Vacation, Books, and Conviction

Last week I was able to get away and spend some time with my family on vacation. I love going on away because it gives me the chance to obviously get away (duh), but it also gives me the chance to catch up on some of the books I have lying around. This year I got a chance to read a few books, but the one that has stuck out to me the most is called Radical by David Platt. David is the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL and a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary which is the same school I attend (which is how I came across this book). David holds 3 different graduate degrees from NOBTS and is only 31 years old. He also went to the University of Georgia for his undergrad and has 2 undergrad degrees (Go Dawgs). 

In this book David tells stories of how American Christians say they love Jesus and proclaim that they are Christians but if you look at the world around us we are so far from what a follower of Christ should be. We fill our church building each Sunday worried more about who will be singing rather than who we are singing about. We decide to stay at home or go to another church if the senior pastor is taking a week off. We have made church about what we can get out of it instead of what we can give back to it. Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians; more money is given to charitable organization than is given to the Church. Funny thing there is the church will be around forever and none of those organizations (no matter what cause they support) will be here. If you read your Bible Jesus didn’t die for any charitable organization. (DISCLAIMER: NOT ALL ORGANIZATIONS ARE BAD AND A LT OF THEM DO GREAT THINGS TO HELP PEOPLE). Just stating more money is given to these organizations than is given to the church. I know everyone in America is not a Christian, but 77% of Americans claim they are Christian or that their religion is Christianity, which is down from 88%. Somehow if 77% of Americans proclaim they are Christians then we have missed the mark and have made Christianity about OURSELVES.

I’m not trying to beat anyone up or make anyone mad. I just write because we have got to change how we live our lives, and if you don’t want to change you probably need to examine whether or not you really know Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). I am just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to not being an imitator of Christ. I spend money on things that I don’t need, I watch things on TV that do not glorify God (NOT PORN, JUST REGULAR TV SHOWS. SO GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER), I don’t always treat my wife and kids like I should, I have so many areas that I need Jesus to clean up and I know that only with His help can that happen. This month in our community we have seen people who have been so desperate that they chose to end their life. I was speaking with someone about this and I said that I could never understand that type of desperation that someone feels and you think you can’t go on living. It hurts my heart to know that there are people in our community and people who we hang out with that will die and go to hell because we were too busy to share the Gospel with them because we are worrying about how we look or what car we drive or what whether we will eat a NY Strip or Rib eye. In the fall we wrote hundreds of names on a wall in our church proclaiming that we would do anything to see them come to Christ. Where there have been a few names crossed off that wall and we rejoice for those Salvations (Luke 15:10). There are still hundreds more names that need to be crossed off.

So I challenge you what are you going to do, what am I going to do? If we want to see our families, our friends, our community, our state, our nation, our world change, it is not going to be done through anything else other than the church. We have to live out what Jesus said was the 2 greatest commands, to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second to love our neighbor as ourselves.  So let’s step up and be the church. Take Jesus to the world and quit waiting for the world to come to Jesus.

Mickey

Book Review: Transforming church in Rural America by Shannon O'Dell

My journey as a pastor began just over 10 years ago following 15 years of serving the church in various pastoral roles.  I have been a youth pastor, children's pastor, IT tech, Singles pastor, Missions pastor, Associate Pastor, Recreation Pastor, well you  get the picture, I have served in about all possible ministry positions in my life.  Little prepared me for the last 10 years as I have sought to serve as a Shepherd to God's people.  Although there have been days that I would never trade, for the most part there have been some incredibly difficult days that I wished had never came.

Today I received a book in the mail as a gift entitled Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O'Dell.  Not sure what but something intrigued me about the title and I began to read it.  I started at 9:15 and finished it just a few minutes ago with a staff lunch break tucked in to enhance my physique (not really, I was just hungry!).

As I started reading my heart immediately related to the writings, as the story mirrors mine with amazing detail.  In the pages of Rural America you will find practical lessons that I have learned, lessons others will benefit from helping us invigorate rural church in America.  I love the fact that Shannon talks openly about the burden of enduring because to serve God in rural Bible belt American the one trait you will need apart from a dynamic relationship with Jesus is endurance.

Two things stood out to me: Shannon told of how God asked him, are you building a congregation or congregants.  The contrast between the two are essential to seeing life change.  God hasn't called us to build great churches, but to build disciples.  The second thing thing that encouraged me was what I would call Shannon's cycle of growth: change, conflict, growth.  Any organization that is growing will experience this cycle.  Before today I had heard and known that, but for some reason it clicked and encouraged me greatly.

You will be challenged and encouraged if you are a rural church pastor.  For some of you, you need to change your jobs, leaving the church for the called.  For others this will be the shot in the backside that will kick you into gear.  I pray the later for my fellow laborers in Christ.  I agree with Shannon, Rural America is the next great unreached people group.