A Pastor for 30 Years

Sunday, July 3, 1988…thirty years ago today – for the first time in my young life, people in a local church began to call me pastor. From that Sunday until today, church people call me “Pastor Mike.”

As I celebrate thirty years of pastoral ministry, I reminisce on thirty gifts from God to me because he put me in pastoral ministry, gifts I would not have received had he not made me a pastor.

God gave me…

1. Three local churches I’ve served in some pastoral capacity. These churches were not merely places I worked, but were and are my Christian community. To this day, I love Faith Baptist Church in Godfrey, Illinois; Calvary Baptist Church in Midland, Michigan; and First Calvary Baptist Church in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.
2. Two senior pastors who, though my bosses, were always first my pastor. Pastor Tom Olney and Pastor Dan Dickerson gave me opportunities to serve in the churches they led. Any hire in any setting is a risk. They chose to hire me to join their well-established ministries bringing a potential disruption to an otherwise harmonious environment. I love both of them like Timothy loved Paul and would not be where I am as a pastor or a man without both of them.
3. Two youth groups that, more often that you might think, draw me back and make me wish I could be a youth pastor again. Today, these once Christian kids are faithful spouses and parents, teachers and nurses, skilled laborers and entrepreneurs. Many serve the Lord as pastors, missionaries, or in some Christian vocation. A few are already with the Lord. W any one of them comes to mind, posts on social media, or drops me an email, text, or phone call, I smile and giggle and remember happily to an extent you would not believe possible. Man, I love them.
4. Fellow pastors who were my co-workers on multiple staffs. How many people get to go to work every day with a pastor? I have for nearly all of the last thirty years. They remain some of my closest friends. I love Chris, Dave, John, Mark, Matt, Mike, Sam, and Steve.
5. At least twenty guys whom I have had the privilege to mentor in pastoral ministry. I’d try to name them, but I am certain I would miss more than one or two. If you have been an intern with me or if I have been a pastoral mentor to you, know this: you were and are a gift from God to me.
6. One brother by a different mother. God didn’t give me a brother in my home growing up; instead, he gave me a brother when I was 23-years-old. Jeff was a kid in our first youth group needing a place to stay. Brenda and I were newly married and had two bedrooms we didn’t need. It was a match made in heaven. Jeff got a soft pillow and late night pizza rolls. I got a new sibling.
7. So many friends in and because of the churches I’ve served.I want to tell you their stories and sing their praises, but space won’t allow. Worse, my memory will not bring to mind everyone it should. Suffice it to say I have friends I would not have had had I not been a pastor.
8. The primo spot for weddings. Helping a bride and groom begin their new life together has been and is one of the best things I do as pastor. During the ceremony, I often get to hear the quiet exchanges and witness the heartfelt moments as her eyes meet his. If I officiated your marriage ceremony, please know that event in your life was one of the greatest events in my life.
9. Some suffering – not on the level of martyrs but the fellowship of Christ’s suffering as Paul described it.
10. Hours many days in the week to study the Bible, read Christian literature, and prepare Bible lessons.
11. A platform to preach and teach the Bible. There have been only handfuls of weeks over the last three decades where I have not preached God’s Word to some group. That’s a gift.
12. Ready hearers of God’s Word. On the whole those who listen to me preach the Bible are not hostile, but rather, are receptive and eager to receive. Ask Jeremiah if he would have welcomed that gift.
