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.

Prophylactic paradox

(Sounds a little more spiritual than "condom conundrum" I suppose.)

I have boundary issues. Admitting that helps me deal with it
constructively. The church I pastor is a fairly tight-knit community
of about 150 people. My family has attended this church for more than
20 years and it is the only congregation my kids have ever known.
These people are our friends, our extended ohana, and our support
system. Coming up through the ranks from layman, to Associate Pastor,
to Senior Pastor and District Overseer I have felt it necessary to
reinvent myself more than once. As the titles and roles change, the
relationships inevitably shift and change, too.

For the past five years we have lived in the church parsonage...
small but adequate housing provided by the church, located on the
church property. "On the church property" is not really accurate.
Because of the way this facility has grown and evolved, often without
a master plan, the church, office and parsonage are interconnected.
The front door of our residence is accessed by going THROUGH the
outer office! That leads to a lack of family privacy and a sense of
living in the fishbowl, on display at all times. If there's any kind
of meeting or activity going on in the office and we come home with
bags from WalMart we feel that people are checking out our purchases
as we walk past. As you might imagine, there are few secrets here and
it can be stressful being on display as the model family at all times.

Hence the title -- Prophylactic paradox (or condom conundrum).

Prophylactics are designed to encourage and facilitate intimacy,
while they prevent the kind of real physical contact that is the
intimate ideal. They are a barrier that consumers of the product
accept as an acceptable trade-off -- in exchange for the 'benefits'
of the barrier, they are able to achieve a measure of intimacy,
albeit incomplete. (I am getting there... stay with me.)

What we have tried to nurture is a kind of prophylactic intimacy
among our church family. We want to be close, but need a barrier to
preserve our own family life and privacy. It is a tightrope. Let that
barrier become too thick, too obvious, and the warmth and intimacy we
need to be effective is lost. Remove the barrier, and intimacy can be
dangerous. In practical terms, how do we keep our home as open as it
would be if we lived elsewhere, while keeping a workable boundary to
preserve our family life? How do we invite in those who have been
long-time friends and make them part of our life, while not allowing
our home to be simply an extension of the church facility?

A word to church boards everywhere. Do yourselves and your Pastor a
favor. When planning to provide a home for your Pastor, do NOT make
it on the church property. Give that Pastor's family the distance and
privacy you enjoy in your home, and you will be rewarded with better
leadership.

A meaningful mantra.

Guy Kawasaki had a tough job in the early days of Apple Computer. I use Macs and love them, but back in the late 80's, when the first Macs were developed, they were pretty primitive; tiny monochromatic screens, no hard drive and hardly any software. Guy's title was Macintosh Evangelist. He went out spreading the good news of this crazy new kind of computer. He went to software developers with a mission -- he was to convince them that the Mac was the future of computing, and they should get on board and write software for this new machine. One result was Aldus PageMaker, which was the primitive beginning of the desktop publishing revolution. The rest, as they say, is history.

In his book, The Art of the Start, Kawasaki gives real world practical advice to start-up entrepreneurs. I recently went to hear him speak on that subject and one of his points really registered with me.

He explained the futility of writing a complex mission statement that few read and even fewer understand. Instead, he suggests that companies and organizations develop a mantra. In this context a mantra refers to "a statement or slogan repeated often." Kawasaki used the example of Wendy's. Like most companies, Wendy's has a formal mission statement: To deliver superior-quality products and services to customers and communities through leadership, innovation, and partnership.

According to Kawasaki, Wendy's would do better with a mantra: Healthy fast food.

I have been giving that some thought. My church has a mission statement, because everyone else had one. I dare say if a first-timer asked anyone at the church for our mission statement few, if any, would have a clue what to tell them -- including our staff members! What we should have is a mantra. We need a simple, brief, memorable way to identify what we are all about to those who ask. It is still a work in progress, but at this point I have arrived at a 3 word mantra:

Real. Relevant. Relational.

What do you think?

Quiet Christmas in a ghost town

It has started already. The island exodus that we experience each December. The upside to ministering to a lot of University students and young military people (and military families) is that the church is lively, vital, and exciting. The downside is that many of them leave the island mid-December to go "home for the holidays," and we are left with a lot of empty seats and extra parking slots.

This year we are being hit harder than I can ever remember.

We will have our Christmas Service on December 25th with a skeleton crew of volunteers and an anticipation of minimal attendance. A pastor friend at a local mega-church has two services scheduled that morning, at 8 and 10. The building seats more than 1,000 -- last year they had about 25 in the first service and 100 in the second. Such is the nature of life in a place with a large transient population.

