The Holy Spirit's work in Facebook

A few moments ago I tried to post something as my status on facebook...

...and it stopped me.

[Something along the lines of: "Your attempted status is too long! Maximum characters exceeded..." (this isn't precisely what it said, but I took the point.)]

It stopped me, and I'm glad for it. I'd much rather write a little more thoroughly on the topic... whether its warranted or not, you be the judge.

Here's what I wanted to post...


Dear Christian Friends; I love you all dearly! And my non-Christian friends too! (who I know are also reading our posts...)
Therefore, let's be sure that all of our social-public discourse on the things of God keeps Christ at its focal point... not the fact that "we're" right and "they're" not.

Mark 2:27-28 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."


I thought about how to shorten it (I was only 8 or 9 characters over the limit), but I decided that a combination of fate and God's hand had delayed what might have been a caffeine-induced post.

I'm not considering changing my mind on this - and I haven't edited the content above - but I think it is something that I need to sit back and reflect on a little more.

The basis of what has been rolling around in my mind is this;

How should we who are pastors be utilizing social media?

-and more to the point -

Have we forgotten our public role of 'shepherd' for the sake of the simplicity of 'putting ourselves out there'?


Of course, I do find the irony in the fact that when one Internet venue puts up a slight roadblock, I re-direct myself into another medium that is equally as public and potentially hazardous toward the condition of those who read it.

Here's my concern; [in a 3-point list, since I am a pastor after all...]

• I have friends who are blatantly Christian and I have friends/acquaintances who are not.
• Many of us, in the 'real' world, gladly temper our public image so as not to cause offense or injury to others (or, more importantly, to the Gospel of Jesus)
• Yet, when it comes to our 'Friend' list or 'Followers', we are quite brazen and often unfiltered when it comes to what we consider 'Tweet-able'

There are enjoyable debates that I witnessed (and many less than enjoyable that I walked away from) while at the Seminary... and it seems that we pastor-types tend to revert to that when we get together. This I can understand and appreciate. We need the mental 'pick-me-up' and refresher, especially with how we have been wired through the institutions that helped form us. This is important indeed!

But, its easy to forget: that's NOT how the 'normal' people of the world think, act, or are prepared for!

Instead, what image of pastors do we portray for people who don't have the same background and context as we do? It looks pretty nitpick-y. It looks mean-spirited. It looks haughty.

...and in short,

(thought I KNOW for certain to the bottom of my heart that these are Christian people who love God and appreciate the grace and love that has been delivered through faith in Christ alone...)

We look like the Pharisees.

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(There, I said it. And no, it didn't feel good.)

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I don't want to stop the debates over the sensitive issues of our churches.
I don't think that everything should be left as the 'status quo'.
I really don't want our people to stop hearing about the importance of those things that God holds so dearly and gifts to us...

But what I'm trying to lovingly suggest is as follows;

When we 'post' or 'tweet' or 'reply'; imagine yourself standing outside your church, fully vested with the processional cross in one hand and a nicely-lit billboard sitting next to you proclaiming the very thing you just handed out to the Internet world. All your members see you and read what you've written, and all their friends who drive past look over their shoulders and associate you with your membership (their Christian friends)... and more lastingly, to their image of Christ.

Are we holding up the cross for the sake of the cross, or in order to make ourselves heard?


Conversely, (and in a much more positive form of statement) imagine all the ways that the unlimited power and influence of the Holy Spirit can be delivered through these media.

I ask that we simply consider this...

...

Please receive this in my own best efforts at Christian love, as I know that I too am guilty of that which I comment upon.

In our Christ,

- Matt

Videos for Church

I've been doing some work for our upcoming Jr. High Gathering, and as a result I'm trying to remember how to be "cool" as well as "interesting"...

hmmm... yeah.

So to help, I've been looking around on our favorite church-video site, BluefishTV.

(This is sounding way more like a commercial than I intended!)

Anyhow, here's a fun one that I might end up using in the not to distant future...

Definitely something that I'm trying to remind myself and our congregation of. The concept of not having to be the "expert"... and letting God work through what He's made.

This is wholeheartedly a concept that goes with this WhitePigeonHope idea: The Holy Spirit of God will use you quite effectively when and where and how He chooses... just be there for it, and let His hand do the work!


