Brown people

I was raised in all white, Lutheran family, attended an all-white Lutheran church, and lived in an all white, non-Lutheran neighborhood. The public schools I attended were pretty much all white. Things changed little when I enrolled in a small all-white Lutheran college in Kansas and finished my undergraduate work at nearly-all-white Biola University in Southern California.

My parents were godly people, but they held racist notions. A few years ago, Marilyn and I hosted a foreign exchange student from Brazil. Claudia was with us for her full senior year in high school.

On a typically sunny Arizona day, we were in our van on our way to a family event. My mom was with us and was talking about being with a group of people. With some derision in her voice–and forgetting that Claudia was sitting behind her, she made a point of mentioning how many of those people were brown.

I cringed.

Later Claudia asked me if my mother liked her. “Of course she likes you, Claudia, “I replied. “She thinks your great. Why would you ask me that?”

Claudia answered me in subdued voice, “It was the way she was talking about brown people.”

Most people in my parents generation just didn’t know anything else. My folks were from northern Ohio, not the deep South, but feelings about racial differences ran deep in the north and Midwest, too. When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, there were no teams in the South. He played at home for the Brooklyn Dodgers and on the road in other northern cities, where he endured extraordinary abuse.

I know it’s hard for many people to believe this today, but Sammy Davis Jr., who campaigned vigorously for presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, was not invited to his Inaugural Ball because he was married to a white woman.

Phil Austin, a good friend of mine, shared openly about his personal experiences growing up with racial discrimination. A civil rights attorney who made a commitment to Christ when I was pastor at Word of Grace, Phil has a comfortably Anglo name but an unmistakably Latino face. In fact, when he ran for the Mesa City Council recently, his campaign signs had no Phil Austin photo, because he was was a candidate in a predominantly Anglo community. He didn’t win.

Phil blew me away when he told me that, in the 50s and early 60s, Blacks and Hispanics could only swim in the Tempe public pool on Fridays. They cleaned it Friday night and only white people people could swim there on the weekend.

My journey into the inner city

I grew up in the 60s, but I was entirely shielded and consequently ignorant of the issues of the Civil Rights Movement. I remember only a family comment here and there that Martin Luther King was communist.

Then, in my early 30s I heard African-American John Perkins speak at a conference on faith and justice. (For more about John Perkins see http://www.jmpf.org/content/) Creaking and popping like the a rusty hinge, the door of my heart started to open to the pain and challenges of ethnic minorities and those who are much less fortunate.

I became the preaching pastor at Word of Grace in 1982 when the church was just two years old. I was thirty-three. Already at that time, our kids attended the most ethnically diverse elementary school in the East Valley. Less than half were white.

Our church was landlocked. We purchased the old Central Christian Church facility at 315 N. Hobson, just a half mile from downtown in Mesa. Our “new” church was a huge expansion for us: three small buildings on less than four acres. But within just three years after relocating our weekend attendance topped 2000.

What to do? After a lot of thoughtful prayer, we decided we would not relocate our church in the burbs, that God had put us right there to make difference in our neighborhood. So we bought adjacent properties, thirty-seven of them, and expanded our facilities right there in the hood. By 2000, we had 4000 families in the urban core of the East Valley.

What to do?

When we broke ground on our new worship center in 1995, our special guest at the event, Vice Mayor of Mesa Pat Gilbert, commended us for not abandoning “the core of Mesa,” as he put it. Now zip 85204 is the most depressed and dangerous area in the East Valley, and our church was (and still is) just blocks away, in 85203.

We chose a path that gave us no choice but to engage in our neighborhoods. Every year I did a preaching series we called “A Heart for Others,” a fall focus our new senior pastor, Terry Crist, has sustained. He calls it “A Heart for the City.” In the last several years I was senior pastor at Word of Grace we had over a thousand adults in our congregation doing volunteer work in already existing community agencies, some faith-based, some not.

We also received an annual five-figure “Love Our City” offering, often over $50,000, which we gave to community agencies. We were a conservative church with a social conscience, and that was before President George Bush’s call for “compassionate conservatism.”

Black people

Personally, I became involved with the Mesa Martin Luther King weekend events, and participated in the annual Monday prayer breakfast. At the first official Mesa city breakfast to honor Dr. King, I was stunned to see I was the only white clergyman in attendance. I’ve also attended conservative Christian events, significant events, where there were virtually no Blacks in attendance, and I’ve preached in African American churches where my wife and I were the only white faces.

I’m not ready, like so many, to scream racism every time I see these disparities, but I can tell you this: Navigating the rapids of racial difference and misunderstanding is extraordinarily difficult.

People, yes Christian people, people who love and follow Jesus, think so differently, and the way they think is shaped by their culture, their race. They don’t always understand one another, and often they don’t even try. It takes time, patience, and emotional effort to listen and learn, and most of us would rather stay in our own worlds, listen to our own people, and reaffirm what we already think.

So what do you think?

How do you think? What influences your thinking about others?

Does any of this have any application SB1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration law? What do you think about SB1070? Or are you too angry to think clearly?

A couple years ago I stepped into the muck of it all when a number of conservative Christian leaders decided that, somehow, we should be a voice for both law-and-order and compassion.