So, for me, the period between Thanksgiving and New Years is less busy than usual, and has become a contemplative time of introspection and seeking direction for the coming year. In my next post, I hope to deal with what has developed so far. Think "mantra."

More "Desires of the Heart"

Our old 27" Panasonic TV was in the early stages of a slow death.
There were these annoying white lines across the top few inches of
the screen, and sometimes it looked almost like it reflected what was
below... really distracting.

Our living room is the youth magnet, constantly filled with my son
and daughter's friends watching TV, DVD's and playing video games. We
wanted something newer, nicer, and bigger but found the prices a bit
out of our budget. We would slow down and drool in Costco, Sam's Club
and Best Buy when we saw all the big, bright flat screens, but
couldn't justify the expense.

My daughter's boyfriend borrowed my van last week -- said he had to
move something. I helped him remove the middle seat and offered to
help him move, but he declined. An hour or so later he drove up and
asked me and my wife to step outside. The first thought that crosses
your mind at a moment like that is "Did he have an accident and dent
the vehicle?" He slid open the side door revealing a huge box with a
big bow. Inside the box? This...

A 42" Sony Wega 3LCD TV.

Now, this kid is a
university student, and I know he can't afford stuff like this. He
said it was an early Christmas gift from his family in California.
They know he spends most of his waking hours in our home, eats a lot
of meals here, and we have been his extended family during his time
in Hawaii, and they wanted to do something nice for us. Nice is a bit
understated in this case, don't you think?

Bloggin' from the Blackberry

The elusive eBay-purchased Blackberry arrived on day 14 (October 27) at 3:PM.

It was as advertised, but I learned a few caveats for eBay buyers...
--make sure you ask for all books and manuals for electronic devices to save searching and downloading PDF's.
--You'd think a bluetooth headset would include a charger, but you can't assume it unless it says it!

New toys/new tools.

How amazing is this?
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

What is a Semicostal?

When people cold call the church office, they have several standard questions they ask:

Where are you located?

When are your services?

What kind of church is this?

The first two are pretty easy to answer. The third is more complex.

They are hoping for a simple descriptive term by which they can make some assumptions, and I am hesitant to give them that label. Once we attach a descriptive label to anything, we preclude exceptions and deviations from the stereotype. If someone is trying to determine where you stand politically, they are hoping you will say liberal, conservative, libertarian, Democrat or Republican. Even though your own voting practices and beliefs on individual issues might defy stereotype, once you give them a label, an entire set of assumptions are made. "Oh, you are a Democrat?" (Assumption: anti-Christian, pro-abortion, anti-military, pro-same-sex-marriage...)  It works the same with religious labels.

Are you Calvinist or Arminian?Evangelical? Fundamentalist? Reformed? Charismatic? Cessationist? Pentecostal?

As soon as you identify with any of those terms you accept the baggage that is attached. What about those of us who are not precisely Arminian, but are also not Calvinists? Can one be a 2-point Calvinist? That's my problem with telling a caller that the church is Pentecostal.

I have absolutely no reservations about identifying with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as manifested on the Day of Pentecost. I have great reservations about identifying with much of the excess, heresy and just extra-Biblical nonsense that has come to typify much of the modern Pentecostal Movement. A lot of good has come from Christian TV, but a lot of garbage has spewed forth also, and it has colored the perception of Pentecostalism in the public mind.

It started out almost as a joke, calling our church semicostal as a reaction to pentecostal excess. The label seems to have stuck. Now I get lots of questions about the precise meaning of that label. The time has come to begin to craft a definition.

I am working on it.

Desires of my heart (Part 2)

This pile of steaming asphalt is part two of an answered prayer!
Unscheduled and unannounced, the same crew and supervisor arrived at
7:00 AM in my parking lot to complete a road repair immediately in
front of the church. As before, I went out and unlocked the front
restrooms for the workers, and waved to the supervisor. He
remembered me, waved back, and pointed to the parking lot, and
motioned thumbs up.

I went back in the office to do some paperwork and, a few hours
later, heard some noise, and saw the trucks dumping material in the
rough area of the lot.

God has some awesome secret agents all over, in all kinds of
businesses, and I am thankful he sent these folks to patch the road
on my street.

Day 12 of the missing Blackberry

The eBay experience has not exactly lived up to expectations. 12 days
after money changed hands, 19 days after I started the bidding
process, I remain down $250 and have no Blackberry to show for my
efforts.

In the seller's defense, he insists that there was a problem with the
scanning of the shipping label at the USPS, and once he discovered
the source of the problem, he retrieved the package and sent it 2nd
day FedEx. Really. I have a working tracking number and everything.
The latest ETA is no-later-than 5:00 PM on Thursday, October 27.
That will be day 14. Maybe.

