MoviePastor.com: Church, Culture, Christ

Lessons from a weed whacker

Yesterday I was doing some trimming around the pool and my weed eater ran out of string.  So I went to change it.  I spent about 10 minutes trying to get the spool off.  It was stuck tight.  I got out my biggest channel locks and my vise grips.  It would not come off.  I almost gave up in frustration.  Then I tried something.  Instead of twisting the knob off, I pulled on it.  It came off easily.  I learned something by that. 

Try Something Else: Sometimes you have to stop doing what you are doing and try something else when you are stuck.  It sounds simple but most of us as pastors just keep trying the same old thing hoping for the next breakthrough.  But maybe you need to try something else.

Use the Right Tools: As I continued to trim I was edging the grass.  Its not that easy with a weedeater.  I kept cutting too deep into the grass - or not getting close enough.  I left the edges jagged.  They make lawn edgers.   It would be much easier to use the right tool.  The same is true in life or pastoring.  Sometimes we are simply using the wrong tool.  In the church we may have the wrong people in the wrong place and need to make a change.  We may have the wrong program, wrong style, wrong time, wrong venue...Are we using the right tools to get the job done?

Work as a team: After I got the string changed, I got my wife to help me around the edge of the pool.  Grass gets in the pool easily but if she uses a blower and follows me around the edge of the pool things stay clean, and we spend less time overall because there is no cleanup.  You cant do ministry alone.  This is a team sport!  Whatever place you find yourself in ministry - find someone to help.  It will be more fun, go faster, and be much easier.

So do you need to try something different?  Are you using the right tools?  Who is helping you?

Your Junk

I saw this car the other day in a parking lot at Home Depot or something. 

I thought good grief - what a pig!  It made me think about all the junk people carry around with them.  The past that hurts, the unforgiveness that messes up relationships, the addictions that keep them from being what God wants them to be.  We all have some junk - and its not all in the trunk.  Some of is right where everyone can see it.

I also thought about something else.  This car is pretty bad - but if you got in my car or truck you might think - what a pig!  I have my own junk I carry around - past hurts, unforgiveness, addictions...excess baggage.  My junk just may be hidden better because of years in the ministry.  Its easy to look at this car and think mine is OK - but is it?  What junk do I have that I need to clean out as I am on this Journey with Christ?  What junk do you need to get rid of?

Why is Tony Morgan in my Mirror!?!?

Tony Morgan has a great article on top 10 mistakes he's made.  #4 is huge for me.  Thinking I can do things better than others - and reverting to the mode of doing rather than empowering.   Reading this was like looking in a mirror.  I saw my own mistakes.   Every leader needs to read this and confess -we've all done (and still do) these things. 

The question is - after looking in the mirror what do we do?  If it was really tony staring back at me I would say - "wow - I have great hair and my weight loss has been amazing!"  But since its my mistakes that I see, I need to consistently and deliberately work to not repeat them over and over.

Just as with the bible - the same thing applies to Tony's sound wisdom:

James 1:22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

You Don't Know

Next time you want to criticize your pastor (or any pastor) or have the thought - I think they should have done "this" or I dont think they should have done "that" - remember - you don't sit where they sit, see what they see, struggle with the thing they do - you just don't know till you sit in their seat and own their responsibility.  Its kind of like this scene from last year's 24:

New Mercy Every Day

After the churchplanters.com conference I was both fired up and bummed out.  I was fired up about what could be - I was bummed out about some things i've let discourage me.  But today I took some things that I learned and I knew God was speaking to me about and I implemented them and it was so refreshing.  Today I felt God's love and mercy revive me and some good things happened.  We had some discouraging things happen too but tomorrow his mercy will be new all over again.  God is so good! 

lessons

This week I learned valuable lessons about Integrity, Grace, and Adaptability.  They weren't easy lessons to learn necessarily but they were necessary.  No one will understand this - but when I look back at it, I will be reminded of what God is doing in my life.  Now im going out on a date with my wife.

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On the Third Day!

Even way back here they understood what I know is true today.  On the third day after surgery is the worst.  Dinah's brothers attacked and killed all the men in a city three days after relatively minor surgery - circumcision - because that was he worst day for them.  They would be more sore then than any day.  When I left the hospital yesterday - i felt pretty good.  Today i feel like death warmed over.  Thank God for Vicodin!

