Friday, January 21, 2011

Honesty Is Still the Best Policy

How honest should we adoms be in dealing with people? People ask me how things are going in the association. Pastoral candidates ask me how things are in a particular church that has made contact with them. Church members ask what they should do about an issue in their church, especially when it relates to the pastor. Pastors ask my opinion on dealing with certain church members. I am asked by search committees how much they should tell a candidate about the issues in their church. Lay leaders ask me what they should do about church issues while seeking a new pastor. How honest should we be?

The Apostle Paul said we should speak the truth in love. Sounds like good advice. You also have to be willing to accept the consequences when you speak the truth even if it is in love. Some people just don't want to hear the truth, especially when it is directed at them. Making the truth palatable can be a difficult thing to do. Must that be a part of our calling as doms, to make the truth easy to swallow?

Diplomacy is always a good thing, but it should never be chosen over sacrificing the truth. Harmony and peaceful relationships should always be goals, but not at the loss of the integrity of the relationship or calling.

Hiding the truth is one thing. Letting individuals know that there are questions that need to be asked and answers received is another way of handling difficult situations and much more preferrable. Perhaps we as doms should not be the answer folks for everyone. Neither should we be the ones who set someone or some church up for a disastrous ambush.

What we say when asked blunt questions should be decided by the context and how well we know the individual will handle the truth or what he or she will do with it. We should not, however, sacrifice our integrity for the sake of immediate peace or personal emotional safety.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Stuttering Clock

A clock on my desk has a battery that is almost dead. The second hand struggles to keep moving, ticking off about two or three seconds and then hesitating in some form of seizure for a minute or so. Then it gallantly sets forth to measure the passing of two or three more seconds before again coming to a trembling stop.

Sometimes ministry from the desk of an associational missionary seems like that clock. You move ahead on a project that is as importnat to you as the passing of time itself (which is actually rather important considering we have a finite amount of it in this earthly life). Then you find that others who are partners with you in the project have forgotten their roles, didn't fulfill their roles, passed their roles on to someone else, or simply took the first roadblock they hit as a sign from God that they shouldn't do anything else. The second hand has come to a screeching halt and just sits there trembling while making these sounds that indicate something ought to be happening, but obviously is not.

Committee life is not fun. Being a dictator with God-like powers seems far more interesting, and productive. Tomorrow I have to bring a new battery with me to the office and replace the committee member, I mean the old battery, with a new one. Unfortunatley it is harder to do that with people. People skills are as critical for a DoM as they are with any pastor.

Total surrender to the Holy Spirit allows the growth of its fruit (Gal. 5:22-23). Openness to the leadership of the Holy Spirit allows for the influx of wisdom from above (James 3:17). Both are essential for a rewarding ministry as an associational director of missions.

May we use our time well in pursuing the things of the Spirit so that our work with mere mortals might have a more productive end. Frustration is real, but it should never kill the clock.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A green Christian just recognizes who the Boss is

I have heard it called an African proverb, a First Nations proverb, or something dreamed up in the last fifty years. Whatever, I still like it.

"We have not inherited the earth from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children."

These simple statements help me stay focused that I am a dweller in the present that should keep my eyes on the future since that is where I will be living if I do not die today and where my children will be living as long as they do. Therefore the condition of the world in which we will all be living tomorrow should be of some concern to me. Worrying about the past and dwelling on the blunders it contains are a waste of time except to teach me how to live in the present and the future.

Psalm 24:1 is enough of a foundation for me to understand that where I am living is not mine. It belongs to Someone else and I am only a steward. That means I will probably be held accountable for what I do to this home of mine someday. I would like to say that I did my best to take good care of the place and tried to set the right example for those who would follow.

You cannot escape the original command that God gave the first man and woman. "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it." I think that means bring it under your control because it isn't yet. So how do we as Christians respect the Owner of creation even while we are subduing it? I don't think Adam had quite the paradise we would like to think, but he was supposed to remember that he was not the owner, only the caretaker.

Going green for a Christian in the day to day stuff ought to be easy. Suggestions include:
1. Eat only what you need.
2. Have only the clothes you need.
3. Have a domicile only as big as you need.
4. Use only the utilities you need.
5. Drive a vehicle only as big as you need.
6. Collect only what you need.
7. Give away all you can.
8. Compost all you can.
9. Treat your body well. It's the only one you'll have on earth.
10. Treat the earth well. It's the only one your body will have on which to dwell.

How many pages could we draw up of suggestions that would include reusable versus throwaway, biodegradable versus never-going-away, emphasizing renewable versus non renewable? A lot at least!

We as Christians should not need a long list of commansds or even suggestions. Churches should have the same mindset. The earth is the Lord's. Respect the Owner. Respect his property. Makes sense to me.