Ask just about any men in church for an honest answer about men’s ministry, and they will say it sucks (albeit, for the most, the language will be less direct, but sadly the thinking is much the same). Its not that the leader is bad, or the program is lame, or that they are going off in lala land theologically, its that hardly any guys show up.

Ask church leaders, about gender ratios of active Christians, and they will say women outnumber men multifold. When Rich and I were leaders, we used to say, “we’re drowning here…” (paraphrasing Jack Nicholson) I think we were outnumbered 6:1 at one point.

Two questions then come to mind. First, does mens ministry really matter, and second is there something we are doing, or not doing which is contributing to its lacking.

As one who ascribes to egalitarian theology, I’ve traditionally viewed this as a “well, if God isnt calling these folks at this time, ok, I will deal with what God has placed before me”. If it means I’m the only guy, ok. If it means its a evenly mixed group, ok. If its even leaning the other way, ok. Its Gods call, not mine.

I also must fess up a bit. I’ve been critical of some whose calling is in mens ministry. Some appear to spend so much time with ratio balancing, programming, and other ministry models to reach men, they seemingly fail to serve the folks right in front of them. I have to remind myself, we all have different callings, and if a person has a heart for men’s ministry, they need encouragement, not criticism, albeit one must bear in mind, not to get sidetracked so much with working with strategies and models of ministry, one forgets to minister.

By the same token, I feel badly for the lack of men’s engagement and participation. Its not so much the lack of men’s ministry programs that bugs me, but more so these guys are missing out. As such, I’ve tried try to rally the guys over the years, but I have to admit, success has been pretty limited. Its often a lot easier to rally a bunch of guys to put a roof on a church, or even for a mens choir, than it is to build a men’s small group.

One thing I did a few years back was to ask guys what was wrong, and why they didnt participate. I added in a caveat that I wanted total honestly, nothing was too brutal.

Ultimately, the overall answer I got back was inconclusive. There were just as many this is the problem answers, to nearly 180 degree opposed answers. Its not feminization, relevance, schedule, lack of manliness, lack of relationships, nor is it even the hypocritcal nature of many churches. Not a single apparent answer could pass muster against other answers, albeit all of the above have been proposed as the reasons for failures in mens ministries. This does not mean they are not barriers for some, but even if all of the above were addressed, its unlikely to have much of an impact.

Being the obvious solutions are off the table, perhaps we might choose to go against common wisdom, and throw out all the things commonly done to make it easier.

Case in point, what if one were to have an event… do not advertise, make it near impossible to get to, charge ~$300, do not have air conditioning, electricity, water, or any conveniences beyond what one can haul in, put it out in the middle of the desert, where folks can be burned by the sun, scrubbed raw by the wind, parched by the lack of water subject to what one brought, and throw in a few days of 24 hour loud music, such that sleep is near impossible, and then make it mandatory when folks leave, they must not leave a trace…. and if the pursuit of art, self expression, and a host of other innate human needs can turn a small part of the desert into Black Rock City, a city of ~50,000 people for a mere 8 days a year, imagine what the pursuit of Jesus could do?

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Think about it… what did your pastor preach on last Sunday? What were the highpoints, what scripture was used to back them up? If you are like many folks, you will scratch your head. I’ll go a bit further, some months back, on the way back from church, I was thinking “wowzers, that was really cool”… and then going, “ok doggone it, I dont remember what pastor said, but I know it was cool”. Thus, other than by osmosis/related absorption, how do we act upon what we hear, if we dont remember it? Granted, I think osmotic retention does work on our hearts to some extent, even when we dont remember, so not all is lost, but such is only a fraction of what likely could occur.

Here is a list of things which I’ve found helpful over the years.

• Read the scriptures ahead of time
• Take notes during the sermon
• Reread the scriptures after church
• Meditate on the text, tie it to the sermon
• Make a point to act on the text within 2 weeks
• After 2 weeks, review what happened

Pre-reading

Pre-reading the scriptures is a huge deal, and I think its something that somehow has been lost over the years. I remember as a youngster, the local newspaper would have a list of the upcoming scriptures for the next Sunday in the church section. Being the Catholic Church and the mainline protestant churches all use a lectionary, and ~95% of the time, the USCCB and the RCL lectionary are identical, such was pretty cool, irrespective of denomination. Today, while its unlikely to see such in a newspaper anymore, www.lectionary.com exists and it breaks down the lectionary for the week 3 ways, the USCCB, RCL, and Episcopal versions. It has links for the Psalm, the Old Testament Lesson, the New Testament Lesson, and the Gospel. For folks whose church doesn’t follow a lectionary… almost always, the pastor will clue you in as to what scriptures will be talking about ahead of time if you ask, or even check his blog/website.

