This Easter that exact thing happened to me. I’m pretty involved in the church community. I wasn’t always that way. I used to not go to church at all. When I did it wasn’t for big events like Easter, because I was a put-in-the-minimum kind of guy. That has all changed now that I am a semi-responsible adult with children of my own. Now I’m heavily involved in the church -- and I mean heavily.
For a pastor, this is one of the busiest weeks of the year. Easter prep is in full swing, and we’ve thrown in some additional worship opportunities, so the bottom line is: I get to create a lot of content this week. Don’t worry, I love doing it, but sometimes when I sit down to write something else pops out of my head. This is one of those times.
The above question represents one of my favorite questions of all time. I first heard it in a horrible movie (the movie was so bad I’m not going to share the title), and since then I’ve used it hundreds of times.
Last week I attended a conference at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church called Change the World. It was an incredible week. I also attended the pre-conference church planting conference called Rooted. Both of them were Spirit filled, and the speakers were dropping truth bombs about following God’s call.
I don’t know if you noticed or not, but my blog has been inconsistent. In February I only blogged twice. That never happens to me. Since starting this blog over three years ago I’ve only missed blogging once a week a couple of times.
My wife and I recently returned from an anniversary trip to southern California. It. Was. Amazing. Refreshing in so many ways, beauty in more places than I can count, and I did it all with my best friend.
It usually happens at weddings when the loud and exuberant DJ walks over to the longest married couple in the room and asks the question: What does it take to stay married for as long as you two have? The older man will pause, look around the room and say, “Two words: Yes, dear.” Of course his comedic timing is perfect, and the room erupts with laughter.
Most Monday mornings I sit down in the staff meeting and I ask the team to review the Sunday-morning experience. Let’s be honest, we are a church, and what we do on Sunday is important. We need to know how things went. In our most recent review, I asked the team how they thought the message went, and one of our team members looked at me and said, “Tony, it was the most political message I’ve ever heard you preach.”
Have you seen the news lately? People are mad. People are angry. Trust me; I get it, I can understand why people are so upset, scared, and riddled with uncertainty. We live in different times, and the world feels different. In my lifetime I can’t recall a more divisive feeling in our country.
Several years ago a pastor friend introduced me to a practice of starting off the year with a Daniel Fast. In the book of Daniel, Daniel abstained from the king’s table so that he could hear the voice of God. Many years later it is a fairly common practice to do the same.