M I C -- SEE YA REAL SOON

Going to our church convocation tomorrow with the family. Please pray for us and the whole church. It's in Orlando , Fla. I'll try to post a couple times while we're there. This is the first time our little ones have flown a plane.

Going Big and Far !

apparent failure- actual victory

When I was a kid I had an incident that made me never want to give anything my all. I still battle this. It's hard to do your best and flat out FAIL! But is that failure. NOPE !
I was a pole vaulter a million years ago. The vault is an event that ALWAYS ENDS IN FAILURE. You vault until you've knocked down the bar at a certain height three times(very trinitarian).
Vaulting taught me that some failure is just victory in disguise. Failure in some cases comes from outside of us. We do our best and sometimes our environment will not permit us to thrive and achieve like we believe we can . Looks like failure - it's not. The victory is there if you have allowed God to make you better by it and thru it.
I wear a crucifix (I know many of you don't think Jesus should still be on the cross- fine ) because it speaks to the the greatest apparent failure in history - What looked like failure is victory for all of us.

Christ is victorious and thru him so are we!

Breathing

Discovery: One needs to breathe to live.

HMMMM!

Yep - It's true.

And probably why many of us walk around with spiritual and emotional faces of purple.

BREATH!

Read John 20:21-22

A resurrected Jesus says to his disciples "Peace be with you"- He wants us to have peace not anxiety and turmoil.

In the next line Jesus BREATHES on them and says " Receive the Holy Spirit"

I don't believe that Jesus has ever stopped breathing the life sustaining Holy Spirit upon us.

So INHALE ! Breathe in and out the Holy Spirit.

Noticing that I have been a lighter shade of purple lately I have decided to breathe.

From this day on - you may now call me Fr. Ninja Surfer Dad

Fr. - well I'm a priest and that the title

Ninja - Japanese for assassin- I plan to assassinate anxiety in my life - The word of God my

Samurai sword.

Surfer - I don't plan on surfing any more but I like the idea of being content with a simple life.

Dad- I really enjoying being a Dad.

So stay tuned for the further adventures of Fr Ninja Surfer Dad. Breathing in a church near you.

I may be looking for a sidekick in the near future.

I kinda already have a getup (clericals). So I won't need tights or anything

BREATHE!

Some Animals Eat Their Young - Some Churches Eat their Pastors

I am very thankful to serve a parish where my every word and movement is not scrutinized and judged. Basically my parish knows that I am a wacko and they love me any way.

I know of many churches that tend to believe that they are the boss of the pastor and need to keep him in line (really). It's funny 'cause every other word out of there mouth is "pastor "yet they don't let the pastor be their shepherd. The tradition that I serve in is very different so it's hard for me to understand how wonderfully biblical living folks treat their pastors like hirelings. I know that pastors aren't little gods and shouldn't be allowed to rule churches with tyranny but when a congregation feels they should govern the shepherd it makes me sad.
I know of Pastors that don't preach on certain things because they were given a list of no preach zones when they were hired. I know of a pastor that was told by an elder the first Sunday he preached " I had the last guy removed you know - Let's see how you do".
Something is wrong here! While I agree that pastors are human and make mistakes ,the hireling mentality is hurtful to everyone.
Now before I give the idea that I'm taking a superior position let me assure you that I am aware of the flaws in all forms of church governance including the one adhered to in my communion. But the hireling mentality is one where pastors rarely have the fortitude to stay in those churches more than a few years. Why? Because the laity has not been trained to submit to those who are in authority , in fact we have allowed them to be the authority. There is no biblical model for this. We use secular models to run our churches - probably not a good idea.We try to run our churches with American democracy when the God we serve IS NOT AN AMERICAN! Biblical based governance is tough 'cause it requires us to come to consensus rather than a majority. There are no committees -no lobbying for certain agendas. What! No committees?
It can be done.
Let's try!