Note taking

Note taking during the sermon is pretty cool. I dont remember the pastor at NLCC, an Assembly of God church from way back when, but he was really hard core on sermon note-taking. He walked the talk, in that when he wasnt himself preaching, he was there with a little notepad too. Its not dictation, as much as it is picking up high points. Since the era of the Palm device… thats pretty much been my main approach, albeit I use a scribble type app, rather than OCR. One of the cool things I picked up from Faith, is right next to the bulletin in the entry way, they had sermon notes sheets, with some preprinted headings. I’ve also been known to take a bulletin, and fill nearly every white space with notes at times as well.

Rereading the scriptures

A few hours after the sermon, I reread the scriptures… its not a detailed read, but more so a review of what I;ve heard. This is something likely I picked up Grace Bible Church, a non-denominational, dispensational church, and my primary flight instructor from way back when. He’d bring his Bible out to the FBO, and in between lessons on Sunday afternoon, he’d be poking through it, so I asked him what the deal was. He said a review shortly after the sermon helped him remember what was said, such that he could act on it.

Meditate on the text

This could be formal, such as Lecto Divina, or just a matter of pondering the text, reading it, and praying as one feels is needed. After such, consider how it ties into the sermon of homily.

Act on the text/sermon

Jesus said something to the tune of, “if you love me, you will keep my commands”… he didn’t say, “you will ponder them, and then do nothing” or that “you will blow them off as too hard, too much a culture of 2000 yrs ago, or too unrealistic”, or “if you have time, you will do them” he said something more like “you will keep them in your heart and you will do them”. For me… the dude with 10 pt lists and time frames, typical goal setting stuff works. For others, likely something more formal like a schedule, or less formal, like yep, I will do this would work. Its not the how part that matters, it is the doing part.

Review

Review what goes down as you walk with Christ. How has the scripture, how as the sermon impacted your life? Has it made a change, if so cool. Has it done nothing, if not, why not? This is a time for reflection… and for those who do accountability circles and the like, perhaps included in such types of activities, both from an individual walk point of view, but also such that others would be edified.

My response:

Ultimately, what I do is hose up much of the above. At different times, I’ve taken on different parts, and when it all comes together, its like wowzers… Its the sort of thing that doesn’t come natural per se, but it is something I find I am continuously working on as part of my walk. Likely my biggest issue is the meditation aspect… its just not something I get into, possibly a ramification of the five solas… but it is something i am working on.

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The Lift folks were asking for input on twitter… Well, I like twitter for a lot of things, but commenting on a massive survey doesn’t lend itself a whole lot with a 140 character limit. Even on facebook, the character limitations proved troublesome.. and as a blog comment, I dont want to be a hog, thus this entry. That being said… lets roll through my notes.

One thing somewhat fascinating is the correlation between open comments, and clergy… Its a little disturbing as to why lay leaders while leaning the same way as clergy, often did not have as strong a position as clergy and open criteria. Or… it might mean that within the open criteria, more clergy participated than others, or more specifically if I read things correct, more female clergy based upon the gender ratio?

The answers amongst lay leaders are astounding. Picking just one, the ELCA has incredibly educational resources… yet only 32% of lay leaders said yes, ELCA Christians were unique. Then again, it likely depends on how one reads the question too, ie, I’m looking at beliefs and theology, others may be looking at how Christians love God, how they love others perhaps?

Changes in the religious climate / culture of American Society as far as having a negative impact stood out as a big deal…. but its the sort of question that creates more questions than answers. Is it that society has less economic resources? Is it that society is going more lukewarm? Is it that society is more into Loving Jesus, but not so much the church? Its hard to tell from this rather wide ranging question.

Children and adult education are felt nearly equal as to importance based upon question 10b and 10c survey data…. but my experience in a number of churchs show the emphasis is mostly on childrens edu in alignment with the priority results of question 11. This disparity depending upon how the questions are asked is interesting.

