One Pastor's Perspective

YOU MIGHT BE A PASTOR IF…

~ You hesitate to tell people what you do for a living.
~ You’ve ever dreamed you were preaching only to awaken and discover you were.
~ You’ve ever wondered why people couldn’t die at more appropriate times.
~ You find yourself counting people at a sporting event.
~ You’re leading the church into the 21st century, but you don’t know what you’re preaching on Sunday.
~ A church picnic is no picnic.
~ You jiggle all the commode handles at the church before you leave.
~ You’ve ever spoken for free and were worth every penny of it.
~ People sleep while you’re talking.
~ Instead of getting “ticked off,” you get “grieved in your spirit.”
~ You’ve ever been tempted to take an offering at a family reunion.
~ You read sermons to your kids at night instead of bedtime stories.
~ You’d rather talk to people with every head bowed and every eye closed.
~ You’ve ever wanted to “lay hands” around a deacon’s neck.
~ You often feel like you’re herding cats rather than shepherding sheep.
~ Your greatest joys (and biggest heartaches) have been in the church.

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The operative part of that phrase is WITH GOD. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and He is everywhere. There is NOTHING that is beyond his scope or reach or ability. He really is all of that and more.

One of the mistakes we make is we expect Him to be more of a genie-in-a-bottle than OUR LORD. He expect Him to grant our wishes and be at our beckoning. HE IS GOD!!! We are us. THINK ABOUT IT!

How insulting is it to Him for us to ONLY approach Him when something needs fixed or when we need a miracle! And, yet, that is what we do over and over again. I really believe it breaks His heart.

Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible FOR God. And, it is a miracle that He loves us so much He sent His Son to die on a cross for us. Man, we don’t deserve His love.

http://www.sermonspice.com/videos/19889/discipleship-linebacker

Living in New Orleans for three years taught me a little about oil companies and their politics. For example, when we were in the Big Easy both Chevron and Shell had corporate offices and many industry workers living in the city. Therefore, gas prices were always HIGHER and oil industry folks always told me it was to imply the industry was not doing well to its employees (but they ALL knew better).

I know that gas prices are set on speculation, not what they paid for the gas in the tanks at the station but what it will cost to REPLACE that gas. I don’t like it, but I understand that theory. Okay, so explain THIS: According to one of the business reporters on Fox News, the average price of a gallon of gas has decreased since July by ~25 cents. Okay, we should be thankful. HOWEVER, the average WHOLESALE price of a gallon has decreased by ~95 cents. So that theory about what it cost to replace the gas is BULL.

Who is making the money from this?? Gas distributors, according to this reporter. I am trying not to become one of these conspiracy theorists, but WE ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF!! They also commented that Ike did not do much damage at all, so things should return to normal soon. WILL PRICES RETURN to where they were??

Who do I need to get Mark Jones to call about this????

As I write in my blog this morning, I am wearing my EBC Disaster Relief tshirt. NOT because I am writing about it . . . It just so happens that is the shirt I will wear to the Y in a few minutes. But the shirt reminds me of three years ago when we went to Gulfport in the wake of Katrina. I referenced that trip in my sermon yesterday and commented that it was a horrible trip and a great one. Horrible, because of the devastation and hurt that we saw in the eyes of Gulf Coast residents as they watched all they knew to be security and “home” ripped away.

The great part of the trip was the relationship-building that happened between our crew. Tom Boan has been a friend of mine since we moved to Florence 13 years ago, but nothing will replace the time we spent in his van. It was fun.

Today, another hurricane has devastated and the destination is a little farther than Mississippi. BUT once again people are hurting. Will we be a one-disaster church, or are we up to the task?? If God calls, will YOU go?

I have NEVER in my lifetime seen things like I saw last night. I made a huge mistake yesterday when I rode by the WalMart gas station, saw gas for 3.41, and DID NOT STOP. And, I thought about it, but did not have time.

What I didn’t know was that just a few hours later, there would be a massive jump in price AND a mass panic in Florence. Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the Gulf and there is talk of a large refinery in Houston being hit . . . ergo, Florence is PANICKED. And there were fights at the pump.

After Krissy’s softball game, we rode over to WalMart again, hoping things had calmed down. They had not. In fact, cars were lined up all the way back to the store! And the cops were there! That one I wondered about, but did not stop to find out why. We continued to drive. EVERY GAS STATION WE SAW was OVERWHELMED with people. I was beginning to wonder IF I would get gas.

