Benediction

As Long as We Both Shall Love

One part of my role as pastor of Lakeside Church is dealing with hard issues. This weekend we're dealing with the issue of divorce. Of all the topics that come up in the Sermon on the Mount, this one draws the largest response. Although Jesus also talked about anger, lust, integrity and hatred in his Sermon, his comments on divorce create the greatest stir.

I heard of a preacher once who was officiating a wedding ceremony. As he led the couple at the altar, he altered the traditional promises of marriage. Traditionally couples have vowed to love, honor and cherish one another for "as long as we both shall live." It has been a statement of loving fidelity, of life-long commitment. This pastor altered the vows and dramatically altered their meaning. He led the couple to pledge their lives together for "as long as we both shall love." The difference between the two vows is the difference between choosing to love and falling in love. 

Falling in love is wonderful and amazing. But wonderful and amazing marriages are built by choosing to love even when the falling falls short.

That's part of the conversation this weekend at Lakeside.

The Church at Its Best

In my role as Transitional Director of NextGen Churches, I got to see the church in action this week. It is inspiring.

I received an email from a man on Monday night...late. He was very concerned about his church in the Bay Area. He wanted to meet with me on Wednesday. It was urgent.

My natural response was to see how I could rearrange my schedule to accommodate this need. The problem: my schedule did not allow for that much flexibility on Wednesday. My busy-ness forced me to do the best thing instead--I contacted the pastor of one of our sister churches in the association. I asked if he could meet with the man from the Bay Area church.

This pastor leads a good church. He has 30 years of ministry experience to bring to the conversation. He said he could fit that meeting into his day on Wednesday, so I delegated the opportunity to him.

However, before he engaged the man in the Bay Area, he contacted another pastor from the association. He asked this pastor, who is younger with less experience, to go with him to the scheduled meeting. The younger pastor agreed.

Eventually both of them met with the man in the Bay Area.

The original concern in the Bay Area has not yet been fully resolved, as far as I know. However, the process pictured clearly what the church is supposed to do: we work together, using the gifts and abilities God hs given us to sharpen and serve one another. I am confident that the need in the original church will be met as these two pastors serve together. That is one example of the Church at Its Best.

Suspended

Hi Faithful Readers,

A few of you have asked recently why I have stopped blogging. Well, I have not actually stopped. I just suspended activity for a while. In fact, it had been so long that my contract with TypePad ran out and my account was literally suspended. But I paid my back "taxes", and now I am back online.

Here is some of the story...

Blogging for me is a way to communicate what is going on in my life and mind with my friends at Lakeside Church, and whoever else is interested. It is less structured than a sermon series, which gives me more leeway to express thoughts, feelings, ideas and dreams. Preaching, on the other hand, is a calling to express what God says through his word in the scriptures. That is a sacred trust. Blogging still calls for integrity and purpose, but it doesn't come with quite the level of expectation. At least for me.

Blogging also comes mostly from my own free time. Although I see it as a clear ministry tool, I usually blog "after hours", after I am home from the office. So when the pressure of the schedule gets tight, blogging seems a likely thing to set aside.

Here's what happened late this summer. (Please don't see this as whining, but as a revealing of my heart.) Over the course of the summer I officiated seven memorial services. Now for some pastors, that might not be many, but for me it is a lot. Of these services, six were for people whom most of us would consider "too young to die." Three were men in their 40s who succumbed to cancer. Another man died in a motorcycle crash. In September I officiated a service for a 25 year old man, then another service for a woman who has been a dear friend of both me and my wife. These services are holy moments to lead people to think about who God is and how he works in our world, even through the death of a loved one. As such, I consider it a privilege to serve in such a capacity. But at the same time, the emotional toll is high. Consequently, in September I had no juice left in the tank with which to blog. The first week of October I took vacation, which was highly restorative. I'm grateful for this gift of vacation. But no blogging on vacation--that's a rule.

As I write today, I feel well. I am grateful to God for the gifts and calling he has given me. I hope to use them to the best of my ability as long as God gives me time and strength. In the process, I hope you find these blogs Encouraging Words.

Vacation

I start vacation tomorrow. It's sort of big vacation time for Donna and me. We are celebrating our 30th anniversary. (Donna deserves a medal for that. I don't deserve any special credit; Donna's  great wife.) We are also both celebrating a rather significant milestone in the birthday category, but I can't say much about that because Donna doesn't like big parties. (I tried that during a previous milestone birthday for her--she didn't appreciate it like I had thought she would. I know her better now.)

I'll tell you more about our vacation after it's over. But for now, I may be blogging during the vacation, or I may not. I'm not sure yet. So check back occasionally and see what's happening. Or not. Talk to you soon.

And don't forget our plan for using Facebook, MySpace and Twitter this Saturday: I'm going to Lakeside Church this weekend. I can't wait.

Grace.

Twitter in Church

For many years John Voelz was the Worship Arts Pastor of Lakeside Church. He is a great friend and a good man, and now is one of the directors of Westwinds Church in Jackson, Michigan. This week John was the headlining protagonist in an article in TIME magazine. The article focused on churches that are using Twitter during worship programs. As in most of TIME's stories, the writers presented pros and cons. Some people thought the idea of Twitter in church was fantastic. Others thought it was weird. It certainly stirred debate.