9th day of the eBay saga.

It has been 9 days since I made my first eBay purchase, and it was
supposedly mailed Priority Mail via the USPS. From La Canada,
California to Kaneohe, Hawaii should not take nine days.

Although I still have not received the merchandise (did I mention it
has been NINE DAYS?) I got the seller's phone number from eBay and
called him. Voice mail, and little expectation of a return call ---
but 2 minutes later a very nice man called back, assured me the
package was shipped promptly by his assistant, and he completely
understood my nervousness.

It was a bit reassuring to put a voice (and a phone number) with the
name; made me able to wait out the weekend.

But, NINE days!

eBay is not for the impatient.

I confess; I am not as patient as the rest of you. Yes, I have bought an item and opened it in the car before I got home. Okay, one time I bought new shoes and wore them out of the store, carrying the old pair out in the package. And then I get the bright idea to check out eBay.

It started innocently enough; I am spending way too much time tied to my office and not enough time on my MBWA - Management by Wandering Around.  There is a sensed need to be more visible in the community at this stage of our church growth, even if it is walking through the mall with a cup of coffee awaiting those Divine Appointments some call chance encounters. Needing to free myself from the tyranny of the urgent, but with a Type "A" need for connectivity and instant access to information, I decided to buy a Blackberry.

The T-Mobile store wanted $350 with a $50 rebate. Too much. The T-Mobile lady suggested I check eBay, as there are always new devices being released, and lots of the must-have-only-the-latest-and-greatest types sell great merchandise to move up a notch. This was my first real experience bidding on eBay, and these are my observations.

(1) Impatient, impulse buyers struggle with the concept of a 7 day purchase process. Are you kidding me? Offer a price and then wait? Please.

(2) The buyer is at the mercy of the seller. I "won" the bid --if it can be deemed 'winning' to be given the opportunity to give a complete stranger your money in advance and hope they ship the item and it is as described-- and then the mess began.

In my Paypal transfer I added $23 +/- for shipping, foolishly believing that would rapidly move a small package under a pound in weight from California to Hawaii in 2, maybe 3 days. In the instructions block I clearly requested that the seller use that $23 to ship via DHL, UPS or FedEx. I have had bad experiences in Hawaii with delayed, damaged and even missing merchandise with the USPS. The next day, the seller shipped the Blackberry -- via Express Mail using the good ole USPS.

That was on Friday, October 14. I am writing this mid-day on Thursday, October 20. The mail carrier has come and gone, and no Blackberry.

Now, I realize that there is some 2,500 miles of Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, but we have been part of the United States since August of 1959, and we are, in a sense, California's neighboring state. Am I expecting too much? I already delayed my need for tech gratification for a week during the bidding process, and now I sit here nearing the end of week two with no Blackberry.

I feel a need to blame someone. Should I blame the seller who clearly ignored my shipping preference and used the Postal Service? Should I be upset at the USPS for failing to move an Express Mail package from California to Hawaii in 6 days? Should I blame President Bush? (I mean, some people seem to think he is responsible for everything that goes wrong, so...) This should not be, and I don't handle "Wait!" well.

This is a metaphor for my spiritual life, in many ways. There are things I want to see happen -- things I believe are MEANT to happen -- and often I pray and ask God "When?" and He answers "Soon."

I have learned to ask a follow-up question: "Lord, do you mean your soon, or my soon?"

The desires of my heart.

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 (New International Version)

A while back the Lord dealt with me about that passage. It was as if He were saying He would delight in showering me with His favor, and I was to begin to speak openly and specifically about the things that would be 

        (a) in line with His character and will for my life and 

        (b) things that would bring me delight.

Being very resistant to the kind of Theology that promotes "name it and claim it" I was very cautious. I have tried to keep the desires list to things I could rationalize as "ministry tools" or some other spiritual use. It began with a new computer. My old Mac G3 was feeling a little sluggish next to the G4's and G5's, so I asked the Lord to provide a way to get an new machine. 3 weeks later I walked out of the Apple Store with the top-of-the-line PowerBook G4 on which I am writing this. It IS a ministry tool, as I use it for study, church management and last week (when the Mac G5 we use for projecting elements of our services had problems) we drove the tech aspects of our service with it.

There have been other things, but the latest was today. 

