Mid-Week News 4-26-12

Dear Family of Faith, What a gorgeous week in Florida this has been-- blue skies, cooler weather, low humidity! We couldn't ask for more. I hope that you have taken advantage of the days and gotten out to enjoy God's gift to us. A recent cover of Newsweek magazine had as its headline "Forget the church! Follow Jesus!" I got to thinking about that (naturally). It's so indicative of what is happening in religion these days. On the one hand, the movement toward "practical religion" in which one's belief is made visible is admirable. I'm not much for people who say that they are Christian and act like the devil, so to speak. On the other hand, there seems to be a trend in modern society to reduce religion to its lowest common denominator, namely to make it a purely ethical system of values, which most world religions have in common. For example, "love your neighbor as yourself" is not found just in Christianity and Judaism but in Hinduism and Islam as well. What I fear, is that this trend toward "doing your religion" forgets to take one very important thing into consideration-- namely the power to do it, which is the Holy Spirit. Christianity maintains that if we could 'do it' by ourselves, we wouldn't have needed Jesus. Jesus comes to us because we can't 'do it' by ourselves. And we certainly can't do it by ourselves by ourselves (yes I meant to write that twice!). In other words, we are incapable of perfection and we need each other in this journey of faith. From a biblical perspective there is no such thing as a 'lone ranger' Christian. Sunday morning worship may seem like a gathering of saints, but it is, in reality, a collection of sinners who need the grace of God and the support of others. That's what I like about my religion; it's realistic. I don't need to pretend that I'm perfect. I only need to be honest about my imperfections and find forgiveness and another chance. In the church we huddle together to face the storms of life and experiencing the unlikely, awesome power of God to triumph in spite of ourselves. The real headline in Newsweek should be "Follow Jesus and stick with the Church!" I hope you will. On this morning's talk shows people were discussing Mitt Romney's time as a bishop in the Mormon Church. Predictably some people liked him and some did not. It got me to thinking about leadership in the church-- pastors, teachers, moderators, etc. Since all of us are sinners and imperfect, how are we to judge whether someone is a good leader or not. After all, I probably learned the most from teachers in my life that I didn't like (because they were too demanding). We cannot judge people's leadership abilities by their character, for all of us have flawed characters. Neither can we judge them by whether we feel a personal affinity toward the leader since we all have different preferences in personalities. The only valid judge of a Christian leader is whether God uses that leader to transform people's lives. The most undeserving people are often used by God to do the greatest things. I hope that you will judge my leadership not by whether you 'like me' or not or whether you think I'm a good person or not, but rather by what you see God doing through me as a pastor. You see, no good pastor ever chose to be one; he/she has been called to the position because it was God's desire. The movie Amadeus is a great portrayal of this grace of God. Check it out if you haven't seen it. A lot of people didn't like John the Baptist, but God used him. A lot of people didn't like Jesus either, but we know him as God's Son. Next time you get to thinking about some Christian leader, don't worry about liking him or her. Ask yourself, "Is God using this person to bless the world?" That's what matters in the end. You are great people, and I thank God every day for the privilege of being part of our church. See you Sunday! With affection, Pastor Carlan