Unchained Challenge: Luke 8

Scripture: Luke 8:37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear.

Observation: The people of the Gerasenes encounter the power of God in Christ to heal a demon-possessed madman and instead of welcoming Jesus they want him out of their region. Maybe the people are comfortable with the way things are. When a powerful person like Jesus shows up, things change. And who likes change? The people understand one thing- if Jesus stays on the scene of their lives it will necessarily entail change for everyone. People who are sick will get well. Sinners will turn to saints. The greedy will become generous. The status quo will be replaced with status go. I think of Beaver’s description of Aslan, the Christ figure, in Narnia… “of course he isn’t safe, but he is good.” If it is safety we are looking for then we probably don’t want to invite Jesus into the town of our lives.  

Application: As I get older (but not that old since I am still in my 30s for a little longerJ) the more I hunger for safety and status quo. I really have to fight this urge. If I really want Jesus to enter more fully into the “region” of my life I must abandon my quest for safety and ease. Every time I resist the changed Jesus is trying to initiate in my life, it’s like I am asking him to “leave.” Lord, today I invite you to come in and upset the status quo of my life so that I become more fully the person you made me to be.

Prayer: Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee! Amen.

Why Are Pastors So Lonely?

Pastors are among the loneliest people in the world. Today, in the Spiritual Formation course I teach at Wesley Seminary, me and my students explored the reasons for this. Feel free to comment and add to the list. The first step toward solving the problem is insightfully analyzing it.

Why are pastors among the loneliest people in the world?

The pastoral role can prevent authenticity
Pastors have been burned before by friends in the church
Pastors don’t have or make time for friends outside of the church
Many pastors struggle with depression which leads to isolation
Pastors don’t want to come across as a clique-ish
Pastors don’t have a right to pick and choose friends when we have to love all
Pastors are afraid people will see the real us beyond the role
Friendship takes energy we pastors don’t seem to have

Why do pastors need friends?

Pastors are prone to self-deception
Pastors need someone who cares for our soul the way we care for our people
Pastors need friends to help us de-robe and not take ourselves so seriously
Pastors need people who commend our strengths and challenge our weaknesses

Unchained Challenge: Luke 7

Scripture: Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her (the widow) his heart went out to her and he said “don’t cry.”

Observation: A woman has lost her husband and now her only son to death, which means she lost her hope and source of income. She is grieving and wondering how she will provide for herself. Many women in her position would be forced into prostitution or servitude to “make ends meet.” Despite his busyness, going from town to town to preach and heal, Jesus notices the woman. He “saw her and his heart went out to her.” This widow lost the men in her life, but she still had one Man who loved her. Jesus gives the man “back to his mother” (v.15).

Application: I am comforted by Jesus’ ability to see and care for me and others in the midst of grief and pain. But, I am also challenged by Jesus. Do I really see the people around me who are hurting in a way that elicits active compassion in me? Or, do I walk right past people looking at but not really seeing them? Today, I am going to slow down and see the people around me who are hurting. I will allow my heart to feel for them in a manner that leads me to act on their behalf.

Prayer: Lord, give me the eyes and heart of Christ to see the people around me who are grieving and hurting. And please give me the grace to act on their behalf in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 6

Scripture: Luke 6:30b Jesus says, “If anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back.”

Observation: The words of Jesus in this chapter are extremely challenging, especially his words above. Let’s remember that Jesus’ audience was primarily Jewish peasants whose land and freedom had been taken by the mighty Romans. What wasn’t taken by the Romans was taken by the Jewish aristocracy which controlled the Temple finances and drained the pockets of the people. These words of Jesus, then, have a bit of a sting when read in the context of first century Palestinian realities. There were Jewish zealots in that day who tried to fight Roman power with power. These rebel Jews tried to take back what Rome and the Jewish elite had taken from them. Jesus says “do not demand it back.”

Application: The American way seems to be “tooth for tooth” or in some cases, “you take my tooth and I will take your teeth.” There are sayings that have been ingrained in me that run counter to Jesus’ command: You got to fight for your rights, claim what is yours, look out for number one. It seems that the American Church, at times, tries to synthesize American values with Jesus’ teaching. However, on many points they are like oil and water; they don’t mix. Sometimes I wonder if my faith is based more on American Churchianity than Biblical Christianity. By the power of God’s Spirit, today I will align with the values of the Christ I claim to follow, the Christ who tells me not to demand back what is mine.    

Prayer: Lord, forgive me for following the values of culture and my own sense of what is right instead of aligning my life with the values of a kingdom not of this world. Please give me the wisdom to differentiate the divergence between your way and the way of the world. And give me the courage to swim upstream and obey your counter-cultural values. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 5

Scripture: Luke 5:b (Peter to Jesus) “But because you say so, I will let down the nets for a catch.”

Observation: Jesus is always asking us to do odd things. He asks the disciples to feed a crowd of thousands with just a small amount of food. He commands us to love not only our friends, which is hard enough, but even our enemies. And in Luke 5 he asks seasoned fisherman who caught nothing all day and who are almost finished cleaning their nets to “put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” What could Jesus possibly know about fishing? At any rate, Peter’s response is commendable. He does the ridiculous, seemingly senseless thing Jesus asks him to do. He obeys Jesus’ odd command because Peter trusts him.

Application: Sometimes I am tempted to play life safe within the bounds of my own logic and convenience. What if Christ asks me to put out my fishing nets at a time and in a place that seems unlikely to yield fish? Ten years ago it seemed God was calling me to lead a church that was demoralized and stuck. There were other ministry opportunities that seemed to make more sense, but I knew God was calling me to this problem-infested but potential-filled church. “Because you say so” I went. That church, in time, became the kind of church I always dreamed of leading. And I almost missed it because it didn’t make sense for me to go there. I wonder of God is calling me to do something odd and unlikely today. If he does, will I muster the grace to respond with Peter “because you say so, I will.”?

