Forgive me for not sharing my thoughts in a couple of weeks but I have been predisposed. I spent last week at our middle school beach retreat and had a blast. While 90% of my time was spent with other helpers in the kitchen preparing food for the youngens', the remainder of my days were spent getting to know the kids better. In a church such as ours I don't get to spend much time with them. It must have gone ok because I have been asked to be friends with several of them on Facebook in the last couple of days. How cool is that? Middle schoolers wanting to be friends with their pastor!
But that's the reason I haven't written recently, not the reason I am writing today. I feel compelled to express my thoughts today on what I consider the second most important task I have as pastor. That would be casting our vision. The most important, is of course, teaching the Word. Earlier today I had someone stop by my office to ask a simple question that was bugging her. "How can people who claim to be Christians be so mean?" Not being from the South, I tried to explain the difference between real faith in Christ and Christian culture. Real faith transforms a life from the inside out. The Christian culture masks the real content of a person's heart in a deluge of Christian vocabulary and activities. True faith in Christ treats people as God's highest creation with worth and purpose. The Christian culture, particularly in our part of the country, finds it easier to put others down than take a serious look at ones self. Real faith in Christ actually directs a persons words and actions. Cultural Chritianity is often totally divorced from a person's actions. It is enough to just "look good" rather than "be good."
The conversation gave me a reason to relate my philosophy of ministry. You see 21 years ago when I became Dallas Bay's first pastor I decided to do things differently. Because I had grown up in and around the Christian culture of the South I understood it's faults. I understood that many people lived one way on Sunday and a completely different way the other days of the week. That was acceptable. It was a given. (Please note I said this was many people, not everyone. There have always been strong faithful followers of Christ even in the midst of our Chritian culture.) I had seen how the preacher was held to a higher standard of conduct than anyone else in the community. His job was to live above reproach and then admonish his congregation to live as pure as he said he did. The church would thank him after the service for stepping on their toes. They would secretly would wish they could achieve the high moral standards as the pastor, but doubted it would ever become a reality in their lives. Sadly, if the pastor were to be totally transparent about his own struggles, he would lose his job and the respect of the Christian culture where he served. Not necessarily in that order. The church would just call another pastor and continue to play parts in their comfortable and assigned roles.
Unfortunately, a lot of people came to the church to find real answers. Many of them came from outside the Christian culture. They were not content to play games. They understood they were broken and were looking for help. They did not live under the pretense that a weekly Sunday service would cure what ailed them. The were looking for a deeper walk with God that was 24/7. Where people could talk about their faults and their sins without being judged. Where transparency was more important than hypocrisy. They had even looked for God once or twice before, but were told by members of the culture that He could only be found Sunday morning at a designated place and at a designated time. Often times they went their to find that they were judged by their thoughts and their appearance. Mostly they found people who wanted them to conform to their culture, rather than be transformed into the image of God.
So, as I told this person, I set out at Dallas Bay to elevate a real relationship with Christ above a Christian culture. A place where people could talk openly about their struggles and not have to pretend to be better than they are. We bucked tradition for and opted for substance. A place where it is important to be the same person on Monday as you were on Sunday. And it's not ok to be mean to people. A real and daily relationship with Christ will not allow you to be.
Well, I think I may have told her more than she was expecting to hear with her question. But it made me revisit our vision and why it is so important to the ministry of Dallas Bay. I don't want us to ever slip into the mentallity of so many others where we just hide our faults and pretend. It seems God has blessed us for being who we are. I'm glad and thankful for that!
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