We decided to hold a news conference, wondering if anyone would show up. Well, dozens of reporters, flashing cameras, and television news teams filled the room. I was the spokesman.

Gulp.

I made the “mistake” of saying really controversial things, like: We need civil discourse, not civil war.

That quote made it on to the front page of the Arizona Republic, and when KJZZ/NPR asked me for a phone interview, I could not have imagined it would end up being the lead news story most of the day. I said something like: Conservative Christians have been known for their stand against abortion and for marriage as a union between a man and woman. These remain vital issues for us, but it’s time we broaden our concerns for other voiceless people, for the poor, and for compassion and justice.

We need Christians to pray for and to propose realistic and compassionate solutions to a terribly complex problem.

We’ve had a grand summer. I love teaching God’s Word, and I’ve been speaking just about every Sunday somewhere. Most notably, I was invited to do several weeks for three great churches here in the Phoenix area. At Desert View Bible Church, way up in north Phoenix, I did a month-long teaching series on “God’s Outrageous Plan in the Cross of Christ.” Their pastor and my friend, Sandy Mason, asked me to cover for him for a good portion of his sabbatical.

I spoke at City of Grace this summer, then three weeks at LifePoint in San Tan where David Hinman is senior pastor. Our church plant about six years ago, they had over 1200 for Easter this year and are nearing completion of their new worship center.

Last Sunday (August 1) I finished three weeks at Vineyard Church North Phoenix, where Brian Anderson is senior pastor. My teaching series: “God’s Crazy, Amazing Plan for You.” The response was amazing! Vineyard North Phoenix just dedicated an incredible 2200 seat worship center. You can listen to the series on their website: http://vineyardnorthphoenix.com/lessons/ The teaching is also available on video on their site.

Ahead of me this weekend (August 7-8) I am speaking at Heights Church in Prescott. This has to be one of the most amazing churches in Arizona. The Senior Pastor there, Lee Wiggins, took on a small (100 or so people) traditional church thirteen years ago, and they now have over 4000 in attendance on the weekend, in a city of 35,000. That’s one in every ten people in Prescott!

This fall I have the special privilege of speaking on the opening night of Pinnacle Forum’s National Conference (www.pinnacleforum.com).

Other than preaching, I am wonderfully busy building relationship bridges and collaborative efforts among pastors, community and government leaders, and key people in the business community.

A growing number of individuals and churches are supporting us financially, and I could really use your help.  For information on how to support what I am doing:  donations and financial support.

Friday (August 6), I’m headed to Tucson with Al Ells and Scott Ridout, my key colleagues in reaching pastors around the state, getting them into relationships, and motivating them to work together to serve our cities and states. We’ve been asked to speak to a very large gathering of pastors attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at Pantano Christian Church, senior pastor Glen Elliot.

Summits. In this regard, we are planning another Valley Pastors Network Summit this fall (October), and our third annual Pastors of Influence Summit early in 2011.

Rapid Fire Lunches. Nearly sixty pastors across the Valley are now engaged in small groups which meet eight times a year (once a quarter with each other and once a quarter with pastors of the larger churches who facilitate conversation).

Governor Brewer’s ArizonaSERVES Task Force. I’ve been appointed to serve on the Governor’s new Task Force to engage churches in serving the needs of people in our state who are most affected by our budget crisis. My successor at Word of Grace, Terry Crist has been appointed Chairman of the Task Force.

One-in-Five Hunger Awareness Campaign (with Jerry Colangelo, Governor Brewer and other prominent leaders in the Valley).  Initiated by Dave Hannah, founder of Athletes in Action and now Exec Director of Lift Up America.  Dave had done these campaigns in a number of large metro areas, and he told us he had never seen the cooperative efforts he’s seen in Phoenix, particularly from key local churches.  http://endchildhungeraz.org

Regarding this campaign, I was asked to be the point person in bringing churches into the campaign, and the response was extraordinary. On Father’s Day, some twenty churches, including some of the most prominent in the Valley (Christ Church of the Valley, Scottsdale Bible, City of Grace, Central Christian) collected over 500,000 pounds of food!

Luis Palau Season of Service. This is a massive effort to bring together churches across the Valley.  Bret Edson of Market Place One is chairing this campaign, followed by a Festival of Faith (Spring 2011) with Luis Palau, at Tempe Town Lake.  http://www.arizonacityfest.com

Movement Day. Finally, in September, I will be attending and participating in a special by-invitation-only meeting in New York City to meet and interact with about 40 key Christian leaders from major cities across America (www.movementday.com).

MEMORIAL DAY, 2010

Just two years ago this weekend I was in Europe. Eight guys in two cars.

We were there to visit military history sites, like Flanders Fields in Belgium (World War I) and Normandy, France, site of the enormous D-Day invasion of Europe in 1944 (World War II).

A couple days ago I got an email from a good friend, John Hunt, one of the guys who was part of our war trip. He was trying to get us together to remember our trip–and to remember them, the men and many women who gave their lives for the freedom of Europe.

