The worst verse in the Bible

I feel like I'm a pretty good person. 

I do my very best not to lie, cheat, steal. I've never killed anyone. 

I keep the "thou shalt nots" of the Bible.

I always put the seat down.

I am a good person. 

Right?

Let me tell you about the worst verse in the Bible. It is the verse that totally messed up my life.

When I was in high school, our youth group was talking about how fragile the future is. We studied James 4:13-16, which says, "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil."

Heavy stuff, right?

In short, you can make all the plans you want, but the future is in God's hands, and you need to be seeking after his will and his purposes for your life.

Actually, this is kind of freeing for a high school kid about to go off to college to try and figure out who they are to become. You don't have to have the future planned out! It's all in God's hands! 

But then I read verse 17. The worst verse in the Bible.

"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them."

Dang it.

I've been really good at keeping the "thou shalt nots," but I've stunk at keeping the implied "thou shalls." 

It means that every time I've minded my own business after recognizing injustice, big or small, I've missed the mark God wants me to aim for.

It means that every time I've looked out for myself instead of my neighbor, I've failed to be Christ-like.

It means that every time I've avoided getting involved for the sake of comfort, I've made the cross a little more uncomfortable for the one who had to bear it. 

And what makes it worse is that the four preceding verses talk about how short life is. Doing good isn't just something you should do, it's something VITAL to do because life is short. 

"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them."

But where is the line here? I mean, is Jesus expecting me to sell my home and all my possessions and live on the street so I can give my money to the poor? Am I supposed to make my family uncomfortable just so my neighbor can be comfortable?

Grey areas bother me. I want a definitive line of how good I have to be.

"Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

Oh come on.

I think the problem is that it seems like too much, so we decide to just do nothing. I can never be perfect, I can never do all the possible good, so why even try.

Instead, here's how I've tried to live this out. I think what Jesus is asking of us is a little more. Do the good you can do. Start small if you have to. See how it changes your life, your outlook, your understanding of the message of the gospel. See how it changes the lives of those who are recipients of your good works. What I've found is that each time, God pushes me to do just a tiny bit more, and I've never regretted giving it a try. 

James says another thing: "What good is it, my brothers and sister, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?...Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds."

When we come to recognize that following Christ is not just about the things we avoid doing, but also about the things we know we must do, it changes everything. 

James 4:17 is the worst verse in the Bible because it has made me change everything about how I live. And I couldn't be happier.

Bill Nye vs. God?

How can you not love Bill Nye the Science Guy? This was my favorite episode.

Maybe you heard that tonight, Bill Nye the Science Guy will face Ken Ham in a debate entitled: "Is Creation a Viable Model of Origins?" Ken Ham is the President and Founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum.

This will be a creation vs evolution debate, with my childhood hero Bill Nye as the enemy of God! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

But is that really the case?

Is belief in evolution totally opposed to belief in God?

Ham would say yes. In a nutshell, Ham believes that if you can't take the first chapter of Genesis literally, then you can't take the rest of the bible literally. Which would mean that you can't take anything Jesus said seriously. Which would mean Christianity is a sham.

So Ham has devoted his life to proving that a literal interpretation of Genesis and the creation account is not only possible, but is the way it actually happened. He shows how dinosaurs and humans could have walked the earth together. He shows how carbon dating techniques must be totally flawed.

I've never been to the creation museum, but know plenty of people who have been. By all accounts you could spend numerous days walking through and seeing the evidence for creation that Ham has laid out. And apparently, the place is pretty awesome.

If you'd like to watch the debate live from the Creation Museum, you can do so here.

But if you do, here are a few things I would encourage you to keep in mind:

1) There are several views of how God created the world. The main ones are listed in this graph:

Comparison of major creationist views

	Acceptance	Humanity	Biological species	Earth	Age of Universe
Young Earth creationism	40% (US)[44]	Directly created by God.	Directly created by God. Macroevolution does not occur.	Less than 10,000 years old. Reshaped by global flood.	Less than 10,000 years old (some hold this view only for our solar system).
Gap creationism				Scientifically accepted age. Reshaped by global flood.	Scientifically accepted age.
Progressive creationism	38% (US)[44]	Directly created by God (based on primate anatomy).	Direct creation + evolution. No single common ancestor.	Scientifically accepted age. No global flood.	Scientifically accepted age.
Intelligent design		Proponents hold various beliefs. for example, Behe accepts evolution from primates	Divine intervention at some point in the past, as evidenced by what intelligent-design creationists call "irreducible complexity"	Some adherents accept common descent, others not. Some claim the existence of Earth is the result of divine intervention	Scientifically accepted age
Theistic evolution(evolutionary creationism)		Evolution from primates.	Evolution from single common ancestor.	Scientifically accepted age. No global flood.	Scientifically accepted age.

Ham will be speaking specifically about Young Earth creationism, which is a view that the majority of theologians do not hold.

2) Evolutionary theory is what is on trial, not God. No matter what Ham or Nye try to say in this debate, the real issue at hand is how the world came into being. Was it literally the way it is written in Genesis 1? Or was there some sort of "big bang" involved? I love the way Louie Giglio says it, "I tend to believe that when God spoke the universe into existence, it would have created a fairly large bang." Our God is big enough and powerful enough to have created the world in numerous ways. 

3) Science is not the enemy of God. Instead, I would say that science is one of the coolest ways to learn about God. It doesn't disprove God, but shows the amazing complexity to the way in which God works in this extraordinary world that has been created.