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Dead Bugs

Last week we during the service our generator that runs the lights started acting like it was demon possessed.  The lights were going dim and then bright.  It was crazy distracting.  Our tech guys took at look at the generator this week.  They found dead bugs in the gas tank!  Apparently the bugs may have been in an old gas can we were using and got transferred into the generator gas tank.  Eventually they sunk to the bottom and may have blocked the fuel line, cutting off the fuel supply to the engine!  How crazy is that?  One tiny dead bug (well maybe 3 or 4) came close to wrecking the service. 

Sometimes its not the big things that wreck what God is trying to do in our lives.  Its not the "big" sins that get us.  Its the small ones - often the unseen and overlooked ones - that undo what God wants to see happen in us.  What are some of the bugs in your fuel?  Procrastination, laziness, wandering eyes, thoughts in the wrong place, short fuse with your spouse, discouraging things said to your kids, consuming instead of giving, too much TV (OUCH), not enough prayer...

I think God wants to clean my fuel tank!  How about you?  Solomon said the little foxes spoil the vines. (Song of Solomon 2:15) What is the small dead bug thats clogging up your fuel line and keeping the light from shining brightly?

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You said it but did they hear what you said?

As pastors we have to constantly remember that just because we say it - doesn't mean its understood.  Here is a great example I found on "Thisisjuststupid.com"  Apparently someone ordered a cake and told the bakery "Write on it 'Best Wishes Suzanne' and under that write 'We will miss you'"  The Result was this:

Sucker Punched by the Devil

Having my colon explode on me a couple of weeks ago was like taking a sucker punch from the devil.  It came out of nowhere.  Honestly in the day or so after the surgery when I was pumping my own morphine, contemplating life with a colostomy and reflecting on many decisions I've made over the years that weren't very smart, I got pretty depressed.  Sometimes the pain, nausea, and uncertainty that I was feeling was so overwhelming I actually wondered if I wouldn't be better off dead.   Add to that the fact that during what should be a time of growth in our church we are experiencing a slight decline and  I have been unable to do anything but sit on the couch.  This has made me feel totally helpless and I have questioned a LOT of things.  Needless to say I have done a lot of introspection, meditation and prayer. 

The story that keeps leaping to mind is of the Apostle Paul.  There are so many lessons we can learn from him but the one that made a huge impression on me is when he was in Lystra preaching the gospel and some Jews decided they had enough of him and stoned him.  I love what happened (Acts 14):

19 Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. 20 But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town.

Think about that.  They threw large stones at him and beat him till they thought he was dead - then dragged him outside the city and left him on the side of the road - beaten, bruised, bleeding, cut up, flies buzzing around, maybe vultures lurking near by.  Paul was basically road kill.  (with no hospital and no morphine pump)  Somehow he survived the ordeal (it may have to do with who was surrounding him) and then what did he do?  He could have retreated, called it quits, found another venue, looked for a different job, thrown in the towel.  But he didn't. Instead he got up and WENT BACK IN TO THE CITY!

This guy was a freak!  This was the city where they had just tried to kill him.  Its like he had a death wish. There wasn't a welcome wagon waiting for his return.  There wasn't going to be a red carpet in his honor.  He wasn't getting the key to the city.  He was a walking dead man plunging head long into the very place that was most likely to get him killed.  He left the next day and started another church - and then he went back to Lystra again to encourage and disciple the believers!  Incredible!

Here's the deal:  Satan is going to deliver sucker punches.  Sometimes he will pummel you with blow after blow.  He might not kill you but he wants you to quit.  He wants you to give up.  He wants you to be discouraged.  He wants you to throw in the towel.  He wants you to question your faith, abandon your calling, or just look for the easy way out.  Don't let him win.  The best thing you can do is step into the pain and get up and go back into the city (ministry) that God called you to like nothing ever happened but more determined that ever before.

This is where I am at right now. I feel like I've taken a beating.  The last 6 months I've had a lot of stones thrown at me by the enemy.  After this last one I went down.  But I'm not out.  I am getting back up, brushing off the dust, wiping off the blood, and I am heading back into city with more determination than before to make a difference.  I am convinced that if God was done with me I would just be dead.  But Im not so he still has a plan and purpose for me and I can't wait to fulfill it.  There will be more stones, there will be more setbacks, there will be more problems but I don't care.  There is an enemy who wants to kill and destroy people in my city and I will do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen.