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Pro Football, Pastoral Care and Christian Leadership
Tom Brady (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional/Discussion thought of the Day:
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT)
It was one of the worst games that I have seen Tom Brady play in 14 years.
Two of his rookie wide receivers drop 17 passes between them Besides one veteran returning from injury, only six passes of 26 were caught in the game. It was frustrating, obviously so. Even the fact that they beat a nemesis didn’t take away the sting that this game was just…. ugly.
An espn article quotes Brady after the game…
“It’s unrealistic for them to feel like they can do it like 10-year veterans. That’s not what they are,” Brady said. “But they’re trying hard and they work real hard and they have a lot of skill.”
As I thought about the game that night, and yesterday, I saw some great applciation to ministry. Especially to the very unique combinaiton of pastoral care and how that makes Christian Leadership somewhat different than Leadership in the world.
Yousee, in the real world – you play that badly, and you will get cut, or you will lose your starting position, until you can demonstrate some level of trustworshiness. Until you can prove you can get the job done. In business, you might just get fired. Some coaches and bosses can be quite callous about that. They would just get rid of you.. no questions to be asked. Here’s your last check, and don’t let the door hit you on the…
Some would even argue that the Patriots owe it to their fans – and especially to Tom Brady, one of the best qb’s in history, if not the best, to get rid of these guys and get him some real football players.
But Christian leaders have another level of responsibility. They aren’t just called to develop the good people, they are called to equip all the people of God. Including those that, how can we say it, mmove at a different pace than the rest?
It’s unrealistic to expect people not to fail in their walk with God. It is unrealistic to expect them to grow at the same rate; to comprehend to the same depth, that all would awlays trust God, as completely, as deeply…
Yet i think that’s what we sometimes do, I know that is how most Bible Studies are written, as if every congregation, and every Bible study, and every confirmation class developed in the same way. And we are trained to use them, right out of the box from the publisher – hand out the individual books – and get the study down in 13 weeks.
If people drop the pass, if they miss a week – wel, that’s their fault, and that one or two truths.. they aren’t that important. Are they? That odd question from the back right of the “classroom” – the one that opens a very special can of tangental worms… requiring a half-hour deviation? Just skip it – deal with it privately. Right?
No – we can’t expect everyone to get everything, to know it all, to not have a bad week, a bad game. We are called to be patient, and to let our desire that no one perish determination our actions and thoughts, rather than just our frustration We – pastors, ministers, priests, vicars, deacons, elders, and every other leader in church, are called to lead by serving. To lead sacrificially, to lead like Christ did… bearing our cross. To love them, knowing what it will take to get them to grow in faith, and in their being set apart to walk with God.
Leadership in the church, and among Christian leaders is more like the USMC – we don’t leave anyone behind…. even if that requires the impossible.
Why? Because we got the win, its assured, Christ is victorious, and therefore those with Him are as well. so let’s take our time – and work with everyone whom God brings ( or sends us out to go get) If it means things gets dirty and ugly and frustrating, there is a win at the end of the game. So we do what we do, fixing our eyes on Christ – the one who generated and perfected our faith in God.
The announcers both expressed a confidence during the game that was longer reaching than just the game. They said, that by the end of the season, Brady will have transformed these two young receivers into a weapon that couldn’t be stopped. If a mere man, playing a game can do that…. what can God do with and through us?
Let’s find out!
Related articles
- Am I Still A Pastor? (bluechippastor.org)
- A Clergy Dominated Church? (jerrykieschnick.wordpress.com)
The Church that Needed to Repent and Be Reconciled to God’s Will
The Holy Spirit depicted as a dove, surrounded by angels, by Giaquinto, 1750s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Acts 11:1-18
† In Jesus Name †
May you be encouraged, and rejoice as God shows you the love and mercy He has given you, as you witness it given to others.
I wonder if Peter was reading from the prophet Jonah?
As Peter starts to describe the way in which salvation had come to the Gentiles, I’ve wondered something. What was it he was praying about? What had he been meditating upon?
Was Peter working through the lessons he had been taught over and over and even a third time by Jesus? Was he considering the incredible grace of God that restored him each time he sinned, each time he tried to play God?
I wonder if he was reading the book of the Old Testament prophet Jonah…who would likewise be called to a place, to bring word of God’s love? Was he being sent to bring the blessed gift of repentance to a place his upbringing said wasn’t eligible or worth God’s mercy. Was he going to a people that his culture said was beyond God’s love.
