There is something inside of us that is convinced that if we just experience some kind of amazing experience with God, that it would really change our life.

However, I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think experience sticks with us like we’d like to think! Even if it’s a genuine God-moment.

When I went on a few missions trips to Mexico, I had some profound experiences. How long did that last?

I’ve had several unique experiences while in God’s presence, and how long did the effects of those last?

I’m thinking that while experience can be profound while it is happening, its significance quickly wears off in our heads, given enough time. Even some of the deepest feelings fade away: When a close loved one passes away, we find that over time, our feelings aren’t so strong, and we even try to muster up those old feelings, afraid that we are loving them less if we don’t feel the same way about them now as we did then.

I grew up in a Pentecostal denomination that highly valued special experiences with God. I don’t want to take away from the value of experience, but I’m not sure it really has a lot of long-term effect. In order for experience to be powerful, it must be a day-to-day thing. How long really can I live on yesterday’s experience with God?

You can’t make God “show up” supernaturally everyday. If we are looking for some kind of spiritual thrill each time we open our Bible or pray, we will quickly give up. That doesn’t happen all-too-often. (At least for me.)

It seems to me that the person who is always looking to experience God is someone who is reluctant to walk by faith. Walking by faith can indeed be a challenge, but perhaps it is more sustainable for the long haul? Perhaps if you walk by faith, you are more surprised as you look back on life–you see God’s presence in your life in places where you had no clue God was working at the time. But if you try to live merely by experience, I think you may quickly become disappointed at the lack of long-term fruit you were hoping to possess as a result of the experience.

The Apostle Paul had some pretty amazing experiences with God–going to the “third heaven”–whatever that means, etc. Yet, when he looked back over his life, he found more worth to the times in his life when he suffered for Christ–the times when he really needed to walk by faith.

While I do want to experience God, I think it’s healthy to realize that we are moment-to-moment creatures. We are not enamored for long. We need something more than momentary, goose-pimpled God-experiences to sustain us.

Of course, I’d say that harboring such destructive feelings is wrong and should be resolved for the health of the individual holding in those negative feelings. Yet the argument can be made that the reason why Michael Jordan was so good at his sport is because he kept those feelings at the forefront of his mind, giving him that extra edge to out-perform everyone, and achieving more than he would have if he had let it go.

Is it fair to say that bitterness actually helped Michael Jordan become a better player?

I’ve heard it said before that the great geniuses/successes in life are anything but balanced on the inside. While the rest of us are trying to attain some level of inner nirvana, it seems that many great writers, thinkers, musicians, actors–apparently even athletes, actually feed on imbalance, hurt, rejection, pain, and don’t worry about healing.

Do you think this is unhealthy? Yet how is it that such great books, poetry, music, performances come seemingly from such unhealthiness? Would Michael Jordan have been the greatest basketball player of all time (IMO) if he had handled his feelings of rejection in a healthy manner?

Part of the job of a pastor is to think of other people more than yourself, which is the call of every Christian, of course. I think it’s a little more “obligatory” when you’re a pastor, though. I think that’s a good thing–it is helping me become more of that kind of person (slowly, over time).

A few days ago, as I was driving down the interstate, I had an interesting thought: What if that’s the real reason God has made me a pastor? Not so much for other people’s benefit, but for my own. That’s a little uncomfortable for me to think about, since I see my “job” as being there for other people.

But what if there’s a bigger reason for me being a pastor? Well, is there really any reason to be a pastor that is more important than helping others draw near to Christ? At first, I would say no. But what if the bigger reason isn’t for other people, but for me? Does that sound selfish or self-indulgent? On one level, it does. But on another level, maybe not.

The Apostle Paul seemed to indicate his own walk with the Lord was just as, or even more, important than helping other people in their walk with the Lord. What use is it, he asks, if he helps others qualify for the prize, but he himself becomes disqualified?

What if the reason why God made me a pastor is more than just helping people in my congregation know God, more than helping to establish a strong vibrant church in our community, even more than seeing this community come to know Christ? What if, just like marriage, God has placed this calling on me in order to mold me into something/someone that He wants me to be for all eternity? Is there something specific God has for me in eternity that He is preparing me for while I am here on earth?

I mean…What if no one in my church ever gets to know God better, no matter how hard I try to see that happen? What if our church never becomes a strong, vibrant church in our community, no matter how hard I try to see that happen? What if no one in this community ever comes to know Christ, even though I try so hard to see everyone come to know Him? Would this be all in vain? Yes, unless there was some higher purpose than those things.