John wrote, “Although I was real close to serving in Viet Nam in the early 70s, I never appreciated Memorial Day until I saw all those military cemeteries in Belgium and France. I will never forget.”

As I write this, it’s Memorial Day weekend. A time to remember. A time to give thanks for those who have given their “last full measure of devotion.”

The Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776. We were colonies of the Crown. Thirteen, to be exact. And we wanted our freedom from Britain. We wanted to be our own country.

What many don’t realize is that the Declaration of Independence was more a Declaration of War with Great Britain, a war that lasted seven long years before the British forces under Lord Cornwallis finally surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.

So July 4^th only commemorates the Declaration of Independence. We weren’t really independent, though. We only declared it! It took a revolution–and the sacrifice of thousands of lives to get it.

Our Founding Fathers fully understood this when they wrote these words at the very end of their Declaration of Independence from Great Britain: We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

It was the price of freedom, and freedom is bloody costly.

And think about this: People never die for their own freedom. Death in war is always for somebody else. The dead give up their freedom—their very lives—for the freedom of others.

At Gettysburg, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln dedicated the military cemetery with these immortal words:

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

It’s the price of freedom.

When our son Matt joined the Navy, he literally had to sign his life away. On his enlistment papers he made this commitment:

I understand that the penalty for desertion

in time of war or national crisis

is death.

Matthew Aaron Kinnaman

It’s the price of freedom.

If you have served or are serving our country in the armed forces, thank you.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife.

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine!

Every gain divine?

Yes, Jesus paid the price for our eternal freedom, and it was blood costly.

We read in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Not infrequently I bump into people we haven’t seen for a while.  The moments are always special, but folks nearly always ask me the same questions:  How are you doing?  What are you doing?  Are you staying busy?

Recently, someone said to me, with delight and some relief,  ”Oh, I’m so glad you are still doing ministry.  I can’t tell you how much your teaching has meant to our family through the years.”

Well, yes, I am still preaching.  Nearly every weekend, somewhere.  I was in Brazil for two weeks in April, followed by a weekend in green, rainy Oregon, where I did a men’s retreat.  In May, for four weeks, I was the guest of Pastor Sandy Mason and Desert View Bible Church, a great congregation way up in the north Valley.  Sandy is taking a well-deserved sabbatical.

Other than preaching, though, I am wonderfully busy building relationship bridges and collaborative efforts among pastors, community and government leaders, and key people in the business community.  A growing number of individuals and churches are supporting us financially, and I could really use your help.  For information on how to support what I am doing: http://garykinnaman.com/donations and

http://garykinnaman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/financial-support-for-2009.pdf

Here’s a summary from the last 24 months:

February 2009:  First “annual” Summit for pastors of very large and influential churches. About 30 participated.  Summit was facilitated by Eric Swanson, national known author of Externally Focused Churches.  Three days, two nights in Sedona.  As far as we know, the first-ever gathering of this kind in any major metro area in North America.

September 2009: First “annual” Summit and Conversation for high capacity young leaders. Special facilitator, David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group and best-selling author of unChristian.

February 2010:  Second Annual Summit for senior pastors of influence. Twenty-five or so attended, many new faces, three days and two nights.  This year we invited the participation of BridgeBuilders (Hal and Cheryl Sacks) and Arizona Call to Prayer (Guy and Terry Chadwick) to pray with us and for us at the Summit.  We reserved special place for prayer, and a number of prayer leaders from the participating churches drove to Sedona to join in a day for prayer for the pastors and their churches.  Also, this year, the senior pastors of the largest churches in Tucson, Flagstaff and Prescott participated in the Summit.

Rapid Fire Lunches:  nearly sixty pastors across the Valley are now engaged in small groups which meet eight times a year (once a quarter with each other and once a quarter with pastors of the larger churches who facilitate conversation).

The launching of at least three more Pastors in Covenant prayer and support groups (in Chandler, Scottsdale, Tucson).

An invitation from Glenn Elliot, Senior Pastor at Pantano Christian Church, to organize and host a special pastors’ luncheon in August for leaders attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit (video), also at Pantano CC in August.  The purpose of the lunch is to inspire and mobilize pastors in Tucson to build relationship and collaborate for the good of their city.

A personal invitation from Catholic Bishop Olmstead, of the Phoenix Diocese, to host a luncheon and conversation (May 14) with a half-dozen or so senior pastors of evangelical megachurches in Maricopa County.  We had a remarkable meeting, talking about how we can work more closely together in shared values:  right to life, definition of family, and religious freedom.

For the last two years, I’ve been serving as Chairman of the Arizona Council on Faith and Community Initiatives. This is a carryover from the Governor’s Council, which I chaired in 2008.  We have sustained the Council, our purpose being.