13. Funeral sermons to preach. At these somber events, I have had occasion to preach the gospel to more who do not know God through Christ than in any other venue. To God’s glory many have professed faith at a funeral.
14. Intimate contact with people to watch them change as they receive the Word of God and grow by it.
15. The joy of baptizing so many believers. From huge offensive linemen that nearly pulled me under to one nearly ninety-year-old woman eager to declare her allegiance to Jesus Christ.
16. Time to observe generational Christianity. Parents become grandparents and those children professed faith and are now the next generation of faithful Jesus followers.
17. A vantage point to watch worshippers at every progression through a worship service. Pastors see from their positions on a platform the tears of those who sing a hymn of the cross, the smiles of those who relish a promise of God, the distress of those carrying a heavy load, and the relief of those forgiven by God’s grace.
18. Many occasions to lead the assembled Christians as we remember Jesus’s death until he comes when we gather around the Lord’s Table.
19. Sweet conversations with senior saints. I have no scientific evidence, but pastors may talk to older people more than the average person. They offer their wisdom freely and are thankful for moments brief and long spent with them.
20. Children in the church who call me pastor. I love our church kids. I love hearing them sing. I love seeing their Sunday morning smiles and Sunday morning frowns. I love when they wave at me from their seat in the auditorium just before I stand to preach. I love when they say, “Hi, pastor.”
21. A place in the chain. There will be pastors after me if the Lord wills as there were before me. I get to be one of the many links who have handled the Word of God from the prophets and apostles until now.
22. Sensitivity to people’s pain. Pastors may see the variety of pain experienced by people as much as anyone else sees it. Their hurts become ours and tenderize us to the brokenness in people’s lives.
23. Many good meals in people’s homes. Some of God’s people can really cook.
24. Special trips to be with our missions partners across the globe. I’ve visited missionaries in Mexico, the Philippines, Cleveland, and India. I can attest the church of Jesus Christ is bigger and more diverse than I ever knew.
25. A reason to go to worship every Sunday. I’m not immune to the Sunday morning blues. There have been many times over the years I haven’t wanted to go to worship. Because I am a pastor, I can’t miss, and that’s a good thing for me.
26. Belief in the ministry of the local church. Our Lord uses many kinds of ministries, but the church is what endures as all those ministries come and go.
27. A place to check my pride. Because pride goes before destruction, I don’t want it. Still, I am easily deceived by it. A pastor’s pride cannot be hid for long before it’s uncovered. Uncovering provides occasion for its removal.
28. A ministry family consisting of the greatest kids. Sure, I didn’t have to become a pastor to become a dad, but I did have to become a pastor to become my kids’ pastor. All four of our children love the local church despite growing up PK’s. That is evidence of God’s grace.
29. A ministry partner suited perfectly for me. Brenda’s not a piano playing, special music singing pastor’s wife. Those are great gifts but not her gifts. What she brings to my life, our ministry family, and each of the three churches we’ve served is a sweetness and a level of character enviable in many. She wears well on people. These thirty years are not mine alone and would not have happened without the help, prompts, patience, faithfulness, and love Brenda has delivered to me each day of the last thirty years.
30. Grace to do what I cannot do in my own strength, mercy to do what I am not qualified to do apart from his working in me, and his faithfulness to stand by me unto the end of the age.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Happy Birthday, Mom

