Thanksgiving with my small group - November 20, 2008
May this holiday not only remind you of our responsibility to be thankful, but make you more thankful than you already are. I’m thankful for:
My God.
My wife, Carie.
My church family.
My family (including my friends.).
To you, for being a part of my community.
Glued to my computer
so little time.
This is my thought for the day. I don’t have time to write today, but I do need your help. I’ve set aside today for a few meetings in the morning, then a full late morning and afternoon of working on the FC’s teaching calendar for 2009. So because I’m glued to my computer in a mode of work today, please help me with this. (especially, though not limited to, if you attend Fellowship)
Another day. Another hollywood trailer.
I have to say that every once in a while they get it right. Movies like Crash, Goodwill Hunting, and Blood Diamond really make a point of sharing with the viewer a story of what is, and countering what is by painting a picture of what should be, all the while staying away from shoving their one sided ideology down one’s throat.
But while watching a college football game last Saturday, I was introduced to the latest in end of the world propoganda crud by Tinseltown. (Believe me, I was just as hard on Left Behind) Humans using great amounts of the earth’s resources, Aliens coming to earth, and of course, Keanu Reeves pronouncing that “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives.”
Great! Thanks for the heads up Keanu.
It’s not that I don’t think this is an important enough message (though the whole end of the world stuff has got to stop, and maybe it will… someday…), but personally, the movies are a part of the problem. Please consider this:
I decide I want to go to a movie on Friday night with my wife. First of all we go to dinner. Let’s say…Moe’s. We have food and drink there in the form of burritos and cokes. Then we drive to the theater across town in Millbury. It’s a huge complex complete with restaurants, shops, and a Yankee Candle Store. Before we go to the movies, Carie wants to stop by and smell the candles, ultimately buying my new favorite scent, “Harvest”. Then since she bought something, I decide I want to go to Barnes and Nobles and buy a book. So I do.
Afterward we walk to the theater and purchase tickets to see “The day the earth stood still” a remake of a 1951 movie of the same name. Of course, I have to get a coke and a snack in order to watch the film. We are awed by the special effects, and Keanu’s amazing acting ability (just so you know this is a fictitious story). Then what? Are we going to be inspired to not spend money casually, Waste money on gas, and make wise decisions in our spending because of a film that costs millions and millions of dollars to make? And that’s after Keanu’s already been paid for his Oscar winning performance.
In the meantime, we can buy a couple dozen magazines with the picture of Keanu on the cover and watch Keanu and his date for the evening easily spend thousands of dollars on their wardrobe at some award ceremony where all the friendly folks of Hollywood will lash out at our current president for being rich.
As Americans, I hope that we’ve learned a lesson in the last several months that will speak louder than hollywood movies. You can see this lesson in the current gas prices. Riches and material possessions don’t produce goodwill, but a giving, loving heart whose “back is against the wall” does,
And that’s something money can’t buy.
2 things:
I like Keanu’s movies, I just don’t think he’s a great actor.
Tomorrow I’ll hit up on the “back against the wall” concept, and why that’s so important.
I wanted to write a quick shout out to my friend Jack Dogg who just released his new physics book, “Jack Dogg’s Compendium Guide to Physics”. I don’t really get into Phyics all that much, but I know Jack Dogg,and this cartoon laced look into the world of Physics (should you like this sort of thing) is bound to be interesting. He graduated a few years ago from WPI and always has some interesting things to say when we meet for lunch every Friday.
So go and download it or buy it outright,
and let me know how it is here.
I’ve been thinking about entitlement.
Recently someone shared with me that the newest generation of young adults have a greater sense of entitlement than ever before. Immediately after hearing this information, my mind went to the negative. “How dare these kids think that they can just come in and take charge?” I thought somewhat obtusely.
But of course this is not a negative thing, unless one is power hungry. Generations before me loved their power and loved to be in charge, but this is not the way of the future – the way of the kingdom of God.
So now I think, “what is it about my path that allowed me to flourish and be in a place where I can fulfill God’s purpose for my life?” There are several reasons why, and I want an opportunity to give that sense of fulfillment to others who are going behind me. I don’t need to ‘hold power’ or be the big cheese. That sense of entitlement for One greater than I. But I do want to enable and entitle others to come along side me and take what I’m doing to the next level for the glory of God.
So I think back to the places that I have thrived the most. And here are some of the things that God used to guide me to the place I am today.
1) I was given a sense of real ownership to invest in what I was doing.
