After all…the world is rarely changed for the better through legislation and political wrangling. It’s just not. I favor leadership over politics every time.

These days we have way too many politicians and scarcely any leaders.

Yesterday, PRESIDENT Barack Hussein Obama made this point in spades. His ‘evolutionary process’ regarding gay marriage apparently reached the place of going public. He came out on the wrong side of the argument.

Let me be clear…I’m not homophobic. I have friends who have chosen that path. I love them. They’re good people. But marriage has historically, morally, rightfully been between a man and a woman. Thirty-two states currently have laws on the books presenting and preserving marriage that way.

As a country, we have offered the provisions that remove the legal and financial penalties of being a same-sex couple. Why, Mr. President must we cave on the definition of marriage as well? Perhaps because you, like so many politicians, are a puppet controlled by those who fund your re-election?

Again, it’s not about legislation. It’s about leadership. Moral leadership. Doing what’s right regardless of the special interest groups. Regardless of the political gains.

Mr. President…you’re wrong. With this decision, you have confirmed that you have no leadership courage. Even worse, you’ve traded your position and what leadership credibility you had left for a few more votes. Good luck with that.

As a country, we are becoming Europe, even as Europe stirs itself from the moral slumber that has contributed to it’s demise. I wish we could take a hint and learn from their mistakes.

So, Mr. President, perhaps instead of apologizing for us as you travel, try asking for help. Because clearly, with you at the helm, we need it!

As I said…I try to avoid politics, the talk shows, the various pundits on both sides of the governmental divide. But there comes a time when, out of moral outrage, we as a people need to say ENOUGH!!!

The emperor has no clothes!!! The emperor has no clothes!!! And clearly no moral compass.

There…I said it…

 
His

What I found funny was the placement of the screen for the lower urinal. They didn’t adjust the screen height for whoever might NEED to use the lower one…say a kid.

In fact, they had cartoons running on the screen above the lower one.

This is when it occurred to me…it didn’t matter. No kid would ever see the cartoons. It was WAY over their head. Literally.

This got me thinking….how often do we carefully shape a message…be it a commercial, an announcement, whatever…without carefully considering the unique needs of the audience.

Years ago, seeker church did that very thing…took the needs of the unchurched into account as they crafted their weekend experience. They were severely criticized for spiritual pandering by those who were busy doing the same thing..but their critics  were using flashy signs and big-buck facilities.

As communicators, be it spiritual or secular, if we don’t think it through…our message will completely miss the mark.

Last week I wrote an ad for our local top 40 radio station regarding a new class we have going…one based on Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God.  I thought about the unchurched people I knew and wrote this:

“So…you think of yourself as a spiritual person but not religious. You don’t go to church, you don’t trust organized religion…and you probably have good reasons why. Where do you go to engage in catalytic spiritual conversations? A safe place. A respectful place…where do you go?”

The whole idea was to at least make the point that we as the church don’t ASSUME everyone is Christian or is interested in church. I wanted the audience to be aware that we know they’re out there…spiritually hungry, but church shy.

Will it work? We’ll see…the emails are beginning to come in…so we’ll see who shows up.

My point HERE is this: when you seek to communicate…however to whomever…THINK ABOUT IT!

And place the message where they can SEE IT!

Video over the urinal…what WILL they think of next?

I attend a lot of meetings. As the church has grown and ministries are led by people other than me…LOTS of other people, it becomes a normal thing to meet and listen to what’s going on, occasionally offering insight or direction.

What strikes me often is how many words we must use to get the point across. It can be almost maddening. Or boring..depending on whether its me who’s talking or not.

Some folks believe that women have more words than men. I really don’t KNOW if that’s true. I notice that some guys have LOTS of words and INSIST on using them all.

I use this whole wordy intro to think out loud for a moment about back ground noise. We all have it. It’s one of the greatest challenges of modern/postmodern life. Commercials, messages, talk radio, the aviation scanner in my offer, my incessantly barking dog, the TV I feel compelled to have on as soon as I walk in the house…and then there’s all those meetings.

I’ve been spending time in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes…the one written by Solomon…reputedly the wisest man of his day…and the richest as well.

In Ecclesiastes 6:11 he makes an insightful statement: The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?

Wise man, huh?

It seems to me that the lack of communicational brevity creates more and more back ground noise in our lives. Words, words, and more words.

I favor Einstein’s approach: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Our conversations should be considered. Ideally, BEFORE we have them. Well, ok, at least WHILE we are having them.

That goes for meetings, sermons, whatever.