I know that I should pursue those things for my church and community, regardless of whether they materialize or not. That indicates to me that God wants me here as pastor for more than just those things, as important as they are. He wants me here because He wants to do some pretty significant things in MY life that will make me more into the person He desires me to be.

I don’t have control of outside circumstances, or other people’s decisions for Christ. But I do have the choice to let God have His way in my life, and to allow Him to work in me any way He wants to. If I do that, my job as pastor has been a success, regardless of any other outcomes. If I am faithful to the task, regardless of outside circumstances, I will have become more like Christ in ways I cannot now imagine. I have a feeling the biggest reason why God has called me to pastor is not so much for what He wants to do and work in other people, but for what God wants to do and work in me.

Self-indulgent? Come on now, don’t you think the same thing is true for your own life?

This year, God brought to my mind another instance where Scripture says that Jesus cried. Yep, that’s right–Jesus cried three times in the Gospels! (At least, my tally is now up to three!) When Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, Luke 19:41 says He wept over the city, because they didn’t understand who He was or the significance of what He was about to do on the cross.

I often get frustrated when it seems like people don’t “get it.” When they don’t get who Jesus is, what He did on the cross, what it means for Jesus to be Savior, what it means for Him to be Lord, what it means that He offers us His Holy Spirit and eternal life. Yet, I have to ask myself, have I EVER cried over someone who doesn’t “get it”? With this supposed passion of mine, where is my compassion?

I think that without compassion for people, my frustration will only increase, because people don’t respond to frustration, but rather to compassion. Of course, just because I have compassion, that doesn’t mean they will respond. Jesus clearly had compassion, and yet many didn’t respond to Him. Even so, for my own spiritual health and spiritual health of others, I am praying that I will be able to literally (not figuratively) cry for those who have yet to “get it.”

Yet so many of us who profess faith in Jesus seem to think it perfectly acceptable to be uninvolved. All our other obligations or facets of life take priority over Him. And we see nothing wrong with that.

To me, it makes no sense. It’s like going up to someone and saying, “Hey, just received word your house is on fire.” And then they reply, “Wow, that’s nuts. Let me finish taking care of this project at work, pick up the dry cleaning, sneak in a weekend away, and hopefully, if I have enough time, I’ll get around to seeing what I can do for that situation.” If that really was someone’s response, I’d come to one of two conclusions: the guy really doesn’t believe me, or his house really isn’t that important to him.

I am forced to conclude that this how it is with so many “people of faith”: either we really don’t believe in Jesus, or He is not that important to us. And how much difference really is there between those two possibilities?

Can we really say that we believe that Jesus really is who the Bible says He is? How can this at all be acceptable?

I am challenged today, and hope to challenge you today, to become “all in” with God.

We fear having to confront the possibility that God actually does something.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a church prayer meeting where people pray for someone who is sick or in the hospital, etc. We all pray that God would “heal” them. We all pray that God would guide the hands of the doctors, etc. We are comfortable with those kinds of prayers. And we are comfortable to attribute to God the success of the surgery: He answered our prayers–He guided that surgeon’s hands!

The problem with the gifts of the Spirit, or anything else that is supernatural, is that it removes a comfortable, ambiguous faith in God. For example, when surgery is successful, some attribute the success to the doctor, but we “believers” attribute it to God. Those who believe in God see the situation differently than those who don’t. Yet, nothing circumstantially can be attributed as a miracle. The surgery was anticipated by doctors to be successful. The matter is convoluted more, however, when the surgery has 50/50 chance of success. If the person comes through, we say it’s because of a miracle of God! Was it? For a believer, yes. For a non-believer, no. After all, things turn out favorably 50% of the time. If they don’t pull through, however, we believers still affirm God was working there just the same.

In other words, with all of these things, it’s all very muddy. To what extent was God actively involved in the process? It is very hard to tell, and we are comfortable in such ambiguity. Whether God was working in the situation is a matter of personal interpretation. It makes us believers comfortable to believe God was involved when He couldn’t be seen.

But what about believing God to do something more demonstrative?

Many Christians believe that praying for such things is inappropriate. God should remain in the shadows. He should be a matter of interpretation. The idea of God revealing specific information to someone, or healing someone instantaneously, or causing someone to speak in a language they do not understand…now we get nervous. “God doesn’t work that way. Of course, He can do whatever He wants, but He typically remains in the shadows.”

I’m not going to argue whether that’s true or not. But what I will say is that’s how we prefer God to operate. We don’t really want God to make himself obvious. It’s better if He remain a matter of personal interpretation. Once someone says, “God told me last night…”, I get uncomfortable. I don’t expect God to tell people things. Rather, I expect that God simply requires us to trust that He is real and that He is working in the background, even though we can’t hear Him speaking.

