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."

Draw the line

I went running yesterday out at a park by the place Scout takes Ballet (Stone Oak Park). I like running there because it is one of those places in the middle of the city that you wouldn't know you were in the city while you were there. I haven't run there since last spring until yesterday. I was going to go a few weeks ago but the day I was headed over there they actually had a fire that ran throughout the park. So honestly, I not only wanted to run there for its secludedness but I wanted to check out what the fire did. I parked, stretched, and took off. As I started to run, you could smell the burnt. I was surprised by this. I really expected to see more at first. The trailhead was in tact and the trees by the running trail seemed to be unharmed by the fire. I could see some places as I drove in that the fire touched but the first part of the trail I came across wasn't bad at all. In fact, I started to think, "what is the big deal?" I kept running and eventually about a half mile into the park I started seeing burnt trees to my right. The rocks were different. The cactus was bright yellow, at least what was left. I did notice these big tire ruts almost the size of ditches along the left side of the running trail. It was pretty obvious that this is where the fire fighters set up a line. The trees on one side of the trail were seemingly not touched by the fire. Even though less than 20 feet away entire sections of this park that were filled with brush, trees, cacti, and wildlife were barren with just ash and dirt. It was crazy to be running along this line of ash and burnt on one side and the park I was familiar with on the other.

I thought about this as I ran, How often do we need to make a line in the lives of our family. I thought about the story of Eli in the book of 1 Samuel. Eli had sons that he let run amuck using there father's position to cause all kinds of havoc in God's name. Eli never made the proverbial line in the sand. He waited on God to deal with his kids. At what point do we tell them, "okay you have to stop." So many times things will grow and grow and we don't want to dig our heals in. It is hard digging in, as I examined these ruts the fireman left they were huge. I know parents hate that time when kids are mad or pitching a fit and the easiest thing to do is give in. I tell you this dig in. If the firemen had not dug in there at the trail I was running on then an entire park could have been lost. Even worse, houses and lives could have been lost. We all have times in our lives that we have to stop and dig in. Eli never did this, it cost him his family. I pray that God gives you the strength to dig in.

Mazel Tov

This past weekend, my family attended Samuel Grossman's Bar mitzvah. Sam's mom works with my wife Margaret. It was a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful synagogue. We were excited to see what this was all about because neither of us had ever been invited to such a thing. It cracked me up as I walked in, the little guy working as an usher was wearing a white suit and had a shiny golden head cover with a bright sash looking thing on his shoulders. Then, to top off the whole look he had an eye patch. I whispered to Margaret that he looked like a villain from a James Bond movie. I was given a head covering, kippa, or beanie before we walked in the sanctuary area. This was to show respect to God. We went to our seats and was amazed as the people at the front were standing facing the back of the room chanting a language that my kids were completely clueless about. I kind of chalked it up to some kind of Jewish music. As, I read through the bulletin thing, I got cracked up because I just talked earlier in the summer about the Hebrew people leaving letters out of the word G_d out of respect to his name, and there it was a G_d right in the bulletin. It continued and they began the Bar mitzvah part of the service. I had a few observations that I wanted to share with others.

First, the peoples love for God's word knocked me down. They keep their holy scriptures in an ark at the front of the room. It was special just opening up the ark to get out the scriptures. Everyone stood. Sam carried the scriptures through the room and people moved to the isle as he walked by. It looked like they were all reaching out and kissing these scrolls as they walked by. How often do we just disregard the scriptures given to us? I mean, we carry are Bibles on our phones. We don't think about bringing them with us to church because the words will be up on the screen. I understand the book itself is not Holy. The anointing the holiness comes from the things that are written. As a kid's pastor though, am I doing justice the appreciation of the scriptures? As a parent, do my kids understand the things that are written in there are not just any words on a page? I teach on reading your Bible probably several times a year, I do nightly devotions with my kids but am I really getting across that this Book is something that is life changing. I was challenged by the Holy Spirit to do a better job with this.

As I was sitting there, I kept thinking about what we have that equates to this? Sam thanked his Hebrew school teachers several times. He spoke from the Hebrew scriptures in Hebrew. He thanked his sister for her excitement about Judaism. It was a very cool thing to see. His parents and grandparents were both there and showed his families Jewish heritage. It was something that this family had prepared for months to make happen. You could see a family pride not just in the family but also in their Jewish family there at the synagogue. The effort put into this was valued by many. This passage into adulthood was a big deal. Where do we stand on this? We have crownings and gold medals of achievement given out. I have been able to see several of the kids here at first get those in the last year. How do we make these things more important not just to the kids to finish but to the families? Is the Mpact girls and Rangers clubs even the place where we need to be moving forward with this? I don't know. I know that we need something that families come around their kids and pass the heritage of their faith. It is important for kids to understand this. The question is: what does this need to look like?

Knocking On Doors

Last week, we had our annual "Staff Retreat" also known as 3 days of fishing on the coast and making sure everyone on our team truly understands humility. Pastor brought an old missionary friend, Ralph Hyatt, to do devotions with us each morning. Ralph is 79 years old and has touched thousands of people through his life. He began sharing with us on Thursday morning about the work he did in Argentina as a missionary. When he got to Argentina, he found parts of the country that had never been touched with the Gospel. He talked about going on a boat from island to island, village to village, house to house just telling people who Jesus was. People were saved and Ralph took it as a responsibility to disciple those people and start a church for those people. He told stories about driving a boat and loading it up with people to go to church. He told us of a time he carried 44 people on a medium size boat because he didn't want anyone to miss out on the opportunity to come to church. I immediately felt convicted by his stories.

All to often I find myself stressing over petty things in my church, job, or family. Someone says something about the nursery policies or someone is upset because someone else wrote something on facebook that may or may not have had anything to do with them. It is almost always something small and petty. I still have to be careful because it is those things that keep me from going from island to island, village to village, and hut to hut.

I know I am not called to some country that is full of unsaved people... but I am called to that. I am called to tell as many people as I possibly can that Jesus is alive. I mean think about it. How many people are missing the point of being a Christ follower? How many people do we come in contact with that have no church or even concept of what being a Christian really is? Jesus sent out his 12 and his 72 was that all that was supposed to go? Is that a calling for all of us. I do know this. As a pastor, I have to be very careful that the people in my life aren't all "church" people. I have to be careful that all my friends aren't just Christians. I have to understand that it is my job to knock on doors and tell people that Jesus is coming. It may be while I am at my son's baseball game or at my daughter's ballet class. It may be while I am in the grocery store or sitting at starbucks. It may even be while I am out riding my bike on a Saturday morning. I hope that as I go out of my house, that God sends people to me. So, I can share him.