Additionally, I have initiated or participated in meetings to more fully engage the faith community in:

1.    Foster care

2.    Education (representatives from the national Secretary of Education)

3.    Mortgage and debt scams (with Attorney General Terry Goddard)

4.    Faith-based and community partnership with municipalities (with Jon McHatton’s ministry “For Our City,” including Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, and the Arizona League of Cities)

5.    One-in-Five Hunger Awareness Campaign (with Jerry Colangelo, Governor Brewer and other prominent leaders in the Valley).  Initiated by Dave Hannah, founder of Athletes in Action and now Exec Director of Lift Up America.  Dave had done these campaigns in a number of large metro areas, and he told us he had never seen the cooperative efforts he’s seen in Phoenix, particularly from key local churches. http://endchildhungeraz.org

We will have dozens of churches, including 10 or more of the largest churches in Phoenix collecting food on Father’s Day.  http://www.ccvonline.com/Arena/default.aspx?page=12351&promotionId=1702

6.    Luis Palau Season of Service, a massive effort to bring churches across the Valley.  Bret Edson of MarketPlaceOne is chairing this campaign, followed by a Festival of Faith (Spring 2011) with Luis Palau, likely at Tempe Town Lake.  http://www.arizonacityfest.com

7.    Central corridor collaboration, launched as a result of a Christian Community Development Association (John Perkins) conference organized by Kit Danley of Neighborhood Ministries.  Dick Stafford, Director of Outreach for North Phoenix Baptist is aggressively networking churches in the Central corridor, which he is modeling after our “Pastors of Influence” Summits.

8.    A special meeting with Governor Brewer and about 20 key pastors from Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson–to offer our support, to pray for her, and to request that she issue a proclamation for prayer and fasting for our State in economic crisis, which she did. As result, the mayors of Tempe and Tucson has issues similar proclamations.

9. Another outcome of our meeting with the Governor was her executive order to launch www.arizonaSERVES.com a special effort to reach out to local churches to come alongside the most vulnerable people in our communities, particularly those hardest hit by massive state budget reductions.

10.  Governor’s Prayer Breakfast (April 22), Planning Team

11.  A special May 1 meeting at Community Church of Joy with John McCain and key pastors from across the Valley.  Congressman Trent Franks asked me to assist with invitations.  About 20 leaders participated.

12.  May 12 I was part of a diverse delegation of six prominent faith leaders.  In a single day in Washington DC, we met with the staff of Senators Schumer and Kyle, with the Department of Justice, with White House staff, and personally with Senator John McCain, to appeal to our national leaders for sensible and comprehensive immigration reform.  We made national news:  http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/05/13/religious-leaders-press-mccain-on-immigration/#respond

Marilyn and I were in Southern California over the holidays. All our kids and grandkids were together at our son’s home in Ventura, a beach city.

One afternoon, a couple vans-ful of us rolled down to a local beach park. Ventura doesn’t have sandy stretches of ocean shore quite like Newport or Huntington, but it was a beach. Mostly, though, it was a park.

The grandkids squealed as they ran up and down the grassy hills, sailed down a long zip line into a pile of sand, and splashed in the wintery Pacific.

Brrrr. I’m such a wus, I didn’t even touch the water.

There were people out there surfing, and man, the waves were spectacular. Tiny surfers vanished under the curl, so the waves must have been cresting at ten to fifteen feet.

Listening to the ocean crash on the stone breakwater … watching gulls soaring and singing in the cloudless sky … staring at the perfectly crisp, distant blue-on-blue horizon … breathing deeply … smelling the salt air. It was a spiritual moment.

I felt like Jeremiah when he visited the potter’s house. Watched the wheel as the artisan’s muddy hands shaped and reshaped the clay. God was in the moment.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me. “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, o are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”

The surfers surfed and God spoke: Life and ministry are like surfing. You have learn how to do it, and you have to get out there in the water. But there’s nothing you can do to make the waves.

I thought about my life. About my years as a pastor of an amazing church. Looking back, I remember how hard I worked. How much energy so many people put into making our ministry what it was.

Yet sitting there at the ocean park in Ventura, California, watching the waves roll in, I was reminded again of how everything is in God’s hands. I felt like God was thanking me for my obedience, for my faithfulness through the years. I imagined the face of God. His eyes twinkled in a wry smile, because even though I’d be the first to tell you that he’s totally in control, I’ve often not actually lived that way.

When we’re caught in the moment of life’s challenges, so much seems to depend on me. On you. On what we do or don’t do. Yeah, you gotta learn how to surf. You gotta get into the chilly water, but if the ocean is as calm as frozen pond, there’s nothing you can do. You just ain’t gonna surf. It’s God who rules the wind and waves.

Through the years, I’ve taught so much about grace, about Jesus plus nothing, yet all the while stressing about so many things. I can so identify with Jesus’ frenzied friend Martha. I used to say: Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen, and some people wonder what happened. So I spent my life making things happen, believing I was making the wave, when all along I was just riding the will of God.

Now more than ever I see that everything I’ve done was God’s plan in God’s time. Proverbs 16:9 tells us, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

If only you and I could embrace this in every season, in every moment of life. Try this on a bad day, on any day: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:2-4).

Here’s another simple but utterly liberating command: “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Peter 3:14-15). In other words, invite Jesus into every moment, every thought, and the presence of God will keep you safe inside.

Ocean. Wind. Sky.

Near me and far away I hear, “Pa! Pa! Look at me, pa!” The cheerful voices of my grandchildren rescue me from my deep thoughts, but I can’t stop thinking as I watch them in their happy moment. How long will it take the cares of this life to enslave their carefree? How will each of them meet God and learn his ways? When will they experience not only the joy of a breezy day at a beach park, but the peace of God that passes all understanding?