We were able to get in line at a station on Second Loop. Gas was still reasonably priced at that one. I pulled in behind a car, only to notice a young girl, trying to pull in the wrong way, kind of lined up behind the guy pumping in front of me. And she started yelling at me, although I never heard her and she never got out of her car. I noticed that I could pull into another line, so I did. Marvin Slaughter was pumping in a line beside me. He told me he hadn’t seen anything like this since 1973. As we talked, a Jeep pulled in to the first spot I was in. The girl started yelling, and then the GUY pumping gas started yelling at the guy in the Jeep and the guy in the Jeep was yelling back. I wondered how all of that would end up.

I did get my gas, but what I noticed was a great tension in the people. People were scared. I don’t know for a fact, but I bet the police were at WalMart to PREVENT this OR to STOP one that had already erupted.

Either way, it was nuts.

That is a good place to be for a church. There is so much going on at Ebenezer, I cannot keep track of it all. And that IS a good thing. Ebenezer is at the place in her growth that so many ministries are starting and rolling that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for one person to keep track. That is why we, as a church, MUST surround ourselves with good people we trust to conduct ministry. That is the CHURCH being the CHURCH.

The only difficulty in this is there are still people with that small-church mindset that think the pastor should know EVERYTHING, do EVERYTHING, and attend EVERYTHING. We have reached the point where that would be PHYSICALLY impossible, unless we all agree to clone me, and if nothing else we can ALL agree THAT would be a bad idea.

So, for now, GOD BLESS A CHURCH that has so much going on. Because, as far as I can tell, it is ALL stuff done in His name to build His kingdom.

I am proud of my friend and our sherriff, Kenney Boone. This is the way he rolls . . . Using Youtube to FIGHT DRUGS. KEEP IT UP, KENNEY!

And, if you are a parent, please watch this with your kids.

I don’t watch TOO much NFL football. I am a much bigger college fan. But I found my self drawn into the Saints – Tampa Bay game yesterday. And it was a good game. New Orleans is a finicky city and the Saints have NEVER done too well. I would love to see them contend for a league championship. But that might be one of those things that is never meant to be.

I saw the Saints in the Superdome ONCE in my three years in the Crescent City. It was a Thursday night game against the Washington Redskins. A group of guys from the seminary got tickets and went down together. One of my buddies wore his Redskins cap (which we ALL knew was a mistake) and the funniest things happened to him. The funniest was how the two sweet little old ladies that sat behind us treated him once the game started. In SC, we THINK we know how to talk smack about sports. These were the sweetest little old ladies UNTIL KICKOFF. Then, they spent the next few hours TORMENTING Richard. And that in itself was FUNNY. And, of course, it was one of the few games New Orleans actually WON that year.

Yesterday I found myself really cheering for them and it was a good game. Not a fluke win, but a well-played game. I hope they have many more of those this year.

When we showed up to the Camden High stadium and had to walk through a METAL DETECTOR, I knew it would be an interesing evening. And it was. To make a long, painful story really short, the first half was tainted by so many bad calls, and they ALL went Camden’s way. TWO tds called back for holding . . . One other long run, same call . . . A “completed” pass by Camden that bounced two feet in front of the receiver before he trapped it on the ground (that happend right in front of us) and NONE of the officials wanted to make a call after it. They all just stared at each other for a few seconds and the head guy finally signalled it complete. And on the same drive, a pass interference call where two of our defensive backs collided and dropped an interception because the receiver pushed one of them into the other one as the ball got there, and the ref threw a flag and called it AGAINST US!! That call led to us going into the locker room in a 14-14 tie.

The second half was no better. I sure hope WF videos, and plans to send it to the SCHSF. There was no question we would have to beat Camden AS WELL AS five zebras. In the end, WE DID!! And a ninth grader, Justin Gainey, who is the JV kicker, was the difference in the game with a field goal and three extra points as we won. And some great kickoffs. Because of some team problems, he was pulled up and the weight of the whole world was placed squarely on him. AND HE HANDLED IT WELL. And we won, 24-20.

And, as we got out of dodge after the game was over, I understood why that metal detector was there and just hoped they made the fans on the other side of the field walk through one, too.