution sites and the home delivery to the elderly and infirmed that could not get the bottled water on their own.  Now I was not a math major (I was a psychology major) in college, but it seems to me that still leaves 10% of the residents with water that is still leaded. That doesn’t seem like a good percentage.

There’s another story involving a shepherd that Jesus once told– in that one, the shepherd has exactly 100 sheep but he leaves 99 sheep to find one lost sheep.  In other words, 99% safe sheep was not an acceptable number. Jesus is not called “the good enough shepherd,” he’s the Good Shepherd who looks for the lost 1%.  Given that story, I think Jesus would say 10% of folks without safe drinking water is not good enough.

Without getting into the politics of the situation (I know, I know…everything becomes political these days), still I think we should expect that all of our residents have access to clean, safe water.  Until all of our people can drink clean, safe water we cannot stop advocating for those who need it.  The church behaves as God’s representative on earth. As such, we need to speak for those silenced and cry with those whose tears have been ignored. And let us never forget Jesus words (in that same story about the sheep and goats), “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”(Matthew 25:40).

Keep praying for God’s Kingdom to Come and God’s will to be done in Flint as it is in heaven!

 

WHEN NAZARENES BELIEVED IN EVANGELISM

In the little Nazarene church of my youth, Sunday School and evangelism were a big deal.

We had “Opening Exercises” that had nothing to do with calisthenics. Instead it was the time before Sunday School when everybody (old, young, everybody) would gather in the sanctuary to sing songs (Hallelu, Hallelu…, Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain and Deep and Wide were my favorites), recognize visitors (the visitors would stand up and we formally welcomed them) and sing happy birthday to those who celebrated getting a year older that week.
If it was your birthday week, you went forward with money (a penny for each year) that you put into a birthday cake shaped bank. The money went to missions. My mom always gave 29 cents (I guess she wasn’t worried about lying in the “Opening Exercises.”)
We would sing the following birthday song:

A happy birthday to you

A happy birthday to you.

May each day of the year

May you feel Jesus near.

A happy Birthday to you

A happy Birthday to you.

The best you have ever had.

We had Sunday School drives and gave out prizes to whoever brought the most friends.
We had competitions with other churches on who could most increase their attendance.
We went door to door inviting people to Sunday School.
We had a bus that picked up kids from some poorer communities.
On more than one occasion we brought in a “Gospel Clown.” (There may be some folks who would say our church board did too when they called me as pastor, but I digress).
If we broke an attendance record the preacher would get a pie in the face. I think he once promised to preach from the roof if an attendance record was broken.
We had dinner on the grounds (which meant a potluck dinner picnic style outside).
Old Fashion Days were when we would dress up like pioneers (usually there was “dinner on the grounds” on this day). I still don’t know why we did that.
We had two revivals a year (Sunday to Sunday. Every night. Occasionally, we would extend the services an extra week if it was going well).
We had little envelopes for Prayer and Fasting and the idea was to put in money that we would have been spent on the fasted meal and give that money to missions. My mom usually gave me 50 cents for my Prayer and Fasting envelope.
We were taught the Romans’ Road and the Four Spiritual Laws, which were personal evangelism tools for leading people to Jesus.
There were Sunday School Campaigns: Strive for Five; Everybody Win Some, All Out for Souls and Our Church Can Be Your Home.
We believed in a heaven, a hell and that Jesus was going to return to earth.
We had movie nights that consisted of cinematography classics like “A Thief in the Night” and “A Distant Thunder.”
We were convinced that if we didn’t reach our neighbors and give money so that people on the other side of the world could hear about Jesus, then they were not going to make it to heaven. We took that serious.

We don’t think that way anymore.  The arguments are: Our tactics were embarrassing (I’m not preaching from our roof– it’s a little high); It’s old fashion; and those things just won’t work anymore.  Instead, our evangelism now consists of…. umm…. well… we are nice and we hope that somehow, people will assume that we must be Christians because of our niceness.  (We would never want to actually talk to our neighbors and co-workers about Jesus or invite them to a small group, Sunday School class or church and we would never, ever present the gospel to them because that might make them feel uncomfortable and besides isn’t that the preacher’s job?).  But hopefully they will know that we kinda like Jesus and give him a whole hour of our time most (some) Sundays (if there is nothing better going on in our life).