When will you?

In December, I was honored to lead a meeting with the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, and about fifteen pastors of the largest churches in our state.

We let the Governor’s staff know that our gathering had three purposes:

• For the Governor to become acquainted with key evangelical pastors in  Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff and Prescott
• To give the Governor an opportunity to express her concerns about our State … and to ask her how we might be able mobilize our resources to help our communities in this time of grave economic crisis
• To spend time in prayer for the Governor and for our State … and to present a proposal for a proclamation of prayer for Arizona, which reads as follows:

Gratefully, the Governor issued our proclamation for prayer, word for word, declaring January 17 a day of prayer and fasting for Arizona. Hundreds of churches across our state participated.

The first week of January, at the request of the Governor’s staff, I arranged a meeting of key Christians leaders with Richard Bark, Governor Brewer’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and others, in order to develop next steps as a result of our meeting with the Governor in December.  The Governor’s office has identified five areas of need, where faith communities can partner with state agencies to address our extraordinary financial crisis.

Governor Brewer mentioned this effort briefly in her State of the State Address:

Budget cuts within state government have resulted in reduced or limited funding for services for our most vulnerable — the elderly, disabled and low-income residents. Therefore, I’m establishing Arizona Serves. With the assistance of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Arizona Serves will connect faith-based and non-profit organizations to help meet those needs.

www.azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/SOTS_011110_SOTS2010.pdf

In the middle of January, I arranged a meeting of key pastors with Dave Hannah and Jerry Colangelo to address the needs of hunger in our Valley.  We are engaging all the major food banks, media, major corporations, and churches across the Valley for an historic and on-going effort to make sure no one in Arizona goes hungry.  You will be hearing about this extraordinary effort in the next few months. See how  bad it is:  phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2010/02/01/daily13

In January, I was also in Oregon, speaking at Eugene Christian Fellowship, Eugene Bible College, and Portland Bible College.

Leadership and Ministry PERSPECTIVES

ONE CROWDED HOUR OF GLORY …

THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS AND THAT

BLATANT HYPOCRISY  AND DANCES WITH SMURFS …

This week, Marilyn and I watched the Miss America contest, the Grammys, and Kurt Warner’s retirement press conference.

People are interesting, and some people are more interesting than others.  It’s why we savor salacious stories of the rich and famous.  I mean, who doesn’t want to see photos of Tiger’s women?  Or his yacht?

thenextweb.com/shareables/files/2009/12/tiger-woods-yacht.jpgI

Celebrities have what we want: fame and fortune.  Well, maybe I don’t want to be totally like Tiger, but who couldn’t use a little more money?  Or a small houseboat on Lake Powell?  With HD TV.  And a couple jet skis.  And …

I had a dear friend (he passed away a couple years ago), David Perling, who liked to say:  “Some people want to be rich and famous.  I’ve never had any interest in being famous.”

Celebrities are terribly interesting and terribly annoying.  Some of them make me steam, especially when they use their influence to talk about things in life that really matter … when they don’t have a clue.

Like Lionel Richie at the Grammys.  He introduced a Michael Jackson special by talking about loving each other and saving the earth.  Yeah.  Lionel Richie talking about love.  Someone posted on the web, “The only thing iconic about Lionel Richie was when his ex-wife pulled him through his car window in his driveway and beat the stuffing out of him for cheating on her.”

Why can’t we all just get along?

Or how about this:  “I think I work a lot because it’s a blessing and someday I’ll no longer have to work and can devote myself to what we are all put on this Earth to do–and that’s to help people.”

Noble, eh?  Except this is Mark Wahlberg quoted in the New York Post.  Someday he won’t have to work?!  Someday he can help people?  Come on, man.  Like, for now, he’s just takin’ care of his family and makin’ ends meet.  Of course!  Wahlberg has to keep working because his net worth is estimated to be a mere $150 million.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Oscar for blatant hypocrisy …

…  AVATAR!

I saw the movie over the holidays.  I’m trying to talk Marilyn into seeing it, but she’s not fond of sci-fi.

Yes, want to see it again.  It’s amazing.  It’s a visual epic and the highest grossing film ever.  “Avatar” is a $300 million production with a $75 script and a thicket of spiritual and socio-political nonsense.  No, there is no earth goddess.  No, the ecosystem does not have a life of its own.  No, the American military is not a mob of murderous a-holes. No, life would not be better if we were just more like blue jungle people.  (Someone called the movie “Dances with Smurfs.”)

And YES … James Cameron believes every bit of this and wants you to believe it.

Most moviegoers never give a thought to the fact that every motion picture has a message about life and how to live it, and so many of the messages are so carefully crafted.  As much as I enjoyed the pure entertainment value of “Avatar,” especially annoying was the hypocrisy of using techno-wonder to communicate that we are really better off living a simple life.

Not noted by any film critic is that the “primitive” world according to James Cameron is far better than the “civilized world,” with one glaring exception:  sex.  Everything in Smurf world is beautiful, except their primitive notions of family and sexual purity.  The main characters consummate their relationship with no regard for the social values of the “primitive” community, and within a few short movie minutes, all the “primitive” people have fully accepted their sexual dalliance.

