The Real Thing

Last week my music buddies and I led worship for a women's event at my previous church. I'm still very connected there and love the people and the pastor. In the middle of the day, on his day off, with a bad back, he met me there at the church and lugged sound equipment and spent hours setting it up. This was after he stopped by a coffee house to get his administrative assistant a much needed coffee drink. Watching him do all that, the thought hit me... "this guy's the real thing."

I've worked at churches and been at churches where the pastor had his own agenda. Many times they were controlling and power hungry. Sometimes they were perverted and sexually opportunistic. Some were just mean spirited and could have cared less about the people in their churches.

In my life I've also been privileged to know some pastors and their wives who have exemplified everything that's right about Christianity and the church. They have lovingly cared for the people of their congregation, and a lot of stragglers along the way too. They have been the first at the hospital, the last at the graveside. They've been the ones cleaning up the messes left around in any church, be it glue and glitter in the Sunday school rooms or in people's tattered lives.

I hear a lot of people stereotype the church and pastors and being uncaring and out of touch. But I know that this pastor cares for his people. I know this pastor cares for me. He still takes the time to see how I am. I still takes the time to invest in my life and allow me to share in the life of his congregation. And so does his wife. I love her realness and her willingness to include me in what she's doing as well.

It hasn't been an easy road for the new pastor and his wife these last few years. He was the assistant pastor before and took over the church after the previous pastor had deeply wounded the close knit congregation by his own horrible choices and behavior. At the same time his wife was pregnant with their second child. At a time when many couples would have wanted a quiet peaceful life, they were thrown into the middle of something devastating.

The day the previous pastor got up in front of the church and confessed his behavior that made him unfit for church leadership and stepped down, this new pastor came up to me and said "well, here's another stellar day in your long list of bad church experiences." But even though it was painful, the truth is that it was a stellar day because I saw him and the leadership of the church do the right thing. I saw him step up and be an example of loving concern and care for all of us. And I am thankful for him and for his wife. May their tribe increase, and may God bless them for their faithfulness.

Feel Free To Comment...

Please feel free to comment on what you read here. I was having trouble being able to enable that. Hopefully it's working now. I would love for this to be a place to kick around some ideas and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Jesus Was NOT a Republican

My liberal friends are convinced that I'm really a liberal and just don't know it yet. My conservative friends probably just worry about me. I actually am pretty conservative in most areas. But I find myself disenfranchised by the republican party in this country and appalled at the state of the national government currently. I know I'm not alone. It's been hard to stand by and watch our personal rights eroded in the name of national security. It's painful to watch all the partisan politics stalemating the possibility of anything being accomplished in Washington. I must confess I'm about one step away from getting a "who would Jesus bomb?" sticker for my car.

Within the Christian subculture there's almost an unspoken rule that we shouldn't be negative against the government. It's ok to criticize any democrats in power, but we need to just "prayerfully support" the republicans. Last time I checked Jesus wasn't a republican. He didn't get sucked into the corrupt system that was functioning at the time. I think we need to wake up and use our minds and not just get sucked into politics as usual.

Today was election day. Once again I found myself to be disturbed by the whole process. When I was young I was excited to finally be able to vote. I wanted to be a part of the whole process. Now that I'm older and more cynical, I realize that most politicians... democrats, republicans or any other variety, are not to be trusted. Too many years working in media and seeing the ugly yellow underbelly of American politics up close left me with the realization that to be a good politician in this country you basically have to be a good liar.

What do I want? I want to just once in my life, vote for someone I can really believe in and support instead of voting for the lesser of two evils. I want to see elected officials who will put aside partisan politics and put the real good of the nation above their own private agendas. I want us as people of faith to not just buy into politicians rhetoric, but hold them accountable based on their actions and not just their propaganda.

What am I going to do? I'm not sure yet. One thing is for sure I don't want to just give lip service to conservative politics. I need to stay informed. I need to be willing to question bad decisions no matter who are making them. I need to be willing to speak up against troubling trends... whether they've been propagated by the left or the right. I need to be careful to not be like the Christians in Nazi Germany who ignored what was going on around them. And I need to dialogue with others and not be afraid to question authority. I'm guessing that there are legions of people who are in the same boat as me. Any comments?

Editing My Thought Bubbles...

I tend to be a pretty straight forward person. I'm not big into beating around the bush. But I recently realized how much I still edit my thought bubbles when it comes to dealing with "religion" with people. I think what passes for Christianity in this country bears very little resemblance to what Jesus had in mind. I see a lot of vain activity orchestrated by men who are more interested in protecting their jobs than making a difference in the world. In the mean time there are a lot of people who really are living their faith who tend to feel out of place in the big religious machine. I wanted a place to talk about that. Welcome to my blog. Please feel free to join me.