Leaving the 99

I want to continue my storyline in regards to showing myself friendly to the elderly guy who walks daily by my house. (See previous http://charliereport.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/show-yourself-friendly/). I was walking through my paper route one morning and on occasion, I asked myself a “what if…” question. Like what if I had gone to Taiwan instead of Cambodia? Or what if I had never moved away from the Lewiston-Clarkston valley? As in never had moved.  Or what if I had gotten married right out of high school? Or what if I had never stopped working at Fred Meyer? (That would be 30 years instead of 20 years experience with Fred Meyer).  I know its not healthy to asked that question too many times but I usually go with the safe ones when asking myself “what if I could do so and so?”  This morning my “what if” took me to a dream that I have.  Its a ministry dream.

In this ministry dream I am a senior pastor at a growing church.  Now a disclaimer needs to be put in here and that disclaimer is that I actually know that I don’t really believe I would want to be a senior pastor at any church.  My dna say’s I am a good team player and a facilitator of someone else’s vision.  I have way more experience being an associate pastor and have absolutely no experience being a senior pastor and really have no desire to be one.  That said, I occasionally think about being one and I think that puts me in a “safe mode.” Meaning I am free to dream because I really don’t seem myself in that role. I think you get the picture.

So…  in my “what if” moment this morning I am the lead pastor at a growing church in, say, Vancouver, Washington, the place I want to die in if Jesus doesn’t come before I die.  I tell the congregants that Jesus tells the story about how a shepherd sees one sheep is gone and he does what most church people would not appreciate from their pastor, he left the 99 other sheep who were safe (on their way to Heaven) and went to find the lost one. I tell the congregants they are the 99 and I feel led by God to go find lost sheep.  And then get in my car and go connect with people in the community in search of people far from God. On my way out of the church doors, I grab a board member because if he can be an eye-witness to this “finding the one,” he might want to do the same thing. 

Its a long story to reach this conclusion, but if I truly believe that Jesus Christ came to “seek and save the lost,” and that the ninety-nine (the “save” people) are safe, I should lead the way in reaching lost people.  Agree? or Disagree?

Recognition

I was driving down the road yesterday, coming home from a long day at work where I had to work in Colfax, Washington and Pullman, Washington. As I neared my home, I saw a young blonde kid walking on the side of the road, coming towards me. I recognized him as Victor, one of the kids who rides the bus to school with my kids. When I saw him and he looked my direction, I waved to him.  The look on his face when he saw that I recognized him was almost priceless. He looked surprised, then smiled, then waved back.

It got me to thinking about whether-or-not I make a concerted effort to recognized people. Do I look around or do I just go about my business? Do I try not to make eye-contact for fear of having to indulge myself into a conversation, that quite honestly, I would prefer not having to do?  Are you relating to what I am writing about?

One day last summer I stopped in at a Zip Trip convenience store near my house and saw someone from church. But that person never looked around and we never made eye contact. I watched as he got his stuff and left the store and got into his truck and drove away. Not a chance of having a conversation of even just saying, “hi.” 

My job as a merchandiser demands that I make contact with people in respective stores. I either have to talk to the lead cashier, the assistant manager, the price-changer, the order clerk, or the store director.  If I entered the store wth my head tilted downward, trying not to be noticed, eventually my company is going to notice me for all the wrong reasons and soon I wouldn’t be recognized by them at all. I would be out of a job. 

My challenge to myself and to those of you reading this, practice recognizing people.  Don’t avoid them. Connect with them. Then watch how they connect with others or start connecting with others.  Make it a habit to recognize people. To my pastor friends out there, you know to recognize people in your church.  Greeting them as they walk through your church’s halls and sanctuarys rather than sitting down front with your back to the people. Right?

Growing Relationships – communication and community

There is an aspect in everyone’s life that tells you what you need.  Most of the time it goes unnoticed, but eventually we get a glimpse of it. Like in the following incidents.  Your stomach growls which means your body is telling you to eat something.  The weight scales weirdly goes over the acceptable weight. It’s telling you to “cut back man before we both get killed.”  Your driving down the road and your car sputters a bit and you glance down and notice your running on empty.  Time to get some gasoline.  You glance at your watch or the clock in your car or on your cell phone and your heart seems to skip a beat because your mind engages you and say’s your late for something important.  No need to explain that further, right?  Or how about this one.  You go through the whole day, getting up, going to work or to school or to play and you come home and you feel empty.  Something is missing.  If your a woman, you may not have used up enough of your built in vocabulary.  You know, women speak about 50,000 words a day or have the need to speak that many words. Guys, you have about 20,000 words to use at your disposal.  But on this day, it seems tilted or out of kilter.  Maybe your body, your mind, your lifestyle, your need is saying, “I need relationship.”  Not just any relationship, but a growing relationship. Something is missing and I want to talk about it or be about it or pursue it. 

In any growing relationship, we need interaction. Communication.  In the three things I talked about before in having a growing relationship with God, it has three important components.  Intimacy with God, Community with Believers, and Influence with those far from God. 

It’s intimacy with God that we have to have as our foundation or the other two components don’t carry much weight.  We can have horizontal relationships with those we associate with and those we only come in contact with occasionally, but if we have a great vertical relationship with God, wow, it can make a huge difference in everything we do. 

I always find it funny, as in funny/weird when people blog or comment regarding athlete’s who share their faith on TV following competitive games. I heard it a lot recently when Tim Tebow made it very clear who he worships, serves, and loves.  Other athletes have just given God thanks for helping them in games. Here is what critics often say, “I am so sure God could care less about who wins the game.”  “I mean what god would pick sides.” “I sure couldn’t worship a god who is for one team over the other.” “So I think athletes are stupid for saying they thank God for helping them win the game.”  Many people would find it easy to answer such critics.  “God doesn’t concern himself with who  wins the game, but is very concern with who plays in the game. And that includes both sides of the field. Since God relishes in worship from those he created, he is really honored when honor is given to him, even those who lose games have been known to thank God for helping them give their best efforts.

Community and communication make for a growing relationship. There is more to it then just these two components, but if your seeking relationships that are going somewhere and not dead-ending, work on these two and see if you can’t see improvement.  I am working on these with my wife, my kids and with God.