Pastoral education seems to be dumped to the Churchwide body… no wonder there is little local support and pastors get stuck with massive debt on graduating seminary… it wasnt like that years ago.

Ecumenical relationships seem to be again be a churchwide thing and within pulpit and altar fellowship, thats appropriate… but unity also starts in the pew.

Age distribution seems a bit scary, over 75% of the respondents were over 45, and only a tiny number under 24.

Another oddity is the following dealing with connectivity to the wider body. Feeding the hungry, and helping with the poor ranked very high as priorities amongst those who felt strongly connected to the wider body… yet amongst those who were less connected did not rank feeding the hungry and helping the poor as highly, rather they replaced such ranking levels with teaching the confessions and traditional Bible teaching. Its almost a direct reverse correlation… The survey presents the following as a possibility.

It may be the case that a significant number of lay and clergy respondents feel disconnected from the wider church because they believe it is too involved in issues they would address differently or not at all.

I tend to think the answer is likely differently, moreso than not at all.. wow, there is a massive disconnect somewhere.

As far as the clergy/lay leader disparity… this is massively counter productive, as mixed messages are likely being sent. They need to all be on the same team, not one going this way, and another that. How can the congregation be on board, if the lay leaders are sending mixed messages, in some cases counter to the pastor? Pastor Joelle presented an interesting blog on pastoral authority or the lack there of… I think such likely plays a significant role in this.

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Neil Ellis Orts hit on something huge this week. Blackholes… and while I plunge in to such, its not without fear, having experienced the backlash a whole multitude of times. Each time, I wonder, if things are going to crash and burn again, and while I believe seeds are being planted, this whole *”leaving the canned answers behind, and jumping on for a wild ride with God” deal is a scary one indeed.

Some time ago, I remember being taken aback by a fellow Christian’s attitude. They stated “we dont want those folks around here” in reference to a bunch of dudes, either on drugs, or perhaps having too good a time with CH3CH2OH cruising through. I was so offended, I didnt know what to say, and thus said nothing and then the subject changed, and safety returned. When I read Neal’s blog, it was like whoa… I am offended at myself, as I too can ignore voices, and avoid eye contact with the best of them. In my head, “yep we want radical inclusion”… in my heart, “oh noes, here we go again”.

So when I do jump into the fray… yep, emotional blackholes, or as a friend so eloguently stated, emotional vampires, happen, whether it be the homeless, the mentally ill, or I guess just folks we run into as well. I wonder what actually went on in the minds of Jesus and the disciples as I think Neal is right when he stated.

….a reference was made to the crowds that followed Jesus. Now, I don’t know about everyone else, I admit that I’ve generally pictured these crowds as being fairly ordinary, middle class, sane people. Sure, I know there were some oddballs in the group. Prostitutes, demoniacs, whatever. I guess I pictured a sort of Hollywood hooker with a heart of gold. And the demoniacs were healed, so they became nice people, pillars of their communities, people who knew how to act in public and only answered voices everyone else could hear (and politely at that—no screeching or yelling).

Reflecting on my own fear of “emotional black holes” and hearing of the crowds following Jesus, I suddenly realized that nice, middle-class, comfortable, polite, sane people don’t go around following a preacher and his band of merry men. (For one thing, they’re all busy with their nice, polite, middle class, sane, careers.)…

So I’m pondering this… how did Jesus and the apostles respond? What happens when the resources at hand drop to nil, and nothing more is left? What happens when the followers start acting real crazy when such happens. Yep, been there, done that, and it can get ugly fast.

Neil goes and presents the following.

And what if we’re called to risk that gravitational pull to help find a light that resists the black hole? More than resist, but turns the black hole inside out, so that it no longer pulls in and crushes, but reaches out and heals?

Granted, I’ve been privileged to see such happen, but it takes time, and often there are a whole lot of rough patches along the way. Doing the “listening and being there” thing is about all that I can think of… but then I also realize, not all are going to be do such or even for those who can, not all the time, as such often takes a very long time… thus the normal suspicions of abandonment that those burdened with blackhole characteristics have are not unwarranted. The above sort of turns the table compassion wise… on the other hand, its still not easy, or at least I dont find it easy by any means.

How do others respond (blog comments invited)

*A super cool quote I picked up from Pastor Steve McGinley’s sermon last Wednesday.

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Talk radio and tv in a lot of ways of hijacked family values such that the really important stuff gets missed. Family values become sin avoidance, which is not a bad thing… but without Christ they become much like a business management book of the month thing. Mostly show, and when the first big crisis hits which challenges them, things practiced without a solid foundation are often the first to go.

For Christians, there is no underlying substance in “walking right” if Christ is not at the center, and walking right without a center… if one gets poked along the way, its pretty easy to veer off into the ditch. This is not to say non-believers dont walk right, many hold to a higher moral standard than many Christians… but how they center and such is the topic for another blog post.

Leon Blodder a Presbyterian pastor is blogging his sermon series texts on family values. I think he nails it in a huge way, its not the typical FoF, or AFA type dont do this, or that, but a hugely Christocentric approach. Really the big deal stuff, where upon everything else is derived from. While the time is short, I think such is especially key for families who are sending a young person away from home for the first time.

Five family values he presents are:

The Morality of Calendars and keeping the Sabbath
Sacred Space for Quality Family Time
Living Simply
Caring for the Earth
Practicing Hospitality

While I’m writing this today, Leon’s only covered the first aspect, but I think the entire series will be very worthwhile.

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Over the past few days, my blog reader stream has a lot of bits on Christian community, especially so after Ann Rice’s disillusionment with church. Statistically, her approach is pretty common. Some data presented last fall indicated folks identifying themselves with a body of believers has dropped in a huge way, yet, by the same token, the number of folks identifying as atheist or agnostic has not changed.

My personal experiences with a multitude of non-churched folks from any number of denominations seems to bear that out as well. Many folks absolutely love Jesus… but the church, not so much, or for some, their is absolute outrage, and hate for the church. In other case, some really odd practices show up, more than a few times, and in more than a few denominations, I’ve seen parents drop off their kids, and then retreat to the car, when upon they are reading the Bible… seeking Christ, but totally blowing off the body of believers in some cases by less than 20 meters!

Academically, believers know that the body of believers is a busted up broken mess, afterall, it is made up of hypocritical sinners, both lay and clergy. We all fall short of the glory of God, and non has all their ducks in a row. In the heart though… there is hope, that within the body of believers, faith, hope, and love exist… that its not just an eternal thing with Christ after we kick the bucket, but that within the church on earth, faith, hope, and love can be found, albeit imperfectly… and of course imperfectly, at least in the human realm ranges from minor, to incredibly major soul damaging, or possibly even destroying actions.

How should we as individuals respond?

The big issue is not that the church is imperfect, but more so how we respond to said imperfections. Five common approaches which I believe to be in error are denial, passivity, perpetual church shopping, abandonment, and failure to take responsibility. I wouldn’t necessarily say all are in error all the time. Certainly in the event of massive trauma, such approaches may be the only way of coping. Lets look at each one.

Deny

We’ve all seen the denial approach, ie the church, the pastor, the believers etc can do no wrong… and if accused, and even convicted, the stance taken is such was man’s error in judgment. In other cases, denial is advocated by well meaning Christians with a “well tough for you, but Christ commands us not to forsake the assembly, so suck it up” approach.

Go Passive

Passivity is a common approach, its pretty easy to appear not forsaking the assembly by just putting in seat time… and not engaging, not edifying, not doing much of anything, other than warming a pew for an hour once a week. In a large congregation it can be pretty easy to just slip in and out un-noticed. Such is not all bad, as most assuredly God’s word doesn’t return void, and a whole lot of osmosis goes on just by being present. On the other hand, seat time only likely has led to a lot of Sunday morning only Christianity too. Edification takes at minimum 2 parties willing to engage… passivity on one of them doesn’t work out too well.

Perpetual Church Shopping

Perpetual church shopping is another possible approach… Wing in, get challenged, and leave as it seems too much, or one may walk in to find it cold, either emotionally, or thermally, or one gets “no feeling” from a church, or a multitude of other reasons. The end result… a near continuous series of church experiences, a lack of pastoral connectedness, and a lack of mutual edification.

Abandonment

Abandonment is of course another option, and for some it may be the only option. Case in point a church going off in lala land, and logistically there being no other options. I think its also understandable in the case of trauma such may be the only possibility, at least for a limited period of time. As healing progresses, a passive approach such as radio, tv, or internet church may provide some level of connectedness to the body of believers.

Blow off Personal Responsibility

Failure to take responsibility is perhaps one of the most pervasive responses, hey, its not my problem. Responses of “Its those peoples fault”, or its the pastors fault can give a false sense of security, but such has a way of circling back on oneself.

