Recently I had the opportunity to visit one of our members in the hospital.  I had a great visit with her husband and daughter while we waited.  And when I was able to go back and see her, she and I had a great visit as well.  I love preaching and teaching.  I feel I'm gifted in areas of leadership and administration.  However, pastoral care becomes a necessity for me to be able to plug in to the people that I speak with every Sunday.  My desire as I preach is to inspire them to follow Jesus more closely and walk a journey together as an entire church.  Out of those two things I believe we become THE force of good all around us.  So if I'm not practicing what I'm preaching (journeying with the people) I can easily become disengaged with the very people I'm wanting to inspire.  

I think that is the edge of the local church.  In our day you can go online and hear tons of excellent speakers who are master wordsmiths and great inspirers towards faith.  They are producing inspiration and deep theology for a people who are trying to live out their faith in Jesus.  As I read the gospels some of the most touching moments that Jesus has are not the big crowds, but the intimate conversations with paralytics, adulteresses, grieving families, the ill, injured, and confused.  Being present in people's lives in good and bad times has truly enriched my preaching.  Not all preachers can give tons of pastoral care and some shouldn't.  Larger churches have different needs and those churches find exciting ways to take care of the people.  Extremely small churches typically have the pastor do all the visitation and care work.  In a church my size it really takes more than just the pastors to care for the flock.  We use shepherds, small groups, members, and staff to reach out to those who are hurting or need visitation.  It is great to see the body work together that way.  This is one way we resonate together!

Every time I leave a hospital room or someone's home or a lunch meeting with a member I am reminded that I was just engaged in holy moments and on holy ground.

I was watching a children's show on TV with my kids not too long ago and they were talking about balance using the example of a teeter-totter.  I have been thinking about this image and the meaning of balance.  Everyone knows that the body with the most weight will be on the ground while on the teeter-totter and the body with the least weight will be in the sky.  Just like using scales to measure equality you must have the same amount of weight on each side to be balanced.  There is much to be said about balance and why we should strive for equality and balance in our world.  And those might be some good blogs for the future.

The image that I simply cannot release from my mind is the world (think globe) on one end of the teeter-totter and the a church (think building with steeple) on the other end.  It is an image that has grabbed me and I begin to think about meanings and possibilities.  

Convicting thought for me:  I don't think either of these entities is looking to be balanced.  

I think the world spreads its message of freedom, individualism, power, wealth, and dominance to woo more people to its side creating a heavy weight lifting the church off the ground.  The church spreads its message of freedom, power (in christ), grace, love, and salvation to attract the masses so that the world becomes helpless as it sours in the sky on the other side.

And while I am always for the church, Christ's bride, could this be the wrong motive?  It seems to me that the motives (assuming this is what is really happening on the playground of life) are both driven by power and the desire to "win!"  

I think that is what made Jesus unique.  He wasn't driven by winning or for accumulating power.  Why?  Because you cannot be driven to achieve something that you already obtain.  Christ already had won and He knew where power originated and that it will never change hands.  Jesus wasn't after being the heaviest kid on the playground so that he could taught those kids who were malnourished of truth, power, or freedom.  Instead Jesus holds down their side of the teeter-totter so more can have a chance to play.

The church is only in a power struggle with the world if we allow for the world to have power that was never theirs.  The Bride of Christ was not established to outwit, outlast, and outplay the world.  The Bride of Christ was established to give the world a chance at a new game and form of play...living, breathing, and loving their Savior, Jesus Christ.

"I am one in whom Christ Dwells"  
"We live in the unshakable Kingdom of God..."
Both of them are statements from James Bryan Smith from his Good and Beautiful Series (I noted them at ACU Summit several years ago)

When we choose to acknowledge these truths and live them out we can stop our worry about being the helpless lightweight kid on the other end of the teeter-totter screaming at the top of our lungs to be put down.  Sometimes you have to walk the plank of the teeter-totter down into the world and find that there is more good to be done there than preaching people to your side simply to overpower it.  Jesus had much to say to quell people who were out for the power and typically they were the religious ones.  

I would hope that we can view the world as what God has given to us to enjoy, live abundantly, and share the goodness of Christ with instead of a place to be conquered for Christ.  They are not a conquest.  They are a people.  We (the church) are not their savior.  We are a people.  And we are all here to relate with God and one another.

The best play on the teeter-totter is not when the heaviest kid leaves the lightest kid in the air as long as he can like a bully with no remorse.  The best play on the teeter-totter is when each kid is using their weight and legs to push off back and forth, so each enjoys the abundance of joy that the playground has to offer. 

May we live the abundance of Joy in life and through that abundant joy tell a story that the world wants to hear.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
-Jesus according to John 10:10 (NRSV)

Starting in January of this year I became the president of the Conway Ministerial Alliance.  It is an honor and I'm grateful to serve these next two years.  I have been attending this alliance ever since my move here 3 years ago.  For just a little bit about who we are you can read this recent article from our local paper Log Cabin Democrat.  I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with these pastors for discussion and prayer.  We have protected our meetings from being "sales" opportunities from outside guest and have made it a place simply to build relationships, plan our two annual events, discuss theological topics, and pray together.

These kinds of gatherings fill my soul.  I know that I am not the only one that deals with certain situations.  This has become a crucial gathering for me since most of my friends and colleagues are a state away.  All of us need alliances, friends, colleagues, and those that know our situation and have our back.  Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.  We need people who will run the race with us and help us carry the cross.

Who is helping you run the race?

Do you have an alliance that journeys with you through good and bad times?

Where do you find your healthiest alliances? (church, work, school, community)