A matter of style

When you hear some of those TV preachers on a roll do you ever wonder where that style comes from? It is often credited to "being anointed." Nobody has ever been more anointed that Jesus, yet somehow I can't imagine him preaching in that revivalist style. Can you?

Jesus said this...

"Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall"

I doubt -- seriously doubt -- that he said...

"EVERYone... did ya hear me? I said EVERYone! Not a few people. Not some people. Not ALMOST everyone. I said EVERYONE. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT TURN TO YOUR NEIGHBOR AND SAY EVERYONE! Now that oughta make you shout HALLELUUUUUUJAAAAHHHH!"

Can you imagine Jesus preaching like that? Me neither.

Pride, in the best sense of the word

My focus as a pastor has been local. Almost entirely local. I have often felt disconnected from my denominational roots because my approach to ministry has not fit our traditional mold and there were doctrinal positions I could not totally embrace. And, yet, it is my heritage, and all I have ever known. I love it.

Having just returned from the International General Assembly of the Church of God of Prophecy in Nashville, I left filled with pride, in the best since of that word. Our church has been an aging movement in transition for the past couple of decades, struggling with divisive issues of doctrine and polity, and this year it seems we may have finally moved beyond indecision and resistance to needed change.

It was such an encouraging, refreshing week that I left proud, for the first time in years, to be part of this church.

Growing pains are the best kind

The church I pastor has outgrown our facilities. With 130 members and a "total population" of about 152+/- in a building designed for maybe 80, we are starting to notice a slight growth plateau. We have been experiencing a sense of Divine discontent ---- kind of "Thank You Lord for all you are doing, and yet we know there is so much more You WANT to do!"

I outline sermon subjects well in advance and preach through the scriptures, but Saturday I experienced such turmoil and disquiet I knew God had other plans. Saturday I deviated from my outlined subjects and wrote a completely different message about the challenge of stepping out by faith when God says move, despite all the negatives and logical reasons why it won't work.

Late Saturday night my daughter and her boyfriend came in from an event and I was still in my office, prepping. They said "There's a big old van we don't recognize in the church parking lot." BF and I grabbed flashlights and went to investigate. A lady we sort of know from homeschooling events pops up... she was sleeping in that van. I asked if she was okay, and she said "Long story, but yes -- is it okay if I sleep here tonight and I'll be in church tomorrow morning?" Sure. We unlocked a restroom for her, said goodnight, and went back in.

She was in service, front row. In the sermon I spoke of how the Lord had been dealing with us-- with me -- about taking the next big step of faith and moving from the comfort zone of our cozy building to a place where He could send us more people. After the service, that lady approached me and said she knew the place for us. She told me that she and her husband manage party/banquet facilities at several City & County golf courses, one of which is just about one mile from the church, on the same street! We have attended events there before -- wedding receptions, parties -- and it is large (maybe 2.5 or 3 times the size of our church), air conditioned, big nice restrooms, ample (even generous) parking. It's on the second floor, and has an elevator for handicap access, and the view over the golf course and adjacent mountains is spectacular. The even have some sound and lighting equipment available, and we can probably get the place for what is, in Hawaii, an reasonable price.

So we have a (potential) opportunity before us, but there are some logistical challenges. There is no logical, workable place for Children's ministries at the proposed new site. Anybody have experience with split-sites? One suggestion that came from a brainstorming session was to maintain our children's groups at the original site (our building) as a "drop off/pick up" place, while the parents continue down the road a mile to the Golf Course.

Any feedback? Good, bad. or ugly?

Hawaii Graduations

Graduations in Hawaii are unlike anything anywhere else. My daughter, Tori, just graduated from high school. We have a home schooling network ministry that issues diploma, provides transcripts and produces a huge cap and gown ceremony. We had 13 grads this year, and a crowd of about 800 packed out Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay for the event. Each of the grads had a 4 minute block of time to perform, and the talent displayed was awesome. After the ceremony there was a huge catered outdoor reception with lots of food, and the grads get heaps of beautiful flower lei and cards full of cash. In this picture Tori has only about 1/3 of the flowers she ended up with. The count was over 80, I think. It was an amazing night, and we were blessed with perfect weather, the nice folks at Hope Chapel were wonderful to us, and it was such a wonderful testimony to hear these 13 young adults honoring their parents, speaking well of their siblings and making the name of their Lord famous.

An early Birthday Gift of the best kind.

I received an email tonight from a young family in my congregation. The man grew up in a very traditional Baptist church and his young wife grew up Lutheran. They are now members of my church and He is really gifted and called to be in some form of Pastoral ministry. After our service this weekend, with an emphasis upon the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, Ryan & Julie sent this note. It took me a long time to read, since the tears kept blurring the words!

Gary,

I just wanted to email about this past Sunday, and just in general. First, to thank you for the message you gave this past Sunday. You know that I have heard messages about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in many places, and your message was the more Biblical than any I have heard from any Pentecostal, Baptist or whatever. I truly appreciate what it meant for you to say what you did, knowing the responses of some of those that heard it.

I more generally wanted to thank you for your dedication to my and my families souls and lives. If you only knew the amount of times I have said "I hope that I am like that when I am a pastor" in reference to you. I have learned so much in the last 2 years, that I am afraid I will forget it! Gary, I know that the Lord has a calling on my life, and I know even more that I have soooo much to learn between now and then. I would especially ask that you pray for my boldness. I know I don't seem like the kind of person that needs help with boldness, but there are so many times that I have backed down and not proudly said the name of Jesus when I should have. Lets just say that the cock has crowed more than 3 times for me. I also struggle daily with arrogance, though I think that the Lord has been helping me with that. I honestly believe in the power of prayer, though I have no clue how to pray, and still feel weird when I do. I have not even begun to be faithful with my devotions and the failures keep adding, but I know that the Lord will still guide me and help me.