4) Ham is not the elected representative for all of Christianity on this topic. At least, I didn't vote for him. It is always a little unnerving to me when someone speaks in such a way that they hold themselves to be the apologist for God and all things Christian. That feels dangerous to me. 

5) Christians are allowed to think. Faith is a good and beautiful thing, but it is ok to try to discover solid answers. Faith is meant to fill in the gaps, but has too often been used as an excuse to suspend logical thought. I believe God wants us to search and discover scientific truths that will reveal more and more of just how awesome he is.

So I wish both Ken Ham and Bill Nye the Science Guy good luck tonight. My hope is that in all of this, people will come to discover the awesomeness of God, and maybe...just maybe...Bill Nye will build an awesome model of a working volcano or something.

Who is the church for?

This question is probably the trickiest one I've had to navigate as a pastor. Here's the deal: I'm called to feed both the members of my church and the people in our community who have yet to hear about the love of Christ. The problem is, they don't like the same food. It's like inviting a vegan and a person on the Atkins diet over for dinner.

Lots of times this issue is manifested in terms of music style. A lot of us grew up in the church and love the old hymns. they invoke a spiritual memory in us that unites us to God in a very powerful way. But if you never grew up in church, the tendency is to gravitate towards music that sounds at least a little closer to what you would listen to on the radio. Both are good, both are valid. To make it trickier, some life-long churchgoers like the contemporary music, and some folks new to the faith like the hymns.

So who is the church for? Which of these groups should I try to please?

Ok, yes I know, worship is about pleasing God, not us. But is it more pleasing to God to feed God's sheep, or to go after the one who is lost? Jesus suggests we should do both!

Who is the church for?

Ok, yes I know, the church is the people, not the building or the event that happens at 9:00 and 10:30am on Sunday mornings. But the church building is where the church gathers and the church service is what the church does. Wait..."service"...is that supposed to mean something? Who are we serving?

Who is the church for?

Ok, yes I know, Jesus calls us to seek and save the lost. Maybe I should put aside the feelings of the life-long churchgoers, push them out of their comfort zone, and focus solely on the totally unchurched. I mean, have you read the parable of the prodigal son? It's about the son who is totally lost and comes home to the Father after falling deep into the muck and mire of sin. It is beautiful, poetic, grace when the Father runs to embrace his son. He goes out to him. The church should go out to the lost of our community as well.

But then...the Father goes out the the older brother. The one who had been there all along. Who knew the Father...or did he?...and had never left him. This brother is lost, too, in a much different way. Somehow, both the righteous and the unrighteous are lost. They both need brought to the Father. The Father goes out to both of them and pleads with them to come home. And when the older brother sees that the Father wants to bring in the younger brother and that there is a cost to this restoration for the older brother...he refuses to come in.

So is God choosing the younger son over the older son? Is God choosing the 1 lost sheep over the 99 he already has? Is God choosing the sinners over the saints?

Or are the saints choosing their own sainthood over a God that would choose sinners?

Who is the church for?

There's a really popular saying among churchy people right now: "The church is meant to be a hospital for the sick, not a museum for the saints."

Can it be both? Does Jesus hate saint museums?

Have you noticed there were never such things as "seeker services" in the early church? The church gatherings were initially for the family, those who were "in," and the lost got saved on the weekdays.

Somehow we've gotten to the point where we're so bad at saving the lost on weekdays we have to do it on the weekends when the church family get together was supposed to be. So we have to ask a new question:

Who is the church for?

Everything You Need to be Doing

There are 168 hours in a week.

Doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep each night.

That leaves you with 112 hours.

You should work at least 40 hour work week.

That leaves you with 72 hours.

Everyone needs to eat, take another hour each day. Down to 65.

Now you need to work off what you just ate. Hit the gym! 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week.

62.5 hours to go.

Have a commute to and from work? The one-way average is 30 minutes. You're at 55.5 hours.

And you can't go out looking like that. On average it takes 30 minutes (both men and women) to get ready each morning. I'll even let you slum it on Saturday. 52.5 hours left.

Then there are other things that take our time. Vacuum, laundry, dishes, mowing, car maintenance, paying bills...let's say an hour each day. 45.5 hours to go.

Now follow me on this one: you're supposed to drink 8 glasses of water every day. This means you will also be making a run to the little boys or girls room a LOT. Plus 30 seconds of handwashing each time. 6 times a day at five minutes each time. We're averaging here. That's three and a half hours a week in the bathroom. 42 hours.

You need to keep dating your spouse! Take another 3 hours, down to 39.

Go to church! 37 left.

You should probably buy some groceries. 35.

Did you know that kids are spending on average 5 hours a week in extracurriculars? And guess who is driving, which adds another hour to each day?

Bam 25 hours to go.

How about volunteering? Are you on the PTA? School board? Church committee? Average for that is an hour every day.

Down to 18.

Hopefully your family is healthy. But if someone gets sick...plus checkups, dentist, optometrist... let's be generous and say just 1 hour a week.

17.

You're spending at least an hour a day with your kids...right? Reading, playing...or more likely being a referee. Then putting them to bed.

12 to go.

Everyone needs at least an hour of leisure time each day. The average is 2...let's say 1.5 in this case. Reading, tv, surfing the web, just unwinding. Minus 10.5 hours.

You have 1.5 hours left in your week.

Oh yeah, you should probably walk the dog.