It’s been more than two years since my mom went to be with the Lord. Had she lived, today would be her 72nd birthday.

Life expectancy for American women is 81.5. My mom died at 69. On average men in America live 76.7 years.

My mom loved to celebrate birthdays. As the oldest child of two hard working, blue collar people, I don’t think her young birthdays were as monumental as so many are today. She made a big deal of my sister’s and my birthdays, her grandchildren’s, her parents’, her brothers’ and sister’s, her nieces’ and nephews’, and my dad’s. To her every family member’s birthday was a day to celebrate.

Today we would have laughed, remembered my dad, maybe headed to Red Lobster for her to get a huge meal she could never finish, and completed the day with birthday cake and presents. It would have been a great party.

My mom loved life. When on a lake fishing with my grandmother, their laughter could be heard on every nearby shoreline. She laughed at herself and the moments God brought her way. She found joy in life’s little pleasures and God’s simple gifts to her.

Her impromptu prayers for a needed parking space in downtown Chicago usually met with my skepticism. “Take one more turn around the block, son. Now, Lord, you know we need a parking spot. Would you give us one? Right there! Take that one.”

You’d think a pastor would have led that prayer meeting.

My mom loved my dad, and in turn, she taught and modeled to my sister and me a deep love for him too. In public and private my mom’s words to my dad and about my dad only added to my dad’s good name. As his body weakened the last decade of his life, she passionately cared for him even as her own heart was failing. The Lord provided sufficient strength for her and then he brought her home.

Solomon, whose wisdom far surpasses yours and mine, wrote, A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1). In other words, celebrate a birthday because it’s a great day, but it’s not the ultimate day in one’s life. There is a better day, the day of one’s death.

Do you agree with that? Was Solomon wise when he said that? Was the Holy Spirit correct when he inspired that?

When we enter this world on the day of our births, we enter a world created by a kind and wonderful God, but a world irreparably damaged by sin. As new born babes, we encounter sin within minutes of our first breaths and engage, battle, reel, and recover from sin every day of our lives. We are sinned against by strangers and loved ones, and we sin against God and humanity. The sin messes with our minds and ultimately kills every one of us (Romans 5:8).

For those of us who know the Lord, our deathday brings an end to sin. No one sins against you anymore, and better still, you don’t sin against God or others any more. I can only imagine the relief.

For most of my mom’s adult life, she battled anger. Sometimes, I’d overhear the phone conversation with a customer service agent who was not relenting as my mom wanted. She never cursed at the person on the other end of the line, but she routinely gave them “a piece of her mind.” It happened so often, I’m surprised there was any mind left to give. If the person she was talking to was from a call center outside of the United States, there was no chance the conversation was going to end well.

Asking a Christensen (my mom's maiden name) not to get angry with a customer service representative would be like asking the sun not to rise.

My mom loved teaching, but there were occasions where her students caught her wrath. In her defense, 38 years with fourth grade boys can take its toll on a lady.

A pet phrase of hers was “I’m so mad I could spit nails.” I remember two occasions where she actually did.

Like most of us who battle a sin that easily takes us down, my mom battled hers. She could control her anger, but it was a battle she faced until her death. Her deathday freed her from her hard temptation and from every temptation. My mom doesn’t sin anymore!

There are many reasons the deathday of a believer is better than the birthday of a believer, but those reasons are mostly on the believer’s side. For those of us who remain, Solomon’s words make little sense. I am happy on birthdays; I cry at dying bedsides. I laugh at parties; I cry at funerals. I give cards on birthdays; I receive sympathy cards following death. I must think beyond my own limited wisdom and embrace God’s. Yes, a deathday is better for someone I love who knows the Lord than the day of his birth.

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!

Happy birthday, Mom! The party would have been a blast, but I am happier still that your deathday was better for you.

I love you, Mom!

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Not Too Old to Speak Nor Too Old to Listen

It’s a simple plan. Read the chapter in Proverbs that corresponds to the day. Today is June 19. Today, read Proverbs 19. Do the same with every corresponding day. On the first of the month, start over. Over 25 years ago, my pastor taught me to read the Proverb of the Day, and I am thankful for the simple instruction.

Reading wisdom day after day reveals repeated topics. Anger, money, and words weave their ways in and out of so many chapters. And then there is the repeated call to pay attention captured in the phrase, “My Son.”

More than 20 times in the Old Testament Proverbs, the dad offers sage advice to his kid beginning with the phrase, “My son.” It’s easy to imagine a scenario where a young father talks to his adolescent son, and that has some merit. For example, when the dad says, “My son, if sinners entice you, don’t be persuaded” (1:10). Every kid needs that counsel.

Yet, a careful reading does not limit the recurring calls to pay attention to a young boy. The subjects under discussion are adult issues. The advice comes from an older man to his older son.

• How old? I’m not sure, but old enough to talk embarrassingly frank about the bewitching words, alluring actions, and seductive appearance of a woman who wants him sexually (5:3-20).
• How old? I’m not sure, but old enough to talk legal contracts and the potential dangers of cosigning a document binding him to another man’s debt (6:1).
• How old? I’m not sure, but old enough to talk about the posture his son should take as a member of the public in relation to government officials (24:21).