The gifts of the Spirit make God too real. They force us to deal with a God who makes Himself known, who communicates directly with us, who performs miracles. Most of us are not ready for this type of a God. We are too concerned with following a religion focused on good, ethical, and moral human behavior. A living God turns the focus onto the behavior of God. Now it’s focused on what He is doing, not on what we are doing.

C.S. Lewis once said:

An “impersonal God”– well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads — better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap — best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps, approaching an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband — that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God!”) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?

God is still doing things today? He is still speaking? He is still revealing Himself? As long as He reveals himself in people’s hearts, that’s fine. But keep it in your heart. Don’t let Him out. That’s all we ask, please.

But why fear the gift of tongues? I know the standard reasons given, but for fun, I want to offer five reasons why you should fear the gift of teaching more than the gift of tongues.

1. The gift of teaching requires public speaking. That’s the second biggest fear for many people (death is #1, perhaps taxes is #3). On the other hand, the gift of tongues is primarily meant for your own personal prayer time, and the Apostle Paul even discourages its use in public (1 Corinthians 14:19).
2. The gift of teaching requires a person to extensively study Scripture in order to be effective. Tongues, on the other hand, can be spoken regardless if you’ve been reading your Bible or not.
3. According to James, you should be afraid of becoming a teacher, because teachers will be judged more strictly by God (James 3:1). Jesus even says that it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and to be cast into the sea than to lead a little one in the faith astray (Mark 9:42). There are no such warnings for those who possess the gift of tongues.
4. When you teach, you must continually strive to ensure your audience understands what you’re trying to say–praying that the “light bulb” inside their head flashes on. Even if you do end up speaking in tongues publicly, the whole point is that no one understands. No pressure at all!
5. You can totally fake speaking in tongues and no one will ever know. Just speak some gibberish and put a little passion behind it in your voice. People will be unable to prove whether you have the gift or not. Even if you’ve duped yourself into believing that you have the gift of tongues, no one will be the wiser. (That is, unless they have the gift of discernment…but that’s another blog post…) It’s a lot harder than that to fake people into believing that you have the gift of teaching!

So there you have it. Five reasons why fearing speaking in tongues is kind of silly. If you want to fear a gift of the Spirit, it seems more sensible to fear something like the gift of teaching.

1. It is clearly fake. It pretends that some kid is on a journey, when he clearly has already come to these conclusions from the teaching of his parents and pastor. No problem that he has come to these opinions, but he pretends like he is still truth-searching. I am guessing this will be revolting to most thinking individuals.

2. It does not portray youth ministry for what it really is. It makes it look like youth ministry is all about entertainment or trying to usurp parental roles.

Like most propaganda (and dare I say even conspiracy groups), it has a lot of truth in it, but throws in slight twists to bring the audience to conclusions which are illogical and unfounded.

80% of children/youth leave the church by the time they go to college. I’ve never been a fan of such a statistic. In fact, I want to see that percentage go to zero. But as bad as that number sounds, it may not be as “bad” as it appears on the surface. (Of course that number is bad, but let me explain.)

I think this number has always been the case. Even in Jesus’ ministry, the vast majority who followed Him did so for only a time. Regardless of our ministry techniques, I think we have to be aware that most simply won’t follow Jesus all the way. If you have a drastically different number for your church, I question if you are truly following Him or have watered it down.

It’s so easy to water down the Gospel. One way to water it down is to stop reaching the messy, hurting world out there–just take care of yourself and your family. Youth ministry says, “No, we will not isolate ourselves. We will reach every kid we can with the Gospel–even if 80% of them end up walking away.”

NCFIC thinks they have a better answer–get rid of youth ministry. (I was made aware of this group by a post from a youth ministry leader, Marko.) Now it is true that many of the issues they present are valid problems that many youth groups face: simply entertaining kids, trying to take the place of parents in discipling kids, etc. In fact, I’ve written about that. There is a strong movement within youth ministry to address these issues. That’s one thing I like about youth ministry, among many other reasons:

1. It is self-critiquing. Youth ministry is constantly changing, because we ourselves see our own faults. Nothing that was brought up in this video is news to youth workers. We are guilty as charged. But I love this about us: We readily admit our failure and seek to serve God more biblically and faithfully. Now a question to the NCFIC…could it be that there are just as troubling problems inherent to your philosophy of ministry?

