Indeed

I have a bit of a Mike Breen man-crush at the moment. I've begun to read Building a Discipling Culture (Kindle Version) and read this very early on:

The problem is that most of us have been educated and trained to build, serve and lead the organization of the church. Most of us have actually never been trained to make disciples. Seminary degrees, church classes and training seminars teach us to grow our volunteer base, form system and organizational structures or preach sermons on Sunday mornings and assimilate newcomers from the Sunday service. As we look around as Christendom is crumbling and the landscape of the church is forever changed, a stark revelation emerges: Most of us have been trained and educated for a world that no longer exists.

However, the call to make disciples still remains. It never wavers and never changes.

Breen, Mike (2011-08-16). Building a Discipling Culture (Kindle Locations 94-99). 3DM. Kindle Edition.

(Emphasis mine) I bear the marks of that kind of education as I try to lead and make disciples within the church I lead and the community in which I live. Seminary was great but one thing I've noticed about post-seminary life (I graduated 9 years ago) is that putting all the pieces together is up to me and there were several classes that I took that were out of date as soon as class was over (not to mention dreadful for an introvert like me. Walk up to three random strangers to talk to them about Jesus for an evangelism class? Ugh).

Churches and denominations shouldn't require a Master of Divinity anymore. If they're going to require a masters level education at all it ought to be more like a Master of Missiology. How else are we going to make disciples in an ever-changing world?

Glorious Relief

I've always scored a very strong "I" in the Meyers-Briggs Inventory which means I am an introvert. My wife has never been able to understand why I was never embarrassed to eat alone in a restaurant or go to the movies by myself. Most of the time, I prefer to read a book over going out with other people. When I attended the Acts 29 Bootcamp in Dallas last March, Matt Chandler directed us to pray together in groups of 3 or 4. I immediately dropped my head in prayer and hoped no one would ask me to join them. When I attended our conference's Connected in Christ program for a total of four weeks over two years, I always went to my room as soon as evening worship was over rather than hanging out with the rest of the group.

I've been called anti-social but, thankfully, Susan Cain has pointed out that I'm "differently social" and so are all the other introverts in the world and the church. I just picked up Cain's book Quiet and am looking forward to reading the rest of it.

If you're interested in reading a little bit more about introverts, check out this post by Alastair Roberts. He is a very sharp thinker and shares a bit about his own life of introversion as well.

I for one look forward to one day meeting Alastair so that we can shake hands and then read quietly together.

What Would Help My Marriage?

Last week was a crazy one in terms of marriage and sex talk by famous pastors. Ed Stetzer did his usual excellent analysis on the information that came out and you can read that here. (I love Ed. He's one of those rare helpful people who wants to help churches of just about any denomination get better at the Great Commission - including Methodists like me. Thank you, Ed, for your kingdom focus!) I don't want to comment on everything in the post, just something that stuck out to me about pastor Ed Young's upcoming bed-in.

The bed-in is supposed to draw attention to Ed and his wife Lisa's new book Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse. I've not read the book yet. I might not because, believe it or not, I feel a little over-sexed by the culture both inside and outside the church. My wife and I enjoy each other and feel practically no inhibition in our bedroom. I'd say that some of the safest and carefree times of our relationship together are when we, to borrow a phrase from Tommy Nelson's Song of Solomon series, renew our marriage covenant. When I look at our relationship and think about deepening our intimacy, sex isn't where we need the most work.

Are we the odd couple within American Christian churches?

What would really deepen our intimacy with one another?

I know the answer to that and I want to trot this thought out there for people who might be thinking, "You know, sex really isn't our problem." Let me entice you to read a blog post that I'm about to link by providing a snippet from a comment left at that particular blog: "I will say that few things make me feel more loved and cared for by my husband than when he___". Now, how would you fill in that blank? How would your spouse fill in that blank? As I judge a book by its cover, Pastor Ed might tell you that sex is the key. While that is important to a marriage, what might turn out to be the most underrated key to lasting intimacy is prayer. (Pastors you should definitely read this post by Brian Croft about praying with your spouse. It's where I took the comment I mentioned).

You want to try something that will increase your vulnerability? Want to really lay yourself bare and naked before the one to whom you have pledged to love and serve "till death do us part"? Want to increase intimacy and, hey, maybe even improve your sex life because you have an even greater connection and commitment to one another? Pray together.