In striking contrast, a celebrity everyone loves, especially here in Phoenix, is Kurt Warner, who just retired as quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals football team.  He’s rich.  He’s famous.  And he’s as good a role model as it gets.  He gives God all the credit for his success.  He’s faithful to his wife and children.  He’s grateful to all the people who have influenced his life.  He’s a gentleman with the media.  And he’s fully committing the rest of his life to making a difference in the world.

Some of my readers know that Kurt Warner regularly attended our church, although we did not know them personally.  When Terry Crist became the new senior pastor at Word of Grace (now City of Grace), Kurt and his wife Brenda attended our special “passing of the mantle” service.  Afterwards, he and Brenda approached Marilyn and me.  “We want to thank you,” they told us, “for the time we attended here.  We want you to know how much we appreciated your ministry to our family.”

The name of Kurt’s charitable organization says it all:  First Things First.

Christmas, kindergarten love,

an amazing offering, meeting the

Gov, and all the things you don’t have

to do to go to heaven …       December 2009

It’s here!

The most beautiful time of the year.

Family gatherings. Kids home from school and grandkids home for the holidays. Roast turkey and spiral hams. Cookies from your neighbors, some to die for and others, well, not to risk your life for!

And stress.

We Americans are drowning in a sea of consumerism and self-indulgence, thinking wrongly that somehow we can create our own heaven on earth with happy times and lots of nice things. Doesn’t the holiday season leave everyone of us struggling to come up for air, gasping for meaning and hope?

For me, the holidays are a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s my favorite time of the year, a reminder of everything that could be and should be right. Giving instead of receiving. Families coming together instead of flying apart. Prayer instead of pain. Peace on earth and good will.

On the other hand, the Season is a metaphor, a symbol, of everything that’s wrong with the human soul, the madness of trying to find happiness and peace in parties and possessions. It’s the contrast between the jingling of Salvation Army silver bells in the mall and the road rage in the vast parking lot as you try to get away from the holidays.

Allow me to suggest a couple “golden rules” for you and your family for the holidays. First, do good works, that is, go out of your way to make life better for other people. It really is more blessed to give than to receive, and don’t just limit that to holiday presents!

Second, decide that you and your family will be more interested in knowing God, more interested in developing the spiritual side of your life, than you are about making sure all your celebrations and gift-giving are “just perfect.”

Third, invite God into the impossibilities of your life. Invite God to empower you with patience for other people and gracious endurance during the difficult moments and times of life. You can’t get out of every big and little trouble in life, but you can press through them with goodness and grace.

Fourth, be joyfully thankful. One of the best gifts you can give the ones you love is to be genuinely grateful for them, to tell them often you love them. Don’t discourage the people you love by trying to “fix” them, by expecting them to be something they aren’t, something you think they should be. Instead, affirm them for who they are!

Did you know that, mathematically, there’s less of a chance that two people will have the same DNA than there are atoms in the universe?! You’re special. Your loved ones are special!

Try doing these things just a few times, and the light of this Season will shine in you brighter than all the Christmas trees your world.!

Peace.

FAMILY NEWS

Everything’s good!  We will be over-dosing on our kids and grandkids during the Holidays.  All of us will be at our son David’s house for Christmas and New Years.

This is David’s son, Zack, building a Lego crane with “pa,” as I am affectionately known by the grandkids.  Is Zack cute?

A few weeks ago his k-garten teacher told his mom Jill that Zack was a little too sociable.  Like, he was hugging everybody in his class.  One morning, his teacher was watching him stare across the table at a little red-haired girl deeply absorbed in her coloring project.  When she realized Zach was studying her face, she looked up.  Smiled.  And Zack said, “I l-o-v-e you.”

MINISTRY UPDATE

This month I was honored to lead a meeting with the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, and about fifteen pastors of the largest churches in our state.  With our State in a historic crisis (some have even proposed putting our Capitol up for sale … www.csmonitor.com/Money/2009/0908/to-cut-deficit-arizona-may-sell-its-capitol)  meetings with the Governor have been nearly impossible to arrange. Thanks, though, to Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy, who has a lot of insider contacts, for helping us arrange a time slot in the Governor’s schedule.

We let the Governor’s staff know that our gathering had three purposes:

• For the Governor to become acquainted with key evangelical pastors in  Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff and Prescott
• To give the Governor an opportunity to express her concerns about our State … and to ask her how we might be able mobilize our resources to help our communities in this time of grave economic crisis
• To spend time in prayer for the Governor and for our State … and to present a proposal for a proclamation of prayer for Arizona, which reads as follows:

DAY OF PRAYER FOR ARIZONA’S ECONOMY AND STATE BUDGET

WHEREAS, throughout our national history, government leaders, including Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Governors and Congress, have called for a day of prayer to humbly ask God for His forgiveness, blessings and guidance during times of difficulty; and

WHEREAS, the unique motto of the State of Arizona, Ditat Deus – “God Enriches” – acknowledges the blessings of God; and