Zero. Perfect, you did it!

So how was your prayer life this week? Get much Bible reading done? Spend much time meditating or just listening for God's voice?

It sure is easy to feel guilty when we don't get to these things. We promise ourselves every Sunday morning we'll do better next week. But look back at the list...what are you going to cut out? It's easy to say "leisure," but that's probably why the majority of us are on antidepressants.

It's a hard thing to order your life in a way that allows you to grow closer to God. So I'm curious...how do you do it?

The Death of Facebook?

The great Yankee's catcher Yogi Berra once said: "No one goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

At last check, Facebook has 1.26 billion active users, and every social media junkie you talk to says that Facebook is dying and no one is using it anymore.

So what gives?

Two types of social media have developed: broad-based, and narrow-based. Broad-based intends to reach as big an audience as possible, while narrow-based is for a smaller circle of friends or around a shared interest or a specific kind of media like pictures or videos. The narrow-based are growing in number and popularity (i.e. - SnapChat, Kik, Vine, Instagram), but do not have the influence or saturation of a broad-based like Facebook or Twitter.

While many are saying that the growth of these smaller social networks is signaling the impending death of Facebook, that seems really unlikely. Instead, think about other big corporations.

I like really good food. There's a burger joint in Cincinnati that still makes what I believe to be the best burger on the planet. There's a restaurant close to where I live now that has an incredible baked potato the size of your head. Lots of places specialize in some really good food. But mostly, I wind up in the drive thru of McDonalds. It's quick, easy, everywhere, and sometimes you just want McDonalds fries.

I love mom and pop specialty stores. They know their stuff, they have fantastic customer service, and they sometimes have specialty items you just can't find anywhere else. But mostly, I shop at Walmart. It's cheap and convenient and they have most everything.

What McDonalds, Walmart, and Facebook have figured out is that by not specializing and offering a very generic and convenient experience, they can dominate the field.

What does that mean for your church if you are using social media? Unless you are looking to reach a certain niche audience, stick with Facebook as your primary tool. That's where the people are.

Don't believe me? Try finding a parking space at Walmart on black Friday.

A Re-Launch! My New Year's Resolution. Also, why do bad things happen to good people?

Welp, I've decided to re-launch my blog. Probably because I'm just so bored and need more to do.

January is a great time to re-evaluate your life and what you spend your time doing. I want to make sure I'm doing more things that matter and fewer things that don't.

Truthfully, I just enjoy putting my thoughts down in writing, sharing them with others, and hoping that you might find them worthwhile to read.

In the past, this blog was mostly about churches and using social media, though I wavered from that some. For now, I'm going to keep an focus on social media in churches, but sprinkle in a lot of my own thoughts about what I'm thinking about or dealing with in my own walk with Christ and struggle to be a good husband and father. There might be an occasional rant about how bad Cleveland sports are. But yeah, mostly social media and church stuff.

OK, that stuff aside, I'm feeling very small today.

I had the "brilliant" idea a few months ago that I would begin this year with a sermon series on the BIG questions. I would call the series "Why?" You know, why do bad things happen to good people, why aren't my prayers answered, stuff like that. He's a video trailer for the series:

Why? Series trailer from Dan Metzger on Vimeo.

Here's the issue: I'm still wrestling with these questions myself. (Disclaimer: if you're hoping that pastors know all of these answers and never have doubts or problems or faith issues, you should probably stop reading this blog. Permanently.)

More than that, I realize I'm about to stand up in front of a bunch of people this Sunday and give them my very inadequate answers to really important questions. When I was making the video above and put in the words "the answers will change your life," that was maybe more of a prayer for myself than a declaration.

God, give me the answers to these questions so you can change someone's life.

It's a small feeling, to feel as if you are charged with explaining the workings of Almighty to God's people. It's like being an interpreter who only kind of speaks the other language. All the while, the church is clamouring, "Tell us what He is saying! We know its important, we want to understand!"

So do I.

But here is where my job gets really fun. I get to dive in to exploring these questions and answers. I get to seek God in prayer. I get to examine my own life and how I've answered the questions at different times in my life. And I know, on Sunday morning, I'm not making an argument for how well I understand a certain topic. Instead, I'm making an argument for the Gospel: that God loves us, that Jesus came for us, and that through Him, we can have the Life that has been promised to us from the beginning of time. And when it's all over and the last hymn has been sung and I'm walking out the back of the sanctuary, I will feel even more inadequate than ever, thinking I've not even come close to explaining the fulness of the goodness of God. Because it's impossible to do in 25 minutes.

And yet...somehow...God will take a little sliver of something I say...and use it to change someone's heart.

I still don't know why bad things happen to good people...but I'm starting to understand why some bad things have happened to me. And this Sunday, I'm going to make the strongest case I can that in the midst of the suffering of the innocent, there is a God who loves you more than you ever thought possible.

And that God has allowed me to have the best job in the world.