Sure, you expect me to say that. I'm a pastor. I think you should pray. I'm also a gigantic hypocrite because that is one of the biggest weaknesses in my own marriage and I've made a commitment to destroy that weakness. Since that barrier to intimacy is on my mind, sure, I'm thinking a lot about how prayer can contribute to intimacy with my wife. Maybe it would help you, too.

Asbury Seedbed

Asbury Theological Seminary (my alma mater) has just introduced a new resource called Seedbed. Check out this initial post which are two videos, one from J.D. Walt and the other from President Timothy Tennent.

I'm really looking forward to the future of Seedbed.

The Preacher's Danger

C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

I am thinking of unfortunate scholars in foreign universities who cannot 'hold down their jobs' unless they repeatedly publish articles each of which must say, or seem to say, something new about some literary work; or of overworked reviewers, getting through novel after novel as quickly as they can, like a schoolboy doing his 'prep'. For such people reading often becomes mere work. The text before them comes to exist not in its own right but simply as raw material; clay out of which they can complete their tale of bricks.

This is what Bible reading has become for many of us and it is a soul killer. What does it profit a preacher to mine a bunch of alliterated sermon ideas yet forfeit the Word of life waiting for us if we would only linger?

Sermon and Preaching Links

Here are some links I've gathered over the last few months about preaching and sermon preparation/development. If you have any others feel free to leave a comment so I can add them to my pinboard.

I'll Pray for You

The title of this post is probably one of the biggest lies told in the church. You're talking with someone who is in the middle of a rough season. She mentions that her grandson is having surgery on Wednesday. You say, "I'll pray for him." Wednesday comes and goes, you see this woman in the grocery store on Friday and think, "Oh no! I said I'd pray and I didn't! Jesus, please let this prayer for her grandson be retroactive. Amen!"

If you're wondering how I was able to take a peek into your past and see accurately it's because I've done it, too. I've had that sinking feeling of knowing I promised to pray but forgot to. I've even developed a habit of not even offering to pray in the future because I know I won't remember to pray even if I write it down.

Until now. Pastoral care, meet iOS 5.

I'm a shameless Apple shill. No doubt. I like things that have a low frustration factor and I can count my frustrating Apple moments on one hand.

But this isn't really about Apple. It's about how easy it is to set a reminder to pray for someone using iOS 5 with Reminders. There's probably always been some workaround to this, but I find Reminders incredibly easy. For instance, I promised to pray for some folks Saturday morning when I'll be out of town. In the past, I'd have a 98% chance of forgetting. This time, however, I set a Reminder for Saturday morning at 10AM.



Boom! Now I know I'll remember to pray.

For Future Reference

The Gospel Coalition is running a 5-part series on depression in the ministry. The first two are available and I'm going to link them here as well as the next three when they come out.

This is a very real issue and many times we pastors do not seek out the kind of confiding, accountable relationships that would be of great benefit to us for one reason or another. I'm convinced that many pastors slide into depression because we internalize so much and do not share it with anyone for one reason or another.

Part 1 by Paul Tripp (who looks like the older, Christian version of Ron Swanson)

Part 2 by Garrett Higbee

Part 3 by Steve Viars

Annual Conference After Show

Thanks to Andy Ihnatko (yes, I spelled his last name from memory, thank you very much) from MacBreak Weekly, I finally have an iOS blogging client that doesn't make me want to injure myself or anyone else. His "pick of the week" on the show this week was an iPad app called Blogsy and it is fantastic. That takes me one step closer toward being able to abandon my computer for all but about 10% of my tasks (image & video editing, Skype, writing really long pieces, and desktop publishing).

Enough of the tech talk, though, for that is the subject of my other blog.

I returned last night from the Arkansas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. It was a long week. The United Methodist Church meets every four years at General Conference and there we make decisions concerning the polity and structure of the whole church. Ou next General Conference is in 2012 so we elected delegates at our Annual Conference this year who will go next year. The clergy and laity groups each elect 6 delegates, 6 more delegates to Jurisdictional Conference (where new bishops are elected), and three alternates. In all, 30 people were elected in 3 days. This was my first time to vote as I wasn't eligible to vote last time because I hadn't yet been ordained.