I have hated being so distant from the church compared to the way we were, but I have so many responsibilities now that I sometimes feel overwhelmed. I need to become much better at balancing my time.

With that said Gary, having grown up in the baptist community, singing out of a psalter hymnal with a piano for every song, being able to smile, laugh, dance, clap or just listen and enjoy the worship of our creator is something to be appreciated and longed for. After traveling recently, and visiting several churches whose form of "worship" was more like gregorian chant then a "getting back to the heart of worship", Julie and I missed it so much. It is like having your feet nailed to the ground when all you want to do is run. There were no butterflies in our stomachs afterwards like we get when we hear brothers and sisters around us crying as they sing because they don't know any other way to express the emotions inside them. Gary, I honestly believe that it doesn't matter it every little detail is right or not, it is the heart, or the love behind the worship that counts. It is like a star struck lover. When you are madly, deeply, truly in love, you find yourself saying and doing things you never thought you would. You look back and think "I can;t believe I did that, or "I can't believe I said that". The wonderful thing is, that no matter how many "left feet" you have when you dance with them, or how many times your voice cracks as you try to whispers those sweet things in their ear, they love every moment of it because it the love behind the act, not the act that touches the heart. God almighty "bends down his ear" to his children, because it is the love behind our worship that touches His heart, not the mode of delivery. If, by how loud, long or weird I worship my Lord is done so because I am so madly, deeply, truly I am in love with him that I am all left feet, cracked voiced, too loud, to soft, dancing in the aisles, or simply bowing my head and raising my hands, then I don't care. My Lord will hear the love behind my voice or the steps in my hula.

Thank you for everything that you have meant to our ohana Gary. We will truly miss WWC, and your family, scratch that, our family. Good night Gary, and if there is ever more that I can do, please don't hesitate to ask.

Love Ryan, Julie and Aiden Hobson

Blessed with favor, twice in one day!

God blesses people with favor. Favor with Him, and favor before men. Now and then things happen that reveal God's favor in my life in ways that just amaze me. Today it happened. Twice.

Hawaii has endured rain of Biblical proportions -- it has literally rained for forty days and forty nights with only brief hours of respite. I had a small, annoying leak in my office ceiling, with plans to repair it after the rains stopped. While I was away in Singapore that small leak was overwhelmed by the volume of the rain water, and I called home to learn that the ceiling had caved in destroying my desk, carpet and some paperwork. One of the young men in my congregation took upon himself the task of repairing the office. He ripped out the ruined carpet and sheetrock, and started the repairs. Often alone. He goes to college in the daytime and delivers pizzas at night. He has shown up night after night at ten or eleven o'clock and worked until the wee hours. A local construction man who doesn't attend my church showed up last week to volunteer to work on the floors. Today he came back to help tape and sand the walls. While he was here, volunteering his time and skills, he came over and handed me a check for $200. "The Lord laid it on my heart to bless you!" he said. Well, he had already been blessing me.

Today was also my daughter's 18th birthday, a very big deal in our house. We invited a group of her friends to join us at Dave and Buster's for dinner, birthday cake, and some games. We had a total of 14 people there, and had a great time. When it came time to pay the bill the manager told us "Someone in the restaurant has already paid your entire bill, and asked to remain anonymous." $300. Paid. Wow! (It's so awesome I'll say it again backward - !woW)

In one day, God gave me favor with a construction tradesman and his skills, with a $200 gift from that man, and a free birthday party for my daughter that saved me $300. Favor. It's a wonderful thing.

Conflicting views of China and the Church

At a recent Christian conference in Honolulu I met a group of representatives from Christian (read: protestant) churches in China. They were not from the unregistered, or underground, church we usually hear about. My friend, Dan Chun, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu took at trip to China a year or so ago, and preached in a 4,000 members church in Shanghai. He told me "they sang the same hymns we use, in Chinese, and raised their hands in worship and prayed fervently and spoke passionately about their love for Christ."

These representatives were from the "Three Self" movement, a uniquely Asian way of expressing the concept of an Indigenous Church. Three self... 'self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation' is intended to remove foreign influences from the Chinese churches, theoretically removing most of the government's objections to religious groups in China. It is also a post-denominational system, in which no differences can be promoted, so you will find staff members from varying denominational traditions serving together in a single congregation. This, of course, does not go over very well with most church organizations since they can have no control and can't even send in outside leadership. In the Three Self view, the Bible calls us to be both good Christians AND (to the extent that there's no conflict) good citizens also. That is why the group's formal name is "China Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee."

So I find myself torn.

I met these folks, spoke directly with them, listened as they talked of their love for Christ and their desire to see more Chinese people reached with the message of the gospel. I believe they are the real deal. And yet there's this:

I have friends -- dear friends -- who serve in China among the unregistered church movement. They avoid using the name of Jesus in communication, and seem cautious and covert in their approach. Could this because they violate the Chinese government-preferred concept of self-propagation? I am aware of people smuggling Bibles in China, when the Three Self representatives avow that Bibles (NIV in Chinese) can be purchased openly in Beijing bookstores for $2-$3 U.S. and are being printed and distributed, with government knowledge and approval, by the hundreds of thousands.

It is difficult for me to reconcile these two perspectives, and I am sure I have an incomplete understanding of the situation. For now I will praise God for my friends who work outside the system AND those who work with the system.