What are the 3 most significant historic events in your lifetime

I found myself thinking through this question last week. I am thinking of moments I more than 'remember where I was when', but moments I could not help but feel the weight of regardless of my age or stage in life.This is my list...for now. 1. 911

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Election of Obama

 

 

 

 

 

3. Rodney King

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*There are many other big events, but I view these three as the most significant in an influential way. Honorary mentions might be: Space Shuttle Challenger, Gulf War, World Trade Center Bombing, Waco, Clinton scandal, Katrina, OJ Simpson Trial

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What are your disagreements? What are the 3 most significant historic events in YOUR lifetime?

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I want to be a pastor who...

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I want to be a pastor who... ...is thoughtful, sensitive, and at ease in God's presence so that I can be thoughtful, sensitive, and at ease in your presence. (not on the run with crowded time)

...reads and studies, but is attentive and informed enough to help us understand what we are up against in a culture that squeeeeeeezes the God out of us. (not just trying harder without perspective)

...has the time to be with you in easy-going, deliberate conversation so I can understand and be a comrade to you as you grown in Christ--listening to your doubts, your difficulties, your desires, and your excitements (not always running around frantic)

...leads you in lives of worship, a pastor who brings you before God in an entangled love-affair, a pastor who preaches sermons that make scripture within-reach, current, and alive (not just busy with tasks for busy's sake)

...is able to give you a language and imagination that restores in you a sense of worth as a Christian in your homes, your schools, and your workplaces (not instilling in you a sense of being only an attender)

...is less concerned with what I think you should be doing, and more concerned with being a witness to what God is doing in you and your life.

...is patient enough with our mess to notice the forming miracles (not miss out on the day to day mystery of "us")

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Jesus Does Not Work Here

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Of all the stories of Jesus in the gospels, very few of them take place in the temple or synagogue. Most of them are played out in the workplace and community.  Just think of your favorite stories of Jesus. Where did they take place? A fishing boat? A wedding? A well? Someone's home? A garden over some fish sticks and bread?

Jesus very rarely appears in a temple or synagogue, and spends most of his time in the workplace and community. Somewhere along the line, we began assuming Jesus only works in the church. We began to assume this sort of partitioning with the Spirit, our faith, our story.

Our work, our school, our day to day life does not take us away from Jesus. In fact, it is those parts of our life that continue his involvement.

We have to learn to identify Jesus and his Spirit in our workplace, our homes, our schools, and our community. Once we begin to do that, we start to see our role as a true Church and congregation outside of Sunday.

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Pastor's Confession: Part 2

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If you haven't read yesterday's post, you should in order to understand today's a little more clearly. In the place God has brought me as a pastor (reflected yesterday), here is a letter I have written to my leadership team. How willing would you be to write a similar letter to your students, your people, your leaders?

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Hey you guys! I have been thinking about some things a lot lately, and I'd appreciate your feedback here if you could.

I'll come right out with it. Do you think we (I) am missing it by just preaching through ______ right now?

By that question I mean that I want to be more present in where the group itself is. I don't want to be so wrapped up in the study of things that we completely miss where the members of the group are spiritually.

That is not an issue of being spiritually mature or not. I mean more whether this is even something that this group is thinking about or needing right now? Would we be more true to leading and pastoring this group by coming to different issues than our current study?

I keep getting glimpses of the window that night we wrote our prayers on them. I remember seeing a lot of "failure" and "fear" and "lacking connection to God" and things of that sort.

Are we missing "it" by just plugging away at ______? And if so, what, in your conversations, in your own life, in your growth groups are the things that are continually coming up? What is a way we could find out more to hear where members of FUSION really are spiritually and in life?

DISCUSS!!! (click "reply all" so it is a discussion)

-------- Seriously! Discuss, please!!! 

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Pastor's Confession: Part 1

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I confess that it is easier for me to avoid your life in a few ways even though I certainly do not wish to. I confess that it is easier for me to remember that you have no idea what my day to day looks like outside of Sunday, but to be fair, I do not often know what your day to day looks like either.

I confess that scripture and truth are more natural to me than the soul and prayer, and I can be more focused on soldiering through a topic while missing your soul and your life.

I confess that I lack presence in your life when I can spend an enormous amount of time in scripture and study.

I confess that I can allow my own scholarship of the word to drive my study instead of allowing what I know of your life and struggle and questions to drive my study of scripture.

I confess that I have not been pastorally present to you and with you.

I confess these things not because scripture and truth are not as important, but because your soul and your life and your heart require an equivalent demand on my attention as scripture and truth...and I have not held that balance.

I confess that these things have left me at a distance from your day to day.

I confess these things SO THAT I might reveal to you what I am seeing clearer and clearer, but also because I hope to see God close that distance between us that we may be 'congregation' and not just 'pastor + people'.

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Pastors and leaders, would you offer a similar confession? Why or why not? 

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Pastor's Workplace

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I do not work at the church My workplace is more than a framed picture of life

My workplace is mortared in narrative where the story of one connects the stories of each other brick

I do not work at the church My workplace is congregation

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I need stuff to store my stuff

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Stuff on stuff! We have spare rooms, closets, and garages full of things we will never use.  If that isn't enough, some of us have storage units separate from our house that we pay for full of more stuff we never use. Why?

I simply do not understand it.  We never have enough, sure; we all hear that message all the time.  But I just do not understand why we keep getting more and more things.  More stuff! We work hard for the money to buy more things we never use.  Further, if we never use this stuff, do we even NEED it at all?

Of course not!

I don't need half the things in my garage.  I have not even used a lot of it in years.  I am a consumer.  I am a wealthy American consumer.  I work hard to get things I not only don't use, but don't even need.

All of it only clogs up the huge house and garage and storage space, and a lot of it will only sit there for years without ever being used.  Yet still, its not enough.  I keep wanting more things.  There is always something on the want list.

Why?

Habakkuk 2 says, "Wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure...like Death they never have enough."

The word 'wealth' in the Hebrew has a connotation of 'wine' to it.  Consumerist wealth is like being a drunk who simply cannot have enough.  Always just one more drink! Its only one more drink until you're faded out of control and begin acting like an idiot; before you become an addict who simply cannot get enough.

How arrogant am I!

Could I live a life of enough? Of need alone?

Could I sell everything I have so that I could only keep the things I use and need?