OK, enough of the nerd talk, right? Actually, the voting was pretty important because it meant that we had to stay in the conference most of the time so that we wouldn't miss a ballot. I spent less time visiting with people this year than years past because of this. The Asbury Seminary alumni were pleased to host J.D. Walt for our alumni lunch. It was great to visit with him and to hear of some exciting things going on in the world of Wesleyan Methodism.



The Confessing Movement of Arkansas hosted Dr. Chris Bounds from Indiana Wesleyan University. Chris is a great guy and one of the smartest people I've ever met. It was great to catch up with him and hear him speak at both the CMA breakfast and on the floor of the Annual Conference.



We also passed a new and radical direction for our conference called Imagine Ministries. That was a significant deal and am proud of the work the IM team did and look forward to joining in their work for years to come.

Power Through Prayer

In the last three days these things have happened in my life:

• I left church on Sunday feeling neither high or low about the sermon I preached. I left confident in the Word of God and God’s power to work in the hearts of people. I was able to rest in that.


• I deleted a couple of tweets. I grew up thinking that giving someone a hard time was a way to show someone you liked them and appreciated them. That’s pretty dumb. About 20 minutes after posting them, I felt this impression in my heart not only to delete those tweets but to start paying attention to how I give people a hard time and to stop doing it. It honors no one.


• I apologized to my wife this morning. Yesterday, I was gruff with her for a moment in the middle of my yard work. It’s no way for a man to speak to his wife who just happens to be a daughter of God.

(If that last thing seems strange to mention, I have a really hard time apologizing. I’m that wicked.)

So, what’s been going on? It seems like I’m surprised at these good things. I am, a little. What’s been going on is that I recently finished a book called Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. More than anything, that little book is an indictment on prayerless preachers who work so hard to create power and strength in their ministries while neglecting the only true power in their lives - prayer. I have repented and have devoted more - much more - time to prayer than some of the other things that tend to crowd my attention during the day. You know what? God’s been working me over. And it is awesome. The Holy Spirit has moved me in each one of those bullet points. No joke. It’s one of those weird moments in life when I think, “Man, this rebuking by the Holy Spirit is hard and it hurts. Do it some more!” (If this keeps up I’m sure my wife and church will be saying, “Do it some more!”)

I’m not writing to brag but to give those of you who are experiencing prayerlessness either some encouragement or a kick in the pants. Especially you preachers who walk into the pulpit thinking that your three points are going to totally change someone’s life when you haven’t sought the one who is already at work in the lives of those who hear his word.

Here’s three links you can try on for size (You’re in luck if you’re a Kindle-user).

Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer
The Complete E.M. Bounds on Prayer - Kindle $3.99
Power Through Prayer - Kindle is $0.99!

Shall We Gather?

I'd better get this in before there's another database connection error. Grrrr.

The scene behind the church this afternoon. It started raining, oh, sometime on Saturday and finally let up a little while ago. I saw on Facebook that we got around 15" of rain. Lots of flooding going on around here.

It rained almost all day long yesterday (Easter). I was pretty bummed because last year it was just so beautiful and bright outside. This year was dark and gloomy. Not the way I wanted to celebrate Easter. But, God was working on me and teaching me.

My mood is generally affected by numbers. And by numbers I mean weekly attendance and giving. It's not just my mood but my self-worth, understanding of calling, and all that. I wasn't fired up for Easter this year. I looked at the weather forecasts and knew that it would rain which meant that there wouldn't be as many people on Sunday morning. I was not happy. But, I noticed something as we began to worship yesterday. Suddenly, that concern and burden weren't there. I'm not entirely sure what God did in me, but I knew that as I got up to preach one of my weakest sermons of all time God was stripping away the self-focused concern about numbers. I cared more about clearly presenting the gospel to those gathered than the actual number of people who showed up. What a clear sign of grace to me and how grateful I was to have experienced it!

Slowly but surely, my heart is figuring out that my identity, self-worth, reputation, and all that are actually in Jesus and not me. I wish I figured out things a little more quickly but progress is better than stalling.

I Preached from My iPad this Morning

I tried preaching from my iPad this morning using Keynote (ref. this post). Two thoughts:

1. I'm pretty sure no one could tell. This was a huge deal for me. I don't want others to be distracted by it and I didn't want to be distracted by it. I'd rather people say, "That guy talks about Jesus and the cross a lot." rather than "My pastor uses an iPad." I liked that there were no shuffling pages and that it was easy to keep track of where I was in my notes. I think it was one of the better sermons I've preached both in content (iPad had nothing to do with that) and delivery (it aided me).


