Many will never know but others will never forget. Many will only see pictures while others have the images branded in their minds for all of time. There is a generation being raised that know very little about the evil that lurks in plain sight. But others can’t get rid of the emotions.
Today many will pause to remember the events of September 11, 2001. The world kind of stopped that day for many of us. Classes canceled. Flights grounded. Police and military were everywhere and NO ONE had a problem with it. First responders were loved and admired. Service men and women were held in high esteem. Race. Creed. Color. Gender. Political persuasion didn’t matter. We were one people. One nation. One nation on her knees.
Then we stood. Like we always do. We dug deep. Found our resolve and placed our feet on the solid ground of our ancestors. We leaned forward in a fighting stance and raised our arms with fists clenched. We weren’t going to take this one laying down. We had to do something. Anything. Nothing was not an option.
But what has happened as the images of the horror faded has been disheartening yet predictable. Even though we said we’d never forget. Even though we add special banners to our social media for this 24 hour day. Even though we light the sky and fly the flags and even pause for a few seconds that day to remember, I’m not convince that we don’t really remember.
If we remembered, I mean really remembered, then things would be different. We’d have that same respect for local authorities we had on September 12th. If we remembered, we’d be able to see beyond color and gender and side of the aisle. If we really remembered the world would be a different place.
Sometimes it’s good to have a moment of horror hit. Sometimes it can be good to suffer the fear and heartache we suffered that late summer day. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I don’t ever want to feel the emptiness of that moment again, but I sure wouldn’t mind to live the good life of horror again. That was a day I could live over and over again.
The times we’re living right now are times many of us never thought we’d see. The speed of cultural shift is so drastic it’s almost dizzying! Look at how fast things have morphed in the past 3-5 years. Some blame the pandemic others blow the thing off like it never happened. I think a better assessment is that it happened, whether we like it or not, and that it accelerated our lives to a speed many of us are not comfortable with. It’s even been said that our society jumped forward about 10 years in the span of 2 years time.
Changing times are terrifying. We don’t like change often because we can’t control it. Something being out of control is not fun. I’m often branded a control freak. But that’s not totally accurate. I tend to embrace change pretty easily and change is out of control. I would say I have a need to be informed about what’s happening so I can be prepared to address challenges that arise. That’s not control it’s desiring information.
Recently the national version of the church body to which I belong made some pretty bold moves. And not bold in a good way necessarily. Honestly I think they’re bold in a way that shows some lack of faith and a bit of cowardice.
I know this is going to probably push someone’s buttons. While that is not the intent, if it does get people having a dialogue instead of unilaterally legislating how we handle change in the world then so be it. I’ll push away!
There are two matters that have really stood out to me as I’ve participated virtually in this conference: as a church body we really have a trust issue and control is pretty important.
There are a couple topics that make this super evident to me. One of which is the desire to focus on one method for raising up pastors in the church body. While I admittedly did not hear anyone say that only pastors going through a residential seminary training process are real and everyone else is fake or lesser, that sure seems to be the tenor of the conversation. I am willing to be wrong here.
The matter from my perspective is one of control. While I do believe it is important that anyone who is rightly called as a pastor within this church body know what we believe, teach and confess. And while I also know that it is important to have diligent study of the Bible and our confessional structure, I also believe wholeheartedly that there is more than one way to get that same result.
Just like I was able to participate in the conference virtually and virtual education methods are numerous and getting more user friendly, having a strong virtual element to the raising up of pastors would be fantastic. I have men in the congregation I serve who would make phenomenal pastors but they just can’t uproot their families or quit their jobs. So alas that’s one less pastoral candidate our church body has in circulation.
The unwillingness to release a little control over the structure of how things are taught (not what is taught but how and where) is really disheartening. I honestly am shocked when I see how the apostles led the churches in the book of Acts. They were uneducated men. They didn’t uproot their families to go off to an institution for a 4 year stint to learn something. They were able to learn while they lived their daily lives.
Are there some trade offs? Yes there are but doing the same thing the same way will not yield a higher result. It just won’t work that way. We should still cherish the traditional route to ministry that has served us well for many years! But releasing a little control back to the parish pastors and working alongside them to raise up and train men for works of ministry sounds kind of Book of Acts to me. Keep high standards. Work on curriculum or teaching points/methods. But leave the how and where to the local guys with regular checkins from the structures that already exist.