WHEREAS, Arizona is suffering from the severe effects of a prolonged national and state economic recession that threatens the livelihood of many of our citizens and reduces the quality of life for all citizens; and

WHEREAS, this recession has dramatically affected the State of Arizona from receiving the necessary tax revenues to achieve many of the State budget objectives and to provide all of the needed services for the citizens of Arizona; and

WHEREAS, throughout this day of prayer, we ask for God’s favor, blessing, wisdom and guidance to rest upon our state government, businesses and our citizens, that God would guide our state government to resolve the state’s budget deficit, renew the vitality of our state’s economy and that God would aid and empower the businesses in our state;

NOW, THEREFORE, we do hereby proclaim the Sunday immediately prior to the first day of the 2nd regular session of the 49th Legislature – January 10, 2010 – as a DAY OF PRAYER FOR ARIZONA’S ECONOMY AND STATE BUDGET

and encourage all Arizonans to pray for God’s blessings on our State and our Nation.

Our meeting was extraordinary.  The Governor was deeply appreciative of our spiritual support, and we are praying that she will issue this proclamation and call for a this special day of prayer in 2010.

Also, as a result of this meeting, I’ve been asked to meet with the Governor’s Chief of Staff for Policy to develop an ongoing relationship with her office to identify key needs in our state to present to local churches as opportunities to make a difference in our communities.

BIBLE STUDY

My life message is Jesus plus nothing,” that is, our relationship with God is based on Jesus plus nothing, which changes everything.  In my e-news next month, I will begin a regular Bible study feature, for which I’ve identified several books of the Bible I’d like to help you understand.  It’s been said that “all roads lead to Rome,” and I’d like to suggest that all the road of Bible interpretation lead to Romans–and its companion book Galatians.  In both, Paul explains salvation and the Christian faith.  Look for the first study in January.

(Yeah, last month I said it would be in here for December … but … )

Leadership and Ministry PERSPECTIVES

Having so much when others have so little …

Just before Thanksgiving, I participated in a CCDA Institute sponsored by Kit Daniel’s Neighborhood Ministries in downtown Phoenix (www.neighborhoodministries.org).  CCDA?  What’s that?!  Christian Community Development Association (www.ccda.org).  Launched some years ago by John Perkins, the mission of CCDA is simple:  to inspire, train, and connect Christians who seek to bear witness to the Kingdom of God by reclaiming and restoring under-resourced communities.

Most of you know that my heart has been into this kind of thing for years, and now, in this season of my life, more than ever I feel I am to be a catalyst for bringing pastors and other key leaders into collaborative relationships to make a difference in our communities.  Now more than ever, in a time of spiraling economic problems and plummeting resources, God’s people must stand in the gap.

According to Linda Morris, who spoke at the CCDA event, nearly one million people in Arizona need food stamps daily, and 40% of all homeless in Arizona this last year are first-timers.  Ok, they’re just numbers, right?  Did you know that 42% of kids 18 and younger in Arizona are “food  insecure.”

Linda, whose church is active in their neighborhood, said, “We see no difference between people who live around the church and the people who go into our church.  We have a building,” she said, “but we love to do ministry outside the building.”  Jesus did, too!  He spent way more time in the hood than in the House of God, and he didn’t limit his ministry to spiritual needs.  Indeed, God became flesh and lived among us.

Deuteronomy 15:11 is a gut punch to well-fed stomachs:

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

A church offering to die for …

A good friend of mine, Scott Jones, pastor at New Life Church in Peoria, Arizona (www.nlcc.org), recently received a huge offering for those who are less fortunate.   He challenged the people in his church (a weekend attendance of about 1000) to “choose to give up what you really don’t need so that others can have what they can’t live without.”  Like food and water.  “Whatever you decide not to buy,” he instructed them, “take that money, the money you would have spent, and set it aside.”

After just a few weeks of a lot of families making daily sacrifices, when they received this special love offering, the people of New Life gave $28,000!  The money is being used to provide clean drinking water through wells and other alternative water sources for villages in Mexico.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS AND THAT

And here’s something else to pray about:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_go_co/us_health_overhaul_deal

Yeah.  It’s me.  In cyberspace.  You have no idea how much I’ve suffered to get this into your computer.  I think only water boarding is worse than learning new technology.

Thanks to Jared Dunn from City of Grace, who is sitting next to me holding my hand.  (No, not Iiterally. It’s just an expression.)

Yes, I will be sending out e-news like about once a month, and … don’t pass out … Jared is interfacing my website with FaceBook and my Blackberry and … egads … Twitter.  Not that many of you would care about when I’m sitting on my front porch smoking a cigar, but some of you might.  And my plan is to tweet about God moments, not just nothing.

It’s November.  Both Marilyn and I are celebrating milestone birthdays this year: 60.  Mine was in April.  Marilyn’s is this month.  The 21st.  We’re having a huge family gathering here, but Marilyn and I are doing something special together.  We’re heading off to California for a few to days to pray.  We’ll be going to Prince of Peace Benedictine Abby in Oceanside.  No, we’re not thinking about become Catholic, but as many of you know, I’ve been into prayer retreat for years.  Prince of Peace is a wonderful place to do that:  http://princeofpeaceabbey.blogspot.com/

We are well.  Our kids and grandkids are doing very well.  More about them in FAMILY NEWS.

