Some thoughts about Halloween, Boo!

My wife went at the beginning of October with my kids and spent 60 bucks on Halloween costumes. In my head, I am thinking, "you did what!?!" And then I begin to realize we would have bought them any how. I know they would dress up for Halloween and last year because we waited so late Cooper had to wear the old school cheesy TV Batman costume. It was bad. So, I moved on. I think part of my problem though is this contradiction I have to Halloween.

As a kid, I knew this was the "Devil's Holiday". I dressed up with stuff we had around the house. A few times, we went to the neighbors and trick or treated. We went to the mall and walked around for candy maybe a couple of times. It was never a big deal enough for my parents to go get us costumes. Then on top of that in the 80's we had the big candy scares. People were putting razor blades in apples and poisoning tootsie rolls. I remember thinking why would anyone even think of doing stuff like that. Then, I was reminded. It was the Devil's Holiday. I knew kids that made a night out of it. Their parents took them to parties, then to trick or treat, and what seamed to be a night of great childhood adventure. It made me jealous to think of the fun they were having. I still always had the fact in the back of my mind, it's the Devil's Holiday. I know I sound like Bobby Boucher's mother in the Waterboy. I can't help it.

Today, we try to have a more balanced approach to this day. We don't glorify the holiday that is Halloween. We let our kids enjoy the fun stuff and not letting the Devil have an entire day to celebrate himself. We send our our kids to the church for Fall Festivals and with games and candy. We understand the joy of coming together and having a good time. We don't let the devil keep us from having a day. It reminds me of once as a young kid's pastor I wanted to have a Easter Egg hunt at my church. I had an adult Sunday school teacher tell his class the evils of this and talked his class into boycotting the event. He was raising a stink that was unbelievable. I didn't understand. I was trying to do an outreach in our community but I had people in our church saying what we were doing was pagan and once again of the Devil. I remember my pastor's response to all of this. He said, "If you believe that then you are not balanced in your thinking of life". I find myself wondering the same things about Halloween though.

I am glad we have events on halloween and we can sit and understand that even if this is a day of celebration for the Devil. It is the day the Lord has made. We need to rejoice and be glad in it. Not because it is Halloween but because it is a day that God made for us to worship him. It is a day we can have a good time and get pay our dentist's bills. It is a day we shouldn't worry about the devil because we know who wins.

Growing Up Pentecostal

Yesterday evening, I was leaving church with my family and bunch of our friends. We were talking about everyone's experiences at church that day. I was talking about how great Kid's church was. Talking about the plan for our Christmas production this year. A couple of the folks were talking about their experience in care cell that evening. Evidently they were asked to pray for the people next to them. A few of the spouses found it difficult to pray for their wives and really kind of said some awkward things. It was a funny story and everyone was cutting up about it. Someone asked me what I would pray for my wife? I looked at her standing there and said I would just start praying in tongues for her. Everyone kind of chuckled and laughed. I then proceeded to say, "you know it is like 'who stole the key to my honda' really fast". The lady who was telling the initial story came up to Margaret a little later and told her that from now on she will be skeptical any time she hears someone speak in tongues. I felt like a heal. The fact is growing up Pentecostal has made me some times take the Baptism in the Holy Spirit for granted.

I even know as a teenager we would listen to different church peoples prayers and mimic their cadences when talking about a church service. As a Bible college student when one of my friends would take a girl out. We would pick at him and ask if he spoke in tongues on his date. I will let you figure out what we were talking about. I can think of tons of different example of things where in our daily life we joked about something we believe so strongly in. Why would we do this? Why do I do this? I don't have a great reason other than I grew up Pentecostal.

I don't think what I did was right or wrong but many of us have thought about it. We have questioned not the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit's work in someone's life. Be honest. I know I need to repent from judging. Okay. Done. I always found it funny when in high school or even as a pastor when someone I thought I needed to witness to would give a message in tongues. It is that kind of thing that makes us cynical. I don't think growing up Pentecostal makes us cynical to the Holy Spirit but it does make us cynical to the people we see operating in the gifts. Why does God use knuckleheads? I have no idea. I ask myself all the time why God is using me in different things. I don't think I am worthy of. It just always confirms to me that God uses us in spite of us.