Peter as always, struggled with where God was leading him to serve. It seemed that the third time God gave him the message; he actually “got” it. That is the story of chapter 10, which he recounts to those who were struggling with what he did here. This chapter isn’t really about what Peter did, to share God’s love with the Gentiles, it is what he did to help his fellow Jews to grasp how deep that love of God was, for every person of every ethnicity in the world.
It is amazing to me that Peter didn’t take on the criticism directly, nor did he take it personally. Instead, he simply focused on what God had done, and laid out the story as it happened. As Peter did this, led by the Holy Spirit, people changed.
Two Groups to Win…
Peter Is summoned to talk with those concerned about “those people” receiving the word of God. They are concerned about Peter compromising the gospel by fellowshipping with them. There will be a conversion here, a needed one, as people are reconciled to God’s will.
It is not the obvious one though, though that too is marvelous! The work of God is so incredibly evident there, as those who were far from God, and in bondage to sin. It is amazing and yet unexpected to hear that God was already working in them, that an angel miraculously intervened in Cornelius’s life, and he sent officials to bring Peter to him, for Peter was to bring them the message that would save him, and all of His household.
How amazing! That God work so bluntly, so clearly, so undeniably! By the time the vision is over, the words of God were burned into Peter’s heart. “What God has made clean, do not declare common!”
How incredible that this became true – not just about bacon and lobster, but about Cornelius and all his family! How amazing that those who were thought to have no hope, were given hope, were given life… were given the presence of God in their lives.
Which leads us to the second “conversion”, the second group that needs to be reconciled to God. They weren’t as far off, these who wanted this issue examined thoroughly. It was a foreign idea to them that God would work with these foreigners. It would be a difficult transition – they needed to see more than just information about God, they needed to see His heart, they needed to understand His will that no one should perish in bondage to sin. They needed to be reconciled to God, to come in line with His will….
And the Holy Spirit did that – again through the God’s love shared patiently through Peter.
The Critics Silenced…
God’s consistent will seen
In the midst of Peter sharing what God had done, as he explains that the men where there, that will of God is hinted at – when he says “And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. That word is the same as the word criticize above – again it means to thoroughly examine things – except in this case, no examination, no criticism. Peter, inspired directly by God’s Spirit, fully reconciled to God’s word by the vision goes…to bring words of life
He starts sharing about God’s love – He starts to lay out the gospel, to share with them the incredible love of God demonstrated through the incarnation, through the life, death, resurrection. He didn’t even get to the part about baptism, before it was evident that this was a God moment, a time when the Holy Spirit was creating life and faith and transforming them, bringing them to repentance. The very same things that happened at Pentecost – with the Spirit falling on the people of God, with the word being proclaimed, with people’s heart’s being opened and healed as they were washed and cleansed, as they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God’s consistent love – showing a depth and dimension unforeseen despite the prophecies, despite the promises that foreigners and immigrants would be welcome. God’s consistent love – so praised in the Old Testament, made evident even for those who were wrongly considered “far off”.
They realized God meant it when he said the Messiah would be a light to all nations,
They realized God meant it when He promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed by his descendant,
They realized Jesus meant it when He said that His blood would be shed on behalf of many, for the forgiveness of sins.
I love the way Paul would describe it,
19 you are no longer outsiders or aliens, but fellow-citizens with every other Christian – you belong now to the household of God. Firmly beneath you in the foundation, God’s messengers and prophets, the actual foundation-stone being Jesus Christ himself. In him each separate piece of building, properly fitting into its neighbour, grows together into a temple consecrated to God. You are all part of this building in which God himself lives by his spirit. Ephesians 2:19 (Phillips NT)
Peter, the one who was a bit too quick to speak, who overreacted, took his time, laid out what God had done, and when it was complete, there was silence. The doubt dropped to the floor. No one could object to God’s work. They had neither the strength, nor the desire. Just as Peter realized, when he sad,
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
and the party began began.
The Reason for Praise
I have to admit – I love the spontaneous praising and glorifying of God, as these circumcised Jews realize that God loves the long time nemesis – the people of the world. The barriers are down, we are one…
That is what they are realizing, it is what we need to realize. It is what can and should break down every barrier between people – this idea that God has made us one, that God has granted to us “the repentance that leads to life.”