2. White text on a black background was a winner. Wow. I'm actually surprised at how well my eyes could pick up text with a glance instead of a stare. If I'm not using just one Post-it note in my Bible (my normal source of notes) I usually try to keep them all on one page of paper so that I don't have to shuffle multiple pieces of paper. Since I didn't have to shuffle pages of paper I made the font bigger which made the notes easier to see, too.

Preaching with an iPad actually turned out better than I thought it would so I'll probably do more of it in the future provided point #1 remains unviolated.

The iPad and Preaching

Jonathan Dodson wrote a great post about preaching with the iPad. My preparation and use is different so I wanted to write a bit about how I do it. I have not used my iPad to preach from yet. I mostly have a Post-it note next to the passage from which I am preaching and that’s the extent of my notes. It probably shows if you watch our video, but I’m just too awkward walking back to the lectern and looking down at notes. It’s uncomfortable for me.

So, here we go:

• Research: I don’t use my iPad for this very much. I do have both Accordance Bible and Logos on the computer and the iPad. Occasionally I will look something up in one of these two apps (primarily Accordance) and I might read one of the books from the Logos library like I would with the Kindle or iBooks apps, but that’s about it. I mostly use Accordance on the desktop. Also, I will sometimes copy and paste my Kindle clippings into Evernote, but I rarely go back to those and look again.


• Outlining I’m just using Jonathan’s designation here. I don’t outline very much. If I do use an outline for something, it’s usually a blog post, an article, or an idea for a book. But, for workflow purposes I start out with iThoughtsHD on the iPad or iThoughts on the iPhone. I always save these files in OPML format on DropBox. I do this because I can then open the map in Mind Manager or OmniOutliner. I might use Mind Manager to finish up a map and keep it saved in OPML so that I can then open it in my primary outlining tool which is OmniOutliner. I also use Outliner on both platforms but it’s file saving system is just dumb and really needs DropBox support. After my outlines are done, if it is a big writing project, I send the OPML file to Scrivener for the final draft.


• Manuscript Again, I don’t take a manuscript, but if I have to write paragraphs of stuff or copy in quotes from another source that I want to share, I only ever do it in TextMate. I am a TextMate kindergartner, but this text editor is so good. I write all my blog posts (including this one) in Markdown and nothing supports systems like Markdown the way TextMate does. My life is basically a bunch of text files (.txt) right now and I love it. No more worrying much about .docx unless someone sends something to me in Word. I. Love. TextMate.


• Preaching I haven’t done this yet, though Jonathan’s post makes me feel better about trying it out. I didn’t want to be that guy but Jonathan’s post and this one from J.R. Vassar have convinced me that I either need to quit worrying about it or just go ahead and embrace the brokenness of being that guy. I think I would differ from both of these guys in that I’m almost 100% sure I will import my notes into Keynote instead of a document. I tried showing some Bible passages and pictures in Logos a couple of weeks ago in a class I was teaching and the iPad kept going to sleep. I don’t think I want to be distracted by having to turn on my iPad every two minutes.

I can’t believe I wrote that much, but it was a good exercise for me. Anyone else have a preaching workflow they use on the iPad?

Very Proud

My sermon this morning began with me telling about a Jehovah's Witness lady who rang the doorbell at the house and handed me a tract - nice lady and she didn't stay long which was a plus. After she left I started to read through the tract she handed me. The paragraph contained one truth and one untruth. The truth was that John the Baptist did say that Jesus came to take away the sin of the world in John 1:29. The untruth was that Jesus died to rescue "obedient mankind." There really is a logic problem in combining both statements. If humanity were obedient, we'd have no need for anyone to take away our sin. Also, we are sinners - our genus and species would be better described as homo peccator rather than homo sapiens.

I read the two sentence paragraph to those gathered in worship this morning and asked the question, "What is wrong with that statement?" Several, at the same time, called out "obedient." It didn't strike me until later this evening, but they get it! They are getting the gospel! They know that we can't rescue ourselves, that we are lost sheep (Isa. 53:6), that we are sinners (Rom. 3:23)! I am so proud of my church. I pray our the depth of our gospel understanding continues to grow.

P.S. I may have to write up our Sunday School discussion which diverted away from Ecclesiastes toward evangelism and why we are so hesitant to strike up a gospel conversation, knock on a door, or proclaim the gospel in a public place. That was awesome, too.

