Church of the Week: The Garden Tomb, Jerusalem

Today, on the Monday of Holy Week, I thought it might be appropriate to revisit a place of worship that, while not a church, is a place I have worshiped deeply on four different occasions.

About 100 yards from the site that is sometimes called, "Gordon's Calvary," after a British officer and amateur archaeologist who identified a skull in the side of a cliff, is the Garden Tomb, discovered in 1867. Though this place is definitely not the actual tomb of Christ, I tell folks who travel with us is that it is a great site to visualize, worship, and meditate on the resurrection of Jesus:

Inside the door, which bears a plaque asserting, "He is not here; He is risen," is a rock-hewn bier, where apparently someone had once been buried. The rest of the tomb was never finished:

The lovely Robin and I most recently worshiped here--we sang "In the Garden" and "He Lives," read Luke 24:1-9, and shared communion--in 2010:

It's a lovely place to worship, with many nooks and private arbors for gathering.

We plan to return in 2014 to this beautiful spot, on our next tour of the Holy Land (after a 2012 "Journeys of Paul" cruise in the Aegean). If you like, you can read more about those planned trips here.

Is It a Palm Sunday Sermon or a Palm Sunday Song?

Does it matter? Not when Bishop GE Patterson is doing it. And his congregation is coaching him, helping him remember names. And waving palms. Let's have some Palm Sunday preaching!

"Dull Churchmanship is a Fire Extinguisher"

Calvin Miller, in his wonderful book, Into The Depths of God, writes:

Jeremiah said of his call that it felt like a fire shut up in his bones (20:9). That fire that kept him going when all else failed. But Jeremiah at Benjamin Gate learned another truth: The holy fire of the call is easily quenchable. Dull churchmanship is a fire extinguisher. Business meetings, deacons meetings, committee meetings, and various assorted congregational criticisms all tend to douse the flame--to quench the fire in our bones.

How wonderful are those churches in which the number of members is identical to the number of ministers. In such a church, laypeople are God-called. Their passion burns. Their inner fire rages. They fry their old alarm clocks and can't wait for sunrise. They have an indestructible spirit. They don't buckle under gossip. They outlast their foes. They survive their critics. They awake to praise God on the mornings of their most foreboding trials.

The call of God is so much more than a divine employment agency. Too often the call is equated with vocation, as if God's call is only valid if it means a job in the ministry. The call is more of a relationship than a vocation. A zeal for God. An ardor for the things of God. Ardor joins the applause of God. The angels cannot help but applaud the kneeling and hungry who are famished for God.

Don't let the weighty matters of your task--or the minutia--diminish the flame. Don't let the business damper the call. Remember that just forty words after saying, "his word is in my heart like a fire, like a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot" (Jeremiah 20:9), the prophet said, "But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior" (Jeremiah 20:11).

Keep the Lord with you--or rather you always with him, abiding in his presence--and the passion, your sense of calling, may still waver...but it won't die.

Vulnerability

(from the asbojesus blog)

Put On Your Mask First

If you've flown at all in the past thirty years, you've heard the safety instruction before takeoff: “Be sure to adjust your own mask before assisting others."

It's a key leadership principle, and one that is tragically and commonly neglected: ensure your own ability to survive and function before trying to help others. Otherwise, you're taking the chance that you will be immobilized and thus unable to help anyone...because you didn't help yourself first.

So, pastor, leader, whoever you are, please take care of yourself. Put on your own mask before trying to help others. See to self-care, first and foremost, or you may well fail yourself and all those whom you are trying to help. I suggest at least the following:

1. Take time off. Look, I know you're indispensable. I was once, too. Or so I thought. But taking at least one day of REST each week is not only wise, it is God's command. If you're smarter than God, work seven days a week. Otherwise, work six.

2. Spend time with your spouse and family. This is not the same as #1. Your ministry to your spouse and children is PRIMARY; everything else is secondary (see this post for more on that). If you neglect your family for the church, then you are an example to neither. If you lose one, you lose the other. If you are not taking care of your marriage and family, you have no business leading the church (1 Timothy 3:4-5, 12).

3. Get a shrink. A dear friend and coach would ask me and my co-pastor repeatedly, "Are you seeing a shrink yet?" He eventually nagged me until I engaged a professional Christian counselor....before I thought I needed one. Within a year or two, I was unspeakably glad for it.

4. Diet and exercise. Why are so many of us pastors (myself included) overweight and out of shape? Why do we ignore the teaching of God's Word, which commands us to treat our bodies respectfully, as temples of God? I know we're busy. I know we eat on the run. I know stress triggers overeating. I know. But an essential element of self-care is proper diet and exercise. I am ashamed that I have not shown the people of God the kind of habits that are worthy of a steward of the King. I plan to do better. We all should.

5. Get a life. So many of us in the ministry have NO life outside of our own church or denomination. I recently heard a family member of a faithful pastor couple say, "They don't even know anyone outside [their denomination]." This is not healthy. Every pastor or ministry couple needs a life--whether it's a hobby, a group of friends, or some other pursuit that helps them escape, emotionally and mentally, from the demands and stresses of ministry.

6. Cultivate key relationships. In addition to a "shrink," I consider three relationships to be critical for self-care, regardless of how long you've been in ministry and how experienced or accomplished you may be. They are: (1) a mentor or coach, (2) an accountability partner, and (3) a close friend. These people need to be people other than your spouse, and preferably not someone who is a member of your church. At various times in my ministry (and more so in recent years), I have thanked God for such people in my life. I seriously don't know where I would have been without them. If you don't have such relationships (and research indicates that about 70% of pastors say they don't have any close friendships), make it a priority NOW to begin developing them.

7. Pray. No, seriously. I'm not just giving a nod to some obligatory "spiritual" perspective here. I really mean it. A shocking percentage of pastors go about their life and ministry without a deep, fulfilling prayer life. I've done it myself. But these days, I know that daily prayer has been my most important and influential form of self-care...easily. Don't neglect it. If it's not a habit for you, if it's not a reality, make it one. If I knew thirty years ago what I know now, I would have cancelled ALL ministry until I could have honestly said I had a robust prayer life. Seriously.

These forms of self-care are not exhaustive, by any means. I could list more. But these seven are crucial, no doubt about it.

What about you? What are your self-care commitments? What would you add to my list?

As Good As it Gets

We look at this video and chuckle at how dated and corny it is. "Look at the size of that thing!" "Look at the kid's computer!" And so on.

But not so long ago, this was as good as it got.

My question is, what are we doing or using today that will become laughable just as quickly as that phone?