And we wonder why our churches are dying.

Author’s Note: I am not advocating for the good ol’ days. I know we have to change our methods.  I just wonder if we have forgotten the message too.

 

 

 

Had Twitter Existed at Pentecost

My Twitter feed is a mixed bag.  I guess I have friends on both sides of the issues (no matter what the issue is).  Some folks look at a set of facts and smell a rose, others look at the same facts and smell a rat. It’s not a new phenomenon. It happened on Pentecost too. Acts 2:12-13 gives two differing viewpoints of the events taking place:   Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

So, with that in mind, here is what I imagine my Twitter feed might have looked like if Twitter had been around on the first Pentecost:

The Holy Spirit filled the people in the upper room? #YeahRight #ItsNeverBeenDoneThatWayBefore
Did anybody hear that loud sound? It wasn’t a tornado. God must be up to something #WhatDoesThisMean #CantWait
Rushing Wind? Tongues of Fire? #ProveIt #WhatsNextLittleGreenMenfromMars
Crowd is asking if these people are drunk. #NoAppearanceOfEvil #IfItQuacksLikeADuck
I’m from Mesopotamia and a Galilean is speaking my language! #NoTranslatorNeeded #NoJoke
Reports of people hearing the message of Jesus in their own languages spoken by Galileans. #MaybeTheListenersWereDrunkToo #TooMuchWine
Peter Preaching. Are you kidding me? #FailureDisqualifies #LiarLiarPantsOnFire
Peter is a fisherman. Not a preacher. #SermonFail #NoThreePoints #NoClosingTearJerkerStory #NoJustAsIAm #GoBackToFishing
The guy who a few weeks ago was cursing and saying he didn’t know Jesus to a servant girl is now boldly speaking before thousands saying, “Jesus is Risen from the grave.” #WhatHappenedToThisGuy #HeHasChanged
Church leaders say there were 3000 converts in one day. #WhenPigsFly #UshersCantCount #MoreLike300 #WontLast #NoAltarNoConverts #FactCheckTheNumbers
I believe!#Jesus #NewConvert #Baptized #2999JustLikeMe

Mixed viewpoints still exist.  The question becomes “to whom will you listen?”  Whose voice will win out in your life?  The voice of the hope or the voice of despair?  The American church’s pews too often are filled with people who are more defined by politics, materialism, and a feeble prayer life. Their authority is from a news channel instead of the Bible. Too many are filled with a spirit of fear and criticism rather than filled with the Holy Spirit.

What’s needed?

Another Pentecost.

And for another Pentecost, we will need:

Less social media and more prayer;

Less news channels and more prayer;

Less “us vs. them” and more prayer;

Less trivial pursuits and more prayer.

What voices are you listening to?  What or Who is shaping your story? Bottom line: We all need more of the Spirit of Jesus filling our lives.  #AnotherPentecost

Ten Ways a Mom can get her Adult Kids to Join her in Church on Mother’s Day

1. Bribe them with her world famous homemade fried chicken dinner after church

2.  Remind them that the preacher has a 25-minute sermon guarantee or it’s free (I have heard from a good source this is not entirely true).

3.  Offer to pay for travel expenses even from Australia (They’ll need to get busy. To almost quote Anthony Campolo: “It’s Thursday, but Sunday’s a comin’”).

4.  Tell them if they DON’T come to church with you, then you WILL go with them to their work family picnic telling stories from their childhood (see below).

5.  Promise that you will no longer remind him/her of the infamous alleged booger eating incident during the kindergarten Christmas program of 1989.

6.  No Churchy. No trust fundy.

7.  (If child is single) Assure her/him that you will not introduce your son/daughter to that nice young lady/fella with the wonderful personality but who also has some halitosis issues.

8.  Guarantee no twisty pinches if they misbehave like the old days in church.

9.  Three Words: PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEEEEEEEASE!!!

but the best way to get your adult kids to come to church with you on Mother’s Day is to simply…

10. Invite them*

*Most surveys indicate that people (even family) come to church if invited.