The proverbial… “Well, Jesus didnt really mean that” or “Hey, lets not take this so far” when responding to Jesus hard core sayings are not helpful. The “hey, pastor is the spiritual guy… let him/her take care of it alone, its not our problem” is not helpful. The corruption of the church via hate, bigotry, greed, envy, etc while individuals sit back and do nothing is not cool either. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” seems all too true” while written from a secular standpoint does ring all too true within the church.

Engage and take responsibility, a better solution

A better solution, albeit it may not always be possible, is to admit the problems exist, and to be there, not to cast judgment, but to share in the suffering, and mourn with one another. To be there, and to shine ones light brightly, as light very much illuminates the darkness. To be there, to preach the Gospel at all times, and if need be to use words. To be there to engage, and edify one another. To be there, when pastor needs encouragement, to be there to help one another.

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Jesus called the rich farmer a fool*… I think we would too. Who in their right mind would tear down their barns to build larger ones? Most certainly they could A, put up new ones on their land, or B, rent barns from another guy, or C, sell their harvest, even if current commodity prices are in the toilet… or what might be an even better situation if for some reason, neither A, B, or C are possible, just give the excess harvest away, rather than letting it sit out in the open.

Even 2000 years ago, folks knew that the weather is just too unpredictable to let ones harvest sit out unprotected. They also knew that if the owner died, and he didn’t leave clear direction as to what to do with his property, there would be massive disputes, perhaps going on for quite some time… If the harvest was just left outside, its likely that the harvest would just rot away.

Massive Grain Storage

In today’s world, we have massive grain bins such as shown above. Each one holds many tons of grain, but they are not within the domain of a single farmer. In the vast majority of cases, farmers band together in a cooperative and work with each other, such that all might benefit from their efforts. In the case of this rich farmer 2000 years ago, today, he likely would have not only tried to capture all the land through massive leverage, but also all the grain storage bins and cooperatives himself, leaving the rest of his neighbors to fend for themselves.

Of course, just because grain is stored, doesn’t mean its safe, or that its value will hold forever. Case in point, a strong wind came along, and took the top cap, and outer steel right off this bin… and had it been full, likely would have vacuumed out much of the grain as well. Jesus sayings about moth and rust destroying treasures on earth is all too true, and can apply to ones harvest as well, whether in a barn, in a bin, or out in the open.

Secondly, the rich farmer of 2000 years ago is is foolish in other ways. He views his life as his own accumulation of possessions, whether it be massive stores of grain, or other stuff. He thinks he should sit back, eat, drink and be merry for the rest of his life as he has done so well for himself.

Eat Drink and be Merry

I remember by primary flight instructor telling me of drinking and being merry in his younger days. He said, they’d come back from a mission, party all afternoon and night until they passed out… and then would be rousted up, and feel like absolute crud for a 4am briefing… They’d fire up the oxygen to max in the B17 in order to be wake up pre-takeoff, and then once at altitude, the subzero temperatures, and the adrenaline of what awaited them during their mission put them on massive edge. He said a lot of guys died as they got shot down, or got hit with flak, many of them friends of his. He said a lot of guys died after surviving 25 missions, as they continued on the same path of near constant eating, drinking and being merry well after WWII ended.

It wasnt the single incident, or even a series of 25 incidents of eating, drinking, and being merry that did them in… it was a lifestyle change, where in gratification of the flesh through all of the above cut many a man’s life short, and in some cases, very short. The problem is not celebration of a harvest, or any other thing… The problem is not initial crazy behavior to cope with the horrors of war, its more so, a complete lifestyle change, where in eating drinking and being merry becomes the only thing that matters.

Foolish Christians, at least in the worlds eyes

Getting back to the fool, in today’s world, society might look at the Christian, and say, how foolish are they who invest time and money in the body of Christ, rather than in the accumulation of wealth? Society in general, and sadly even Christian society might say, how foolish are those who give nearly all of it away?

Rich Mullins sold kazillions of records, yet he chose to live on a yearly salary based upon the average US yearly income. When he died, all of his possessions fit in a 80sq ft storage space, being he had given the rest away. The world would say such is foolishness… On the other hand, actions such as Rich’s are building much greater wealth in the kingdom of heaven, that any personal empire could even hope to touch.