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Mission Month

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts) chapter 1, verses 6 through 9.



6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Its Mission Month at our church.

We're going to dwell for a while on Acts 1:8; the idea of being witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the Ends of the Earth.

That's a lot of witnessing!

I imagine that it would've been pretty imposing for the disciples as well.

They get this command to do all this work (with the help of the Holy Spirit... which they currently do not fully understand) and then they have to watch Jesus leave them! And He does so in one of His miraculous and amazing ways... ascending into heaven.

So there they are - as we are today - literally stunned into silence and staring up at the sky. Too afraid to lower their eyes, for fear that they'll have to get a gameplan together in order to get that job of witnessing done. When along comes one of my more favorite moments in scripture (the angels always have the fun jobs) ...

10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

If I'd been one of the disciples, caught up in the momentous awe and wonder, I would've jumped out of my skin!


So why do we stand there and look into the sky?
He's just told us that the times and the dates aren't for us to know... so we might as well get a move on. ... Commence the witnessing!!!

But that's not easy or fun, is it?

No, not on our own.

But we're not on our own...

May God's Holy Spirit be with you and with all of us, as we seek to make good on the opportunities to witness that God provides for us this month!

(more to come later... maybe.)

Pentecost

50 days after Passover...

50 days since Jesus payment as the sacrificial lamb...

He ascended about a week ago...

Now we celebrate again in Jerusalem - and throughout the world!

Pentecost is an easily forgotten church holiday. Its not the one where we get candy, its not the one where we get presents, it isn't even the one when Mom makes us all wake up early and go to church because Dad bought her flowers! (OK, so Mother's Day technically isn't a church holiday... but if you asked around, that's probably the 3rd "Big Church Day" for many families in our country. Right?)

Pentecost is the day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming in an amazing way and kicking off the real work of the Church on Earth.

And yet since its so easily forgotten, it sort-of makes it all the more appropriate... given the situation for the Holy Spirit.

This is all just going back the the main point of this blog, I suppose.
The idea that God continuously works in sometimes quiet and sometimes not so quiet ways through the efforts of the Holy Spirit in our world.

Pentecost is a day to blow the trumpet for the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity, to be sure. But the really great part about the Holy Spirit is that, regardless of whether we recognize His work in our lives or the lives of those around us, He still does His thing!

Praise the Lord that the Spirit continues to work in our world through the Word of God and His people!




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Like a teleprompter in my head...

Tonight was our first Membership Class as part of a new concept that I'm trying out here at church. I invited the Long-Standing (carefully avoiding the term 'Old') Members to join us for review as one of our Elders and I taught a New Member Class on the topics of:

1) Martin Luther's Reformation
2) Classic Bible Narratives
3) The Chief Parts of the Catechism

It turns out that Luther's life works really well to go along with sharing the doctrines of the faith... and there are always good Bible stories to go with the teachings of the church.

...that's kinda how we got those teachings.

(That's a bit of sarcasm, for those who might not be aware. Our church only gets its doctrine from the Bible.)

But anyhow, to get to tonight's point:
As I spoke stood in front of the class tonight, I was blessed to have the 'right' words more often than not. At least I believe that they were the right words - because its pretty hard for me to take credit for them.
Its not like I can claim to be in any sort of trance, or that I was speaking in tongues (in the sense that most people think of strange language babble), but sometimes when you get talking about God's Word and explaining the Gospel it seems like the words just come!

I could compare it to having a teleprompter somewhere in my head.

Certainly the concepts and the language are not all that strange.
The actual words have likely passed through my lips before as well.
At the very least, I can give credit to other people much wiser and more learned than myself as having spoken those words in my presence.

But the ability to smoothly string all those concepts together; that's something else entirely.

And don't go believing that I was prepared enough to have things go so smoothly!

...that certainly isn't the case.

Instead, I'm giving credit to the Holy Spirit for doing some good work even though He's working through a relative simpleton such as me.

This is just another example of that whole "White Pigeon" concept...

Just God taking the opportunity (at least I pray) to quietly and unmiraculously do some melding and shaping of His people for the sake of His Kingdom and sharing the Good News that Jesus is the Christ!

Its a lot of fun to be along for the ride.


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