 

A Suggestion to Improve Nazarene District Assemblies

We are in the middle of the ever-exciting (cough cough) Nazarene District Assembly season in USA/Canada.  With the hand picking (as opposed to truly electing) of District Superintendents that has become more and more in vogue (I’m not expressing an opinion of this practice, simply recognizing its occurrence), even DS election years have lost their luster.  I have been to 30 consecutive District Assemblies and the closest that any of them have ever come to anything that could be described as “exciting” was when a church split boiled over onto the District Assembly floor.  Excuse me, holiness folks don’t have church splits (cough cough). That year, there was some fascinating discussion when a “church plant” had a disagreement over the property and money given or not given by the “mother church.”  With that lone exception, it’s been tough to keep the mostly whited headed delegates awake, much less engaged in anything remotely considered missional.

There have been plenty of honest attempts to juice up our yearly gatherings: special speakers, workshops, and mission projects.  For the most part, it hasn’t worked. So here’s my suggestion (Truth Alert: it’s not a new idea and it’s not even my idea. In fact, it’s ancient).  How about if we followed the Acts 2:42 model for our District Assemblies?  Luke wrote that the early church gathered and:

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. 

Could we do that in our District Assemblies?

We already have good apostolic teaching (usually).  I generally like the General Superintendent’s sermons and the DS’s report (when they stick to vision, mission and Jesus and not making excuses for the district’s and/or denomination’s decline). I love the ordination service.  But what if like in Acts 2:42 we fellowshipped more?  What if instead of scattering to the closest Golden Coral for lunch we all ate our meals together and we talked about the good things that were happening in our churches. No negativity and gossip allowed (if that is possible).  What if we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together (do you ever remember celebrating the Lord’s Supper at a District Assembly?  Me neither). What if (now I’m just getting crazy) we made baptisms a part of District Assembly? Baptisms at District Assembly? Why not?  And what if we concluded with a great and boisterous prayer meeting where we confessed our faults and failures, thanked the Lord for his provisions and cried out to God for a Pentecost like renewal in all of our churches.

Could such a District Assembly change our churches, pastors and laypeople?  If the manual changed and allowed me to make a wager, I’d bet such a District Assembly would do more good than the snoozefests that too often our District Assemblies have become.

 

Sins of the Keyboard

Did I miss a heavenly memo that stated all Bible verses concerning gossiping, grumbling, and spreading rumors are null and void? Was there a new proclamation from on high giving the green light to murmuring and slanderous talk? Isn’t such blabbering still considered unChrist-like?  From my casual perusal of social media, to a few conversations and even some flat out lies spoken by followers of Jesus (or maybe better stated, people who claimed to be following Jesus), the growing frequency of “sins of the tongue” (or “sins of the keyboard”) seem to indicate that such behaviors are no longer all that sinful.  (Sarcasm alert:) Who knew?

For example, when news of a renowned pastor’s allegations of misconduct hit the news, it seemed that Christians could not stop reading and regurgitating the reports and blogs of those for and against. It was the talk of the town. Christianity Today’s Twitter feed seemed to tweet about the scandal every other day. This month it’s a renowned pastor’s reputation to devour. Next month it will be someone else. In the old days, under the guise of spirituality we couched our gossip as sharing a “prayer request,” now our gossip is posted on social media with no phony “prayer request” agenda given. It’s simply juicy morsels of murmurs to be shared, as if the biblical warnings about unwholesome talk and slander no longer apply.

Should we rightly condemn bad behavior. Yes. Should we be careful about jumping onto the latest pile of rumors and innuendoes? Double yes. Should we decide to take the plank out of our eye instead of worrying about the speck of sawdust in the someone else’s eye? I’m pretty sure Jesus would say, “Triple yes.” Maybe if we were to receive a memo from on high, it would require us to memorize Ephesians 4:29:  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.If Paul were writing today, he might have penned, “Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths or posted on your Facebook or Twitter feed.” If that is too difficult, how about if all who claim to be followers of Jesus humbly relearn the truth in the pre-school Sunday school song:

O be careful little tongue what you say,

O be careful little tongue what you say,

For the Father up above is looking down below,

So be careful little tongue what you say

Reversing the downward trajectory in the Church of the Nazarene

It’s no secret that attendance in the Church of the Nazarene in the USA is in decline.  There is also no shortage of explanations of why this might be the case: It’s tougher these days; people aren’t interested; culture has changed; every denomination is losing members, blah, blah, blah.