You see, there is something special in watching a brother or sister become part of the Body of Christ, as we did last week. There is something incredible about seeing that – or those “aha’ moments as we gain a little in understanding more about the depth of the Lord’s passionate love for us.
This is the work God does in both Jews and Gentiles. The change is what Luke describes with the word repentance here – this transformation of both our heart and will, redeeming us from our being oppressed by sin, and reconciling us with the will of God. That is the work of repentance – a total transformation of our heart and mind, both are used in the prophecies to describe God’s work.
And God has transformed, He has granted this repentance – this change to living a transformed life in Christ.
We see it here, when a child, or a youth, or even someone who has lived 8 decades comes – and is given the promise of that change as they are baptized into Christ!
We are witnesses to it happening here as well! As we gather at the family feast – where God our Father provides us with the Body and Blood of Chris! As He again grants us the power of the transformation, He has promised. For it is here that He reconciles us with His will, as He reconciles us together as one people – no matter our place of birth or whether the times since can be easily measured in days, years, or decades. He reconciles us together no matter the language we speak, or have spoken, no matter our height or weight or anything else.
We are One, in Christ.
And that is something so glorious – for God has transformed us all into His people. To Him be all the praise, all the glory and honor.
AMEN?
Good Change is often slow…
Devitional/Discussion thought of the Day:
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit. “Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NASB77)
“Say slowly and in all earnestness: Nunc coepi—now I begin! Don’t get discouraged if, unfortunately, you don’t see any great change in yourself brought about by the Lord’s right hand… From your lowliness you can cry out: Help me, my Jesus, because I want to fulfil Your Will… Your most lovable Will!” (1)
It is amazing how God can use the simplest of things to create lessons for us. For the last week, I have been putting eye drops – more like a gel in my eyes to counteract the effects of a eye infection. I push the kell through a tube and into my eye, and then wait.. I never knew how long three minutes could be. Then 10 minutes later – another eye drop and more time waiting, eyes closed. Five times a day.. I repeat this – and now, 8 days later, my eye is a little less affected by light.
Change can take forever, especially when it is for the good.
Thirty years ago, we became a culture that sped up. Things like microwaves and cordless phones and the first remotes for our 13 channel televisions came out. And patience as a virtue became ever more rare, and ever more valuable. Back then – being connected to the internet (remember Prodigy) meant you could communicate online and the speed of 2 letters a second…with a good connection! Now with Smart Phones and testing with wireless routers and all the other changes, our attention spans and our patience is even more…. rare. ( sit at Jack and the Box drive-thru for 4 minutes with a five year old if you want to see what I mean!)
Change is needed in our lives, but not often the kind of transformation we think. The kind that is spoken of in Romans 12 – the transformation of our minds This is known another way as well – the churchy word “repentance”. Scripture talks often of that change – as we are transformed into the image of Christ – the work that God does in our lives and the lives of those around us.
But sometimes, this transformation is very slow in appearing. In fact – it will not be fully revealed until Christ’s return. (see last Sunday’s sermon blog) The challenge is not to look at ourselves – not to grow in despari – but to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, cry out to Him, meditate on His love and sacrifice. You may not see the difference, but others will! And take this thought in closing…. it is not you that completes the work – look to Him and keep looking…
“I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1550-1553). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
My Most Unpopular Post…EVER
Devotional Thought of the Day:
It’s amazing how much a five year old reflects the behavior of a society, and even more amazing, the people who make up God’s church in America. ( I don’t know about other countries – yet…)
I happen to have a brilliant five year old. He reads well, he can do 2 and 3 digit addition, but he has a major issue with patience, and sometimes a complete lack of awareness of that which is going on around him. A chip off the old block in many ways (okay – he get’s the brilliance from his mom) Most repeated lesson these days, get what you need to done, without the whining. I tell you – there are times I wish he was a teenager – and had matured past the whining part. (please don’t disillusion me!)
I see in myself, and in churches and among church leaders, the same impatience. We want everything fixed right away, we want to see our people go from just baptized to having the faith of Moses and David and John right away. (we have to remember that John was once a “son of thunder” and I don’t think his transformation was immediate either.)