Under my first pastor here, it was music. I was to take this ministry and build something. If it failed, it was on me. That’s a lot of pressure, but I loved it! I worked hard at building something from nothing, and had to use the gifts God had given me to unite a team of musicians. There were times I was successful, and there were times I failed miserably. But when given the chance, I grew like I had never grown before. And I grew within the umbrella of the church strategy. A lot of freedom – a little rope.
2) If I failed, the world was not coming to an end.
Under both of my mentors in the last 10 years, I was given a chance to fail. Once again, if I had some boundaries in which to work from, and I understood the vision of the church, I could make decisions that many pastors would not have allowed me to make, and sometimes I failed miserably. But they always asked if I learned from that mistake, and life went on as normal. One time (in 1999), I decided to briefly skip away from the songs we had been doing and to try the hymn player the church invested in years before I arrived at the church. The experiment was a complete flop! I’m surprised I wasn’t laughed out of the building, but I learned from that mistake and tried again. This is what I felt I could do because I had been given permission to fail.
Later on, Lonnie the football player/pastor allowed me to flourish in areas like small groups and even writing my own church strategy (which we eventually implemented here at the FC). This was years of planning and failing, but ultimately, it was work I was proud of by the finish line.
3) I always had a mentor.
During times of success in my ministry/job, I was always mentored properly. A strong relationship had been built with these men who gently (and sometimes not so gently) guided me to help me figure out how to get to where I needed to go. They poured into me, not only on a boss-employee level, but on a friendship level as well. Oh they were always the boss, there was never any doubt about that, but the way they poured into me helped me to realize that I was never alone. That screamed success to me.
I hope that people who come after me in my work and ministry, will do so with a sense of entitlement and respect. And I hope that generation is the generation that will continue to bring on the Kingdom of God to this world that so badly needs Him.
So what’s up? Are you entitled?
As a subscriber to boingboing.net, I was immersed today, as I caught up on my blog reading, in a main topic of conversation – The 30 year anniversary of the largest mass suicide in history. In 1978, Pastor Jim Jones coerced and in some cases intimidated his followers into drinking kool-aid laced with cyanide and other toxins that killed them, including hundreds of children.
I read tons of articles, and watched a PBS special on the background of Jones’ story, and I am filled with horror at what took place during this time. What started out as a group of people trying to create a utopic society, became a nightmare for thousands of members and family.
Here was a man with a mission “from God” who preached values like equality and justice, giving to the needy, and humbling yourself, and then turned around to make it all about him. “I’ll be your best friend if you want me to be. If you need a father, I can be your father. I’ll be your God if you want me to be your God,” Jones said from the pulpit.
So what went wrong? How do we know that religion won’t always go this route? I’ve thought of a few ways to safeguard our lives to follow God’s leading and not a humans.
1) If a person says they are God, in any sense (Jesus, Holy Spirit, etc…), be done with them.
A person is not God. God is God. Anything else is idolatry.
2) Don’t blindly follow a person.
Many times we choose to be a part of a church or an organization because we like the leader, rather than the vision of the church or the organization. If so, you will be gone immediately after the leader leaves, dies, or asks you to drink this. Please investigate the mission of your church, non-profit organization, kid’s school, or book club group (to name a few). Why do they do what they do? If they don’t know, then they’re probably not accomplishing anything.
3) When you give, stay informed about where it goes.
I’m not saying you should have a say in where it goes, but I do think you should be able to ask questions to ensure accountability in the process.
4) If someone preaches dogmatically living life one way, and lives their life the opposite way, this is not healthy.
In the case of Jim Jones, he preached justice and equality in a socialistic environment, and then lived in wealth. He spent a lot of money given to him by his congregation, while asking them to give more, and he slept with whatever woman he wanted whenever he wanted. For those of you dreaming of a utopian society one day, socialism at its base is just like capitalism. If either is left unchecked, they will fall hard, because they both require leadership.
5) Pray.
Stay in tune with God, constantly asking him if this next move or decision is the one you need to make. This helps to safeguard your decisions and keeps you free of manipulation.
30 Years ago. But it could happen today.
The day is upon us. The day that we are so thankful, we stuff ourselves silly and watch the Lions lose again. Besides turkey…
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?
My ordination in August of 2003
It could be that I had gone most of my life knowing what I didn’t want in a church, including my college years, but for for a few reasons, I got it right the third time out.
By the time college came and went, I moved to Atlanta to begin my life and to try to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of it. I started as a teacher. At this point in time, this was not for me. After wrestling with God for a while and sharing with Him why I didn’t want to serve Him anymore (I’m glad He won), I headed to Massachusetts to help some friends of mine on their “church journey.”