But then there’s the whole trust issue. Do we trust that the men in the field are going to steward their gifts properly? I think this is a huge struggle as well. I mean most of them were trained in the residential program that is being held up as the only way to do it. And yet we don’t seem to trust them to be able to teach other men to do the same job? Seems to show a lack of trust in our own teaching! One of the signs of a great teaching is that the student is able to teach the material to someone else.
Look I get it. None of this is going to be easy. But it doesn’t have to be impossible either. The tighter we hold to this method as the only method, the more we’re going to lose. But why is it so hard for us to let go a little?
Change is hard because it leaves things out of control for a period of time. I’m not one of those change everything just because we can kind of guys but we need to know what can change and what can’t change. Changing nothing is not an option. It just isn’t possible. If we can manage change well, we can better manage the chaos that’s so often associated with change.
I think a long and hard conversation needs to be had about where God wants his church to go. Not where we want it to stay. It’s time to make some bold moves for the sake of the kingdom. Repent where we’ve made mistakes. But keep moving and advancing the kingdom. It’s only then that we will see how weak hell’s gates truly are (as long as we’re sitting here those gates hold up pretty darn well).
The times are changing and while the message can’t change – the methods are going to have to change.
I sure hope I’m not the only one who wonders this sometimes. I sure hope that I’m not the only one who hears the news (often by accident) or reads an article on the internet or listens to people around me talking and wonder what’s happening in the world?
Maybe you’ve heard of the fears of economic collapse? Or perhaps the weird things going on in the banking industry around the world? Maybe you’ve grown a tad weary about the lingering conflict in parts of our world? Perhaps you’re getting a tad uneasy about the partnerships being formed between nations that really don’t seem to be up to anything good?
What’s going on?
People who you thought were friends no longer want to talk to you. Institutions that once were focused on helping others have collapsed. Churches have turned inward. And the world around us seems to be spiraling into practices that have historically been deemed unethical, false and evil.
What’s going on?
If you look at sheer numbers, an easy but not effective metric to use, it appears that the church in the world is shrinking rapidly. Small churches are closing and larger ones are showing signs of decline. There are some exceptions but this seems to be more the norm across the country.
What’s going on?
A little word of hope for those of you who are feeling a bit overwhelmed. There is a section in the Bible that we often gloss over as we gravitate to the more well known portion. But it’s often in the seemingly mundane and obscure parts of the bible that we find some really great gems of truth. Take a look here.
Jesus says in the book of Matthew “I will build my church.” Now the context is why we often miss this little gem. This is the section where Peter gets it right. Jesus asks who people say he is. Then Peter without hesitation gives the proper understanding of who Jesus really is. He is the one promised. The Christ who is the Son of God. This is when Jesus replies on this rock I will build my church.
We tend to get hung up on the rock part of this phrase, but what about the promise? What about the section dealing with what God is up to? It’s in this little phrase that we find the answer to our question what’s going on.
So what is going on?
Jesus is building his church. I know that sounds a little weird but in the odd, terrible, threatening, fear-filled, terrifying, uncertain, upside down moments in the world Jesus has not lost his focus. His focus is true. He is building his church.
When the economy is in shambles, Jesus is building his church. When the towers fell in New York, Jesus was still building his church. When illness hits our home and takes our loved one, Jesus is still building his church. When the world is chaotic and just flat messed up, Jesus is still building his church.
Nothing changes the focus of God. Nothing shifts his sights even the slightest. Jesus is still building his church. And that church (the global version, not exactly the local version) will prevail as long as she stays true to his teaching.
The idea that Jesus is building his church doesn’t make the hard days come less often or the pain of the loss of a loved one any less painful. But it does help us see things a little differently. But what do we do with it?
Tomorrow we’ll deal with what the church is supposed to do with this reality. But for now find comfort knowing that the nastiness of life hasn’t changed who God is or what he’s up to. It hasn’t stopped him from doing his work. He’s still building his church and has invited you and me to be a part of this amazing work.
Have you ever been in one of those situations where you had to make an immediate decision? One of those emergency type moments when you feel threatened or in danger? It’s in these moments that we have one of three typical reactions. We are pretty aware of the two most common: fight or flight. But the third one is pretty popular and equally important. Flee is the final F in the F3 triangle.