Renewal and Rose-Colored Glasses

I'm starting to dislike the term "renewal" in the church. It seems like we've been renewing every single generation since time began. I was reading some of our church history info from the early 1900s, and they were looking to have a renewal of Spirit like they had before in the 1860s. It always implies that it was better before than it is now.
I just don't buy that. It was DIFFERENT before. But even then, the good old days were often times of "revival," meaning they were dead and needed brought back to life.
No matter what we do, we'll never make people who remember the good ol' days think we've "made it." It will never feel as perfect now as we think it felt then. The term "renewal" is becoming one that to me precedes feelings of inadequacy. No matter the new successes and new followers of Christ. In the church world, hindsight isn't 20/20. Instead, it wears rose-colored glasses.
Every generation believes theirs is the one going down the tubes and the previous ones were the last to really "get it."
What if we stopped "renewing," and started believing that we have the devil on the run? What if we went on the offensive instead of believing we have to find a way to hold together the tattered strips of our denomination? What if the previous generation of believers wasn't seen as an unattainable goal but instead as a mountain to build upon?

Glass Houses

One of the unique things about being a pastor is that there are some people who are rooting for you to fail. Some people have been hurt by religion, religious people, or ideologies. Whenever there is a public moral failing in a church, they flood the airways, commentaries, and message boards with words of condemnation. They shout about our hypocrisy. They mock our supposed morality. They jeer at a supposed loving and all-powerful god who allows these people to represent Him.

Unfortunately, too often, they're right. Instead of turning people back to Jesus and His church, we're creating more de-churched people. I find myself constantly cringing at the religious leaders and pastors who stumble their way onto TV as a real-life straw man to be knocked over for the entertainment of the disillusioned masses. I mourn that clergy sex abuse allegations have become commonplace front page stories. I wish the bad ones among us would either quit and find a different job or at least keep their mouths shut.

I'm looking at you, Westboro.

The worst part is, none of us in my chosen profession are immune to becoming the next headline. We all have the capacity to do something tragic. You can bust your tail for decades doing the good work of the church, and in one fell swoop, destroy it all. You can have your whole life and ministry ahead of you, put yourself in a bad place, and ruin your future. And for many, there's nothing that pleases them more than when that happens.

We live in glass houses surrounded by stones many are itching to throw.

I can't pretend to have any answers to the problem, because I can't count myself as immune. Maybe it's when you think you're immune that you become most vulnerable. I have seen too many friends and colleagues drop out of ministry, accused of wrongdoing, broken, damaged, embarrassed, and destroyed.

No one is going to start taking it easy on us. We have to figure this out.

All I know is what has worked for me. This is what has sustained me thus far.

1) Stay in communion with God. Pray, always. Read your Bible. Worship. When I get away from these things, I find myself getting vulnerable.

2) Surround yourself with good people. Never be the top of the totem pole. You need mentors. Have people watching over you. Make others responsible for keeping you accountable.

3) Rest. The greatest disease facing clergy is workaholism. Stop it. The more worn out and stressed you are, the greater your capacity to make a terrible decision.

4) Remember the devil plays chess. He is always thinking two and three steps ahead on how to get you. When we fail to realize this, that's when we wind up in terrible places, not sure how we got there. Block his moves before they have the chance to get dangerous.

5) If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Failings many times don't start as something major, but they become major when we try to cover them up. You're human, you messed up. Deal with it.

6) Watch out for one another. It's pretty easy to feel like you're on an island fighting this battle yourself. You aren't. We need one another. Call your pastor friend and ask how they are doing. Get together for coffee. Refresh each other.

We live in glass houses. And it's hard. But Jesus gave you the keys to that house for a reason. He doesn't expect people to always look in and see perfection, but he does hope that they see faithfulness, grace, and love.

Unlimited Resources

I have worked in churches of all shapes, sizes, and locations. I've done the small country church thing and the big suburban church thing. When I was at the smaller, country church, one of my feelings about  the large suburban churches that I was frankly jealous of was their seemingly unlimited resources. They could afford to do cool computer graphic stuff and videos and all sorts of things that didn't even seem like a possibility for me.

It wasn't until I got to the big suburban church that I learned the true dirty secret of where their unlimited resources came from: the internet. Yup, the same internet that I had at my small, country church was the rich well of computer graphics, videos, and set designs that had seemed so far out of reach to me before. The only difference was that these people knew how to find what they needed on the internet and make it work for their church.

Today, let me give you 4 secrets to mining the vast wealth of internet resources for your church, no matter what your size.

1. Stop reinventing the wheel. For the last 2000ish years, pastors have been preaching sermons. You might think you are coming up with a brand new slant to something from the Bible. You probably aren't. (If you are, you might want to check and make sure it's from the Bible.) Chances are, someone has already done what you are about to do. Google it! Maybe your seminary professors told you that was wrong and you should only do totally original stuff for your sermons and series. But even your original stuff probably isn't original. It's made up of stuff you learned from others and pieced together. I believe the Holy Spirit can inspire you through a Google search. You don't have to take what someone else said or did word for word, and you probably shouldn't, but there are a vast number of resources out there, and to me, it's a waste of your God-given time and energy to recreate something that's already been created.

2. Ask for stuff. One of the greatest lessons I learned working for a larger church that did make some of our own graphics and videos now and then is that these churches are usually incredibly willing to just give their stuff away for free. They created something great, they're done with it now, and they would love to see it still be put to use. If you find that a church did a series that you're going to do, give them a call and see if they have any resources that they would be willing to share. 9 times out of 10, they'll just give you the stuff they have. You just have to call them.

3. Collaborate. If you are reading this, you have access to the internet, meaning you also have access to the other people on the internet. You know, people doing the same stuff you are. Right now I'm collaborating with two other pastors on a Lenten series. We're sharing resources through dropbox. Maybe your church is in the middle of nowhere. If you've got the internet, then you have means to collaborate with other churches. You don't have to do this alone.

