Narrow Road

Monday mornings are slow for me. I usually attend three services on Sunday (sometimes four.) After I get home at night, I just want to drink a cup of tea and read. (Although last night I played a video game - a totally useless, unproductive and slothful way to spend one's time.)
Mia culpa; mia maxima culpa!

Anyway, Monday morning is my Sabbath, a time to stop and allow my soul to catch up to my body. That's what I'm doing this morning. So although I have tons of stuff to do today and will have even more to do the rest of the week I am just not ready to tackle it yet. I'll get to all that stuff in a couple of hours. But I need to ease into it. Some Mondays I just don't have that luxury; today, thankfully, I do!

I have been sitting here listening to a CD by Keith and Meagan Cook. Its called Narrow Road. Both Keith and Megan grew up in Christ Church and I have known their parents forever. So wow,am I surprised. Their music is wonderful; I am amazed at its texture and serious playfulness. ( I really like #6, Casting Out Devils!)

So I was just thinking, sitting here listening to Keith and Megan's CD, about what I need to do to become a good pastor to this church.

I was voted in as senior pastor a few weeks ago and since then have been trying to listen and learn about how to serve this community.

Last night we celebrated communion in the PM service. I watched as people came forward to receive the wine and bread. I watched the servers take their time to pray and minister to each communicant. As they prayed and served, our musicians allowed the Spirit to play through them. Song after song, they kept going deeper into worship and soulful connection to God. Soon, the air was filled with glory and wonder. After the benediction, no one wanted to leave.

I am sitting here reflecting about all of that. I'm thinking about ways to encourage and strengthen our leaders and church workers. I want to find ways of releasing the gifts of our people and focusing those gifts toward the redemptive work of Christ in this city and in the world. I am asking for grace and wisdom to lead this flock to be what God wants it to be.

But listening to this CD -- Narrow Road -- marveling at the grace of God on the gifts of a new generation of Christian leaders -- it strikes me that all I have to do is stay out of God's way. If I do all I can to shelter vision when it is small, encourage talent when it is tender, recognize a calling when the voice of God is still faint to the young ears that hears it; if I can just say "yes" to the desire of people who want to make a difference instead of protecting my turf then God will help us stumble together into the plan God has had for our church for a long, long time.

Keith and Megan represent hundreds of our children who grew up in the middle of bad stuff and yet somehow managed to love God, forgive my generation for its many sins and not resist the call of Jesus to serve the world. Its a miracle.

Its also a second chance for us to obey the call that God has on our community. We are anointed and appointed to offer ourselves as servants to one another and to the world. When we do, God pours grace and creative gifts through us. That astound us as much as it does the ones to whom we minister.

We are well aware that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels" and that the gift comes through us but not from us.

When we realize how all this anointed grace stuff works, we get up off "our blessed assurance," as Keith and Megan puts it, and start walking the Narrow Road!
Even Monday mornings!

A Kingdom Day!

Were the Sunday morning services great or what?

Many of us were tired from the Music & Worship conference. It had been especially wonderful this year. Our visitors were refreshed, the concerts were graced by God’s presence and old relationships were renewed. We were ready for a good but not especially charged Sunday worship service. God had other plans!

When a prophetic word from the congregation erupted in the middle of the sermon – almost never the right thing to do – God’s glory poured out over everyone. That word filled the air with faith. Many of us are still feeling the effects.

I had been preaching on “The Now and Future Kingdom.” I developed the thought while reading N.T. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope. (I recommend it. The book’s teaching on the resurrection soaks into your heart and rearranges your thoughts.) As I was talking about drawing circles around our areas of influence and declaring the space within the circle as “kingdom space,” I asked a few of our leaders to walk around the church. That’s when the word burst out from the pew.

We are hearing all sorts of testimonies now from the congregation about what is happening to their businesses and homes as they “draw the circle.” If you have a testimony, I hope you will share it with us.

I am into my third week as senior pastor of Christ Church. Today, I am at work on the other part of my duties as corporate president. Tonight we have a board meeting and I am trying to grasp all the fiscal and organizational information I need to work with our board and corporate officers. We want to manage our earthy resources as well as we can so that God’s work is not hindered in any way.

We do what we are supposed to do and we keep watching for the Lord to do what only He can do. Sunday, God showed us that He still calls the shots and remains the real head of the church. That’s what it means to be a church in line with the Lordship of Christ – doing our best to discover what the Spirit is up to and then doing all we know to cooperate with His agenda.
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Let The River Run!

Sunday night, June 29, several hundred members of Christ Church Nashville voted to accept me as this congregation’s second senior pastor. We have been moving through a time of transition since Pastor Hardwick proposed, and the church board ratified, my name as a candidate for Senior Pastor.

I didn’t want too much time to go by before writing you a short note to acknowledge this change of leadership.

I first want to thank Pastor Hardwick for leading us to this new season. He has made a decision that has been difficult and personally sacrificial. He deserves our honor and love for his lifetime of faithful service to God and to this congregation.

I also want to thank you for asking me to be a steward of our heritage and future. I will need your on going prayer and advice. I have loved this church since the first day I came with my wife and two small children to be your associate pastor. Trish and I were young then, and we were delighted to find such a safe and exciting place to raise our new family.

As I enter into this new pastorate, I am mindful of my grandchildren. They are nearly the same age my girls were in 1985 when I first came here!

The world, the nation and the city have gone through many changes since 1985. Sometimes, the changes seem a bit daunting. However, we worship the same Lord now as we did then. We preach from the same scriptures. So we know that the same Holy Spirit that led us to do His work back then will lead us to do His work today.

In the coming days, I will share a more detailed version of the vision I have for our church. The all-church workday we experienced Saturday, June 28 is a perfect picture of what I want for our congregation’s future. I want us to work together, laugh together and eat together. I want us to grow in Christ and develop His calling for us as a church – together. I want us to be family of God.

Transformation occurs when we enter into genuine community with Gods people. When we do that, the Spirit of God fills us, the Word of God directs us, and the Body of Christ equips us and sends us forth to do the Lord’s work.

Whenever we have released control, inspired our people and cooperated with God’s will, The Spirit of God has used this church in a mighty way. I have no doubt that God intends to do that now, in this new season of our church life.

There is a river that flows from the throne of God. It makes glad the city of the Great King. So let us do all we know to do to “Let the River Run!”