Our church parking lot is badly pocked with potholes to the point of embarrassment. We priced out a total resurfacing: about $10,000.  No way we could squeeze that out of our limited budget.  It became one of those back-burner, low priority wishes, but I added it to the desires of my heart list.  Today I heard commotion and looked out the office window. We are located on a divided highway, with two lanes in each direction, and the two lanes closest to our entry were covered with huge trucks and workmen. I walked out to see what was going on and learned that they were doing some kind of paving patch job by ripping up a lane at a time and resurfacing it. I spoke to the crew and asked how long they would be working there (two days) and made sure they would leave a clear entrance and exit for people coming for appointments at the church. I went and unlocked the restrooms for the workmen, and told the supervisor. He shook my hand, said "Thanks Pastor. Praise the Lord." I joked with him, "When I first looked out the window, I got all excited… I thought somebody was here to pave my parking lot!"  As I started to walk away, he said "Hey, Pastor; when we finish this afternoon, if we have material left-over at the end of the day, would it be okay if we dumped it on the parking lot and patched the holes? Otherwise we'll have to haul it to the landfill."  I told him if he did that, he'd be my very best friend in the whole wide world -- today.  When they completed the lane they were working on, this huge truck backed in our lot and dumped a load of hot asphalt… guys starting spreading it around and then a guy on a big asphalt roller smoothed it all out, leaving a huge problem area of our parking lot smooth and pothole free! 

The supervisor came by and shook my hand before he left, thanking ME for the hospitality (??) and asked if they could park their big trucks and equipment in the lot overnight. Of COURSE they could!  As he left, he said they would repeat the process tomorrow, using their left-over materials to patch the lot.

God is amazing and awesome. The desires of my heart.

What kind are you?

At a training session last week Paul Leroue, who has put his faith to work in Fortune 500 companies such as Reebok and in nonprofit ministry as COO of Youth for Christ USA, taught me a lot about leadership styles.

During one section of the morning he dealt with the concept of 

Four Quadrant Leadership.

While all of us have elements of each of the four in our makeup, we tend to have one dominant and one secondary characteristic style of leadership. I believe a well-balanced church needs some people dominant in each of the four areas in leadership

                

• Heroic Leadership: 

   Vision Oriented, Passion and energy are key drivers, Focus and personal drive, Motivated more by the future state than the present situation. 

   VISION CASTING: Where are we going?

• Heart Leadership: 

   Relationally oriented, Community is critically important, Passion Driven, Love/Care/Nurturing is part of their make-up,  Meaning and Purpose are important

   VISION CASTING: Why are we going there?

• Head Leadership: 

   Structure, Policy, Guidelines/Rules, Analytical thinking ability, Disciplined approach in everything, Planning orientation

   VISION CASTING: What is the specific plan for getting there?

• Hands Leadership: 

  Gets things done, Drives others to get things done, Accomplishes tasks for satisfaction, Timeline oriented, Evaluates others purely by their ability to get things done.

   VISION CASTING: What part do I play?

In our weekly Pastoral Staff Meeting we spent some time identifying our own dominant and secondary quadrants, and how they interacted with people from the other quadrants. 

For example, following a church meeting 50 chairs must be stacked and stored. The HANDS leader sets immediately to work stacking chairs and recruiting chair stackers. The HEAD leader gets frustrated because there seems to be no organized stacking system or plan. The HEROIC leader doesn't care about the chair stacking, because he is thinking about the day when there will be 500 chairs to stack. The HEART leader is not stacking chairs -- he is over in the corner listening to someone who had their feeling hurt and needs encouragement.  

HANDS is frustrated with HEART because heart is not working on the task at hand. HEART can't figure how HANDS can be stacking chairs when it is obvious that there's something more important needing attention -- a hurting person. HEAD is going crazy over the random, chaotic stacking with no plan. HEROIC sees the whole chair stacking exercise as just training for bigger and better things in the future, and keeps talking about what a great 'problem' it will be to stack and store hundreds of chairs.

My staff and I identified that I am HEROIC dominant and HEART secondary.  What kind are you?

The performance aspect.

It's the ugly secret of those who prepare and plan the worship service. The thing we all hate to admit, hate to discuss, is the performance aspect of presenting the truth of the Christian message each Sunday.

"Not at MY church!" you say?

You mean your pastor doesn't study and prepare his sermons? He or she doesn't have at least some rudimentary outline or notes to keep the message coherent and on track?  That's a performance aspect --- the desire to make sure that sermon does not detract or distract from the underlying message and purpose.

The musicians practice. They rehearse the keys for each song, endings, transitions… perhaps vocal solos, all because they want to give their best and they don't want to take the focus off of the message of the music.