4.  Share your stuff. When you do come up with something original, share it with others. Add to the beautiful treasure trove that is online sermon material. It's good to be proud and protective of your own intellectual property, but there is also something wonderful about helping reach others beyond your own church with the stuff you have come up with.

What do you think? Do you share and make use of resources from other churches that you find online?

Facebook Advertising for Churches

If you don't work at a church, this post probably will not be of any interest to you. I don't want you to feel like you wasted your time clicking this link, so here's a picture of my daughter in a rainbow afro.

Ok, now for you people who work in a church. For crying out loud, use Facebook advertising.

Can you tell when I ran my two ads?

The easiest way to advertise on Facebook is to promote a post. After you post something, click the "promote" link under your post. There are a couple of quick links to be able to promote your post for $5 or $10. It just causes your post to show up more often on relevant news feeds of your friends or friends of friends. The great thing is you only pay when the ad shows up on someone's page or they click on it, and when you reach your set limit dollar amount, the ad stops. Basically, you pay when it works.

You can play around with your ads and get even more targeted. Maybe you only want to contact people who haven't already liked your church's Facebook page but live within a ten mile radius of the church. Maybe you want to target just men or women, or maybe just people who mention "church" in their "about" section of their Facebook page. You can really target it in so that you are reaching the people you want with the info you want.

Play around with it, check it out, and see if it works for you. For me, it's been really efficient and pretty simple to figure out. And, it's way cheaper than putting ads in the paper constantly and not knowing if anyone is actually reading them. Facebook gives you the statistics to see whether or not it's working.

Haters Gonna Hate

This meme started a while back. The first instance of the phrase I could find was in 2000 from a 3LW song called "Playas Gon' Play." I'm sure that's in your iPod.

Since then, and with the addition of the above drawing in 2003, the phrase has taken on a life of it's own.

Haters gonna hate.

For those of you not as well versed in the hip-hop vernacular as I am, let me break it down for you. A "hater" is someone who simply cannot be happy for the success of another. They are likely jealous. And the phrase "haters gonna hate" refers to the attitude those who are successful must have, in spite of those who are against them. Frequently, musicians, celebrities, and athletes will use this phrase to describe their demeanor towards the anti-fans who ridicule them.

But then something unfortunate happened.

Everyone started thinking that as soon as someone criticized them, the critic must be a "hater."

How dare they question me! They're just jealous. I don't need them telling me how to live my life. I'm right, they're wrong. I'm going to be me. I don't need to change for anyone. I'm good the way I am. Better than them, at least. I don't need their advice, criticism, or critique.

They're just haters.

Really? Are they?

The "haters gonna hate" attitude is going to kill us, people.

Look, I'll be the first to admit I have an ego. I'm proud of who I am and what I can accomplish. And frankly, I don't always welcome criticism.

But I sure need it. I need people around me who are willing to get in my face when I mess up. I need people who care enough about me to confront me when I need to change. I cannot and will not be successful without the counsel of people I know and trust.

Too often I have failed to take critique from people who really care about me and my success in all areas of life: work, family, relationships, spiritual life, etc. I have believed myself to be wiser than I am.

I'm getting better at it. In fact, I have found the value of asking others to tell me the things that are hard to hear. I have given permission to those I trust and whose opinions I value to speak difficult truth into my life.

Confession: it still stings. But at least I know now that they aren't "haters." In fact, they love me. They value me enough to try to build me into the person God created me to be.

Maybe you feel like you're surrounded by haters. Maybe you feel like everyone is against you.

Or maybe they really love you and are trying to break through your massive ego to help you become who God created you to be.

Piles of Dust, Elections, and Mangers

Was it really so long ago?

It was only a couple of short weeks ago that the United States was embroiled in a vicious election. Romney and Obama were locked in a hard fought race in which both was trying to get elected as president. Supporters for either side spent countless hours campaigning. Facebook news feeds were filled with political rants and memes designed sometimes to point out the good qualities of their candidate, but more often the evils of the other.

Every headline in every newspaper, print and electronic, was dominated by the campaign and what either side was doing.

Today, two weeks later, I did a Google search on both candidates. This was the top result for Obama

And this was the top result for Romney

Where has the fire and fervor gone? I thought this election was going to divide the nation! People were threatening to secede from the United States of America! The policies of either party were at the heart of the American electorate!

Not impressed face? Twilight movies?

How is it that the two men whose every move was being watched by this nation are reduced to this?

Did Obama ask to have his picture taken with the 16 year old silver medalist, making the face she's famous for, then in a moment of realization think "What am I doing? I'm the leader of the free world!" Did Romney, reaching his hand into the giant tub of buttered popcorn while watching sparkling vampires, think, "Maybe I don't make very good decisions."

Or could it be, that though we had built them up to be something huge, something larger than life, they are still just regular, ordinary men who do regular ordinary things?

I wonder if when God handed Moses the Ten Commandments and he had written that whole thing about not having other gods, if He had the American political process in mind.

The truth we see now is that these aren't gods, or even anything slightly better than mere mortals. They are, like us, walking, breathing piles of dust. When God expels Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, He gives them this reminder:

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return. - Genesis 3:19, NLT

That goes for presidents, candidates, and us, too.

We're dust. Big, walking piles of dust.

I don't think God reminds us of that to demean us. Instead, I think its a reminder of perspective. We're mortal, and that's ok. We were created to live on the earth and enjoy the earth, and when we try to make ourselves more than that, or make others more than that, we're bound to be disappointed in the result. 