Proverbs 10:19 actually says this: “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”   Wow.

I guess I say all this (with so many words) to say simply: seek to use fewer words and perhaps we’ll turn down the background noise in all our lives.

Wouldn’t THAT be nice…

It’s a loaded statement. One that promises such rewards…’we will grow up!’ It also includes a challenge…taking the time to truly discern the truth. Career Christians would say, “oh, that’s the easy part…just share scripture.” But life points to a more complicated reality.

It’s the reason why there are myriad denominations. Numerous political parties. Countless constituencies. Because the truth can be terribly subjective. In fact, MOST of us receive the truth and thus share the truth through filters of which we are barely cognizant.  Even as it involves scripture. Especially as it involves scripture.

All that said, speaking the truth really IS critical to growth. If we aren’t exposed to new personally relevant truth, we are doomed to remain as we are…a sobering thought.

With this speaking comes an important condition…we mostly EARN the right to speak the truth to each other.

If I had a dime for every time someone delivered THEIR version of the truth for me…I could afford a counselor to recover from the damage they caused when they performed the ol’ “Jesus-told-me-to-say-this” dump and run.

To speak the truth in loves means just that…to care so much for that other person that we will risk discomfort in order to share a relevant insight. Mostly, speaking the truth in love calls for an ongoing relationship. In a way, its the understanding that, ‘after I’ve shared this truth…I’ll still be here to live it out with you’. So…speaking the truth in love calls for maturity and commitment.

And then there’s RECEIVING the truth. THAT is a whole OTHER skill set.

To receive the truth spoken in love calls for humility. The genuine sense that we don’t know all there is to know and that we ALL have our warts, wrinkles, and blind spots. But clearly, when we sense love woven into the words….it makes hearing all the easier.

I happen to believe that in all the world, NO ONE does this better than the Church. Empowered by the Spirit, enabled by the presence of Christ…the Church is the ONE place where authentic Christian community offers the chance to grow in supportive, soul-nurturing community. We grow up in Christ…we help each other become more and more like Jesus.

It is a powerful, wonderful thing to speak or be spoken to…lovingly experiencing the truth.

It’s also time for something else. For those of us on a January-December fiscal year…it’s BUDGET TIME! Its time to look back on what we spent and forward to how we will plan our spending for the new year.

As senior pastor, I have a greater involvement than I’d like. I didn’t get into ministry to spend days at a time running financial scenarios. But it comes with the territory…at least for now.

Here’s how the process works: I ask our staff and ministry leaders to analyze their ministry spending for the current year and begin to dream of what God would have them do in the new year.

R.C Sproul asked someone a key question…”how much ministry can you do for $100?” His answer? “About $100 worth!” There’s nothing magic or mysterious about it. Although  we ask God to bless what we have and make it go further and He certainly does…the truth is, we can do a certain amount of ministry with a certain amount of money.

So…they submit their dream budgets. I love this team…they know how to DREAM!

I put it all on a spreadsheet and do a comparison between their spending in the current year and what they hope to do in the new year. And at the bottom of the page I glimpse the cold hard facts…there’s the total. Then I reach for the Tums.

What follows is a few days of wrestling…the Old Testament heroes of the faith have nothing on me. I WRESTLE.

Emotionally, spiritually, I move through a cycle of excitement, then fear, then sadness, depression, anger (kinda sounds like the grief process now that I write it out) , and THEN…hope.

My poor spouse tolerates my mood this time of year…she knows…she’s seen it year after year.

I get to the place of hope after I exhaust all MY best thinking (that’s hilarious…doesn’t take long for THAT to happen) and I get to thinking God’s thoughts.

Typically…it begins as a ridiculous idea…one that breaks the rules…that can’t possibly work. And the more I live with it, the more I sense it’s more of God and less of me.

And, given the fact that I’m writing this is clear evidence that I’ve broken through.

The plan is still in it’s infancy. And it’ll have to pass the careful scrutiny of the Management Team. But I’ve gone from sweating to trusting…and that’s a good  place to be.

If you’re a part of Grace Community Church, if you call it home, if you gain spiritually from your participation and attendance, then I ask you to begin praying with me and the leadership team.  Pray that when its said and done it is GOD who speaks, that it is HIS plan that is carried out. And pray that our diligence now will translate into a transformed church and a transformed community in the new year.

I LOVE this time of year…..

She finished her Happy Meal and off we went to the airport. Only this time, it wasn’t to Winchester Regional. It was north to Martinsburg for the airshow!

