Man…*

Here’s an interesting couple of verses in Luke:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide my inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” (Luke 12:13-14, TNIV)

Some context: Jesus goes on to talk at length about money and possessions and worry. About trust and generosity. The thrust of the passage is to be “rich towards God“…his purposes, his Kingdom.

But, if you read that reply in a certain tone, you get the impression that Jesus, as blasphemous as it might seem, was kind of annoyed with this guy. As in, “come on man,” don’t you see that there are bigger things going on here than how you divide your inheritance with your brother.

Jesus was welcoming, hospitable, and compassionate. But he was also protective of his mission and priorities. The Word did not become flesh to settle petty disputes. He knew where he was going and was not going to get sidetracked.

As ministers, leaders, pastors, we want to help people. That’s why most of us get in to this work. When someone comes to us and wants our help, our natural tendency is to say “yes”. This is the work we signed up to do, after all. But not every ask moves the mission forward…not every idea is the right idea for right now…some things people can (or need) to figure out on their own.

I find Jesus’ response strangely encouraging. But also challenging because I want to help everyone. Anyone else struggle with this?

*For the sake of full disclosure, the essence of this idea is stolen from a talk Rob Bell did in the poets, prophets, and preachers series but his emphasis was narrower, focusing on how people respond to sermons.

Things I Love About My Job

– Great conversations with students

– Leaders stepping up and/or emerging

– Reading excellent books and talking about them

– One on one conversations, asking questions, listening

– Planning and preparing (for something like our ReadRetreatServe or Spring Break Trip)

– Watching our students Perform* (we know some wicked talented kids)

– Meeting new people, getting them connected

– Eating dinner with a good friend and supporter who knows how to bless us

All of this and more happened just this weekend! Grateful to be a part of it…

Must Reads

Links of the Week:

A Quote About Stories

From The Story Factor by Annette Simmons:

“Story makes sense of chaos and gives people a plot. A story can help people make sense of their frustration. People don’t need more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith…It is faith that moves mountains, not facts. Facts do not give birth to faith. Faith needs a story to sustain it–a meaningful story that inspires belief and renews hope.”

Pink Hats and Posers*

If the Patriots won on Sunday night, then I guarantee you that thousands of people (who had suddenly become Pats fans) would take the streets of Boston in riotous bliss. (It still happened at Amherst anyway).

Around the rest of the country this is known as being a “bandwagon” fan, but here in Boston we have an even more caustic and derogatory term for this phenomenon.Bandwagon fans here are referred to as “Pink Hats”.

The Pink Hat’s first appeared at Fenway Park in 2005 (as far as I know), the year after the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.

A “pink hat” is the easiest way to spot a Poser…someone who is not a TRUE FAN. A “True Fan” is someone who has been through all the ups and downs, all the losing seasons, who has been to a million games…someone who has invested blood, sweat, and tears in to the team.

It’s funny though, the difference between a True fan, and a “pink hat”, isn’t that much. At the end of the day, neither one of them are REALLY on the team! They both pay for tickets, they both buy stuff from the team store, they both watch from the stands, and neither of them have had to catch a Tom Brady pass or try to hit a baseball over the Green Monster.

The Pink Hat isn’t the problem. The problem is the true fan thinks the pink hat hasn’t earned it…they are a poser, a hypocrite…

It is incredibly easy to slip into the trap of hypocrisy…which is why Jesus gives his disciples such a strong warning in Luke 12.

Our inner life and our outer life are NEVER in complete sync.We are never as true to our convictions as we’d like, we’re not always as honest as we want everyone else to be, and we sometimes pretend to be one way to hide the fact that inside we don’t actually feel it or believe it or live up to our own ideals.

In one way or another every human being is a hypocrite. As much as we want to believe that we are the true fans, we still wear pink hats…

*adapted from my teaching on Luke 11/12 at REUNION Boston (2/5/12)

Kinect for a Cause

We have brought over the X-Box Kinect to UMASS-Boston a couple of times. You can read some of my previous thoughts about this here. We did it again this past Friday but with a twist…to raise some money for our Spring Break to Joplin, MO. We are heading down there two weeks in a row (Northeastern and others March 3-10, and then UMB and BU March 11-18) to help rebuild after the tornado damage that hit last May.

I’m really excited about this trip for several reasons…I’ll give you few here: 1) One of our staff team members grew up in Joplin and some of our strongest supporters are from there. (2) I love that we are taking two trips this year and that students from at least 5 campuses are going. (3) I love that UMB and BU are doing this together, and (4) We’ve set a goal of raising $5000 to bless a family with the items they need to move into their rebuilt house.

All of that to say, it was incredible to watch 60-70 UMB get together, have a great time hanging out, dancing, and getting to know each other better, and supporting our cause. A major part of the success of the event was the partnership of the UMBEvents crew who publicized Kinect like crazy. They even made a $40 donation. Very cool stuff. Huge win!

Week Links

Community and the Extrovert Ideal

I started reading a fascinating book this week called, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Without further ado, here is the quote (or quotes) of the week:

Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles. We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable…[as a result] many people pretend to be extroverts. It makes sense that so many introverts hide from themselves. We live with a value system I call the Extrovert Ideal–the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight.

And then, here’s the kicker:

Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extraversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.

I have several reactions to this, but initially my thoughts turn towards community. I’ve had a number of conversations recently around the idea of community and when I pull them all together the picture (or working definition) of community that I get is of a large number of people who are together all the time and who do tons of fun things.

Is that true community though? Consider Jesus. He certainly interacted with a lot of people and at times had huge crowds around him.

That was not his community.

His community was 12 guys. These guys were a true community because:

They were a manageable size.
They had a mission (and a risky one at that).
They spent a lot of “deep” time together.

Jesus also talked about the Kingdom of God as a party. He went to festivals and feasts. Again, he wasn’t afraid of the crowds.

But I wonder if the Extrovert Ideal hasn’t warped our idea of what authentic community really is. And that is pretty interesting to me.

More to come from this book, I am sure!