A Little Motivation

The girls got some new Wii games for Christmas and late Monday night we were up trying them out. I'd already gotten ready for bed so I was wearing my pajama pants and no shirt. It was my turn and I was really getting into the game when the girls started giggling about something. I turned and asked "What's so funny?" but they both just kept giggling. Halle then whispered something to Lilly and they both burst out laughing. By now it was obvious that they were laughing at me but I didn't know why. So I paused the game and stared at them until finally Lilly, barely containing her laughter, walked over and put an hand on my shoulder and tilted her head to one side. "Um Daddy," she said with mock concern in her voice, "we need to tell you something . . . you're getting fat." And they both burst out laughing again.

So it begins. Nothing like a little 9 yr old honesty to get me motivated for New Year's. The resolutions begin tomorrow.

Self-Worth

Reading a book titled The Most Loving Place in Town and ran across this tidbit in the chapter titled "Finding Self-Worth."

...if there was a formula for self-worth Satan would love you to buy into, it's that your self-worth is the sum total of your performance and the opinion of others.

Peace on Earth

I love American history and Christmas carols (OK, don't tell anyone about that last one). But I especially love it when the two cross paths. I like to know the story behind the lyrics because it adds meaning and perspective. Thus, a posting about a carol I've mostly ignored...until I read the history.

One of America's best known poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), composed the words to "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" on December 25th, 1864. The carol was originally a poem, "Christmas Bells," containing seven stanzas. Two stanzas were omitted, which contained references to the American Civil War, thus giving us the carol in its present form. The poem gave birth to the carol...and the remaining five stanzas were slightly rearranged in 1872 by John Baptiste Calkin (1827-1905), who also gave us the memorable tune. When Longfellow penned the words to his poem, America was still months away from Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865; and, his poem reflected the prior years of the war's despair, while ending with a confident hope of triumphant peace. As with any composition that touches the heart of the hearer, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" flowed from the experience of Longfellow--involving the tragic death of his wife Fanny and the crippling injury of his son Charles from war wounds. He speaks in verse two of the darkness and hopelessness he felt with the loss of family and the pain and anguish of war. Yet "the bells" remind him that there is hope even in the midst of a storm.




Hope you have a great Christmas!

Conflict Managment

This fall I attended the Zoe Conference in Nashville and participated in the breakout sessions taught by Steve Joiner. He's the Associate Director of Lipscomb University's Institute of Conflict Management. He shared a statistic with us that's been on my mind ever since. I can't remember where it came from (either surveys or interviews) but somehow they determined that 50% of a minister's time is spent in conflict management.

Wow! At the time that number sounded high. I couldn't believe that half of my time was spent dealing with conflict?! But after a few months of pondering, I think the statistic is fairly accurate (if not a little low). I would guess that other ministers who read this blog could concur. It's amazing to me how much conflict we deal with in a typical work-week. It's even more amazing that few, if any, of us were ever formally trained in how to manage it. In grad school I had classes on how to exegete passages of Scripture and how to think critically about theological issues, but I don't remember a single course on how to manage conflict. Yet, many weeks I spend much more time with conflict than I do with exegesis and theology.

Some of its major, some minor. Some is directed at me, some is directed at family or another member of the church. Some is theologically driven, some is emotionally driven. Some is serious in nature and some is downright petty. Regardless, most of it lands on my door-step. They either want advice, answers or ask "what are you doing to do about this?" To which I often want to reply, "what are you going to do about this?" It seems that too often we want our ministers to fix things for us. That's why whenever someone in the church is struggling or caught in a sin we ask the minister to call them, yet we never think to call them ourselves. But I'm getting off point here.

The point is I deal with conflict all the time. All ministers do. I guess its to be expected with the nature of the job and number of people we come in contact with. But most of us aren't very good at it (myself included). We feel unprepared to deal with much of the conflict that comes our way during the week. Consequently, it wears us out, stresses us out and sometimes makes it difficult to maintain the "heart of a pastor."

I'm not really sure why I'm sharing all this with you or even how to end this article. I guess the conclusion would be that ministers need to invest more time and training into learning how to properly deal with conflict. The spiritual health of our congregations, and our own lives, depend on it. Another conclusion might be that people need to understand that not all conflicts need to go to the minister. Sometimes you need to deal with it on your own and sometimes you just need to drop it.

Disclaimer #1: If you spoke to me this week about conflict (and there's a good chance that at least one of you have), this article is not about you.

Disclaimer #2: Don't be conflicted about talking with me about conflict. I'll still listen.

Proud Daddy

Every Daddy has to brag a little now and then. This is my 5 year old performing in our church's musical.

Are Christmas Trees Evil?

I've had a couple of people ask me this question so I figured I'd address it here. The notion comes from a passage in Jeremiah 10:2-4 which reads...

Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.

Apparently this passage has a few folks worried about the Christmas tree in their living room and some even refusing to put one up for fear of violating the Scriptures. To help discerning Christians address this crisis I've developed a little test...

1. Are you fairly unconcerned with the historic context of Jeremiah 10?
2. Are you currently following all of the other directives from the OT prophets?
3. Do you rountinely worship your tree or bow down to it as an idol?
4. Do you ever find yourself praying to your tree or otherwise treating it as a god?

If you answer "Yes" to any of the above questions then please remove your Christmas tree. Otherwise, your tree is probably less of a problem than your TV, your car or any of the expensive presents underneath it. I hope this helps.

BHAGs

In Jim Collin's book Good to Great he talks about the importance of having a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). His application is to business but it obviously applies to numerous other organizations, including churches. Often we're just too short-sighted when it comes to goal-setting. We much prefer small and easy to big and audacious.

This Thursday I heard an example of a BHAG at the Noon Rotary Club. In 1984, Rotary International made it their goal to eradicate Polio from the world. Think about that one for a minute. Polio is a devastating disease that has affected millions of children. Before 1954 it was one of the most feared diseases in America and caused near panic, but shortly after the Salk vaccine it was eradicated in the United States. Yet, in 1984 it was still present if over 80 countries world-wide and there were a reported 1,000 cases per day. One BHAG and 24 years later there are only 1,500 cases per year and polio has been eliminated in all but four countries (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Pakistan). The Rotary has contributed over 630 million dollars to the goal and have literally vaccinated billions of children around the world. That's pretty remarkable.

How did they do it? A lot of people, doing a little at a time, to accomplish a common goal. For example, they recently asked their members to help finish the fight against polio by contributing just $20 dollars. If all 1.2 million members give it will equal $24 million! A little turns into a lot. What if the church did that? What BHAGs could we accomplish world-wide if the church universal rallied around a common goal? Eliminate hunger? End poverty? Provide clean drinking water for every person? Provide adequate health-care for every child? Eradicate a disease? It's sounds idealistic and unachievable, but just think of the resources of the global church in terms of people and finances. If a lot did a little something big could happen.

Hunting Show

Best I can figure I spent about 22 hours in the woods last week. I have nothing to show for it except some bags under the eyes. I did pass up a few smaller bucks and got to spend time with some great friends. I even convinced Lilly to join me for one of the afternoon hunts. She just got a new camera for her birthday so we decided to do our own hunting show. It's still a work in progress but here's the opening segment...