As a parent and a children's pastor, I have to remember what it is like to grow up Pentecostal. Make sure that kids see that when the Holy Spirit works in my life it is pure and true. I have to teach that the Holy Spirit and its gifts are powerful and holy. I also have to keep reverence toward the Holy Spirit is kept in priority. It is thing that makes us who we are. We should be proud of the gift that God left for us. I hope I remember this even when I feel a moment of sarcasm come upon me.

Lest We Forget

I wonder how much we forget? I had a friend this week say he didn't know what plagiarizing was. I asked. "Um, didn't you ever write a paper in high school?" HIs response was a simple, "Yeah, but I just didn't remember." He may even think that I am plagiarizing now that I didn't give his name. I don't think I am. I won't mention his name to protect his privacy. It also allows me to continue to make fun of him and not worry about every body else joining in and him getting offended like the time I made fun of his pink shirt(s). The question remains, how much do we forget? I do remember that a professor in college of mine used to always use the phrase, "Well that guy has forgotten more than I have learned". I know, I am not looking forward to either of my children taking algebra and trying to remember how to answer stuff and show work. Do we have this massive case of Alzheimer's? How is it that I can remember that Carlos Baerga is the only person in the history of baseball to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same inning, but I can not remember to take out the trash on Tuesday morning when all the houses on our street have trash cans on the curb? Do we mean to forget stuff? Is there some sub conscience affect that obtains our brain on things we don't want to remember? What was the point of this blog anyway?

Let me tell you where we are going.

Over the past several weeks (months really), I have been watching the different candidates posture for nomination of the Republican presidential candidacy. I don't know who I am rooting for. Every time I start to think I have a guy in the race his campaign falls apart. I guess I should keep being a kid's pastor and not worry about being a political prognosticator. I look at stuff in my own life and ministry right now and I keep thinking the person that wins has to be the person that best communicates his or her vision for our country. Leadership has to begin with vision casting.

In my family, if I effectively communicate to my wife or kids what I want to do and how they will benefit from it then they are more likely to jump on board and be a part. I can tell my kids all day long hey go clean your room. They will go to their rooms and work and get distracted and piddle and my wife and I will get frustrated and a simple chore will become a pain in the butt situation for all of us. If I say, "Hey, a clean room gets you out to do something exciting like a trip to the toy store or a friend coming over". Then my kids are more likely to get it done in a timely manner. They need to catch the vision for cleaning the house quicker.

In my job as Pastor, I need to promote and sell a change or where we are going as a ministry to both kids and leaders to get them excited about what is going to happen. The more buy in for each event that I get on the front in, the more success an event will have. It is my job to promote cast a vision to kids and leaders in such a way, they don't want to miss out. One time, I had this idea for an event at my church, it was a multi church kids rally. We were going to have games and a service followed by pizza and several churches bought into the idea. The night came for the event just one other church showed up and only 5 kids from my group came. Evidently, I didn't cast the vision for the event in a way that was appealing. I got no buy in from volunteers or kids for the event. I had to change the way I promoted to kids and leaders. For kids, I realized that I needed to sell events to parents. Kids want to come to everything. Everything is an opportunity to hang out with friends and have fun. Parents needed to understand the logistics of an event and what they got out of it. I needed to show my leaders that each event they were needed for success. It was a tough lesson to really understand the greatest things we do are because other people are involved. It just showed me that vision casting is effective depending on not just what you are casting but to whom you are casting.

The Bible has all kinds of stories of people casting vision. Moses talking to the nation of Israel about leaving Egypt. Jesus getting the disciples to follow him. Paul leading Timothy through being a young minister. I can name off tons of others. Casting vision is the place where leadership begins. It is the place where you get people excited. It is the gun going off at the beginning of the race. It neither maintains nor finishes. But just like the old baseball saying goes, "You can't win the game in the first inning but you sure can lose it."