2. My experience of good youth ministry is the closest thing I’ve experienced to New Testament church. Here are several ways my experience of youth ministry outshines your typical church:

a. It has been evangelistic. It does not cater to church people. Like Jesus, it is ok with upsetting the 99 to find the 1. I love how so many youth pastors get in trouble with “church folk” every time they accomplish something incredible for the kingdom of God. This latest video might even be another example of that.

b. It has been focused on discipleship. Most churches are unwilling to truly challenge their congregations. Their goal is merely to give a positive message that everyone will appreciate. My experience of youth ministry, on the other hand, is that youth pastors are doing everything they can to push kids to truly devote their lives over to God. They are not happy with simply numbers in a pew or dollars in a plate. In fact, it’s the only place in church I can think of where we don’t pass around a plate every week, thank God. The messages I’ve heard from youth pastors in youth ministry have always been convicting, challenging, and prophetic. Not your typical Sunday morning sermon.

c. Lay people do the work of ministry in youth ministries. There usually aren’t full-time “evangelism pastors” or “worship pastors” in youth ministry. We adults who serve in the youth ministry are truly ministry teams, and we’re usually not paid to do so. We don’t have fights over how the money is spent. Youth groups don’t split like churches do. As youth workers, we work. And we work together. And nothing, baby, can tear our teams apart!

d. Speaking of youth workers, I don’t know of any other group of people in the church who are more sacrificial with their time, money, and energy. I know I am biased here, but I would rather start a new church with the people in my previous churches who were youth workers than anyone else in those churches. 9 times out of 10, they are the most on-fire, passionate, God-seeking, God-honoring, Scripture-studying, prayer-focused, evangelistic, joyous, fun-loving, faithful, growing people in the church.

e. Youth ministries serve. We go out to our communities and we work hard. Try doing that with adults. They never have time with their busy schedules to put roofs on houses or share the Gospel to people in Mexico or rake the leaves of the widows in the church. But youth groups are doing it all the time. On top of this, many churches don’t provide much financial assistance to youth ministries–and youth usually aren’t old enough to have full-time jobs–so the youth also work very hard raising the money to go on such ministry trips.

f. Youth ministries are real. We don’t pretend like we’re ok. We regularly confess the problems in our home lives and inside our hearts. We don’t feel the need to be super-spiritual or happy all the time. Unlike Sunday mornings, where everyone is always smiling, shaking hands, and pretending like God is the most important thing in their lives.

g. Everyone shares. In most churches, the pastor preaches, and the rest of us listen. Not at youth group. We all ask questions, share what is going on in our lives, and laugh together. We’re often sitting in a circle on couches or on the floor, not in pews facing the choir. When we worship, we are less concerned with the quality of the music, and more concerned with baring our hearts before God.

Youth ministry made a big impact in my life. In short, I believe youth ministry is the best thing to happen to church in the past 100 years. I’m no longer a youth pastor. I’m now the “senior” pastor (although there is no one else on staff at our church, so that makes no sense). My goal is to turn this church into as much of a youth group as I can. In my opinion, youth ministry shows the church just exactly how far it is fallen and where to start in getting back on track. No, youth ministry isn’t perfect. It’s far from that. But it’s the one area of church ministry that should be encouraged and even modeled after–not vilified and removed.

In my opinion, rather than get rid of them, churches need to become more like their youth groups. Many churches already are. If anything, I say: Youth group all the more, baby!!!

I must strive to have enough faith in God to believe that He can work through all sorts of situations and people like me that aren’t ideal.

Perhaps instead of striving to become a more ideal leader or to make situations more ideal/biblical/effective, I should strive more to place my faith and hope squarely in God, believing that He can do great things in very imperfect situations and through very imperfect people like me.

I can’t get away from that thought. I strongly desire to see things become ideal in churches. That’s where my passion lies. It’s ideal if everyone in a local church is on-fire for God–I want to see that happen! It’s ideal if the leadership of a church is unified, passionate, and committed to the Gospel–I want to see that happen!

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I think that God has put those feelings inside of me. The problem comes when I can’t see a way for God to have His way unless those things are in place. I forget that God merely spoke this world into existence–and that He considered that a full-day’s work. After six days of speaking, He felt the need to take a day off to rest, ha!

God only has to speak the word, and He has His way. No matter how ideal or depressing a situation is, He squirms His way through and performs a miracle. Whether it is the miracle of life or the miracle of life from the dead, a simple faith in God is all it takes to move mountains. You don’t need this in place or that in place. All you need is God to show up.

And He promises to show up where 2 or 3 are gathered in His name. Take a look at the stars at night and let them remind you of everything our God can do.