a new sheriff in town( well, kind of )

Well Fr Jim has gone to start a church in Arizona and I have been left to be the Rector (pastor) of All Saints Church. I knew it was coming for a long time but now it's reality. My bishop has every confidence in me and the congregation is very supportive. I have far more confidence in God's grace and providence than I have in my abilities. God is showing me that he has beautiful plan for All Saints. He is showing me that the position of my heart is far more important than raw ability. There are occupations like auto mechanic where a person has to bring his own tools to the work place so he can execute his job. I thought that was the case for pastoring a church. I don't think that anymore. I felt that I was coming to this ministry with an empty tool box. God showed me that I had more tools than I was aware of and that if I had none he would provide every tool that would be needed. If we seek as a Church to fall into the wake of God's will, we will see awesome things. Reliance on Jesus is primary and vital to the future of this church.
This whole thing can be SCARY and OVERWHELMING. But it's exciting and I find myself waking up each morning saying to God "OK Lord, what are you going to do today?". Then I brace myself for the ride. I invite all of you to come for the ride. HOLD ON !!!
GO BIG OR GO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!

I SEE WET PEOPLE

OK OK, the whole rafting thing wasn't that bad. In fact it was nice. I met some great people, grew closer to some people that I knew and got to hangout with my family. Plus being able to fish didn't hurt. RAFTING IS OK AND NOT LAME .
GBOGH

Rafting addendum

Rafting is not lame. Rafting is not lame. Rafting is not lame. Rafting is not lame. Rafting is not lame. Rafting is not lame. Rafting is not lame. etc . etc . etc
It would be much better if this looked like chalk writing

rafting ?

Lewis and Clark had a good reason to take boat and ride the river. I have no such purpose, yet I'm going to go down a river in a raft with family and friends. Personally, I get no thrill from these kinds of things. I'm a purpose driven person, I need a practical motivation to do something more or less impractical. I will walk up a mountain to hunt quail. I will go on a boat to catch fish. But to go down a river when you can catch plenty of fish from shore, "Why Lord ,why?". Anyway, we're going to Idaho to raft down a river that God intended to distribute water throughout the land he created. Please pray that all involved will have a safe journey. I will post when I return.
GBOGH

Noah Thomas

Yesterday, God brought our Church family (Cody and Alena in particular) the blessing of a baby boy. His name is Noah Thomas. He weighs 7 lbs. 1 oz and measures 21 in. His father came into the world at just under one metric ton (actually 12 lbs.) I'm told.
I was at the hospital when he was being born. During the delivery I went to the chapel for Mass and then I prayed and read scripture. The scripture says that "Noah walked with God". And Thomas though he gets a bad rap for the whole doubting thing is the first in scripture to proclaim "MY LORD AND MY GOD!". Great names ! I know this little boy will be loved into a life of following Jesus. He has parents who serve the Lord to the best of their ability and a church family that will support him with their prayers daily.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD NOAH THOMAS ! MAY THE PEACE OF OUR LORD JESUS REMAIN WITH YOU ALL YOUR DAYS.
WHAT A BIG STORY YOU HAVE AHEAD OF YOU TO LIVE .

True church

I was once asked by someone where I thought the true church was. I said the church was the body of Christ. I was reminded by the person asking the question that he had asked me where ?and not what? To which I said OK, it's right here. I pointed at him first then myself. He looked perturbed. And he told me that wasn't what he was asking.
I knew that but I didn't want to get sucked into a game of "where's the church". Christians spend a lot time trying to figure out where the church is or who is saved. If we only spent as much time on loving people to Jesus I think we would please God more. Division breaks my heart and I know breaks God's heart. Jesus prayed that we would be one as he and the Father are one. Yet we are so splintered.
I became intrigued with magic (sleight of hand) as a child because I saw a man rip a sheet of paper into many pieces and restore it back into one whole piece. What an awesome trick to do such a thing. For years I opened my corporate magic show with a variation of that very trick. If it were only so easy to restore the church (body of Christ) back to unity.
This subject makes me sad. Let's pray for unity.
GBOGH

Time Machine

There was a time in western history when life was permeated and saturated with the rhythm of Christianity. Church bells regulated the day now City Hall regulates church bells. Faith and worship were the immovable and one scheduled life around church services and feast days rather than the other way around. I am as guilty of that as anyone else.
I believe that the church is starving for saturation again and doesn't know it. My prayer is that God will push the church forward as we move be back in time to meet the church of yesterday and rediscover the mystery and constancy of faith in Jesus.

