A week or so ago, Jared Wilson did a post looking at some statements from Mark Driscoll on how he pastors. Great post and great comments - you should read it if you get a chance. The challenges to being a mega-church pastor are many and I think it probably isn’t too odd that a pastor in this situation isn’t, well, very pastoral. At least in the traditional sense.

So I want to bring the question down to a level that represents more of the average church in America. Here’s the context of the church :

• Less than 200 members

• Membership is multi-generational
• May or may not have elders and deacons
• Regardless, the pastor is the de facto leader
• Pastor is full-time, not bi-vocational

My question for you guys is - How should a pastor pastor in this setting? What are his goals? How does he interact with the members. How does he feel towards them. What does he do on a daily basis? What are those telltale signs of a good pastor(i.e. He knows everyone’s name and that Susie lost her guinea pig last week)?

I think you see what I’m trying to get at so please comment and let me know what you think.

As Christians, do we feel the need to put forward a more sanitized version of Christianity to the world? It’s like we have this image to maintain of a “blessed” life that is more attractive to the world. How that blessedness is defined depends on you particular context - money, the right job, well-behaved kids, good marriages, inner peace, joy and smiles through disaster, etc. Whatever they are, we use them to attract those outside the church to the “good” life.

What’s missing is that we are still a sinful people. We’ll admit this behind church walls but we tend to obscure it to the general public. But, I think they kinda know. The iMonk says this in a recent post talking about how young people view Christianity in a negative light :

At the heart of much Christianity is a strange irony: in a faith that requires us to confess, not avoid, the knowledge of our own sinfulness, we make it almost a fetish to find ways to blame unbelievers and non-believers for their low opinion of Christians.

So then, perhaps part of the solution is not to deny what we know to be true. This is not about flaunting our imperfections. But rather being honest that we’ve not yet arrived and it’s looking like a long trip down the road before we do. We need to get past offering principles and steps and move on to Jesus as our source of hope. He is the real difference and it’s too often that he’s treated as a step along the path to success. Paul says in Colossians 1:16-22 :

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Jesus is not just a rung on the ladder of spiritual success. He is the first and foremost in God’s plan for not just redeeming us, but for all of creation. When we see him in his proper place, we must boast in him. Not in the supposed “blessed” life we feel we have to put forward to look attractive to the outside world. Besides, if iMonk is right that plan’s not working quite like we’d like anyway.

Parts of a conversation with S3 last night while cuddling and putting off bedtime:

Jenn: What can you tell me about Jesus?
S3: Jesus will grow up and be a singer
Jenn: Jesus is already grown up.
S3: God can come to the concert. (thoughtful pause) I like Jesus.

A moment later…

S3: I like you the best and Dad the best and my girls the best!
Jenn: Did you know God loves Sam the best, and Mommy the best, and Daddy the best, and Ty (his friend) the best? God loves everyone the best!
S3: (very excited) God loves Ty the best??? Yes!!! (best said like Tiger Woods) That makes me happy!

Jenn: Tell me more about Jesus.
S3: He had a nose…and hair…and a body.
Jenn: What happened to Jesus?
S3: He died.
Jenn: Did he stay dead?
S3: No. He’s alive!…And he rode on a donkey.

If you’re familiar at all with Ken Myers or Mars Hill Audio and have some free time on April 11th and 12th then consider setting aside some time next weekend.

The Humanitas Forum on Christianity and Culture will be hosting Mr. Myers along with Dr. Jeremy Beer as they speak on the intersection of discipleship, faith, and culture. The weekend lecture series is entitled More Than a Personal Savior :

Before Jesus commanded the Church to go and make disciples, he asserted his authority over everything in Heaven and on Earth. Yet many modern Christians (and their secularist neighbors) assume that Christian discipleship is a matter of private spiritual growth with few earthly consequences concerning the ways we order our time, make and spend our money, and think about our place in Creation.

In four presentations, Ken Myers and Jeremy Beer will look at how modern culture tempts us to shrink our faith, and how we might resist that temptation.

For more information as well as registration information just go here.

From According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy (p 50) :

Every word of the New Testament comes from the Holy Spirit’s testimony to Jesus. The New Testament records the central facts of the gospel and explores the implications of the gospel for the lives of God’s people. It shows us that the gospel is God’s one way of bringing sinners to perfection. All the problems and imperfections that we experience are failures to be conformed to the gospel. The only remedy that the New Testament prescribes for our problems is to bring our lives to conform to the gospel.