This church mirrored the one I grew up in and was used to – an independant, fundamental, Bible-believing (as if the rest of the world was not), pre-millennial, King James only church. I could stomach it for all of 11 months, until my gut told me to get the heck out of Dodge, and to me, this also included new England.
At the time, I decided some things. First, the next place I served God would be a place where I could serve Him the way I felt called to serve Him. Specifically in the area of music, I would be able to develop a band that could lead people into musical worship. Not that this was the only way to worship, but it was a way God had gifted me to express that worship that found itself in my heart. Then, the next place I followed God to would be a place that reached people in my generation and would prepare itself to change to reach people in the next generation that arose after me. (That definitely is one of the worst sentences [gramatically] I have ever written, that’s why I kept it – for your enjoyment)
So then I decided to move north to Holden, Massachusetts, and specifically Wachusett Valley Baptist Church. “Oh Lord, not another Baptist church,” I thought to myself, “I’ll never be able to drink alcohol.”
The reason I came to this place, complete with about 20 members (3 of which are here now), is because I felt that the vision of the pastor linked up to my own vision for serving God, and my gifts could be used to further His kingdom. Really it was about trust and respect. I trusted that the pastor believed that God wanted to do a great work in this generation of believers just like He did a great work in the centuries and millenia before me. And because of that trust, I respected His position of authority- not blindly, but understood that he had the right to make the decisions for our church.
Oh yeah, and I liked him. This always helps.
Eventually he left. Another man came in, and by this time I had been here for a few years, and could have made things difficult for the church by “becoming the authority.” Instead, I humbled myself (this was not easy – I’m a pretty amazing guy) and placed myself under his authority too. If his vision for the church would have been drastically different, I would have stepped down quietly, and found another church (probably outside of the cold tundra) that shared my vision.
But what I found was that the more I respected the pastor, and the more I humbled myself to learn from him (he was only 2 years older than me), the more our visions collided, and I began to find God growing me in ways I could have never imagined. Eventually, he mentored me into a position that could fill his position because this fulfilled the gifts God gave me.
I laugh now when people say, “Wow, you must love it here”, because it is not my love for new England or Massachusetts that keeps me here. If this were the case, I would have left a long time ago. No, what keeps me here is that this is where God’s vision for my life has brought me.
Because I a) sought God’s vision for my life and a church that linked up to that vision and b) humbled myself before God and the authority He placed in my life, I believe I have been successful during my time here in Holden.
As the pastor of Fellowship Church now, when someone comes into our church community from a churched background, this is what I’m looking for. I don’t have the attitude of anyone who wants to come can come. To me, church is more important than that. There are plenty of other churches someone can go to in New England if they want to find a church community. But if you love church, and are looking for a church in this area (whether you live here already or not), before you “check out” Fellowship Church, please make sure you attempt to activate letters a) and b) above, because if you don’t, eventually you will get mad at something this pastor has done, and then…
you’ll blame it on the church.
p.s. maybe we can start a conversation about what it means to be churched or unchurched? What do you think it means?
A few weeks ago I wrote this post, which was an open letter to Fellowship Church, the church I pastor. I love to celebrate the small victories we have at our church and to actually hear and read about some of what God is doing around our little part of the world. So here are some email responses I received from that letter. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
“Thanks for sharing! I am blessed to know you! I know year 2 will be an awesome year for the Fellowship movement!”
“Thanks for the inspirational message. It was just the other day I was thinking of you and the Fellowship Church, and I realized that in the short time that I have been attending your services, I can honestly say I have learned more about the Bible and it’s teachings then in my entire 57 years on this planet!!!!
You have to understand that this is coming from a person who at the age of 4 said to his parents, “I want to be a minister when I grow up!” So with that goal I thought I understood the bible and it’s teachings quite well. Not that I can say I followed it with any great enthusiasm or that I pursued my childhood goal!!! Of course I can give you a million reasons why, not that any one of them is justified, but that is another story.
I just want to say that for me, you have been very inspirational and enlightening about God’s word.”
“nicely said Brother.”
“Hey Marty,
Thank you for this letter. When I first stepped into Fellowship and heard again (I’d seen it first online) that your mission was to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ I knew that I had found my church home. A little more than two years later I can say with great joy that my relationship with the Lord has deepened in ways I never imagined possible while journeying with you here. I have truly seen the body of Christ and felt the Spirit at work here, and I anticipate much more with joy!
Thank you for being my brother. You are an inspiring leader.”
Thank You God, for allowing me to be a part of what You’re doing!