What am I doing?  More about that in MINISTRY UPDATE.

And then there are my thoughts about this and that:  spiritual life issues, insights from the Bible, and what I’m feeling about family, work, and current events.  See THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS AND THAT.

I’m also thinking about writing a monthly Bible study.  Yeah, that will be under BIBLE STUDY.

I appreciate all of you who have given me your email through my website.  Some of you … well … I just had you in my computer contacts, and I exported them into Constant Contact, the online service handling these e-news letters.

FAMILY NEWS

Yep, Marilyn and I have finally come face to face with our 60th b-days.  Marilyn is, well, excited.  We are going to party for a week or so.  Me?  I don’t like the idea.  A pastor friend of mine, Tom Shrader, who is also turning 60, said he had calculated that, if birthdays are like a round of golf, and you actually live to be 80, 60 is like you’re teeing off at the 15th hole.

For sure, the older you get, the more you value every moment of every day.  And the less you want to waste your time.  When you’re younger, you feel more … well … immortal, that life will last forever, and even though you know it doesn’t, it’s still like you have so much time ahead of you that wasting a day here and there doesn’t really matter.

James (in the Bible) says it well:  Life is vapor.  What matters, to add Solomon’s thought, is to fear God and keep his commandments.

Our kids are doing great … and are not nearly as aware of the passing of life.  Our son David and wife Jill live in Ventura, have three kids.  David is the President of the Barna Group, a high- profile, national polling and research organization in Ventura, California.  See www.barna.org.

Our daughter Shari, if you had not hear, had her fourth child in June.  She and her husband Jeff live in Colorado Springs, where she teaches English as a second language.  Jeff teaches high school science and junior college philosophy and ethics.

Our youngest son Matt is a full time musician in the Navy band in San Diego.

MINISTRY UPDATE

It’s been nearly two years since I stepped aside as Senior Pastor at Word of Grace.  I’ve stayed very busy in ministry … and I am not “retired”!  I hear that term a lot, but I’ve never used it personally.  Ministry is a vocation … a calling … not a job, and the calling is for a lifetime.  We all slow down as get older, but I my life is rich with experience in serving God and people, and I’m still doing that!

I can’t begin to summarize the last 24 months in a couple paragraphs, but I’d like to highlight a couple things.

I’ve preached nearly every week somewhere over the last couple years, and I’m so pleased that I continue to see people make commitments to Christ.

Some of my unique opportunities included preaching for the anniversary service at First Institutional Baptist Church in downtown Phoenix, where Dr. Warren Stewart has served as Senior Pastor for 32 years!  He told his congregation that if we can have a Black man in the White House, they could have a white man speak at their anniversary service!

My good friend and colleague Hector Torres and I were keynote speakers for an amazing gathering of leaders in Bogata, Colombia.  Those in attendance were a pastor a church of 40,000+ and a born-again gentleman who has a very good chance of becoming the next president of Colombia.

I was the keynote speaker for the PastorServe annual celebration banquet.  Founder and President, Jimmy Dodd has become a dear friend.  His ministry reaches out across the country to literally hundreds of pastors in distress.  Visit www.pastorservice.org.

Much of this year I served as an interim pastor at North Hills Church in NW Phoenix.  Between pastors–and in trouble, they asked me to help them out, to bring stability and focus while they searched for a new pastor, which they found.  Serving there could not have been a more positive experience for me–and for them.  They were so appreciative.  See www.nhcog.net.

This year I’ve spearheaded two significant relationship and collaboration retreats with pastors of influence in the Phoenix area.  You can read about “my dream for Arizona” on my website.  Very simply, we are in the middle of a movement to bring key leaders together here in Phoenix that is unprecedented in any other major metro area in the country.

Last year, I served as Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Faith and Community Initiatives.  When Janet Napolitano left for Washington to serve on the President’s Cabinet, our Council came to an end …  BUT … at the urging of key leaders on the Council (the full membership is listed on my website), I was asked to continue to lead and reshape the Council.  DES is staffing our work, and just two weeks ago, Governor Brewer’s office called and asked to re-engage with us!

BIBLE STUDY

My life message is “Jesus plus nothing,” that is, our relationship with God is based on Jesus plus nothing, which changes everything.  In my e-news next month, I will begin a regular Bible study feature, for which I’ve identified several books of the Bible I’d like to help you understand.  It’s been said that “all roads lead to Rome,” and I’d like to suggest that all the road of Bible interpretation lead to Romans–and its companion book Galatians.  In both, Paul explains salvation and the Christian faith.  Look for the first study in December.

LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVES

In future e-news, likely to begin in December, I will share my perspectives on leadership, including thoughts on things like team-building, public speaking, mission and community transformation, prayer, personal character, the power of authenticity and other themes.  Let me know if you’d like me to address something.

No.  This is not photo-shopped.  I’m really holding a full grown leopard.  In Indonesia.  Where some lawyer from the zoo there hasn’t figured out that somebody might get eaten.