Prayer: Lord, give me the grace to follow you wherever you lead and to do what you call me to do no matter how odd it may be. Forgive me for playing life safe and, too often, missing out on the boat-load of fish you have for me. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 4

Scripture: Luke 4:39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

Observation: Peter’s mother-in-law is sick with a severe fever. Once Jesus comes on the scene, he heals her. Immediately after being healed, she gets up and serves them. She doesn’t take a nap, sit around and chat, or let people wait on her; she serves! Perhaps she is so overwhelmed with gratitude for being made whole that she can’t help but do something for others. She is served by Jesus and that compels her service to others.

Application: I am challenged by this story. First of all, I am challenged to have more compassion for my mother-in-lawJ Seriously, the question that haunts me is, why do I serve? There are lots of mixed reasons for serving people in Jesus’ name. I confess that sometimes I serve because of how it makes me feel about myself, how it makes me look to others, or how it obligates God to “bless me.” Today, my motivation to serve God will be the same as it was for Peter’s mother-in-law. I will remember how God has healed me and that will motivate my service. He has healed me from addiction, past pain, and debilitating insecurity, inferiority, and inadequacy. I will allow his healing love to motivate me to get up and wait on the people around me.   

Prayer: Lord, when I pause to remember and reflect upon the many ways you have healed me, I can’t help but want to serve others so that they too experience your healing power. Today I will serve you not out of obligation but appreciation. Amen.

Pastoral Ministry Shifts

I began pastoring a local church as a senior in college at the age of 23. For the next 15 years I served consecutively as a solo pastor, youth pastor, assistant pastor, and lead pastor in a variety of contexts before joining the faculty of Wesley Seminary last year. As I reflect upon my years of pastoral ministry, it seems there are a few God-initiated, ministry-enhancing shifts I stumbled upon along the way. My perspective on pastoral ministry changed significantly since I was a 23 year old “wet behind the ears” pastor in that rural and loving congregation who gathered in a fly-infested, mildew-scented sanctuary. The following shifts fostered the kind of faithfulness that facilitated fruitfulness (alliteration almost always appears arrogantJ):


Methodology to Spirituality: The best way for parents to produce healthy kids is to cultivate a healthy marriage. The same principle applies to the pastor; the best way to produce healthy Christians is for pastoral leaders to cultivate a healthy, intimate relationship with God. Most pastors will respond to this with, “thanks Einstein!” However, many pastors seem more enamored with the work of the Lord than the Lord of the work. We can easily become more infatuated with ministry methodology than authentic spirituality. The people who have had the most positive and profound impact upon my development in Christ were not methodological storm-chasers, but spiritual God-chasers. Don’t get me wrong, we must explore and incorporate best ministry practices and methods into the life of the churches we lead. However, method-rich but Spirit-poor leaders don’t seem to build churches that build God’s kingdom. At some point I began reading more books to enhance my soul than I was reading to increase my effectiveness. Oddly enough, this made me more effective. Go figure!

Programmer to Architect: I used to focus entirely on programming the church. “Get the right programs for children, youth, and adults and you get the right church,” I assumed. The pastor is the programmer who picks from a menu of programming options that are working in other churches and incorporates them into his or her particular church. A good program may provide an immediate boost but rarely any lasting change. A decade into ministry I came to the conclusion that lasting change comes not from programming the church but architecting the culture of the church. I shifted from a focus on finding programs to facilitating a culture that aligns with the values of Christ. Once the church discerned and developed a Christ-aligned culture, which for us entailed significant ministry to the poor and addicted, we sought programs that reinforced that kind of culture. Pastors are called first to architect the culture before they program the church, or we end up putting the cart before the horse.

Church to Community: I used to think that God called me to pastor the people who attended the church. Most of my time, therefore, was spent on the church campus developing campus-based ministries that would bring people to our campus. Then, the incarnation of Christ began to “get under my skin” a bit. God didn’t sit back and wait for us to come to him. Instead, he came to us as one of us. He came to our campus, onto our turf. INCARNATION! I also began to dig into Wesleyan Christianity and discovered John Wesley left the “campus” of the Anglican Church to go onto the turf of the poor, drunk masses of England. He insisted “the world is my parish” and “there is no holiness but social holiness.” It suddenly clicked for me. So, the amount of time I spent outside of the church increased. I began meeting with community leaders on their turf to explore ways to “do good” together. We participated in community service projects. Our budget began to reflect care, not just for our campus, but for our community as we invested more money in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and helping the addicted. In time, some of our most persistent evangelists were unchurched people in the community who said “go to that church, they care about people, they will help you.”

Powerful to Empowering: For some reason I assumed that if anything good happened in the church I led, it would be because of my insight, giftedness, or power. Although I quoted Ephesians 4:12-13 annoyingly, usually arm-twisting people to serve in ministries I decided should be important to them, I wasn’t empowering “the saints” to do what God was calling and equipping them to do; I wasn’t giving them a “voice.” About a decade into ministry I became captivated by the concept of Trinitarian ministry, pastoral ministry that flows out of the implications of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What does it look like for me as a pastor to relate to my people like the Father who honors and elevates the Son, and the Son who submits to the Father, and the Spirit who reminds us of the Son? My role as a pastor is to elevate, honor, and submit to the members of my team. I got the impression that the church is at its best when all the people of God are empowered to do what God has designed and called us to do. And, it made my job a lot less stressful.

Which shifts have you already made? Which shifts do you need to make to more faithfully and fruitfully serve the purposes of God as pastor?