And I think the collective human consciousness knows that. It's evidenced in just how quickly we forget that we had set these dust piles on pedestals. Instead, we go back to concentrating on the things we really regard as important: peace, hope, joy, and love. We long for family gatherings, seasons of Thanksgiving, and celebration of the one who was born in a manger in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. 

What an interesting place for a king. Not just that it was lowly, but that it was dusty. The Lord of all creation who had formed man out of dust was laid in a manger in a stable filled with dust. A craftsman amongst materials, a potter amongst his clay, humbling himself to become one of these dust-people so that he might save these dust-people.

Why?

So we might truly know peace, hope, joy, and love.

That's all He's ever wanted for us. Remember who you are. Eat, drink, and be merry. And live life abundantly. Know the peace that passes understanding. Be filled with eternal hope. Experience unbounded joy. And above all, love God and love others. 

Human endeavors come and go. Elections which seem so important a couple of weeks earlier are forgotten and even the candidates go back to normal. It's as if something innate within us is constantly calling us back to being dust. But not just any dust - dust that is loved by a creator who rolled around in the dust of a manger just to be closer to us.

Fighting Facebook Trolls

If you want to believe the best about humanity, stay off of Facebook.

The trolls live there.

I'm actually not talking about the brightly colored 90's toy. Not even the grumpy old thing that lives under a bridge on Dora. This troll is much more insidious.




The Internet troll.

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory comments in an online community with the intent of provoking an emotional response. It comes from the word "trolling" which is the act of dragging something along and hoping to snag something. That's what an internet troll does. They snag people with the various rude, offensive, or oppositional remarks. In other words, they're jerks.

But Facebook, as especially seen during the election, has given way to a new sub-species of the Internet troll. They are no longer anonymous. In fact, you probably know them well. Maybe it's your second cousin. Maybe its a former classmate or coworker. Maybe you share a pew with the at church. Maybe you even like them in real life. It's so hard to tell who is a Facebook troll in real life.

But on Facebook, they totally change. They're like a were-troll. They turn into this whole other creature, capable only of infuriating you and making comments that cause you to question whether or not you want to keep living on this planet.




Generally, their harsh, crazy, mean, inflammatory comments are distributed without regard to the actual topic of conversation. Reason and logic have no roll in what they post. And while they post with varying frequencies, it always seems like their posts are the only ones you see. And while the classic Internet troll is fully random and non-discriminate in who they troll upon, Facebook trolls are more pointed and focused.

Let me introduce you to the sub-species of the Facebook troll.

1) The Political Troll




I mention this troll first because it has been the most recently common, though since the election has ended, it has been receding into the black abyss it came from.

These trolls can support any political party, including third party, or even anti-political forms, though this may be another sub-species (see below).

These trolls are known to inject political comments into everyday, plain conversation, thus derailing normal human interaction. Example:

Me: I like peanut butter.
Troll: Jimmy Carter invented peanut butter because he's a democrat and he's awesome.
Other troll: Republicans invented jelly. You'd be nothing without us.
Me:

2) The "I hate what everyone is talking about" troll

These may be related to the anti political troll mentioned above. When a topic comes to the forefront of the American conscious, this troll is quick to be sick of it, attempting to destroy any conversation about it and return society to the things they want to talk about. Example:

Me: Excited to watch the Super Bowl!
Troll: OMG! I'm so sick of people talking about football! It's not even important. There are kids dying in Borneo.
Me:

3) The "you didn't ask for my opinion but I'm giving it" troll

One of the more common trolls, they feel the need to interject their wisdom in every single subject, whether they know what they are talking about or not. Example:

Me: I saw a deer on the way to work. It was pretty.
Troll: Deer are so overpopulated that their very breath is causing CO2 emissions to rise. You should have hit it with your car.
Me: I just said the deer was pretty.
Troll: Why do you hate our planet? I thought you were a Christian.
Me:

4) The "it's all about me" troll.

This troll posts in two different ways. Sometimes they comment on your status, turning the conversation's focus to their own life. But usually, they don't have the time to mention other people's statuses, because their own life is way too important. Very rarely are these posts positive in nature. Example:

Troll: At Starbucks. Had to park next door because the lot was full. My life is terrible.
(5 min later) Troll: UGH. Line is taking forever!
(5 min later) Troll: Of course they made my drink wrong. HOW HARD is it to tell the difference between a venti soy latte and a venti soy cappuccino?
(5 min later) Troll: I have a headache.
Me:

Once you identify a troll, there are several steps you an take.

1) Ignore them. Just keep scrolling. This is generally the best method as confronting them usually only provokes them.

2) You can try to confront them. You will lose. They are like the zombie apocalypse. You can maybe destroy one, but there will be five more where that came from.

3) Stay off Facebook. But don't do that. There are still good people on there. We can't let the trolls win and have them overrun the interwebs!

4) Remember who they are in real life. These are good people with good hearts who in the light of the midday sun don't suck the life out of everyone they meet like they do online. It's just when there is an open web browser in front of them that the darkest part of their soul flies out through the keypad.

5) Check yourself regularly to make sure you haven't caught the virus that is obviously spreading through the population. Are you showing signs and symptoms of Facebook trolling? If so, shut off your computer, and seek immediate help. The best therapy is to find reality and get a grip on it. And if someone you love has become a Facebook troll, remember who they are away from their computer, and that Jesus died for the trolls, too.