Knowing your F3 response is critical, not just in crazy cases like a zombie apocalypse or a terror attack, but it will help determine how you deal with conflict in general. When you’re called on in class and you don’t like to talk in front of people, your F3 will kick in immediately. When you’re cut off on the free way typically your F3 will take over. When your lost in an unfamiliar city while driving in rush hour, your F3 will default your behavior.
So what do each of these mean for how we react? It might seem like this should be simple knowledge but there are some nuances to each of these that are important.
We’ll start with my personal F3 category – Fight. This is the category that means when the stuff hits the fan, we generally come out swinging. Fight doesn’t just mean literally fighting, actually to the contrary most of the time it’s not a real fight at all. The fight response is one of a reaction. Those of us in this category will generally take fear and try to over compensate for a fear filled moment by becoming bigger than our fear. Fear is essential and dangerous at the same time, which is something we’ll cover in a future post.
The Fight F3 response sees any type of conflict as something that has to be managed, right away. The challenge with this mentality is that we often will shoot from the hip and tend to over react to a scenario we’re facing. If you’re a Fighter on the F3 scale, hit the pause button for a predetermined amount of time. Don’t fire back an email when someone angers you. Don’t react right away to something done to you. Take time to evaluate what type of response will yield the best possible results. Showing someone who’s boss in the moment might give you 60 seconds of satisfaction but in the process you can easily end up hurting someone who cares about you (and all because of what is likely a misunderstanding or overreaction).
The second F3 response is known as Flight. And it is pretty much what it sounds like – you run from the problem. Now don’t get me wrong each of these have their time and place and none of them are inherently wrong in and of themselves, but knowing your default will help you better manage how often you lean into each category. The Flight response means that when any kind of trouble arises you simply walk away, or run away depending on the intensity. And it’s not getting away to avoid unnecessary conflict, it’s running away because you’re too afraid to deal with the problem head on.
The Flight F3 response sees any type of conflict as something you need to avoid and you’ll go out of your way to get as far from it as possible. The challenge here is that in an effort to avoid any type of conflict or have a hard conversation with someone with whom you don’t agree or by whom you feel challenged, you’ll end up losing friendships and causing undue strife in a relationship. Your F3 Flight response could be the reason your circle grows smaller over the years.
Finally the third F3 response type is called Freeze and it means just what it says. When trouble arises the Freeze response makes you unable to move, sometimes literally. Freeze is what happens when you’re so flustered that you can’t make a decision. Your brain becomes so fogged over with what is happening around you that you can’t make a rational decision. So you instead of doing anything (fight or flight) you just do nothing. Literally nothing. This would be the equivalent of seeing a burning building with someone hanging from a window and you not thinking you have the skills to help so you just stand back and watch in terror. Now I’m not saying you should run into the house and put yourself in danger, although that’s what we Fight people would do. But there are other options like call for emergency help!
You see it’s not just the big hairy problems that manifest these F3 response types. It’s the everyday situations as well. We can see it in social media and even friendships in general. Someone says something you don’t like or their opinion doesn’t line up with your opinion so what do you do? Do you lash out at them and get angry? Do you essentially cancel them by walking away from the friendship altogether? Do you sit dumbfounded with no answer or thought at all? None of these are the right way to handle this type of situation and for certain they are not the Christian way to do it. All too often we let our F3 over rule our way of Jesus method of handling problems.
The point here is simply to make you aware of your default so you can better keep it under control. So whether you normally fight, flight or freeze you have the power to adjust your response if you hit the pause button and collect yourself before you lash out, run away or collapse in fear.
Have you ever done one of those challenges where you held a glass of water (or other beverage) out in front of you to see how long you could hold it up? The challenge is actually kind of interesting. The glass is light so you’d think it wouldn’t be a problem. The glass, even when full, weighs hardly anything in the grand scheme of things you carry daily. So this can’t be hard right?
Well as you start out, it’s easy. The glass is just there. Then the task of holding it becomes a little annoying. How long can I actually do this? And eventually the shoulder starts to tremble and the water inside shakes a little. Then finally you just have to put the glass down because your arm can’t handle it anymore.