Shot to the Gut

Sunday afternoon, after returning from church, I took out my iPad and checked my RSS feed. Not a great way to start out my afternoon recovery. I read a post about a pastor that broke my heart. I have read this guy's blog posts. I've purchased administrative documents from him that we tweaked and use at the church. I enjoyed learning from him. His evangelistic heart showed through everything that he did. He was close to my age and pretty much everything I thought of when I thought of success in ministry.

He is out of the ministry today because of an affair.

I was sick to my stomach when I read about it. I didn't even know the guy personally, but I took his fall personally. All I could think was, "This guy preaches like me, teaches like me, and from where I sit he looks like a better Christian than me." I was pretty angry about the whole thing, but then it turned to sadness and introspection. I've strutted around the last ten years believing I'll never do something like that - pure arrogance. We learned in Sunday school the last two weeks from Ecclesiastes 5 that we should _never_ speak rashly or promise things like that because our perspective is so very limited and, in my interpretation, we are unaware of how perilous our spiritual situations truly are. I repent of that pride and arrogance.

I woke up the next morning feeling so overwhelmingly weak. I think I'm so strong and stike out on my own, apart from God. The reality is that I'm not strong but weak and I've spent a lot of time confessing my prayerlessness and my reliance upon myself rather than Jesus. I pray that's the proper response to news of another pastor's infidelity. I pray that's the proper response because you can bet that there will be a lot of blog posts and talk about how to affair-proof your marriage. I'll tell you this - it's all a bunch of moralizing nonsense if you or me don't stick close to Jesus. I realized just how weak I am, just how much I need God's grace, and just how much of a weak lamb in need of a strong Shepherd I am.

It also brought me to realize that I need my church, my wife, and my friends - more than ever - to pray for me. Not for success. Not for thanksgiving, or anything like that - pray for my prayer time, for my time in the Bible, and most of all for my marriage. I love my wife and have been faithful to her and my intention is, barring death, to make it as long as my grandparents did, but it'll never happen without a total dependance upon Jesus.

Field Preaching

Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by John Wesley and the early Methodist circuit riders. They seemed to be risk taking adventurists. I read two comic books when I was about 9 years old, one about Wesley and the other about circuit riders that captured my imagination - and I still have the one on Wesley! One of the things that has always impressed me about Wesley was his open air preaching, or, field preaching. It was a radical concept introduced to him by George Whitefield. The physically short Wesley must have had some great big pipes to reach the thousands who heard him. Sometimes he would preach in town squares and people would crowd around to hear him preach.

Though fascinated, I've long been a chicken about field preaching. One reason has to do with the weirdos who came onto the campuses of both schools I attended, the University of Arkansas and Asbury Theological Seminary. I've been called names by these preachers. I had a guy get up in my face on Beale St. in Memphis one evening. I've generally been turned off by these guys. I always thought, too, that there's no place for this kind of preaching today. I have lots and lots of objections.

But, Steve McCoy has made me think a lot about what real open air preaching is all about. He's also gotten me to consider an idea so crazy that it might actually work.

Wesley rode 250,000 miles on horseback and preached 23,000 sermons. Man, whatever was burning in him, God, set on fire in me.

It's the End of the World as We Know it - So Go Make a Disciple

I jokingly wrote on Twitter earlier that if I were a lying opportunist with no conscience, this would be a good week to write an end-times e-book for $50 a pop. In the last week we've seen a huge earthquake in New Zealand, continued protests, unrest, and revolution in the Middle East, one of the weirdest political stories of my lifetime unfolding in Wisconsin, and oil prices shooting up 9% in one day. I'd almost bet Tim LaHaye was busy working on a new bestseller as I write.

Someone loaned me some of the end-times novels that were popular in the late 90's when I was in college and seminary. It didn't take me long to grow in my disdain for both the quality of writing and the theology behind the book series. One of the first questions I had was a practical one: "Could I look in the eyes of a brother in Christ from a persecuted part of the world and tell him, 'It's okay. Before persecution comes, Jesus will vacuum you up and let everyone else suffer.'"? This kind of thinking could only appeal to comfortable, middle-class white people who can't tell the difference between persecution and having their feelings hurt.