Likewise, the one problem we have in the interpretation of the Bible is the failure to interpret the texts by the definitive event of the gospel. This has its outworking in both directions. What went before Christ in the Old Testament, as well as what comes after him, finds its meaning in him. So the Old Testament must be understood in its relationship to the gospel event. What that relationship is can only be determined from the witness of the New Testament itself.

Really. I’m not kidding. Especially if you have daughters. Go get that box of Kleenex already.

HT : The Secret Life of Kat

All over the quiet plains, beneath the snow on the high mountains, rustling through the cattails that congregate along the water, you can sometimes feel the presence of a promise. On cold nights when you look at the sky, sometimes your breath catches in your throat at how bright the night can be. The dark spaces between the stars aren’t as dark as you thought they were; not nearly as dark as the tree line on the horizon, and as you stand there shivering with your hands bunched in your pockets suddenly you remember that you’re standing on a rock in the middle of space. Suddenly the notion that there’s a Someone who made it all and knows us all no longer seems quite so far-fetched; indeed, it seems too good to be false.

But here we toil and we till the hard earth, where even the warm times with friend and kin are lonely because we know they won’t last long enough to quiet the ache. Our sadness points to Home the way hunger points to the feast, the way the light of the cratered moon is always facing the sun, always pointing to where the dawn will come like a pillar of fire when this rock we walk on turns again to burning day. All over the quiet plains and the cold stone cities full of dying and shame the promise is not drowned out by the weeping; it is declared by it.

God died as a man and rose again, and the sound of the fiery blast of Death exploding shook the firmament. Throughout the wail and shudder, over the shriek and moan of man the thunder has sounded and sung, and it is both the answer and the promise. It sings still, and you can hear what it says if you listen: love never dies.

-Andrew Peterson, from the cover of his “Love & Thunder” cd

Here is an offering for the “weekend video” file in honor of this Good Friday. Understatement of the year: Michael Card can write music. (Sara Groves and Phil Keaggy aren’t bad either…)

HT: restless reformer

Well, it has been quite an eventful 4+ days / nights for us. On Saturday, our son (our first child) was born. Labor was long and intensive for Reon, but we made it through and everyone has been doing well, for the most part.

I have way too many thoughts to write concerning the whole labor / delivery thing. WOW! Amazing, scary, exhausting, miraculous are all words that come to mind. However, this post is dedicated to the after birth phase…coming home for the first time as new parents.

So I was thinking, laughing and crying yesterday morning after our first night at home…an all-nighter due to feeding issues (which we are working through and are getting better). I was telling Reon that I’ve never felt about as incompetent as I did trying to get our crying son to sleep at 3:30 am when Reon is exhausted due to several nights of missed sleep and 14 hours of labor. Thus…this is where the name of the post came from. I realized how funny this whole learning process is and just how incompetent I am in trying to care for this infant who can’t speak my language.

I decided we are taking a course called ‘Welcome to Parenthood 101′ and that the first lesson was entitled ‘You Suck!’. I hope it comes across as funny, b/c I mean it as such. Nothing like a little 6 pound baby to make a grown man feel worthless.

However, I realize in the midst of this is God’s grace. We are cared for. He gives us the ability to raise his children and makes them resistent enough to handle our blunders.

Overall, we are doing well. Mom is getting some sleep today, so that makes Dad feel better. BTW, I’m not feeling down on myself, so I hope this post comes across with the smile it should have. I’m amazed at God’s plan for his creation and only desire your prayers as we continue to work our way through this course entitled ‘Welcome to Parenthood 101′.

Anyone care to tell me what the second lesson is???

Redbox = Longest. Hold-time. Ever. I called the service number to report a scratched dvd today and waited patiently for a rep to assist me. I was repeatedly assured (via pre-recorded voice) that there were “just a couple of other people they had to talk to” before they would be with my call or, if I preferred, I could leave a voice message for them. Wanting to speak with a real, live person, I waited. And waited. After an inordinate amount of time, I began to take pictures of my phone, which keeps track of the length of call. This is the last photo I took. Yes, if you click on the photo you can clearly see that at that point I had been on hold for one hour and forty plus minutes!

I have never been asked to wait this long for any customer service representative for any company. At some point, it became a challenge. Did I have what it took to wait it out? In the end, my hungry children demanded their lunch, and I was forced to leave the voicemail. (If I was in management at Redbox, I’d be down-right embarrassed - making a mother choose between remaining online for the next available person or feeding her children!) The recording I heard promised a prompt return of my call. I’ll keep you posted. I’m wondering how they define “prompt”…