An Election Perspective

Yesterday, I stood in line for an hour to cast my vote. For months, I had been hearing about the different candidates, some of what they would do to make things better, and mostly how the other guy would screw things up. I had been bombarded with tv ads, political posts from friends on Facebook, and more mailings than I could count.

I spent some time yesterday morning before I went to the polls doing my final research on each candidate, including the overshadowed state and local elections. I scribbled the names down on a scrap piece of paper, folded it up and put it in my wallet, then headed to the early voting center.

Walking in, there were half a dozen people trying to hand me the slate for their political party. I told them I already had my "cheat sheet" in my wallet. Standing in front of me were two older women, clutching their GOP slates. Behind me was a man in designer jeans and a sport coat, trying to get reception on his phone so he could send out some emails while he waited in line.

There were a bunch of mothers with babies in strollers, people on their work lunch break, twenty something's with tattoos and piercings, hipsters, suburbanites, immigrants, and veterans.

Each of us were there for our own reasons, with our own slate of candidates, our own opinions, and our own hopes. One lady came out of the voting room smiling and said, "God bless America!" as she put on her "I voted today" sticker and headed to the door.

When I actually made it to the voting machine to cast my ballot, I pulled out my scrap paper with the names of my chosen candidates. It took about 30 seconds for me to punch in all of the names, double check to make sure I did it right, and cast my vote.

When I walked out, noticed the line had doubled in length from when I had arrived. Someone along the way asked me how long it took. When I told them an hour, there were lots of groans. But no one left.

I got back to my car, and NPR came on the radio, in the middle of more political news reporting. Apparently it wasn't going to stop just because I had voted already. I turned the radio off.

As I drove back to my office, I reflected on what it meant that people were so passionate about all of this political stuff. I even found myself in these last days before the election was over, growing increasingly passionate.

I think what it comes down to is hope. There is nothing scarier for people than an unknown future. Will I lose my job? What if a loved one, or even I, get sick? What if a war starts or natural disaster strikes? We don't have control over these things. But with our vote, we can help choose who we want to be in charge in these situations. It's a bit of a security blanket we can hold on to as we face uncertainty.

I think that's ok. It's ok to want some certainty or to feel like you at least have a little control over what is happening. But we also cannot forget that regardless of who is elected, we already have hope. We follow the One who thought up and created this place and these people. We are children of the One who holds the future in the palm of His hands. We believe in the One who, though the earth may shake and the mountains fall into the sea, His right hand will hold us fast.

If your candidates win, be glad, but remember where your hope truly lies - in God and not people. If your candidates don't win, don't worry. They aren't really in charge anyways.

This Election is Different

Maybe it's just me, but this election felt different.

Both sides, Republicans and Democrats, have been battling hard to gain important political positions in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and of course, the Presidency. And there is always vicious name calling and accusations, and claims that the accusations are lies. But this felt different.

For a while, I couldn't put my finger on it. I mean, I've always noticed the political ads on TV (and quickly tired of them). I've always seen my neighbors and friends and relatives put political yard signs out in a vast array of voluntary political advertisement for the candidate or issue of their choice. This isn't new.

But still something was different.

To be fair and transparent, I can get passionate about some political issues. There are certain candidates that I think would be more qualified than others. There are issues that I hold strong convictions about. However, because of my occupation, I have decided to remain publicly neutral on most things. I know that's not always the route that my colleagues in ministry go, and I'm ok with their choice to be vocal on issues they believe in. I choose not to be, because I serve in a setting full of Republicans and Democrats alike. I have friends and relatives on both sides of the aisle. And my number one goal in life is to share with all of them the love of Christ. I'm not willing to alienate any because of my stance on a political issue. Whether that would happen or not, I'm not willing to risk the gospel over it. That's just my stance, my opinion.

But this election has been different. And it's because of Facebook.

It used to be that it was fairly easy for me to remain politically indifferent in the public sphere. It's a rare occasion for someone in a public setting like my church to push me on my political views. Even if they go into a political rant, I can generally just nod my head, smile, and brush the conversation off.

But now, Facebook. Every day for the past two months (at least) as I have gotten on Facebook, I have been bombarded. Not by ads, but by my friends and family. The people I know and love. They are speaking their collective minds about their political opinions and agendas and opening cans of worms that used to stay closed. Debates between friends of mine who don't even know each other have leaked into my non-political posts. I have had to remove comments, and in extreme situations, disallow people from even being able to post on my wall because of politically divisive comments.

And then there are my friends who want nothing to do with politics. They rant about the incredible volume of political posts and how they can't wait for all of this to be over. Surely, this is not a new sentiment from previous elections, but it is definitely heightened.

Because of Facebook, I now know where almost every single person I am acquainted with stands when it comes to politics. I am surprised and sometimes even appalled at how some of my friends think. I can't believe their views are so different from my own. These are people who in some cases have helped form my identity and I have looked up to my entire life. Can I even have a rational conversation with them when these are the beliefs and convictions that they hold?

Things that were once hidden and private convictions are now publicly displayed for the world to see, and our human nature causes us to shy away from those different than us, further dividing ourselves, and pushing us towards those with whom we feel we belong.

And yet somehow, my calling is to preach the gospel to all of these children of God. How? How do I unite them together as the church? How do I convince such different people that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female....Republican nor Democrat....but that we are all one in Christ Jesus?

