5/29/17 update: I am now expanding this blog to include various persons of ALL walks of life for whom I ask you to pray for as well (not just pastors). And in some cases pray for their CONVERSION TO CHRIST, or a re-COMMITTMENT (return) to Christ!
---------
WELCOME ! SO I think God impressed it upon me as I was leaving a church today that I (or we) need to be praying MORE for our pastors, priests, church leaders, ministers, reverends, et al...whatever you wish to call those who serve the body of Christ as leaders, especially those who interpret & deliver the Word of God to the people. Clearly, ALL types of church leaders (musicians, youth group, sunday school, etc ) need our prayers as we also need the prayers of the church leaders, but I am especially concerned about those who are in positions of strong authority in the church and whose decisions have very meaningful (for better or worse) and lasting impact on the body of Christ, near & far.
---------
WELCOME ! SO I think God impressed it upon me as I was leaving a church today that I (or we) need to be praying MORE for our pastors, priests, church leaders, ministers, reverends, et al...whatever you wish to call those who serve the body of Christ as leaders, especially those who interpret & deliver the Word of God to the people. Clearly, ALL types of church leaders (musicians, youth group, sunday school, etc ) need our prayers as we also need the prayers of the church leaders, but I am especially concerned about those who are in positions of strong authority in the church and whose decisions have very meaningful (for better or worse) and lasting impact on the body of Christ, near & far.
This blog is about honest prayer, stating clearly & frankly those things which I (or we) see that may be matters of concern. Let's face it, as our senior pastors age & enter their "golden years" they still maintain a humongous amount of influence, and some are not inclined whatsoever to "retire" or hand-off the baton to others.
Thus, a pastors with a 50's perspective on life may still be preaching as the main pulpit person still in the 2014 era & beyond. This is NOT to say the 50's are bad or good, but that whatever era one is born &/or grows up in influences almost everything they say, think, do, & interpret, including the gospel. While they may be interpreting the gospel in a correct manner, they are still filtering it to a certain extent in accordance with their own lifestyle, personal experiences, gender, age, race, skin color, & the list goes on.
This "filter" isn't "right" or "wrong" ...it just simply is something that is part of every single person's modus operandi (m.o.). For example, I periodically attend a Bible study (actually one pastor lectures to us for an hour with a few questions at the end) which consists of an older leader and mostly older attendees (ie 60's & up).
It is clear to me that my presence, if I do not remain somewhat of a "wallflower" is of concern to some in the audience, as if they are intent on maintaining a point-of-view for the elderly; and do not want a "young-un" (old country slang for a "young one" ) getting "too big for his britches" in the class. And so I remain quiet and in the background.
But what concerns me is that the true gospel while being preached or taught by the pastor (who does his best to incorporate greek & other aspects of good exegesis) may be going in one ear and out the other of the audience who are more intent on having an hour of relative peace in a cool room on a hot day, with a few snacks & drinks to sip on while listening.
Thus, prayers for the parishioners need to be included as well, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the pastor to recognize this phenomena and address it accordingly rather than simply "go with the flow." Hence, the pendulum turns back to the pastor.
And this is always the case: The pastor or pastors of each & every church must be working every day to maintain a healthy ecclesiastical organization that truly reflects God's intention for the body of Christ. The church cannot become a club whereby the pastor is at the top of the luxury pyramid, and various others in order downward.
Yet, that is my concern: there are big and small churches, especially some mega-churches where the pastor becomes a celebrity of sorts, and the church becomes "Joe Celebrity #1's" church and "Joe Celebrity #2's" church. Maybe I especially am wary of that because I attend some of the large churches in southern California...maybe there's more of that around here than other places; but nonetheless, every church is always in a state of flux for better or worse and the pastor needs to be able to control his or her ego so that it is for the better, rather than for the worse.
And so I will be posting my thoughts & prayers about these churches & pastors periodically so that I TOO may have a voice. By the way, I too am a pastor by education & calling, albeit I do not have a physical pulpit or a church building to call my "own." I do street ministry & online ministry among other things, but feel sometimes that I am getting "quashed" by the big-wigs at some of the large churches where the pastor's are known worldwide by name; and they have much wealth & influence so that people kowtow (
to them
(like employees do around their "boss." )
And once again, this concerns me when a pastor becomes too much like a "boss" and has security all around the church to maintain total devotion, focus, & respect towards the pulpit. That's not to say we should be irreverent or disrespectful towards the pastors and/or the pulpit, but that there needs to be some give-&-take whereby the parishioners do not become mere lackies"
( " A group of people that cant think for themselves, and have a Boss that does the thinking for them. Anyone that lacks the inteligence to figure it out for themselves."