Isn’t it obvious God intends for wise counsel to continue beyond the age of 21?

Isn’t it obvious God intends the receipt of wise counsel to continue beyond the age of 18?

The call then is for mature men to be brave and bold, loving and perceptive in what is going on in the lives of their sons well into middle age.

The call then is for maturing sons to be humble and receptive, thankful and interested in the godly words that come from old school minds.

My dad has been with the Lord for more than three years. My only grandfather has been with the Lord for twenty years. I no longer have in my immediate family a steady hand and a familiar voice speaking truth into my ears. Therefore, I look to the few men in our church who are older than I am for instruction, warning, encouragement, and wisdom.

I do have sons and a future son-in-law. I view my responsibility seriously as modeled by the wisdom in Proverbs.

Of course, the model of Proverbs is not confined to the male gender. The Apostle Paul takes up the pattern and applies it to females when he instructs older women to do for adult, albeit younger, women what the wise father in the book of Proverbs does for his adult son (Titus 2:3-4).

There is no end to the responsibility to speak wisdom into the lives of others, and there is no end to learn from the astute counsel of those who have walked with the Lord the road before us.  

As always I welcome your feedback and any ideas you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Can You Handle the Truth?

I love the dozens of Bible translations I carry with me everywhere I go. They’re on my phone. It’s the same for many of you. The convenience of having everything from a King James Bible to foreign language translations to a paraphrase has been a gift from God to me and to you as well.

When I make hospital visits to elderly people, I pull out my phone and read to them – usually from the King James Version, the translation that sounds so familiar. I use the Bible on my phone when I am a guest in someone’s home, when a random thought enters my mind on a specific idea, when I want to see how other translations handle a particular verse, and when I want to take another look at an upcoming text I plan to preach.

I use my Bible on my phone to aid my Bible memory, to take part in a casual conversation with anyone, and for my daily Bible reading. We use our phones around the dinner table where our family reads the Word of God together. Even guests joining us for a meal can easily participate.

It’s simply awesome having the Bible at my fingertips, literally.

As a kid I remember my pastor teaching us, “Carry the New Testament with you everywhere you go.” Many of us did. It was a small 3x5 copy with a blue paper cover. I carried it some places I went, but I didn’t carry it everyplace I went, because, well, I just didn’t. Carrying it in my sweaty Nikes after an afternoon of street ball or rolled up inside my wet swim trunks after hours of fun in the sun didn’t seem to work well for me.

But now my motto when getting in my car or boarding an airplane is, “I have my phone and my wallet. Everything else is bonus.” I don’t leave home without my phone and that means, I don’t leave home without my Bible.

That’s pretty cool if you ask me. No other generation of human beings has known anything remotely close to that reality. It really is a gift from God. Thank you, Lord.

Like every good gift God has given humanity, we have the capability and have demonstrated the propensity to abuse and misuse his good gifts to us. That includes the Bibles on our phones.

I love my Bible phone for everything except worship. For that I need my Bible printed on pages. My phone just doesn’t do it, and it's not just because I'm old. I think all of us are better served in worship with a printed Bible. 

On the printed page I can see the context of the sermon text better because more of the Bible is visible on the full page and the opposite page. On the printed page, I can see where we’ve been in our weekly progression through a book of the Bible, and I can see where we are going. I can’t do that on a 4x6 screen (I've got one of those really cool phones with the monster screen. I pity those of you that have to look at a domino). 

If I take a note I heard the preacher say or if I write a devotional thought of my own, I can see it easily. I know I can use my thumbs and craft a note on my Bible app too if I want, but it’s not the same thing as when I see a note written in my own unique handwriting from some time ago.

Further, others after me can see it too. I’ve been to many funerals where Christians have been comforted, encouraged, and reassured after thumbing through the well-marked pages of a Bible that belonged to mom or dad, husband or wife.

I’ve yet to hear someone say, “Could I take a look at dad’s phone and see what notes he dropped in his Bible app or the verses he highlighted?”