We whine about the fact that others don’t mature, and that we can’t “go on” or we decide to “go on” without them. If this is in the church – we devalue each other, saying that our personal growth and maturity is more important than the growth of the entire community in their faith. Tough call, very tough call here, but we see the evidence of it in the incredibly high “church shopping” movement. People don’t see their needs being met – even in the mega-churches – and they mvoe to the next one, to the next place that is hopping – and then try to drag their friends there as well.
We see it in the movement today – in those that look at the 25 year studies of churches and note that the “common” thing is for decline ( while we over look the stat in the same study that says this is easily addressed by re-committing to the vision of the church, or adapting it) and that “true” growth occurs fastest in “church plants”. IMHO – that attitude will prove to result in more danger as good – about 20 years from now – as those people see that they created a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it is also there in the movement that has little patience with those who are so excited to discover the grace of God, that they want the world to know! More whining, more complaining, more impatience.
Please hear me – I as much as anyone – want to see people grow in their trust in God, and mature in how that is expressed. And I struggle with the plodding that sometimes is evident, as people don’t see a need to grow – and our content where they are at – stagnant it seems.
But spiritual maturity is a process of endurance, not sprints – it needs to last generations, not just years and perhaps a decade. It has to show the characteristic that we see in God,
3:9 The Lord is not being slow in carrying out his promises, as some people think he is; rather is he being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 (NJB)
I used to think the patience in this passage, was talking about those that hadn’t rbeen brought to repentance yet – but Peter is addressing the people that are believers already. Could it be that God’s patience is with His kids? The ones who whine and complain about others, the ones who are to be about planting seeds, the workers in the harvest, the church that has been gifted and given the vocation of being the light in the darkness? I think that we have to be careful and to discern the difference between tolerating stagnation, and knowing when to be patient with the slow and steady growth that must occur in the church – the patience that knows that endurance in the ministry means being able to guide people from where they are at, to a greater and greater dependence on God.
It means realizing and ministering to people in their brokenness – and making sure they grasp the wonder of God’s presence in their life, and the need of that presence in the lives of those around them. It means slowing some down to savor God’s presence and rest – while still bringing hope and healing to those around them. It means sticking to the place where God has gathered you – and encouraging each other continually to look to Christ, to reflect His glory.
It’s not easy, its not always popular, but the discipline is that which reflects God’s love to you…. as you work with people, enduring, patient – longsuffering, and as they work with you.
Know this – where you are at – there God’s presence is… learn that it is enough – and that is the maturity that really matters.
Sharing Hope not Winning a Verdict
Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:
It seems that somewhere after CS Lewis, the nature of evangelism and apologetics shifted from coming alongside a person, and sharing the reason we have faith, into a contest of beliefs, a combat of philosophies, where the more logical, the more provable position wins, even if it loses. The Christian apologist loses, not by presenting a less logical system of belief, but the moment the conversation turns into win-loose discussion, the moment they become condescending, the moment they seek to trump the other persons belief system.
Consider this, from a catholic evangelist,
“The spreading of Christian teaching need not provoke antagonism, or harm those who do not know our doctrine. Caritas omnia suffert!—love bears all things. If one proceeds with charity, anyone who might otherwise have been opposed to Christianity and been deceived by error may easily and honestly end up committing himself to it. However, there can be no giving ground in dogma in the name of a naive “breadth of belief”, for if anyone acted in this way he would risk putting himself out of the Church. Instead of winning a benefit for others he would harm himself.” Escriva,
Too often, we rejoice in the well honed comeback, the story where the young Christian trumps the professor, or the atheist, where “we show them”. Yet such victories ring hollow, if the other person walks away without the hope that we rejoice in knowing Jesus, and the enormous dimensions of His love, if they walk away without hearing of God’s love that will heal their lives crushed by sin. Apologetics – is not a game – its not a victory strategy over people who live in darkness, who have no concept of light.
Our purpose isn’t to win an argument, it is to win a life.
That doesn’t mean we compromise our faith, but we patiently work with those on the journey, helping them get used to what is revealed, a God who has come to them, who will cleanse their wounds, who will take their burdens, who will walk beside them, making their journey one of joy, no matter the struggle. That is why the Holy Spirit’s “nickname” is the Paraclete, the Comforter, the One called alongside…and as we are the temples where that Spirit dwells, we too are called alongside…
To share, as St Peter tells us, the reason we have hope….
Lord Have mercy, and as we realize that He has… may we share that with those who do not know it…. yet!
