PC's Blog:
What's going through his head...

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posted by John at 8:56 PM      0 Comments     

Challenge

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Few phrases make a pastor cringe and fight the urge to cup their hands over their ears in a childish I-can't-hear-you motion. Some of these include:
"I'm not being fed here."
"Where is MY tithe being used?"
"We've never done it that way before."
"How far is 'too far'?"
"Was that you at the pub Friday night?"

One statement which has not particularly made me cringe but has had me really searching and thinking lately is the idea of "being challenged".

We like to say there are churches we don't go to because we aren't challenged.

We go to churches because we are challenged.

We want to listen to podcasts from speakers who challenge us and avoid books by authors who don't challenge us.

We say that we want to be challenged, but that is not true.

We say we want to go to places and people who can challenge us, but we lie.

Granted, we lie because we have re-defined (falsely) what "challenge" actually means. When we say want to be challenged, we mean we want someone to blow our minds. We want someone to communicate something in a way we have never thought about it before. We want to think of things moreloftily than we had before.

We want to read books that really make us think, and in so doing, make us learn a lot.

We want these things, and we call it challenge, but we have misunderstood and forgotten the primary element to challenge.

Action!
Movement!
Application!

Challenge is a call to engage and change.

We do not want to be challenged. We want to learn more, maybe. We want to know more information, perhaps. We want to answer more questions correctly than someone else, probably.

But very few really want to be challenged, because being challenged means being called to engage and change. Very few of us want to change anything as most of us are too comfortable to engage.

Challenge has to do with whether or not you want to engage something enough to enact change in the way you live, act, or do. Challenge has to do with whether or not what you are reading, hearing, studying, or interacting with engages you to act.

Will my life be different? Will I live differently or am I just waiting for you to blow my mind?

Do I really want to be challenged, or do I really want to know more information than you?

I think of books we commonly call 'challenging' by guys like C.S. Lewis, NT Wright, Bonhoeffer, and I wonder if any of them, as brilliant as they may be, actually engaged me enough to change, act, and live differently.

I think of books by people like Shane Claiborne, SD Gordon, and Francis Chan; books I could read in a day or two but I was engaged to see choices I needed to make to really be more like Jesus.

I think of podcasts I've listened to that I once thought were great challenging sermons, but I cannot remember many that really rocked my life in a way which made me say, "I need to change some things."

The most challenging speakers, writers, and pastors are not necessarily the most profound.

This is because it is not their role to be challenging. It is not up to THEM for YOU to be challenged.

Being challenged is up to YOU! When presented with something, no matter how simple the presentation, its up to YOU to determine whether you will engage and change.

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READING: "The Search for God and Guinness" by Stephen Mansfield
LISTENING TO: "No One's First and You're Next" by Modest Mouse

posted by PC at 4:07 PM      0 Comments     

A Pastor's Prayer

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

As a pastor, my prayer today (and should be each day) is from Psalm 69:6

May those who hope in you
not be disgraced because of me,
O Lord, the LORD Almighty;
May those who seek you
not be put to shame because of me,
O God of Israel.

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READING: "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Don Miller
LISTENING TO: "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin" by Low Anthem

posted by PC at 2:39 PM      0 Comments     

Simple Collision

Monday, September 21, 2009

[journal entry from 9.14.00]

My God, My Inspiration, My Artist and Creator:

On the deck of this cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I am present only to think of you and KNOW you in this moment. Though I cannot see you, I can KNOW you. Like John writes in the first chapter (1:18), no one has ever SEEN you, but because of Jesus you can be KNOWN. Because of your Spirit and mine, you can be KNOWN.

I am here at this moment, looking out at an endless horizon where two expansive worlds (water and sky) collide in a simple straight line and I am amazed at how two expansive opposing worlds of my natural, tangible life and your Spirit can collide in such a simple connection of the heart.

I am here at this moment, and it is intended for nothing else but to know you. There is nothing in the way. There is nothing to interrupt the connection of my heart to yours. This moment is only for this. I want to know though I cannot see you.

I am here at this moment just to know you.

posted by PC at 2:01 PM      0 Comments