Henry Nouwen on Individualism and the Superstar Pastor

Every year that I have been in ministry I have made it a point to read through Henry Nouwen’s “In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.”  It’s a classic text that every pastor or future pastor should read.  As I enter into the busiest part of my year I was reminded of this convicting text.

When you look at today’s Church, it is easy to see the prevalence of individualism among ministers and priests.  Not too many of us have a vast repertoire of skills to be proud of, but most of us still feel that, if we have anything at all to show, it is something we have to do solo.  You could say that many of us feel like failed tightrope walkers who discovered that we did not have the power to draw thousands of people, that we could not make many conversions, that we did not have the talents to create beautiful liturgies, that we were not as popular with the youth, young adults, or the elderly as we had hoped, and that we were not as able to respond to the needs of our people as we had expected.  But most of us still feel that, ideally, we should have been able to do it all and do it successfully.  Stardom and individual heroism, which are such obvious aspects of our competitive society, are not at all alien to the Church.  There too the dominant image is that of the self-made man or woman who can do it all alone.

- “In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership” page 38 – 39

It is important then to have those people who keep you humble, and in tune with the communal nature of the pastoral vocation.  Pastors are not intended to be individual superstars or alone.  Nor should the pastor put the pressure on her/himself to be such a solo anomaly of effectiveness and popularity.

We see two extremes.  Some pastors long to be popular superstars yet others are forced to be solo and expected to be superstars.  Each of them, whether they know it or not, are swimming in the exhaustion that is the consequence of an individualistic society.

Do you see more than the ‘two extremes’ within the nature of individualism?  Where do you see the impact of an individualism in your church community? 

A Lesson in Innovation: The Daughters of Zelophehad

You need to know about the 5 amazing daughters of Zelophehad.

Found nestled in the 27th chapter in verses 1-11 of Numbers are 5 women who asked a question of the law and law givers that pointed to a different grace filled reality.  The thing is though, it was a risky.  (To read the passage, click here)

Zelophehad, the father of 5 daughters died in the desert just before the Israelites were to enter the promised land.  He had no sons.  Therefore he had no male in the family to inherit his property or place within the promised land.  Which according to the laws of that time meant that the daughters Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah, and Tirzah would be homeless.

No male inheritance, no promised land.  This was devastating as life in the desert was given meaning by this inheritance into this promise of God.

Staring despair in the face, these women dared to put on a spirit of courage and walk to the tent of meeting where Moses, the chief priest Eleazer and the whole assembly, which was a ton of people who were no doubt wondering what was up with these 5 women.  This act in and of itself was a risk.  Then they posed the question:

Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives. – Numbers 27:4

Wait, What?  This question embraced the opportunity for a different, grace filled reality.  These 5 women were asking for Moses and God to change things up a bit.  They are petitioning for a place in God’s promised land.

So, Moses listens.  Moses prays.  The Lord told Moses that the 5 daughters were right. 

The 5 daughters of Zelophehad were in a desperate situation.  It is a story saturated with risk.  The 5 daughters would be risking far more had they fallen back into the social norms of the day rather than pursue the potential of a different lived reality wherein they would have the opportunity to gain space in the promised land.  The promised land was the fulfillment of hope.  Certainly in our world, in our places and spaces where the body of Christ is present there are yet to be realized hopes held hostage by the various incompetency’s of our institutions and structures.  Sometimes our structures fail us.  We need to pay attention to this.

Embrace the questions that point to a different reality.  Pay attention to those whom our institutions and structures seem to neglect.  Embrace the risk that takes us to new horizons of hope. Innovation and courage is what takes us there.   

Step out in faith.  Pursue shalom.  Easy to write.  Hard to do.  Yet, may we take this road together.

What are the structures in place that prevent the tangible love of God to be incarnate (present) in your particular time and place? 

Everyone is Beautiful – Jean Vanier

Thankful for this today!

Everyone Is Beautiful from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

My Top 10 “Bible Students Say” Statements

Recently a good friend of mine re-introduced me to the twitter account Bible_Students_Say (@BibleStdntsSay).  It is the twitter account of an anonymous Bible School professor who shares some of the more unique phrases she/he finds in various assignments throughout the year.

Instead of working on one of my writing projects yesterday, I found myself reading many of the tweets.  So I decided to share some of my favourites.

I share these with the full recognition that I am most certainly the author of many phrases such as these during my 4 years of undergraduate study in pastoral theology.  To those who have navigated the halls of Bible Schools everywhere!

Enjoy.

10.  “I’ve never been able to decide whether my position was that of aluminum, post-millennium or pre-millennium.”

9.  “I believe that when they took God out is when the enemy came into our schools.”

8.  “I think free will interferes with the ten commandments.”

7.  “In the days of Jerusalem the government would perform their many duties, and hold press conferences along the way” (Wait. What?)

6.  “When I read the bible I’m reading for understanding but w/ the understanding I may be at a point when I won’t understand” (Easy, Keanu)

5.  “God made us and he can take us out, that is one thing that I have learned from the Bible.”

4.  “Christianity was strongest during the Holy Roman Empire, why? They had an authoritative approach on controlling the message of the bible”

3.  “I look at the bible in my own interpretations & I can agree with that.”

2.  “God has zero tolerance for ignorant people when He is reaching out to people.”

1.  “After so many years of teaching evolution, Creationists still cant explain why men don’t change back into a monkey.”

If you have attended Bible School, can you remember any of your own personal gems?  I am too afraid to crack open a few of my first year essays! 

Persecution: Do we really have a clue?

 

I will never forget my friend from Pakistan. 

I met him at Bible school in Germany.  One evening, while hanging out in the lecture hall he told me a story about what life was like for him in Pakistan.

He told me that one time militant Muslim extremists (it is important to note that faithful, practicing Muslims are not militant extremists and that Islam practiced faithfully is a faith of peace) put him in the back of a car, took him to a building, force fed him and hung him upside down.  The next thing he remembers is his mother sitting over his bedside crying.  Still he believed in a God that, in his words, is ‘much bigger.’  There was sacrifice and faith staring me in the face.

I walked out of the lecture hall that night introduced to true sacrifice in the name of faith.  It was a sacrifice I had not known in my many years in North American Christian circles.  To believe was a matter of life and death.   

It was a moment, a person, who has been significantly formative to my faith.  It scared the crap out of me.  But sacrifice in the name of faithfulness has a tendency to do that.

A few weeks after he shared that story with me, we found out that his family had to disown him for fear of persecution themselves.  It was a trying time for many of us who supported him.

We come up against resistance because of faith in many places and spaces in North America.  After all, we are moving increasingly into a time where the story of Jesus is not known. Yet I am not so sure that the majority of us have a clue what persecution is… 

We have much to learn from the global church!!!!!

Have you ever been persecuted for faith?  Do we really have a clue about persecution? 

I am thankful for my friend from Pakistan. I am happy to write that he is doing great and living in Germany.