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lacky )
YET, on the other hand, I understand why some pastor's feel the need to control because we live in a society where people are more & more selfish & egotistical, ...
yes, including many who attend church, unfortunately. So, once again, the pendulum swings back at the parishioners and our prayers for their (our) true conversion...of total heart, mind, & soul for Christ.
I begin this blog with a prayer for Rick Warren @ saddleback church. I heard his message at the main campus this morning (he appeared via video; seems to be less & less often actually at the church...my concern being that he may be over-extending himself; and by the way, he personally lambasted bloggers during his message...which made me sit up a bit because I spend a lot of time blogging...positively blogging that is..while he was criticizing bloggers for being critical,saying "how easy" it is to be critical...and that you can "train a monkey" to be critical. My question or retort was what about being critical from the pulpit? How easy is that as well?
To be fair, I understand his concern about critical bloggers. There are those who seem to thrive on being negative about anything & everything...when YouTube first began the comment section almost ruined the entire video website...so much so that YouTube finally revamped it so that it is now much more difficult to ruin people's websites by negative comments (in fact you can turn off comments altogether if you wish, thank God...truly thank God).
However, on the other hand, we need good editorials, thoughtful articles, educated bloggers et al keeping tabs on what is happening in society...from politics and the president to sports & concerts & hollywood, and YES also the church & our pastors. Our pastors are human too and we need to also thoughtfully & fairly criticize them just as much as they do to us. I'm not talking about Joe Schmoe who dropped out of school to work at a convenience store dropping F-bombs and other perversions in comment boxes or personal blogs. I'm talking about good decent persons who also attend church but do NOT have a voice AT the church...but who deserve to be heard . It's only right & fair.
Next, I will add a thought & prayer for Ron Keller at Mariners church who teaches a class at 11am every sunday. He's a decent fellow and always comes prepared with a paper handout/outline for everybody. And he speaks "frankly" and loudly about anything & everything, including other churches with which he disagrees. To be fair, his criticisms are incorporated into the topic of his lecture for that day, but nonetheless, he doesn't hold back in naming names & churches with which he disagrees and/or dislikes.
Sometimes I agree with what he says; other times I may either disagree or wish to add a "footnote" or nuance to what he is saying. And that's one of the problems with pastors who are sometimes "larger than life." Their sermons, homilies, messages, lectures, et al often tend to generalize & categorize...sometimes too much black-&-white, without any gray. It makes for more dynamic speaking & preaching, BUT is it always the full truth ?
Which leads me to note that Jesus Himself was "peripatetic." This comes from Greek meaning one who moves around, wanders, works in different places, et al. It's not to say He was "homeless" in the negative connotation it has today, but that he PURPOSELY moved around and stayed "mobile." He didn't spend a lot of time at one place preaching a prepared sermon with three points to write down aon a sheet of paper.
So in my prayers for pastors I may be adding thoughts about whether our modern style of worship & preaching is truly in accord with God's will for the church. Does it truly help us "be all we can be"?
I am running out of time for now...have to go..and so I will leave this intro & welcome as is for now...stay tuned for more thoughts & prayers for our pastors et al. God bless you all...please join in with prayers ..maybe at some time I will allow public posting to this site....
It is clear to me that my presence, if I do not remain somewhat of a "wallflower" is of concern to some in the audience, as if they are intent on maintaining a point-of-view for the elderly; and do not want a "young-un" (old country slang for a "young one" ) getting "too big for his britches" in the class. And so I remain quiet and in the background.
But what concerns me is that the true gospel while being preached or taught by the pastor (who does his best to incorporate greek & other aspects of good exegesis) may be going in one ear and out the other of the audience who are more intent on having an hour of relative peace in a cool room on a hot day, with a few snacks & drinks to sip on while listening.
Thus, prayers for the parishioners need to be included as well, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the pastor to recognize this phenomena and address it accordingly rather than simply "go with the flow." Hence, the pendulum turns back to the pastor.
And this is always the case: The pastor or pastors of each & every church must be working every day to maintain a healthy ecclesiastical organization that truly reflects God's intention for the body of Christ. The church cannot become a club whereby the pastor is at the top of the luxury pyramid, and various others in order downward.
Yet, that is my concern: there are big and small churches, especially some mega-churches where the pastor becomes a celebrity of sorts, and the church becomes "Joe Celebrity #1's" church and "Joe Celebrity #2's" church. Maybe I especially am wary of that because I attend some of the large churches in southern California...maybe there's more of that around here than other places; but nonetheless, every church is always in a state of flux for better or worse and the pastor needs to be able to control his or her ego so that it is for the better, rather than for the worse.