I have a few more common sense reasons for ditching my phone for use as a worship Bible, but here’s the biggest reason I must have a printed Bible for worship – the distraction is more than I can handle, more than my personal discipline can manage.

I know this because a man in our church told me so.

I’ve asked a few people in our church to help me as a Christian man by informing me of some areas of weakness. I know what some of my areas are, so I wasn’t surprised when I heard them again. But when a fellow church member told me, “You’re on your phone too much during times the church gathers together,” it was like a guy landed a devestating uppercut to my jaw. It was an immediate knockout.

I cannot use my phone for worship because I’m not mature enough to only use my phone for worship. I’ve read text messages, written text messages, taken a quick peek at social media, checked the weather, randomly searched for something on the web, and even bought something from Amazon. I’ve paid attention to the push notifications that come through at any given moment, and I’ve created reminders to prompt me to actions I might otherwise forget.

I’ve done all of this and more when God has called me into his presence to hear from him and to offer to him my highest praise.

Are you any different than I am? Maybe you’ve figured out how to overcome what I haven’t. Maybe you are crazy disciplined and put your phone into airplane mode before you sit down to prepare your heart to meet God prior to the call to worship.

Maybe.

But wait, there’s more. My phone also distracts me from the people I worship with. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? People everywhere in a church building and many of them with heads down staring at a screen as they walk the halls or sit in a row of chairs in a classroom or auditorium. Intended or not, it conveys the message, “Don’t interact with me, and I won’t interact with you. We good?”

The prospect of connecting, caring, conversing, or chasing is pretty dim at that moment.

Here’s my pastoral advice. Bring your printed Bible to worship and use it. Leave your phone deep in your purse or pocket and determine not to bring it out until you leave the building. Or better yet, put your phone in a compartment in your car where it will be waiting for the warm embrace of your hands when worship is over.

Don’t get me started on when the church has to hear your ringtone right in the middle of pastoral prayer.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

If Only I Was Like Her, I Would Be So Happy

Human beings do dumb things.

Coffee grounds in the maker sans a filter, “That was dumb.” Dating two girls at the same time who also happen to be roommates, “That was dumb.” Starting a load of laundry only to come back 45 minutes later to an empty machine, “That was dumb.” Showing up for am 8:00amTuesday class and no one other students are present…because it’s Wednesday, “That was dumb.”

It’s possible I know a little something about each of these and a few more too.

Our flawed humanity produces dumb expressions and behaviors. In the rankings of dumb things done by human beings, one stands out above many of the others. Comparing myself to another humanbeing is dumb, and we all do it.

• A woman compares her marriage to her girlfriends’ marriages.
• A guy compares his marriage to his buddies’.
• Old men compare themselves to young men wishing they had the opportunities the young bucks do.
• Young men compare themselves to old men wishing they had the achievements the old guys do.
• Curvy females compare their body shapes to skinny females while skinny females compare their bodies to shapely females.
• Dudes with beater rides compare their transportation to guys with hemi engines.
• Children compare their parents to the moms and dads of their friends, and parents compare their kids to the brats who came over for dinner last night.

Is there any end to the comparing we do?

The Holy Spirit warned us about this, “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12).

In other words comparing myself to someone else is dumb. Nothing valuable comes from it. Worse, damage comes from it.

Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th president, gave wise counsel about comparison. “Comparison is the thief of joy,” he offered. He was right. Think how often what should be an otherwise happy event becomes on occasion for tears, sadness, or even anger because the event turned in to a comparison pageant.

Comparing ourselves to other flawed human beings and their achievements or lack thereof, to their better than average lives or their subpar accomplishments is not wise. It’s a mind battle you must wage without relent and against all odds.

You wage the battle by looking to Jesus Christ. You remember his sinlessness has become yours. His identity as the son of God has become yours. His reality of eternal life with him and all those who love him has become yours. You compare the reality of what you were to what you are now, and you compare the reality of what will be to the reality of what now is. You rest peacefully in what Jesus has accomplished and promised.

Take heart my friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.