Doing a lot of study in Jeremiah today.  It is such a powerful book and such an indictment on God's people.  What hits you again and again is the fact that God's people would sometimes feel bad and make some big promises, but they never really changed their heart.

God isn't fooled by their temporary sorrow.  He is angered by the fact that they will do the "right things" and go through the motions of obedience when they clearly don't mean it.  How easy it is to do that.  How often do we do the right thing outwardly while inwardly we have a much different plan and purpose?   It is so easy to tell someone that we forgive them but still harbor anger and unforgiveness in our heart.  It is easy to talk about how much the Lord means to us and how important He is and then leave very little room for Him in our lives, our priorities.  Do we sing "All and All" on Sunday, declaring to Him that He is more important than gold or silver and then live our week in slavery to the almighty dollar?

What are ways in which what you say does not match the true intentions of your heart?  How often does sorrow come more from either getting caught or being corrected than from truly seeing the evil of your sin?   That is very convicting for me.  May I not be sorry that things didn't work out or I got caught, but may I sorrow for the sin in my life and truly desire to renounce it, rather than grudgingly giving up sin and worldly things just because God said I have to.  Where's the joy in that?  God finds none.  (Jer. 6:15)

Humans need community.  No matter where mankind has gone, he immediately forms or seeks to join community.  This is so powerful that an enduring disturbing image in our culture is that of the "loner".  The one who has no connections in society and therefore has no support network or healthy interaction.   This doesn't of course mean that all communities are healthy.  Street gangs, criminal syndicates, extremist groups are communities but not usually beneficial to the larger population.

The point is that we seek out connection and that the connections that we seek out, the quality of those connections,  can bring us great strength.  This is the idea behind the greek word Koinonia.  It means "communion" or "community" and it connotates ideas of sharing and intimacy.  That is why we have Koinonia nights at Bean's Corner.   It is important to study the Word.  It is important to meet for prayer.  But a VITAL component of our walk together with God is community.  The early church was not merely a weekly service meeting for an hour or two to sing and listen to a speaker.  They got together regularly, shared each others lives and often times shared their possesions as different people needed things.  This is the idea of Koinonia and the modern American church often times does a poor job of it.  There may be some surface socialization.  But the church often does not take the time to really hang out, talk, get to know one another, and share lives as intimate friends.

This is why I am so excited about last Sunday night as we say close to 80 people come out just to spend time with one another and have fun.  While we didn't do any big Bible study and only had one short community prayer, our evening was profoundly spiritual because we shared our lives with one another and grew closer to one another.  You cannot remove the importance of Word study or prayer, but there is more than just that to a healthy spiritual walk.  We need community with believers.

Plus, its really fun!

We had a great weekend at church.  Morning was fun with a good study in Jeremiah in Sunday School, a good time in morning service as we studied 1 Peter 3, and then evening church was so much fun with over 70 people coming out for pizza and fun.

I have been reflecting yesterday and today on the nature of what it is we pastors do.  Over the years I have met a great many pastors and had numerous opportunities to work with pastors in one capacity or another.  There is great variation in personality, approach, and vision among pastors.  I would like to share my perspective.

What is the job of the pastor?  A lot of books have been written on the subject.  These days the answer to that question often reflects less Biblical truth and much more a sense of the culture that has evolved in the American church over the last two hundred plus years.   Is he the person who runs the church?  Is he the top one in charge?  Is it his job to keep things going?  How should his time be spent?  There is always more to do than people to do it.  Isn't the pastor's job to stay on top of everything?

I say no.  I know that I am outside of the mainstream on this one these days, but I know I am not alone.  Those of you who are familiar with my approach at Bean's Corner have seen how I am seeking to redefine the practice of being a pastor into what I think is a more Biblical, less cultural, role.

I don't see anywhere in Scripture where the pastor was supposed to be the administrative head of the church.  In fact, and here's a fun study, there is room to debate whether a single top leader is even envisioned in Scripture.  Just a fun point of debate.  The job most defined in Scripture as being a pastor's job is the job of shepherding.  What does that mean?  Well, Peter says to Shepherd the flock of God.  What does it mean to shepherd?  The two aspects that seem to be most closely associated with this is to feed and to care.  Jesus asked Peter to feed or shepherd His lambs.   Shepherding people means feeding them the Word of God and taking care of them.

Too often this has been changed into administering the schedule, maintaining the activities, doing the work of the organization, not the work of the body.  The church is not the building nor the programs.  To be sure those things have an important place and need attention, but is that the job of the pastor?  If the pastor is to take care of the church, let us remember that the church is made up of the people, not the property or programs.