Along that line of thought, last Wednesday we had a guest preacher, Pastor Curtis Fox. He’d actually been pastor at Faith back in the 60′s, albeit had been many places since then, and had gained a multitude of experiences over the years. Pastor Fox made mention of a past parishioner from years ago concerning this text. The parishioner was an amazing business man, and did very well for himself. However, unlike the rich farmer of 2000 years ago, this fellow chose to tithe… but not 10%, not even the 23-1/3% as actually called out in the OT, but 90%.

Foolish Christians, perhaps even in the eyes of Christian Society

The world would no doubt call such a man a fool… Christians might even say, well even if you want to tithe, just tithe 10%. Why not just leverage what you make, and then have an even greater amount to donate when you die? Yet… the parishioner chose to follow Jesus, rather than the wisdom of society who would advocate storing up goods and leveraging them. Considering how folks faired who went for maximum leverage during the downturn, again, Jesus words hit home in a huge way.

How do we respond?

So then… how do we act upon hearing these words? I’ve heard the same Gospel text in 2 sermons, and 3 homilies this week. There are a whole lot more questions than answers.

Who is a rich man today? A US citizen making minimum wage is rich, when much of the world survives on less than $2.50/day. A farmer who owns the average 354 acres in MN, and barely breaks even is massively wealthy compared to the sharecroppers of yesteryear, to say nothing of much of the rest of the world. A Pastor who can barely keep an old car running is massively rich compared to those who can barely keep tires on an old worn out bicycle.

What is responsible use of time and talents? The world says save for retirement, build a nest egg… and for those who lost their pensions of late, such would likely have been good advice from a world point of view. On the other hand, if retirement is to sit back, eat, drink, and be merry, would it not be better to invest in heavenly treasures?

Where does ones family fit in? In the case of Rich Mullin’s, being he was single until death, its much less of an issue, than the case of the fellow who tithed 90%. How much grain storage is reasonable to take care of ones loved ones? How much grain storage is reasonable to take care of ones loves ones in case of death?

These are not easy questions.

*The Gospel lesson for 18th Sunday After Pentecost Luke 12:13-21

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Some random thoughts taken from Mark 12: 35-37

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,
“How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.’
David himself calls him ‘lord’;
so how is he his son?”
The great crowd heard this with delight.

Wrench Tossing

Lordship Salvation depends on our own personal works*… then what about Jesus pre-existance? What about Davids not so cool works with Bathsheba and Urriah the Hittite?

Trinity Reinforcement

This is majorly profound… normally John is trinity intensive, this section from Mark is way cool too, it takes things out of the temporal realm, into the eternal one.

Delighted Crowds…?

I heard such, and was unaware of the space/time four vector, rather than being delighted, I’d be going ??? Then again, if Jesus told the crowds back then about Minkowski space, they would likewise not be any too delighted and be going ??? as well. Then again, it might well be the enemies under feet thing too.

*John MacArthur has an excellent book where he explains that Lordship Salvation is not salvation by works… on the other hand, I read it four times, and it seemed more so to indicate salvation was by works. The early church fathers condemned Pelagianism, as did the Council of Trent… yet history seems to repeat itself just with slightly different verbiage. Go figure

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Some weeks back I wrote about fire in the gut for Christ, and how it often manifest’s itself in the young. Sadly though, it seems so much of the same hunger in much of the rest of Christian society is lacking. In some cases, I’ve even seen Christian society go so far as to throw spiritual food away, or mix it with dog food so as to make it less palatable for the youngsters. In other cases, I’ve seen society serve up gold bars to serve as a distraction.

I sort of wonder if its a fear and self protection thing that is showing up. The dogfood mixers and gold servers may have the best intentions in their actions… they dont want to see the young get hurt, so they try to mitigate any and all risk and avoid challenge at nearly all costs. They dont want to see the young following Christ as the apostles did, ie being content with only food, and the clothes on their back, rather they want to see the young become the next Warren Buffet, or at least possess a Mercedes, a home in suburbia, a successful spouse, and a couple kids.

I read the following comment some time back as concerns a scandal, and I think it makes a lot of sense in describing Christian society. Since the scandal is not the issue, but more so the response to it, I’m making some edits to make the following pretty generic.

Such a mystery, how God used even xxxx’s evil intent to generate much good. Makes me feel like I don’t have near as much good to show for my life as the evil xxxx. What is the difference between us? I am perhaps not as great a sinner, but I am also not as great an apostle for Christ (even if his greatness as an apostle was inadvertant).

