How Should We Pastor

      Classes are in full swing here at Denver Seminary, and I find myself adjusting to an abnormal schedule. Due to the much anticipated arrival of my son I have chosen to take a lighter course load this spring. Amy and I decided that it would be wise being that we will have a newborn while I still have at least one month of school left. In addition to my classes this spring I am also trying to find a job to help support our growing family. I find myself extremely excited for this season and anticipating the many wonderful things God has in the works for my family. 
      As part of my studies here at Denver Seminary, I am required to take part in a mentoring program during five semesters of my studies. Each semester I create character contracts and skill contracts, to help me work on areas of my life that I believe I need to grow in. For my skill contract I will be spending the semester looking at what skill set is needed for a pastor today. To complement my conversations with pastors and church goers, I am also reading Eugene Peterson's Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Leadership. I started this book last week and already I have found my nuggets of wisdom that Peterson has learned through his many years as a pastor. One of the aspects of the first chapter that has shocked me was the theological significance and depth he has shown exists in the Song of Songs. I have read through the Song of Songs many times, however, I always read it through the lens of marriage and physical intimacy. Throughout his first chapter Peterson explains that while there is a relational element we can learn from this book, we must also look at what the Songs tells us about the character of God and our relationship both to Him and others.
      One of my favorite quotes from this book came when he was describing the pastoral themes found within the Songs and how these show a type of "saving love, the kind of love that rescues from nonbeing and creates being-in relationships." As he continues describing how we should approach the Song of Songs he profoundly states;

The love lyrics of the Song are a guard against every tendency to turn living faith into a lifeless 'religion.' They make sure that as we proclaim the truth of God, we do not exclude faith in God. The Song provides correctives to our tendencies to reduce faith to a tradition, or to make an academic dogma of it. It insists that however impressive the acts of God and however exalted the truths of GOd, they are not too great or too high to be experiences by ordinary people in the minutiae of the everyday."

What a picture of the importance of our relationship with God and the necessity of remembering not to exclude faith in God as we proclaim him. As I look forward to obtaining a position as a pastor, it is important to remember that we must not reduce our faith to merely a tradition. Tradition is important, but we need to remember that we serve a living and active God, one who must be worshiped whole-heartedly! I am excited to continue reading this book and see how many other ways I find that Peterson challenges my preconceived notions about pastoral ministry.

Blessings,

Jason

Control

      Throughout this past week, one of the things that God has been teaching me is about control. We all would like to believe that we are in control of our lives, however, I have been learning just how little control I actually have. I have been looking for a job lately, and while I hope to find a job working as a pastor or director at a local church, I have also applied at Starbucks, Panera, Home Depot, Dish Network, Tattered cover, and many other companies.  Out of all of those applications I received one interview, which is not that abnormal from my experience of trying to find a job this past summer/fall. Lately I have been left questioning if perhaps the reason none of these jobs applications are producing anything is because God has a job in store for me but it has not been the right timing yet.
      With our son arriving in April (and our income ceasing) I have tried to remain patient, trusting that God is in control. I believe that God will provide, and I have seen Him provide for Amy and I many times throughout our marriage. Despite this knowledge there are times when I get nervous and realize that April will be here before I know it, I need a job quickly. After thinking about this a lot last week, I have realized how little control I actually have. I can pretend that I can take matters into my own hands and find a job, but when I apply to countless companies, only to never hear from them again, I realize that God is the only one who is in control. I was talking with one of my mentors last week about my lack of control in life and how much Amy's pregnancy has made me realize this. Amy can do everything in her power to protect and nourish our son throughout pregnancy, but ultimately our babies health is out of our control. I have read many stories of miscarriage and know that these mothers were doing everything in their power to keep their babies healthy.
      The reality of our life is that we are not in control. Of course there are certain elements of our life that are within our power to control, but as a whole God is the only one who is control of our lives, what jobs we will get, and if our children will be healthy and safe. I am thankful that I have a my faith in God to help comfort me during these times when I realize how little control I have in my life. Praise be to God that He is the one in control for He truly knows what I need more than I do. May we all recognize that despite our desires we are not in control of our life, and in recognizing this may we turn to God even more, recognizing our deep need for Him every hour of every day.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap not gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do your worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' FOr it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Matthew 6:25-33 (NRSV)

Do you have silence in your life?

   
       Throughout my adult life, I have asked myself this question on numerous occasions, do I have enough silence throughout my daily life? Far too often, my first instinct in the morning is to retrieve my coffee, sit-down with my iPad to read my e-mail, read the paper, and check Facebook. I find that my natural response to times of silence is to fill it with noise, for example turning on Pandora while I am home studying. When I am not at home, I am usually either interacting with people or listening to the radio in the car. Case in point, while I type this I currently am listening to the Mumford & Sons radio on Pandora. The question of if I have enough silence in my life is an important question, one that is worth taking the time to ponder.
       In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster states, "If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture, including our religious culture, we must be willing to go down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation." As I read Foster's classic work I am left wrestling with the lack of silence in my own life, and asking how I can "move beyond the superficialities of our culture" and mold my life to reflect Christ. I believe that we all need to consciously create spaces of silence within our daily lives, in order to allow ourselves the opportunity to hear the voice of the Lord. Many have questioned whether or not God still speaks in the twenty-first century, but I want to challenge this idea with the notion that we are asking the wrong question. The question is not if God still speaks, but do we as Christians still listen? I for one know that I am guilty of not listening and then becoming frustrated that I do not hear the voice of God in my life clearly. If we began creating spaces of silence I believe that we will find God speaking just as clearly as he always has.
       I want to encourage you to join me in creating more silence in your life throughout the next week. Make the effort to turn off your music, shut down your computer, and embrace the silence. I guarantee that it will be awkward at first and you will feel pressure to return to the noise, but I urge you to recognize the awkwardness as a sign of your need for silence in your life. As Christians, it is important that we work at deepening our faith and fight the societal pressures to fill our lives with noise. We must seek whole heartedly after Christ, but in order to do this it is imperative that we stop what we are doing and listen, perhaps then you may hear the soft voice of God speaking in your own life.