For some reason, our little bubble of Christendom is caught up in second-coming fever - when is Jesus coming back? I get asked this a lot. How do I answer? Easy. It's in the Bible. Jesus says in Acts 1:7 "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." I know this isn't a satisfactory answer for folks who turn on the television and see the events I've already mentioned. "Surely the time is near!" they say. Back in the Bible, however, I make it a point to look at Matthew 24:3-14

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Here are some of the questions I ask folks who are so ready to turn the events in the news into Jesus' coming:

• Has there ever been a time in which there wasn't a war of some sort, or at least the possibility that one was coming?


• Has there ever been a time in which one nation or kingdom didn't rise against another?


• Has there ever been a time in which there were no famines?


• Has there ever been a time devoid of earthquakes in various places?

Since, as best as I can tell, the answer to those questions is "no", I like to point to the end of that passage. If you are so intent on knowing when Jesus might come back, then do something to address the fact that there are 2,000 people groups in this world that do not have a witness of Jesus Christ among them. Since the risen Jesus gave a command to make disciples, maybe we should do what he said and make sure we spend ourselves in that and leave his return to the appointed time of which we do not know.

Imagine

I spent the last couple of days in Hot Springs, AR at a gathering for United Methodist clergy and laity to hear from our Imagine Ministries team and to talk about the proposals that they are bringing to the Annual Conference. I'm not going to comment on the content because I was in such pain that I could barely pay attention to most of it, but I want to say that I came away feeling pretty hopeful. The gist of the team and the gathering is that we United Methodists don't want to be a perpetuate a denomination in decline but instead we want to make disciples and be a part of Spirit-led ministries. Part of the conversation was lowering structural barriers to both disciple-making and ministry. As I read Tony Morgan tweet the other day, "Good people using bad systems will never produce good results." I think we all want to align good people with good systems in order to bear good fruit.

It can't be an easy task but I think our Imagine Ministries team is doing a great job. They have done some hard work and have been humble enough to admit that they might not have communicated everything as clearly as they could have and are taking steps to communicate clearly from here on out. I think the last two days proved their commitment to those steps. Kudos to all of them and I look forward to following their lead.

A Weekday Reflection

I'm traveling today to attend a denominational meeting in Hot Springs and I probably won't write about that so I was thinking about something a little different. I usually write a reflection on our time of worship every week and E-mail it to the congregation, so I thought I'd write one about the week and post it here.

• We had a Capital Campaign meeting on Tuesday night. I continue to pray that God will not only help us financially, but missionally.


• By that I mean I hope God ignites a passion for making disciples and exalting the name of Jesus during this time.


• I'm 34 years old. Is that not 30 too many for ear infections? I can't hear a thing!


• I'll have a link for you on Sunday, but I've been wrestling with the lessons learned from a non-church, non-religious podcast that is probably the most significant message I've heard outside of the gospel.


• The gist was "If it were a priority it would be done."


• Boom.

I'm done. I'm going to take some medicine and check out.

What I'm Learning in Ecclesiastes - Part Three

Here are the last two posts in this series.

So, Ecclesiastes isn’t the most upbeat writing in the Bible. At least in the first two chapters which is all we’ve covered so far in the Sunday School class I’m teaching. The third lesson I’ve learned so far isn’t all that cheery, either.

3) When I die, the world will keep on going.

Ecclesiastes 1:16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!

I’d like to think that the world will stop, but that’s not reality. My departure from this life is going to affect a very, very small number of people. Here's how I figure it - I’m connected to 374 people on Facebook right now. If I take that number and add the people I’ve been a pastor to in 8 years, then round that total up to the nearest thousand, my overestimation of how many people will in one way or another be affected by my death is 2,000. According to the internets, the world population is expected to hit 7 billion this year which means, theoretically, that my death will affect .000028% of the world. In addition, most of the 2,000 people I know won’t give it much more than an, “Oh.”

The world will keep on going. If you're as much of a wicked-hearted narcissist as I am, that fact hurts.

By God's grace, I can live (and die) with that. On most days I’m not out to make a name for myself - well, mostly I’m not. I really hope that I’m making much of Jesus’ name. I try to remember constantly the line from that poem by C.T. Studd "Only one life 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last." The world will keep on, but hopefully a witness and testimony to the mercy and grace of God will remain that causes people not to remember me, but Jesus. I’m praying that the death I die every day to self will result not in people remembering me but seeing Jesus.

If that happens, for any of us, then who cares if we're remembered?