It would be tragic if Christians draw the conclusion from the xxxx mess that they must be timid, lest they be tempted. It would be tragic if Christians draw the conclusion from the xxxx mess that they had best not stick their necks out, lest their heads be lopped off.

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My last blog entry was on fire in the gut… and to keep if from becoming a novel, I left off a couple key bits. There is fire in the gut for Christ, and there are disguises of such which can be pretty counterproductive. On the surface, it can be pretty hard to distinguish between the two, but internally… a little discernment can go a long way.

Mary and Martha

Sometime the USCCB lectionary, and the RCL line up… a couple weeks was one of those, so I heard about Mary and Martha over four services! In 15 second elevator speech summary mode, Jesus was hanging out with Mary and Martha. While Mary focused on Jesus, Martha, was so busy getting all the ducks in a row with worry and distraction, she sort of blew hospitality 101, ie focus on your guest(s). Martha also wasnt too gung ho on Mary not helping, so she asked Jesus to intervene. Jesus then explained that Martha was missing the point.

4 messages… and busy-ness

Whats cool is… I heard four very distinct messages all on the same text, albeit differing pastors varied as to how much of the other texts were included, but the Gospel lesson was very common amongst all of them.

I want to focus on BUSY-ness, as it goes back to the fire in the gut thing, but also may help us discern as to what might be trouble.

We’ve all seen the over scheduled, every day in some church activity individuals. (fwiw, I’ve been one) It may well be such folks have a zeal for Christ approaching the giants of the faith, or it may be they are so wound up with distraction (even good distractions), they end up in the same boat as Martha. Ie, they are so busy, they dont have time to stop at Jesus feet. So lets look at some scenarios that set the stage for Martha mode.

Misguided Sin Avoidance Busy-ness

No youth leader wants to ring up millstones by causing a young one to stumble… and by anti-stumbling, often times the first thing that comes to mind is sin avoidance. Ie, if you schedule enough busy type activities when running a lock-in or even summer camp, the kids will be so tired, they will fall sound asleep, and the probability of having a couple characters sneak off to raid the kitchen or worse etc when you think the group is sleeping (and you and your peers are exhausted and your guard is down) is drastically reduced. Yet, overscheduling is almost setting the stage for stumbling by encouraging Martha type behavior rather than Mary type behavior. Worse, is that such overscheduling prevents, rather than encouraging sitting at Jesus feet, and just listening to Him.

Fleeing from Temptation via Busy-ness

I tend to align with the old saying, albeit it has rather lame scriptural support, is that an idle mind is the devils workshop. Put folks at idle… and it seems bad things start to multiply. I’ll also concede, if one goes into distraction seeking mode (even church or ministry distraction mode), rather than sitting at Jesus feet… thats not cool either. Fleeing from temptation, while a good thing in and of itself, if it results in faith activity busy-ness alone and no time for Jesus is insanely counterproductive.

Pride and Competition via Busy-ness

Pride and competition can also serve to foster business, especially when measurements are involved. If competition or pride get involved, even the best intentions can end up going south pretty fast, exponentially so if Jesus is left out of the picture.

Bad Stewardship via Busy-ness

I fully believe Parkinson’s law applies to nearly any ministry context. Ie ministry needs will expand to consumer all available time plus 20%… and it can be a real killer if one isn’t careful. Granted, sometimes such is just the way things roll. If a youngster attempts suicide at 11PM… its not like you can just blow him and his family off. Same deal with tragic car accidents… yet, other situations are often the result of hosed up stewardship, either not enough resources, or not enough planning. The work of the Kingdom has to go on… but if it takes out the ministers time to sit in front of Jesus, then we have a major problem.

A possible answer?

So whats an answer… Ecclesiastes says there is a time for all seasons… and if one just adds a tiny bit of human reason, the creation of hard decks becomes a logical outcome. In simplest terms, rigorous scheduling, such that there is always time to sit at Jesus feet, works. The early apostles knew this, and they followed it to a T, just look at the scheduled prayer times called out throughout the book of Acts. In today’s society, we may think we are too busy for such rigor and discipline… and for some folks, that may well be the case… but then, how do such go about slowing down to sit at Jesus feet.

Filed under : Growth and Discipleship

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