But why? Why did the glass get so heavy? You didn’t change its mass or weight. You didn’t hang anything extra off of your arm. It’s just there. A light weight glass with 8 ounces of water and somehow after a series of minutes, the glass got heavier and heavier even though it didn’t change at all.
I think we face our problems in life the same way. We hold them for far too long. I’m a pretty big advocate for making a decision and moving forward with it. I’m a big proponent of just ripping off the bandaid and dealing with things. But some people hold their decisions for far too long. When we have a decision to make and hold off on making it, bad things happen. We become someone we never wanted to be. We get feisty and anger easily. We soon realize the weight of the decision is becoming too heavy for us to carry, so we throw it at the people closest to us. It’s like the glass of water analogy. Even though the glass didn’t change size, shape, mass or weight it still became too heavy to hold.
The longer we hold our fears, anxieties, stresses, and even decisions the heavier they become. And eventually we’ll either drop them or hurt those around us when we throw things at them.
Look I know fears are real. I know anxiety is a true fact of life and many people have a hard time processing it. I know decisions have rippling effects far beyond what we might see in the moment. But holding them will only make things worse.
So find a friend. Seriously find a friend who will be there with you through the anxiety. Maybe someone can help you see the challenge from a different perspective. Maybe they can help you come up with some coping methods to get through the hard time you’re facing.
Imagine that same glass of water in your hand. This time when you’re holding it a friend comes up to put his hand underneath yours. All of a sudden the pressure of the glass no longer affects your arm. Immediately you have relief. The same is true with our stresses and fears and anxieties we hold onto in life. When we surround ourselves with people who are willing to challenge us and hold us accountable and help us when we struggle, we’ll realize we can carry the glass longer. We’ll even be able to set the glass down over time.
If you can’t set the glass down today, find a friend who you trust to help you hold the glass. I bet you’ll thank me for it.
What are you afraid of? What keeps you awake at night? What are the things that just make your pulse rise and your blood pressure skyrocket? What makes you freeze in your tracks and not be able to move? These things act like walls that keep us immobile at times. These walls need to come down.
Today in our Music Monday, we look at a song about walls that need to be tumbled, walls that isolate us and prevent us from living our lives to the fullest possible.
We spend so much time building these walls of fears and failures. We stack block after block on our foundation of unaccomplished tasks. We let our failures pile up to an insurmountable obstacle that we’ll never be able to escape. How do these walls come down?
The song Jericho is an echo of a Bible story about God’s people in the Old Testament. They had an enemy that was encamped in a well fortified city with massive walls. God’s people simply marched around this city and trusted in God’s ability and power and eventually those walls came down. They were persistent. They were faithful. They were trusting. And God did the work.
All too often when our walls keep us from living the lives we are called to live, we try to go it alone. Or we dig deeper for that extra measure of power deep inside ourselves. But the power needed to bring down these walls of fear and failure doesn’t come from inside us. It comes from God. He is our power. He is our wall breaker.
Happy Monday friends! Time to tumble those walls with humble, faithful obedience.
On September 11, 2001, an enemy pushed us to the ground. Terrorists toppled the trade center. They used our own complacencies and comforts against us. While on the outside it looked like they won, there’s something they forgot. We are Americans. They killed the innocent. They crushed our heroes. They darkened our economy and halted our skies, but not once on this day did we kneel. For we are Americans.
There are so many worries in the world today. We worry about our jobs and the small business down the street. We worry about things in life that we really have no control over to begin with. We worry about health and loved ones who make poor choices that put them in harms way. We worry about lots of things.
This week it’s time to rise above the challenges in life. We all have them. Struggles are all around us. Enemies are larger than life. Doubts flood our minds. Heartbreak settles in. Fear overtakes us. Darkness seems to win. No matter where we turn it seems as if we’re getting farther and farther behind in life and we just don’t know where to turn. And to make matters worse, our worship life is flat at best and we feel all alone going through these horrific moments.
This summer has been dedicated to stories of water in the bible for our children in summer Sunday School and Children’s Worship. We’ve been looking at stories of everything from Noah and the ark to Moses parting the Red Sea. Soon we’ll be looking at Peter walking on water, undoubtedly one of my favorite stories that involves Peter and Jesus! Continue reading
