Embarrassing moments: share.

Embarrassing moments: share. Today I replied to an email that I thought was going only back to Scott when in reality I sent it to our entire prayer team. I mentioned that we could "pull in loads of money" by making an adjustment to our current fundraiser. My guess is that "pull in loads of money" is not the sort of terminology that our entire prayer team wanted to hear their pastor say in their minds as they were reading my reply. I don't blame them, it was a poor choice of words and I sure do feel silly. Have any of you done foolish things like this? If so how did you deal with them? Maybe you asked that portly lady when her baby was due? Or you left the mic on when you went to the bathroom? Do tell. It will help me feel better.

Duality of Hebrew

A while back, Dan lead us through a study that focused on the idea that the words for teach and learn in Hebrew are basically the same word. The difference is that teaching is causing learning. It's the two sides of the same coin thing. He mentioned Sunday that blessing has this same duality in Hebrew. This morning I was studying Micah, and learned that the verb translated go/walk also has this duality. There is go/walk and with a slight tweak, it becomes to cause to go/to lead. With my previous public profession of a love of semantics, it's not surprising that this fascinates me. Clearly this connection between an action and the force that causes the action is something we have lost in translation. Here's the question. Is this something we need to reclaim? If so, how is best to go about it?

Belonging and scorecards

Hi all,
Got a question for you this week to chew on.
How are you approaching "belonging" in your faith communities?
We belong to a tradition that extends belonging through "membership" and promotes it overtly and covertly. We celebrate churches whose scorecards include adding "whatever" number of new Nazarenes. The statistics we report talk about new Nazarenes around the world. I wonder if this underlying thing cripples us from "Kingdom" work. Not that connecting people to the Nazarene church is subversive to the advancement of the Kingdom in and of itself, but I feel like when that is my "primary" focus, I miss the point yet this is what I am asked to continuously respond to as a Nazarene pastor.

So, how do you view membership and how do you view its role in the church today? How are you extending a sense of belonging to folks in your tribes? By having Nazarene membership prioritized, does it create a sense of "in" and "out" people? Are there any "scorecard" elements of being a Nazarene pastor that bother you?

I'm tired

Galatians continues today. Paul gives me this.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

I'm really tired. I don't know if if I'm weary though. Is there a difference? Is it important that he says "weary IN doing good" and not "weary OF doing good"? I wonder if there is more than one proper time? Did I mention I'm tired?

Semantics are fun

I love words. I love to use them. I love to learn about them. I love to understand them better. I like to dig into their roots. So it was interesting to me that Paul uses the Greek word skandalon when he talks about the "offense of the cross" in Galatians 5. The word literally refers to the stick that propped open the trap for hunters. It is also translated stumbling block in many other places in the NT. So my question is, what gives? Why does Paul want the cross to be a stumbling block? I have some thoughts, but I would like to hear yours first.

Spiritual Disciplines

I'd like to hear what personal disciplines are most helpful for you guys. I have always spent a quiet time with God (I'm sometimes more faithful than others) and I go back and forth on the idea of keeping a spiritual journal. It's been awhile since I've invited folks into my QT and I may not keep it up for long but I included the link to the new blog where I'm trying to make this happen if you're interested.

http://walkinamanner.blogspot.com/

What works for you?

Prayer? Fasting? Solitude? Etc.

Horses and the Safe Country.

Okay, I need to ask you guys another thing or two. Forgive me for posting twice today-- I love a blog in the early days – my hope is the excitement will stay for some time.

This week we focused our attention on Jeremiah and his call from God. Specifically we zeroed in on Jeremiah 12:5 you're likely familiar with it. From the start of chapter 12 Jerry had been complaining and murmuring about how hard things had gotten in his local ministry (something we sanctified church planters would never be tempted to do. : ) ) After Jerry cries a bit about the people he ministers to God says this in verse 5:

"If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

So here are a couple of questions to perhaps start some conversation:

1. How do you guys avoid murmuring and complaining both the obvious out loud sort and the often more dangerous mental bitterness that can come with difficult ministry?

2. Are you running with men or horses? How can you tell? Are you afraid? (Cuz…I am!)

(No overly church-y answers allowed.)

G&P2U, Dan

Greatest Struggle?

Sweet. I'm crazy optimistic about this new blog. I've all sorts of questions that I can't wait to bounce off of you guys. Many are practical or come from my curiosity about y'all's ministries others are silly but I'll ask 'em anyhow. I have questions about worship music, funding, compassionate ministry, follow-up ministry, kids min, and a million other things but by far I've found that for me the greatest struggle in church planting is falling in love with the people. It's both exhilarating and horribly yucky at the same time. I can provide details on some of that later but here's what I'd like to know now.

1.What is your greatest struggle?

2. How do you deal with it?

G&P, Dan

Welcome to the Company of Fools

Life is crazy, especially following Jesus as His hands and feet. I am so blessed by the stories you have shared with me already and look forward to more. Hope you will join me in the conversation.