In my life, I have two main focuses that represent almost all the work I do.  I study the Word to faithfully teach.  Part of that study does include planning ahead what upcoming series will be, what small groups will study, etc.  Feeding our church the Word of God and equipping them to feed themselves is central to my task.  The second main focus is to invest in the lives of people.  This must run a close second behind the study of the Word.  People just need time invested in them.  They need to talk.  They need someone to listen, to love, to care.  Sometimes they need some gentle nudges.  Sometimes a loving and gentle shove.  :)

There are times when some administrative tasks must be performed or administrative decisions made that I must give time to.  Whether or not it should be my job, sometimes it just is and I have to do it.  Some pastors have more on their plates than others.  I am fortunate enough to have great people around me who take care of so many things themselves.   But an important aspect is that sometimes pastors have to do it all themselves because they make it that way.  They don't invest in people and so people aren't there to help.  They don't allow people to grow into positions, making mistakes along the way, because the pastor is more interested in getting the results, trains on time and all that, to make room for the people who could maybe do it less perfectly but would then be involved.

It comes back to focus.  Pastors are supposed to shepherd the sheep, not manage the pasture.  A shepherd who isn't spending intentional, directed, relationship-building time with people is a groundskeeper not a flock tender.  The pasture isn't going to go to heaven, the sheep are.  If you are a pastor, or other leader of the church, make sure that even as you may have to take care of administrative details, that you are focused on the body, not the mechanisms of the church.  If you are in a church but uninvolved, are there things you can do to make sure your shepherd can focus on the sheep, not the pasture?

Final note.  This relational aspect of pastoring is why I believe God places the family as the epicenter of a pastor's qualifications.  If he can't even build those nuturing relationships with the people that he lives with and has primary responsibility over, he will fail at the relationships at church.  In my life, as I have gotten more responsibility over the years and been given more leadership, I have also realized that I need to have more and more focus and time directed within the four walls of my home.  If I'm not doing it effectively here, everything outside of my home is built on sand.

Life is finally beginning to return to something closer to what we would call normal.  :)  Sarah is finally beginning to feel better after a week of being knocked out by the flu.  I am also feeling a better even though I wasn't completely sick, I have been battling it too.  My daughter coughed less last night so that too was a good sign.

Today I finally got back into the office after almost a week out of it as I had more responsiblity taking care of the family while Sarah recuperated.  I miss all the great time I got with the kids last week, but it is good to get back to the other work that is piling up.  Started chipping away at it today.  Lots more to do.

God has really continued to teach me about allowing a focus on Him to result in self discipline.  My whole life I have struggled with self discipline and I think so much of that had to do with the fact that I was trying to discipline myself for Him instead of allowing a focus on Him to create self discipline in me.  Self control is part of the fruit of the spirit and I find that the more I get my focus much more on Him and yield myself for fully to Him, the more self disciplined I find myself.  I am also continuing to mature as I get older.  :)

To that end, I have been really working on my physical health as well as the relationship health of my wife and kids.  While I have always been a fairly laid back and patient person, I have needed to grow in grace and patience as a husband and father and God is seeing to that.  It really makes such a difference in our house.

I am also continuing to work on studying more, both the Spanish and the other things that I need to focus on and learn.

In the end, you can tell if your are truly drawing closer to Jesus by whether or not there are practical results in your daily life.  Look through the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and see if these qualitites are showing up in greater quantity in your life.  If not, the secret is not to focus on trying to do better with those qualities.  That is all just human effort.  Doomed to disappoint.  Instead, redouble your focus on Christ, His Word, His Person, His Presence.  The Spirit will then produce those qualities in you and you and everyone you interact with will notice.

The roughed love harder!

That's the saying I got out of the passage in 1 Peter that I preached on last Sunday.

"Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart," (1 Peter 1:22 NAS)

If we are Christians, we are supposed to love.  There is no conditional phrase there.  We don't love those who love us.  We don't love those who are nice to us.  We love.  Period.  End of story.  When it gets hard, we should love more.  That is a far cry from what so many Christians do.  Often we use love as a bargaining chip or a means to punish.  When our spouse angers us, we stay away, we don't talk, we withhold expressions of love. Perhaps we disown kids who don't do as we want.  We withdraw from friends who we disagree with or who have hurt us and no longer treat them in a loving way.

Now, this does not exclude things like discipline, either in families or in church.  My kids get sent to time out.  We have had to practice church discipline before.  This is done in love, not as a means of witholding love.  Even putting someone out of fellowship is not the same as personally shunning them, which some sects have done.  It is simply a recognition that a person still needs to deal with sin in their life before then can function normally within the body.  But even when they are "put out' they are to be loved.  After all, the Bible tells us to love our enemies.  Bless them that curse you.    If we are Christ's, then we will allow His love to permeate our hearts and we will love all, no matter whether they are nice to us, or lovable, or anything.  This may be hard from a human standpoint, but with Christ, I can do all things.  So can you!