Blessings,

Jason

A New Semester

     Here I am again at the beginning of a new semester. I cannot believe how quickly my Christmas/J-term break flew by. This year I decided to spend my break being productive instead of just sitting around the entire three weeks(don't get me wrong I still relaxed a lot). Once Amy and I returned from our Christmas in Seattle I made a to-do-list to ensure that I would remember to actually do something productive. It has been a great break and has included a lot of walks with Amy, hanging some new pictures in our home, painting furniture for the nursery, translating the book of James from Greek to English, cleaning our carpets, rearranging furniture, journaling, quiet times with God, running, and beginning our childbirth preparation class. Overall I would say that it has been a really good break, and I feel ready for the semester to begin on Monday.
     This semester is going to be a little bit crazy with my son being born sometime around the beginning of April, my last semester of Greek, my first preaching class, and finding a job to help support our growing family. I am excited for all that I believe God has in store for me this semester and hopefully I will find time to update this blog to keep you all in the loop. Part of my requirement for this semester is the mentoring program, which includes writing a skill contract and a character contract to work on throughout the semester. I have chosen to focus my character contract on the topic of discipline. As I thought about my life and my relationship with God, I came to the conclusion that I want to lead a more disciplined life. This desire applies not only to carving out time to pray but also committing to exercising and eating healthy. My skill contract will be focused around figuring out what is the skill set that a pastor needs in order to effectively minister to his community and congregation. I will be reading a few books on pastoral leadership, as well as interviewing both pastors and church goers in order to gain their perspective on this question. It is my hope that by the end of the semester I will have a clear list of the skills that I want to pursue working on in order to become an effective pastor.
     I am looking forward to what a crazy ride this semester will be and would appreciate your prayers as I seek to do well in my classes, prepare to be a father, and possibly start a new job. I am so thankful for the season that I am in, and I look forward to seeing the many ways I believe God will stretch me and help me grow throughout this semester.


Blessings,
Jason

Busy, Busy, Busy

This week I am slammed with papers due, Greek homework, and writing a sermon for Sunday. My desk accurately portrays what my week looks like...a lot going on. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to write some blogs once I complete my sermon.

God Bless,

Jason

If you own an iPhone

For all my friends who own an iPhone, the coolest iPhone charger out there. The Umbilical iPhone Cable, watch the video below to see if in action (yeah it moves!).

God Bless,

Jason

Humility

     One of the requirements of the MDIV program here at Denver Seminary is to be involved in a fairly intensive mentoring program. Part of the mentoring is working on 'character contracts' which seek to help one develop their character in order to be healthier and more effective pastors. This semester my character contract is focusing on humility. How does one obtain humility, what does it look like, how did Jesus display humility? These are just a few of the questions I have been wrestling with throughout this semester and at times it feels like I now have more questioning about humility than when I started this process.

I was journalist a little bit about this process yesterday and wanted to share some of my thoughts. These are not completely polished or finalized thoughts on the topic of humility, but more just a glimpse of my mind working through humility.

Here he was, God's son, part of the triune God head, in a mans body, walking around in His Father's broken creation. I imagine Jesus was actually hurting in more ways than we often recognize. Here He was in a world that was meant to be beautiful and a representation of God, but instead it was/is broken, damaged, torn apart, filled with sin and yet there in the midst of everything was God's Son in all His glory. How did Jesus walk around day after day in this broken world without crying all day over the destruction of something so beautiful, yet do damaged now? Was it because He was God? Yes and yes. Jesus was able to walk the earth because of His great humility which he exhibited. Humility, humiliation, one can see it throughout Jesus' life. From His mother asking Him to perform miracles before He is ready, as if he were a magician to being spit on, mocked, and crucified on the cross. The question for me becomes am I willing to be spit on, mocked, or crucified for Christ, because these actions take great humility. Some days I think the answer is emphatically Yes! However other days I don't know if I could endure it. Thankfully these are the days Christ upholds me and reminds me that it is ONLY by His strength now my own. Praise God!

  I believe that in our society today humility is not something at carries with it a high value. We believe that one should seek out power, wealth, and prestige rather than humility. As Christians we are called to a different lifestyle, one that is committed to humility, and with this humiliation at times. I am challenging myself (and you) to take some time this week to think about ways in which you are pursuing a humble life? How can you in your humility both become like Christ and also know Him more deeply.

God bless,

Jason