Soul Talk

EXTRAVAGANT Serving

We had a great day at Westside yesterday. The worship center was absolutely packed for every service but 5:00 pm (KC Chiefs were still playing). Troy did a great job with worship and I'll have to remember to thank him for leading us in one of my favorites, "Jesus Paid It All".  Dan hit it out of the park with the message and made a lasting impression on everyone with his challenge to the 60 minute serve. I had three great SHAPE interviews, and networked with dozens of new/old Westsiders between services. And to top it all off I was able to worship with my family (including our oldest daughter who was home from college, and her boy-friend). These are the kinds of things I love and they made it a great day for me.

Hope for America

The story of a young black girl who said, "Don't you know - black people don't get married." Has haunted me since I heard it. There are all kinds of concerns going through my head around the theme of the problems with the family in America. 

Yesterday, with the election of our new president a hopeful thought popped in my head. Can President Obama and his family be a new model for family in America? Especially for the black community?

This hope is on troubled ground because so many of President-elect Obama's views are inconsistent with my family values, but I pray that he, with his wife and children, can at least hold up a model that is forgotten by many in America today...one man, one woman, committed to raising their children in a loving home.

Counteracting (Hope part 2)

Chris, the director of the Hope Center was talking about the neighborhood around the Hope Center. He called it a "forgotten zone", and relayed some heart breaking news about the environment there. And then he made an amazingly important statement:

"The world that they see out there is so completely different from what w are trying to teach them - you can't counteract that in a couple hours a week."

That statement is so true - not just in the "forgotten zone" of the Hope Center, but in the neighborhoods I live in as well. Affluence doesn't make the need for a counteractive investment any less. Helping each other to know and follow Jesus takes an investment of more than a couple hours a week - in our own lives, in the lives of others, in our time with God alone, and our time with God together.

Lord help me to be the kind of leader who invests deeply in the lives of others and lives so authentically that others may invest in me as well.

An Island of Hope

The Westside leadership team met with the leadership team of the Hope Center in Kansas City, Missouri today. It was a brief visit but left a big impression on me. These leaders are making a real difference to the vulnerable in Kansas City. They have great plans for a community school, safe streets, good housing, and a church plant. In ten years I believe we'll look back on this Hope Center and see amazing changes in the community around Hope.

The leaders told us that the number one cause of death in the neighborhood is homicide. I was stunned when the story of one young black girl was relayed to us. Her volunteer leader was teaching her about the values of saving sex for marriage and her response was, "Black people don't get married." What a horrible tragedy!

On one block only three of the homes were occupied, the rest vacant and in foreclosure. This community has been hit very hard, even more so in recent days.

When faced with such a hopeless situation, the Church is presented with a truly amazing opportunity. We are the only ones who can bring hope to a place like this. We believe in the power of God to transform lives! 

Westside's leaders are exploring how our church can partner with the Hope Center. This is the kind of thing the church of America has to do!

Pastors Need Change Beginning with the Heart

A new  book by Don Cousins retells some disturbing statistics from a 1996 article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Recently compiled statistics indicate that the life of a pastor is tough. Every month, 1,300 U.S. pastors are fired or forced to resign. Nearly 30 percent of ministers have been terminated at least once. In a decade, 40 percent of today's pastors will be in another line of work. SEven percent say that have no close friends. The numbers don't improve at home: The divorce rate for U.S. pastors is up at least 65 percent in 25 years. More than one third admit to "inappropriate sexual behavior" with church members. Eighty percent say their work has a negative impact at home.

Cousins goes on to confirm these grim trends with the following statistics from Barna:

• Two-thirds of the pastors surveyed said they're distrubed because they feel their job is never done.

• Nine out of ten pastors admit that they often take home with them the mental and emotional baggage associated with ministry.

• Eight out of ten pastors confessed that the stress of long workweeks affects them physically. Fifty percent said they suffer physically from stress at least once a month.

• Seventy-five percent of spouses say they're truly anxious about their finances; two-thirds of pastors feel at least some anxiety about their financial future.

And then from a Christian Broadcasting Network fact sheet article titled "Pastor Burnout: Combating a Churchwide Epidimic":

What might be called a spiritual virus is stalking the homes and pulpits of America's pastors. Each year, thousands of clergy walk away from their ministries, suffering from burnout brought on by frantic schedules and unrealistic expectations.... The clergy is like the Titanic--it's sinking fast. Fifteen hundred ministers every month drop out of the ministry. That's an epidemic. Even more sobering is that nearly 6,000 Southern Baptist ministers annually fall victim to burnout, depression, marital problems, and even suicide.

Cousins has a whole book that addresses the solutions for these issues, but he sums it up with a simple statement. "I spent almost twenty years focused on what God could do 'through me'. Addressing my broken condition would require the focus to change--from through me to 'in' me. What i needed was...a transformation of heart."

I can't begin to respond to all the issues brought up in this post. But I can stand with Cousins in this - I need a new focus too. One that is centered on what God will do 'in' me, more than 'through' me. My prayer of late is, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10)