I understand the challenges of leading a church are far different today than when I started pastoring 30 years ago.   Having written that, I hope that my solution is not simply a reminiscing of the “good old days.” I don’t want to be the old guy saying, “Hey you kids, get off my lawn! I remember when…” Still with that disclaimer, here it goes:

We need make evangelism a priority again.  Not church growth (although as evangelism happens churches grow). Not planting churches (although evangelism happens when churches are planted).  My observation has been that most church growth and church planting growth comes from disgruntled church attenders finding the hip new church to attend. It’s mostly fat and sassy sheep changing pastures, not lost and hungry sheep being found.

What we need is pure and basic evangelism.

On a personal level, it’s always remembering that we believe that this world determines one’s eternal accommodations and acting accordingly.  We have friends and loved ones that are on their way to hell if something doesn’t change. Let’s quit saying society has changed and admit that we have changed.  We aren’t as bold as past generations.  We aren’t as committed.  We don’t sacrifice like our grandparents did. We have other interests (distractions) and other priorities.  We need to confess that we have failed at living into the Great Commission and determine to become friends with sinners (it seemed that Jesus was accused of keeping such company) so that we might have the opportunity to share the love of Christ.

Local churches can never be satisfied with the status quo or decline, but having a healthy dose of shame when conversions and baptisms are in decline. Local churches need to be training people (and pastors?) in personal evangelism. We need to count what counts: contacts, conversions and baptisms. We need less emphasis on cool and more emphasis on warm. Less café’s and less wood pallet backdrops and more biblical preaching. Less politics and more holiness.  Less excuses and more Jesus.

On a denominational level, it’s returning the “M” events back into evangelism workshops and evangelism strategizing. Let’s create an Evangelism Department again (I think that office morphed into the USA/Canada office years ago). Let’s produce curriculum in the colleges and seminary that create a fire within the bones of our young people to do the work of an evangelist.  It’s becoming downright Bresee-like in going to those whom society has rejected.  Joining with the poor, the burdened, the disenfranchised and saying. “You are welcome here!” It’s confessing that our last 20 years have been mostly a disaster when it comes to evangelism and the way we have done it (or haven’t done it) has been wrong. Let’s get creative again!

While we are going back to the good ol days of evangelism emphasis, remember keep off my grass you young whippersnappers!

The Best Reasons To Return to Church on the Sunday AFTER Easter

1).  No Problem finding your car in the parking lot (It’s the lonely Chevy surrounded by empty spaces).

2). If you are allergic to Easter lilies, sneeze no more.  They were out of the sanctuary quicker than Michigan State was out in this year’s NCAA basketball tourney (Too soon, Sparty? Sorry!)

3). No pressure to wear the most fashionable Easter Bonnet. (The last Easter Bonnet was worn by Mrs. Bertha Davis at the First Baptist Church of Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1998.)

4). Two Bulletins for the price of one. (Our worship folders are always free).

5). Plenty of seats in the front (and in the back and on the side and in the balcony and in the… well… you get the idea)

6).  If you have agoraphobia (fear of crowds), you have no worries. Of course, if you have monophobia(fear of being alone) you might want to consider bringing a friend.

7).  No Tithe Sunday! (That’s a lie).

8).You feel bad that no one will be there to laugh at the preacher’s corny jokes (Who’s kidding who? Even in a packed sanctuary no one laughs at the preacher’s jokes… not this preacher’s jokes anyway. Notice your lack of chuckles, giggles and merriment to #7 as proof).

9). The Choir will take requests from the “crowd.”(Umm… no they won’t).

And the VERY best reason to come back to church on the Sunday AFTER Easter…

10). You love Jesus and you want to praise Him on Easter and every other day too! Let’s not wait until heaven to join in the chorus singing, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:11)