I love this kid…she spotted someone on their way out with cotton candy. Immediately she decided she should have some too. Being a doting grandfather, it became my mission to see that she found some. She wanted blue, but all they had was pink. Like a princess, I reminded her. She conceded and headed for a comfortable place to watch the aerobatic action, quickly asking me to open the bucket of joy.

This kid loves airplanes. She gets as excited as I do to see them fly by.

There was a P-51. There was a Pitts Special. There were numerous airplanes and pilots doing their best flying.

And then the T-28′s taxied into position. Painted different colors, they were a splendid sight as they moved toward the western end of the runway and awaited tower clearance.

They roared off the ground three at a time, those throaty warbird engines heading for the sky.

One of the first maneuvers was what they call a belly to belly pass at the center of the grandstand area.

The two planes involved fly toward each other and then at the last minute rotate into a ‘wing’s vertical’ position and pass each other.

The pass was without incident…it’s always breath taking to see two airplanes pass so close at high speed.

Then…

Then something went horribly wrong with the plane flying west. He initiated an aileron roll as he climbed. He came our of the roll wings level, nose down.

It seemed he was simply diving to gain speed. But the longer I watched (which in reality was only a few seconds at that 250 knots of speed), it was clear he wasn’t going to pull out.

Incredibly, as we sat there watching, the T-28 plowed into the ground to the south of the runway and burst into flames. A tire from the retracted landing gear went rolling across the runway,  the seemingly only recognizable part of the aircraft.

The crowd hushed. It didn’t take long for all of us to realize what we’d just witnessed. A man had died. Right there. Right in front of us. People began to embrace and to weep.

I grabbed Syd’s hand and suggested we take a walk. My fear for her was that she might be frightened, even traumatized. Fortunately, 4 year olds are good witnesses and bad interpreters.

She asked me…”what happened Granddad?”. “I think someone got hurt Syd”, I said, as I choked back my own tears.

As we walked away from the flight line, they suspended and then canceled the airshow. A proper response.

Syd asked to use my phone. Yeah…she’s 4.

She called her mom. She told here what had happened. Calmly. Matter of factly. And then we drove home.

I’ve reflected a great deal on the experience since then. I have prayed again and again for the pilot and his circle of family and friends.

I’ve thought a LOT about the things we as pilots tell ourselves every time we go up.

We know there’s risk. We are trained to be risk managers. But the risk is real. And ever present.

As another pilot told me…there are two kinds of pilots…those who’ve had an accident, and those who will. Will I fly again? I’m sure I will. Will this experience alter my perception? You better believe it.

As a pilot I always say there are two things you can’t get enough of: fuel and altitude. Aviation is no game. The risks are significant. The consequences can be deadly.

Pray for the family of Jack Mangan, Concord, N.C. I never met him…but his passing has affected me deeply.

Paul’s thought in chapter 2:12 continues to bounce around in my head: “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.

I think I missed a great chance to get VERY specific. It hit me this morning the question I SHOULD have asked: where in your spiritual life are YOU working?

In other words, where in your path of Christ are you sensing the need to focus? Where in your life is GOD desiring to work NOW?

I don’t think we can generally work at it. I think work is by nature specific. And our experience with the Holy Spirit surely points to this…He always is pointing us to some place in our walk that needs attention…or better yet, submission.

So…where is it for you? I journaled about mine this morning…so I won’t bore you with the details. And really, that’s between me and God anyway.

How about you? Where is it you sense, even as you read this, that God is saying “can we talk?” That place that represents the next step in obedience for you.

Take some time…open your heart…ASK Him…

He’s sure to answer…specifically.

In a nutshell…that’s where I’ve been. Nothing to say. Or more to the point, nothing I wanted to say in public!

Blogging’s like Facebook. Facebook is all about ego…that the insignificant events in one’s life are actually worth sharing.

Blogging’s like that too…it requires some ego to believe that one has ANYTHING worth reading…and despite my best efforts, on more than a few occasions, I’d have done well to simply remain quiet.

Friends have chided me for the silence. Others have probably been grateful that I wasn’t droning on about yet some other remotely interesting idea.

My silence revealed the noise in me. The merry-go-round of thoughts that all demand expression. It helped ME to identify the small thoughts that need to be muted, along with the larger ones that need clarification before they can be entertained in public.

I suppose I simply don’t want to add to the noise in YOUR life.

So…I’ll continue to write…judiciously. It may be every week. It may be every day. Or it may not be at all.