A little hint for members a the All Saints parish family: By reading this blog you will catch a glimpse of the vision for our church that God is giving me day to day. For those who read this blog regularly please encourage the rest to read it.

Hit me as HARD as you can

One the sub-deacons of my church once quoted the movie "Fight Club"to me in attempt to get me to really minister to him with no apprehension. He looked at me and said "Hit me as Hard as you can!. He was asking me to be absolutely honest and not to hold back the weight of a feather. I was taken aback by the statement. I was also proud to be in the presence of a man who wanted to receive the hard blessing .
The word blessing in itself connotes a sweet wonderful thing. But the truth is that blessing normally comes after great trial. The "Hit me as HARD as you can"thing is needed but hard to ask for.
Though I've worked in the psychotherapy field for years (I do think that it can help) I prefer the ancient model of spiritual direction. Spiritual direction kind of works on a "hit me as HARD as you can "principal. It works by applying the truth of the Gospel to the directees life. The spiritual director (priest normally) loves the directee as if he/she was his child. The director must have the truth of the gospel flowing through his life. The director needs to live a life in submission to God and needs to be saying "Lord, hit me as hard as you can - change my heart O God !"The director is flawed, perhaps moreso than the directee but the director isn't supposed to an icon of perfection. Jesus is that!.The director is merely a sign post pointing to Jesus.
Are you willing to submit to yourself to a relationship like that? I know I have made it sound almost violent. The spiritual direction relationship is beautiful and difficult but God does a great work in the one who is willing to pursue a life of such brutal honesty. I have been blessed to have had 3 loving spiritual directors who have kicked my butt for the past 15 years. God has made me better through them.
For those who are saying "Jesus is my spiritual director". Is he? Why did Paul speak as he did to Timothy ? Why does the letter to the Hebrews say specifically to"submit to those in authority over us ? Spiritual direction is not an easy 21st century American concept but our God is not a 21st century American god.
To that man who said to me "hit me as HARD as you can !" . I say "don't look away cuz here it comes ". This won't bruise you (that bad) but it will bless you.
Go big or go home !
For those interested, I know a half dozen priests and one protestant minister (we'll pray for him) who would be awesome spiritual directors.

head butt

I'm not really a boxing fan but I'm a sucker for an underdog. I have watched Ray Leonards' and Sylvester Stallones' "The Contender" twice. I must say that one of those episodes really moved me.
One young man was considered to be lack luster and not really a top boxer. As his fellow boxer put it"he has never stepped up ". I took this to mean that it had never been apparent that he showed that he was giving his all.
This young man was pitted against another boxer who was considered superior . In the first round the underdog looked intimidated. Between rounds his corner man was yelling something like "this is it !you can do this !give 'em everything you got. YOU CAN DO THIS !. He never said that he could win just that he could do it.
Things changed in that second round. The underdog was confident, his effort was apparent and the crowd cheered as he bested his superior opponent. Tears flowed out of eyes as watched this young man seem to do the impossible.
In the exchange of blows the superior boxer accidentally delivered a head butt to the underdog that would subsequently stop the fight and give the victory to the favorite.
In that loss there was victory. The boxer who had made the prior comment said "He finally stepped up". But he lost and had to go home.
It's a hard thing to give your all. The loss might even seem greater because of the apparent effort given. But is it ?Isn't it a greater loss not to really tried . How many of us (I'm really writing to me now) hold back just a little for some strange reason.
What I saw from that young boxer was the RECKLESS ABANDON that I want to live for Jesus Christ and His church. Sometimes we'll catch a head butt that issues a loss for that particular fight. But lucky for us God's grace issues victory when the world judges us losers.
Why don't we "Step up" , "Go big or go home ", have "reckless abandon" or what ever phrase you want to put to giving every drop of yourself. Because ,emptying yourself like that is ultimate vulnerability. What if you give your self like that and you still fail?It's as if holding back is saving some part of ourselves. And that's exactly what we are not supposed to do ! We're supposed to give it all for Jesus.
Some part of us would love to able to give that kind of self emptying effort but are afraid .What would we do with the empty container. We can't do anything with it but God promises to fill us up.
Let's all let Him fill us.
Step Up!