And so I will be posting my thoughts & prayers about these churches & pastors periodically so that I TOO may have a voice. By the way, I too am a pastor by education & calling, albeit I do not have a physical pulpit or a church building to call my "own." I do street ministry & online ministry among other things, but feel sometimes that I am getting "quashed" by the big-wigs at some of the large churches where the pastor's are known worldwide by name; and they have much wealth & influence so that people kowtow (
"...act in an excessively subservient manner.
"she didn't have to kowtow to a boss"
| synonyms: | grovel to, be obsequious to, be servile to, be sycophantic to, fawn over/on, cringe to, bow and scrape to, toady to, truckle to, abase oneself before, humble oneself to;..."https://www.google.com/search?q=cowtow&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a |
(like employees do around their "boss." )
And once again, this concerns me when a pastor becomes too much like a "boss" and has security all around the church to maintain total devotion, focus, & respect towards the pulpit. That's not to say we should be irreverent or disrespectful towards the pastors and/or the pulpit, but that there needs to be some give-&-take whereby the parishioners do not become mere lackies"
( " A group of people that cant think for themselves, and have a Boss that does the thinking for them. Anyone that lacks the inteligence to figure it out for themselves."
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lacky )
YET, on the other hand, I understand why some pastor's feel the need to control because we live in a society where people are more & more selfish & egotistical, ...
yes, including many who attend church, unfortunately. So, once again, the pendulum swings back at the parishioners and our prayers for their (our) true conversion...of total heart, mind, & soul for Christ.
I begin this blog with a prayer for Rick Warren @ saddleback church. I heard his message at the main campus this morning (he appeared via video; seems to be less & less often actually at the church...my concern being that he may be over-extending himself; and by the way, he personally lambasted bloggers during his message...which made me sit up a bit because I spend a lot of time blogging...positively blogging that is..while he was criticizing bloggers for being critical,saying "how easy" it is to be critical...and that you can "train a monkey" to be critical. My question or retort was what about being critical from the pulpit? How easy is that as well?
To be fair, I understand his concern about critical bloggers. There are those who seem to thrive on being negative about anything & everything...when YouTube first began the comment section almost ruined the entire video website...so much so that YouTube finally revamped it so that it is now much more difficult to ruin people's websites by negative comments (in fact you can turn off comments altogether if you wish, thank God...truly thank God).
However, on the other hand, we need good editorials, thoughtful articles, educated bloggers et al keeping tabs on what is happening in society...from politics and the president to sports & concerts & hollywood, and YES also the church & our pastors. Our pastors are human too and we need to also thoughtfully & fairly criticize them just as much as they do to us. I'm not talking about Joe Schmoe who dropped out of school to work at a convenience store dropping F-bombs and other perversions in comment boxes or personal blogs. I'm talking about good decent persons who also attend church but do NOT have a voice AT the church...but who deserve to be heard . It's only right & fair.
Next, I will add a thought & prayer for Ron Keller at Mariners church who teaches a class at 11am every sunday. He's a decent fellow and always comes prepared with a paper handout/outline for everybody. And he speaks "frankly" and loudly about anything & everything, including other churches with which he disagrees. To be fair, his criticisms are incorporated into the topic of his lecture for that day, but nonetheless, he doesn't hold back in naming names & churches with which he disagrees and/or dislikes.
Sometimes I agree with what he says; other times I may either disagree or wish to add a "footnote" or nuance to what he is saying. And that's one of the problems with pastors who are sometimes "larger than life." Their sermons, homilies, messages, lectures, et al often tend to generalize & categorize...sometimes too much black-&-white, without any gray. It makes for more dynamic speaking & preaching, BUT is it always the full truth ?
Which leads me to note that Jesus Himself was "peripatetic." This comes from Greek meaning one who moves around, wanders, works in different places, et al. It's not to say He was "homeless" in the negative connotation it has today, but that he PURPOSELY moved around and stayed "mobile." He didn't spend a lot of time at one place preaching a prepared sermon with three points to write down aon a sheet of paper.
So in my prayers for pastors I may be adding thoughts about whether our modern style of worship & preaching is truly in accord with God's will for the church. Does it truly help us "be all we can be"?
I am running out of time for now...have to go..and so I will leave this intro & welcome as is for now...stay tuned for more thoughts & prayers for our pastors et al. God bless you all...please join in with prayers ..maybe at some time I will allow public posting to this site....