Teaching on humility recently reminded me that I’ve got a LOT of work to do in that area…or more to the point…God has a lot of work to do IN me.

I’m NOT Seth Godin. I get a blog from him every day on my Kindle. I doubt I’m capable of such frequent profundity.

I’m not Rick Warren. He tweet’s like crazy…assuming it’s actually coming from HIS phone. A lot of those tweets are truisms. I try to avoid those. Even a prophet of the obvious has his limits.

I’m me…fascinated by the world, by people, by where we’ve been and where we’re headed…and where God is in it all.

I think I’ll just write out of my fascination.

How’s that?

Interestingly enough, most of us don’t have to look far to engage in life’s lessons. Lessons like ‘buy a breed of dog KNOWN for energy and don’t be surprised when he IS energetic!’ Or ‘buy a dog known for barking and shedding and don’t be surprised when she barks incessantly and casts her coat like it’s her JOB!’

Other lessons aren’t so easy. Other lessons can be far more painful. Like our recent revelations from Malawi.

On the last trip there, I began to get an uneasy feeling…as if everything wasn’t as it seemed. As if maybe this was just one big ‘dog and pony show’.

I’m not sure what got my attention…maybe it was that the days began to take on the character and pace of a presidential campaign. Village to village, shake some hands, preach a sermon, move on to the next place.

Maybe it was the constant requests for money. I’m used to this. Travel in third world countries reminds us as Americans of how really great we have it and how we should be generous.

This was something different.

When we got home, Tim DeLaughter decided to do a Facebook deep-dive to gather more information on our ‘friends’ in Malawi. What he found went from disturbing to sickening.

Although we were told we were the only contributors to ‘GCC-Malawi’, Facebook seemed to indicate something else.

In time we uncovered facts from the past….we were actually the SECOND Grace Community Church to be in partnership with Grey Mnunkha (whom we knew as Rodgers Nkhoma). The other GCC was involved for 8 years before they discovered they’d been had. It only took us 3 years, but the effect was the same.

As it turns out, little if ANY of our money wound up in the villages helping the children we thought we were helping. The vast majority was kept and spent by Grey and his ‘team’.

Let me be very clear…I’ve been there 3 times…I’ve been on the phone with Grey dozens of time, we’ve exchanged countless emails. This is heartbreaking. I love this guy. But he cannot be trusted. At all. I believe the term sociopath applies. Completely. Knowing that he’s scammed smarter people than me does NOT help. I counted him as a friend, as a partner in ministry.

That said…for anyone who Googles this…be clear…you will NOT be the exception. If you engage in any ministry work with Grey Mnunkha you WILL be scammed.No exceptions.

As it turns out, thanks to friends like Randy McEwen of Acts 3 ministries, we are discovering there ARE people in Malawi we CAN trust. Legitimate ministry partners who ARE NOT after our money. As time goes on, I believe we will re-engage in Malawi. When? Who knows? Time will tell. We’ll trust God to lead.

Again, to anyone considering a partnership with Rodgers Grey Nkhoma Mnunkha, BEWARE. He is NOT who he seems!

Following God is an adventure. In this case, the adventure led to Malawi.

We still have a vibrant dayschool ministry in Kenya. We have partnered with a godly man there named Peter Degwa of Patmos Trust. We are helping in the prisions of Kenya. Who knows where else God will lead us.

We have learned some painful priceless lessons.

Since I blogged last I bought my first TRUCK! All my life, I’ve never owned a truck…until now. And let me say…VERY COOL! Friends have suggested I get either a gun rack for the rear window or a “Git ‘er Dun” sticker for my bumper. In both cases…I think not!

It’s amazing how many choices life offers. It’s equally amazing at how hard it can be to choose!

For me it always comes back to three questions:

1. Does this move me closer to Christ? Any choice that clearly moves me away must be avoided. That said, it’s not always so clear. Some of us are frighteningly proficient at rationalization. Often we choose what we choose in order to get what we want.

2. Does this move me closer to those around me? In other words, does this contribute to the health of key relationships in my life? Be it a spouse, a child, or whoever is especially important to me. Does this decision add to relational health or take away?

3. Does this move contribute to my physical health? Perpetual motion may feel good at the time, but even GOD took a day off. Will this choice allow me to rest, to be restored, to be renewed?

Even as I write this, I am measuring the last few weeks’ activity in light of these questions. Hmmm.

Anyhow, my choices to this point have kept me from the blogging keyboard.

Perhaps beginning now, I’ll make other choices.

Time will tell.