As for me and Lakeside, the story has yet to be tweeted. We used to want everyone to turn off their electronic devices when they entered the auditorium. We didn't want any distractions, did we? But now, when I travel, I don't even carry a leather-bound, gold-leaf-paged copy of the scriptures. I just carry my iPhone. On it I have the Bible in 16 English translations, plus several tongues requiring an Acts 2 interpreter for me. If I ask people to turn off their electronic devices in the church, people like me can't even read their Bible. Uh oh.

Throughout the years of the church, Christians have been notoriously slow to change, as some count slowness. Yet, Christian leaders have occasionally adopted change more quickly. Who were the first to make extensive use of the new technology called stained glass windows? Christians who wanted to tell the story of Jesus. Who were the first see the advantage of the printing press? Christians who wanted to tell the story of Jesus. Who were the first to recognize the potential of the world wide web? Christians who wanted to tell the story of Jesus. This story must be told. And Twitter is telling it 140 characters at a time.

Breakthrough tools can be hijacked by bad guys for bad purposes. Stained glass, printing presses, and the internet can all propagate pornography. That's because a tool is just a tool until it is held in the hand of a person with opposable thumbs and a soul. Those thumbs let that person Tweet during church or record inappropriate images on video. But the soul tells that person how the Tweet or web or printing press will be focused.

Leave room for grace, my friends. The end of the story has not yet been written. We had the same conversation about drums 30 years ago. Oh wait...

MIA

I've been lost in the blogosphere. I don't really know what that means, but my blog has been Missing In Action since I had Gabriel write a guest blog for me. So, let's do a little catch up and get it moving again...

First, Gabriel and his family are now in town. If you keep a sharp eye out this weekend at Lakeside, you might catch a glimpse of them. Otherwise, I'll introduce you to Gabriel next weekend, May 30-31.

I have been out of town twice in the past three weeks. Early in May I was invited to participate in a coaching session with church leaders in Calgary. I had the great privilege of working with Bill Hybels to encourage and coach 120 church leaders from across western Canada. It was one of the high honors of my life to work with Bill. And it was a sacred trust that God gave me the privilege to encourage this group of passionate servants of his.

Earlier this week I was invited to southern California where Mike Klockenbrink (Lakeside's Chief of Staff) and I joined the Advisory Board of Sunridge Church in Temecula. Sunridge has been a thriving church for many years. One of the things that has helped shaped them has been this Advisory Board. Each year the church leaders invite 5-6 people to invade their space and observe. The Board is sort of the church version of Secret Shoppers. After observing the church in action, the Board is invited to speak to the issues facing the church. It is a candid sharing of ideas and perspective. I'm proud of Greg Sidders, the lead pastor, and his team at Sunridge. It takes amazing courage to invite outsiders in to evaluate a church's ministry effectiveness. But this process will inevitably make them stronger in their service of Jesus. So kudos to you, Sunridge.

This weekend at Lakeside we begin a series of talks on Theology. The lectionary brings us to the Ascension of jesus, the Day of Pentecost, and the Trinity on the next three weekends. Some people want to avoid talking about theology. But these theological ideas make a huge practical difference in the way we live our lives as followers of Jesus. So don't miss it. See you at church.

Drought

Yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger declared a drought emergency in California. My first thought was: Oh, I hope that will bring more rain. My second thought was: Oh yeah, drought announcements don't produce rain.

Now I'm declaring a drought emergency in my blog! There has been a shortage of words written in the past two and a half weeks. That's a serious drought. So I'm hoping that word droughts can be changed by declaring a drought emergency. Watch for rain...

The Pastor's Wife

OK, let's have a little fun today. A friend sent me this YouTube link. It's not me; nor is it my wife. It's nobody on Lakeside's staff. The faces have been changed, but the story rings true. Life in a glass pulpit can be challenging.

Benediction Not Goodbye

OK, I spoke with a friend over the weekend who disapproved of the new title of my blog. He felt that "Benediction" refers to a farewell at the end of a religious gathering. He thought I might be saying Goodbye! 

Not! 

It is interesting that words can be interpreted so differently. (My friend knew I was not really going anywhere.) And it is funny that benedictions are not usually said until someone is ready to say goodbye. Actually, "benediction" is the Latin form of the Greek word "eulogy." Both mean "good words." But we only say eulogies at the end of a person's life, at their funeral. Again, such words usually come at the end. 

Well, I believe benedictions (and even eulogies) should be given at all times! Our lives can be filled with good words. I have learned over the years that I am not a natural encourager. Good words don't come from me all that naturally. I have to remember to look for good things to say. But I don't want to wait till the people around me die to say them. I want to be a "good word speaker" now and all the time.

So I'm keeping the new title. By God's grace there will be many more years of Benedictions from me to you.

Grace.

Good Words

You'll notice a few changes in Brad's Blog today. And a few more in the next few days. A little more information. A little different design.

Mostly, I wanted to change the name of the blog. Brad's Blog falls fairly low on the Kreative Scale. Like -2 on a Scale of 1-10. But in the beginning we thought it was descriptive of what I was doing and helpful for Lakesiders to engage with.

The new name of the blog is Benediction. There are many reasons for this, which I'll get to as we go along. But for today, just an explanation of the word might help. Benediction is Latin for Good Words. Often a worship service concludes with a benediction. In that case, the benediction is a blessing from one person to a group of people. 

That's what I'd like for my blog and my life: to be a benediction, good words to others for the purpose of blessing.