I guess what makes this election different is that every ad I see and every Facebook comment I read now reminds me just how fallen we are and how far we have to go. Not that I am already where I am supposed to be, but I know where God has called me to help lead people. I'm on the same journey, and the path looks a lot harder than it did before.

Facebook by the Numbers

Not sure it's worth it for your church to try to reach out to people on Facebook?

I happen to believe Jesus would go where the people are. And the people are on Facebook.

Who do people follow?

There are corporations that I admire. I admire World Vision. They help partner people with children in need around the world, and they make a huge difference in their lives. I admire the National Football League. They have taken a game and turned it into a phenomenon, dominating Sunday afternoons and Monday nights every fall. I even admire the United Methodist Church. For all their faults, they have found a way to take an extremely diverse conglomerate of people and unite them - if not always easily - under the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

I admire these organizations and corporations. But I do not follow them.

I don't want to change my life to be more like the United Methodist Church. I can't relate to them on a personal level. I like some of the things they do, and I appreciate what they stand for. But I don't follow them.

I follow people. I look to people like Adam Hamilton and Mike Slaughter and a host of others within the denomination. I look to my colleagues in ministry. I look to the great leaders of organizations like Richard Sterns of World Vision. I can't model my life after organizations. I can model my life after the lives of others.

I know to be careful when doing this. People are human and have flaws. Honestly, that speaks to me, because I also am human and have flaws. But what I know to do is to look to people for examples of what it looks like to live a Christ-like life.

Whether you are in a position of leadership or not, people are looking at you. Someone is following you. Maybe it's coworkers, a spouse, a sibling, a child, a neighbor, a fellow church member. Someone is looking at you as they try to figure out how to live their lives.

People follow people, not organizations and corporations. If people follow you, where will they end up?

The key is in who you are following. Be sure that you are following those who are following Christ, so that others may end up following Christ as well.

Why Did People Follow Jesus?

The whole concept behind the phrase “being followable” is that I hope people follow me, not because I’m worth following, but because I’m following Jesus. That means there are two aspects of ministry that have to constantly be in balance. First, I’d better be following Jesus. It does no one any good to follow me if I’m not following Jesus. Second, I’d better be leading others in such a way that they want to follow. A lot of people claim to be leaders, but no one is following them.

Church leadership development has gone viral. I probably have 20+ books on my shelf talking about leadership in the church. All of them try to give you just a little bit of an edge in improving your leadership. Church growth strategies are many and varied.  Everyone is trying to get bigger, to gain more people following them as they follow Christ.

Honestly, I’m ok with that. I love that people are trying to find unique and varied ways to bring people to Jesus. That’s Jesus’ commission to us as his disciples, right? To preach the good news and to bring others to know him?

The problem is, I believe we’re often making it harder than it really is. We develop long-term growth strategies and tweak mission and vision statements. We enact cleverly-acronymned programs and rebrand our core values. None of this is bad, but if we really want more people to follow us, I believe it is key to remember why people followed – and why we follow – Jesus.

In the gospel of John, Jesus was teaching before a large crowd of people. His teaching was getting more and more difficult. It rubbed many the wrong way. It convicted people in places they didn’t want convicted. Then we read this:

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

(John 6:66-69, NIV)

True followers followed Jesus because he had the words of eternal life.

Do we?

We can come up with all sorts of great new leadership techniques. We can preach the paint off the walls. We can be more relevant and emergent than you can shake a stick at. But if we don’t have the words of eternal life, what are we leading others to?

There are several leadership principles that Jesus models for us as we seek to lead others to Him.

1)    The Bible is incredibly important.

This might seems like a given, but in my experience, that’s not always the case. It’s pretty easy to think your ideas are all you really need. There are at least 84 times I’ve counted that Jesus quotes the Old Testament. He hardly ever says anything that doesn’t come straight from the teachings of God’s word. There is strength in leading using the scripture.

2)    Jesus spoke hard truths.

I hate making people mad. I want people to like me. So sometimes speaking hard truths to others is something I shy away from. Jesus didn’t have that problem. He spoke truth when truth was needed, even if it meant that some might not like him. It seems paradoxical that people would want to follow someone that said things they didn’t like, but if I just tell people what they want to hear, I’m doing them no good. Jesus knew that there is power in truth telling.

3)    Jesus tied together physical and spiritual healing.

For some reason, there seems to be a separating for many between helping others with spiritual needs and helping others with physical needs. Our ministries are either Bible studies or soup kitchens. Jesus always tied the two together. When he would meet someone with a physical need, he would meet that physical need as a bridge to also meeting a spiritual need. He would heal and teach, teach and heal. Because of this, people wanted to be around him.

4)    Jesus taught a new kind of love and grace.

This is probably the most important way that Jesus shared the words of eternal life. Throughout his ministry, Jesus modeled a love and a grace that knew no boundaries. He touched lepers. He laughed with children. He forgave sinners. Though he spoke hard truths and pushed people to repent of sinful lives, it didn’t stop him from eating with tax collectors and welcoming prostitutes. Even Judas Iscariot, who would betray Jesus, found a place of welcome at the table of the man who he would one day send to his death. I wonder if Jesus’ disciples looked back at how Jesus treated Judas and marveled at what kind of love he showed.

Let’s all continue to lead others as we follow Christ. But as we do so, let’s remember the real reason people are following: they need the words of eternal life that come only from Christ.