Last week our Sunday service was, if you'll excuse the use of the term, magical.  By that, I mean that everything fell into perfect order in regards to the performance aspect of the service.  The musicians and vocalists were well-rehearsed, yet allowed the presentation of the music to flow with the Spirit of God.  The musical synergy that happens when things just click is amazing.  Every player performed above their skill level, and the result was "chicken-skin" (the Hawaii term for 'goose-bumps'.)

We showed a video-clip about those who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and then received an offering to send as aid.  Over $700.  The sermon, which I struggled to compose, seemed to flow with anointing.

It was a total "God thing" and as I reflected upon the service (as I often do) to analyze what could have been done to make the day more effective and meaningful, I found it hard to identify very much we could have done differently.

We do perform, in the best sense of that word, and then ask God to anoint and bless with results that honor Him.

God speaks through donkeys and Eagles.

God speaks to me through the oddest things. During a break from studying my sermon this week I caught a clip of one of those home make-over shows about a Vietnam vet who recently lost his legs. The man was totally confined to a wheelchair and unable to even spend the night at home because the house was not handicap-friendly.  There was an interview clip in which the woman was talking about the sense of loss -- her tall, handsome husband now legless and needing to be in a care facility. I am getting to the part where God spoke to me: she said "I took a vow to love him, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, and I love him."  That little clip stuck in my head and I used it in my message today.

Then, Sunday evening the Eagles Farewell I Live was on TV. What a great sound. That was the music I loved -- Eagles, Steely Dan, and that era of great musicianship and great lyrics. I was enjoying the concert when another of those moments happened when God spoke to me through an unlikely source.  

Joe Walsh of the Eagles did a video insert talking about 10 years of sobriety, and then sang this…

Well you know I was always the first to arrive at the party,

Oh… and the last to leave the scene of the crime.

Well it started with a couple of beers,

And it went I don’t know how many years,

Like a run away train heading for the end of the line.

Well I finally got around to admit that I might have a problem,

But I thought it was just too damn big of a mountain to climb,

Well I got down on my knees and said "Hey!"

I just can’t go on living this way,

Guess I have to learn to live my life one day at a time.

Oh yeah, One Day at a Time.

Oh yeah, One Day at a Time.

Well I finally got around to admit that I was the problem,

When I use to put the blame on everybody’s shoulders but mine,

All my friends I use to hang with are gone,

But I hadn’t planned on living this long,

Guess I’ll have to learn to live my life one day at a time,

It was something I was too blind to see,

I got help from something greater then me,

Now I have to learn to live my life one day at a time.

I have never been addicted to alcohol or any kind of drug, but I minister to people who struggle with those addictions, and that song was just powerful. It should become the anthem of the 12-Step movement.  I hope my friends who are struggling will hear God speaking to them through "One Day at a Time" and get down on their knees and say "I just can’t go on living this way,"

The 6,700 mile youth service.

Through the amazing use of technology our youth service spanned 6,700 miles tonight. Paul Ruddell, brother of Youth Pastor Steve Ruddell, is in Singapore studying missionary church planting. Using two Macintosh computers, iSight cameras and iChat, they did a live connection. Paul was able to watch the Praise & Worship Band and then he showed some photos and video clips from a recent short term summer mission trip to Vietnam.

With full duplex live video and sound -- projected wall size on our end -- it brought a bit of home to a young man far away, and reconnected our youth with him.

I spoke to a full-time field missionary who told me how laptops, broadband, email, chat and the instant connectivity has revolutionized missions. In years past, when a missionary had a serious prayer request or need, it could take weeks, or even months, for the mail exchanges necessary to get assistance. Now, when a need arises, missionaries often find someone online and can get prayer and support in real-time!

Thank God for the convenience of instantaneous communication virtually worldwide.

This, too, shall pass.

Those four words have been both an encouragement and a caution to me over the years.

Things not going so great? This, too, shall pass. Things will get better. 

Everything perfect? Enjoy it while you can, because this, too, shall pass.  Life has seasons and this is but one of them.

We have enjoyed a season of favor in which so many things have fallen neatly into place, with seemingly little effort.  The past two weeks have been the opposite.  Odd stuff… some strange interpersonal relationship issues… communication breakdowns... staff members bailing on meetings with little or no notice... people stressing and nerves on edge.

It makes one wonder.

There are factors contributing to this -- it is back-to-school week for our university students, several people are preparing to move out or in (I guess both, actually) of apartments, we are going into high gear preparing for the arrival of a group of musicians and dancers from California who will be with us for about 12 days, rehearsing for two appearances at a big community event (30,000 attendance predicted) --- it is just a stressful time for a lot of people and, in time, this, too, shall pass.

I remember a line a character spoke on a TV show recently: "My dad always said 'It will all work out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, it isn't the end."