Jimmy Buffett, The Grateful Dead, and Constructing Sermons

This past week Sirius XM had a preview promotion to entice people like me to sign up for the music service. I'm too cheap to pay for the music channels, but I absolutely love it when there is a free preview week. The two stations I listen to the most are Radio Margaritaville and the Grateful Dead channel. As I spent more time than usual driving my Dad's old Yukon listening to the music service, I was reminded how much I miss him at different seasons of the year. Last night, driving home with my oldest child, we listened to the Billy Joel channel and I found myself getting a little emotional thinking about riding with him when I was about her age listening to the Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2 on cassette, that's right cassette. One of the songs we heard, Lullaby, was one of the songs I would sing to my girls when I rocked them to sleep. The road began to get blurry, so I changed the station.

Listening to some of the deep cuts and Parrothead favorites of ole Jimmy reminded me what an excellent storyteller he is. Aside from his ability to transport you to beaches, paradise, lazy breezes, and hammock naps in the shade of palm trees, Jimmy Buffett is one of the most gifted songwriters of the last 40 something years. (Yes, that's a reference to one of his famous tunes). He weaves a story together in such a simple yet profound way, that you get lulled into the island sway and often miss the insight into human nature and life that Jimmy serves up to all who listen. Like when we were teenagers and heard our parents tell us what to do and only half listened to what they said, we can miss the truth of Jimmy's songs.

The best sermons tell THE STORY in such a way that the listener is confronted with the truth of the gospel without feeling attacked and beat over the head. In telling THE STORY, the Jesus story, preachers tell other stories to point to the only one who gives our stories purpose and meaning. Have you ever noticed that most preachers can string a few thoughts together but very few can tell a story that point us to the JESUS story. Preachers, if you are reading this, do your congregation a favor and work on your storytelling. Read novels and short stories not just theology and church history. Listen to songwriters and musicians that are masterful storytellers like Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, and Bill Mallonee. Don't simply duplicate these storytellers, find your own voice in telling your stories, even as you tell the Jesus story to a world that desperately needs to hear the good news! Trust me, your congregation will thank you and Jimmy!

I know what your thinking, your a pastor and you listen to Jimmy Buffett and the Grateful Dead? Yes, I am and yes, I do. I'll admit that sometimes the Grateful Dead channel can get on my nerves slightly if I tune in during the middle of an extended jam and I can't readily recognize the song. The Dead are one of the most unlikely bands for someone in my vocation to listen to, but I have been listening to them for years, long before I entered into ministry. Like Buffett and some of the other songwriters listed above the songwriting duo of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter and others that composes the Dead's catalogue are subtle reminders of basic human truths and even at times gospel truths in disguise. As interesting as the songwriting is for the Grateful Dead, the complex layers of instruments and the improvisational nature of their music makes the Dead another unlikely source of sermonic inspiration. They can elaborate on a theme for several minutes and still allow the listener to hear complex aspects of each note and chord much like a sermon that drills down into a single doctrinal truth and allows us to see it from different sides. Preacher, don't take the temptation to skip over a complex truth in exchange for felt need sermons that your people don't really care about anyway. Mine the truths of the Bible and the Christian faith, bringing them to the surface for your hearers to hear and see again or for the first time, but do it in such a way that each truth is explored in its entirety. Like the Dead's live performances, no song sounded exactly the same way twice. So to, as you preach on doctrinal truths and exegete the scriptures faithfully your sermons may hit on the same doctrine or truth at different times, but it will be received differently each time, in part because of the status of the heart and mind of your listeners.

Like the Dead, don't be afraid to improvise in your sermons. The Grateful Dead masterfully explored the nether reaches of musicality because they weren't afraid to go off in a given direction as a band as longs as they came back to the steady rhythm of the song that helped guide them to the conclusion. Structure your sermon well, but build in room for improvisation, for exploration, for the Holy Spirit even in the midst of the structure.

I don't always quote from Jimmy Buffett or Jerry Garcia and friends in my sermons (though I have on occasion) but their music has shaped my preaching and teaching, I believe for the better...so I'll keep tuning in to the free previews as long as they are available.

College Students Welcomed

This is the first fall in seven years that I anticipate the advent of the fall semester and the influx of students into our little community without serving as a college minister. It's a bit odd in some ways, but I am reminded that as a pastor of a local congregation I get to love and encourage people in all the various stages of life. The transition from college minister to pastor has been one of the highlights of my ministry. I am blessed to serve a congregation that has college students and loves college students. In fact, we are hosting them for worship and lunch on August 19. My time as a college minister taught me a great deal about life and ministry. I think the greatest lesson is that the college campus is our Athens of the Apostle Paul's day. The campus is the center of learning, discourse, and dialogue in our culture. It is also the greatest mission field anywhere in the world. Students come from all over the world to Statesboro to get an education. As believers we have the opportunity to share the gospel with college students. We have the privilege of discipling them in the faith entrusted to the saints. Consider this, when international students return to their homeland, they could be taking the gospel back with them. The life-changing story of Jesus and his life and death...the hope of the gospel.

What about college students who stay in Statesboro after they graduate? Well as churches and campus ministries reach and equip these students we are investing in the next generation of church leaders. The next generation of Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, deacons, worship team leaders, ushers, prayer team members, youth volunteers are all at our finger tips? Will we do the hard work of loving them, praying for them, and discipling them? These are the people who in 10 years will be leading churches all over Bulloch county to reach the next wave of students that come make Statesboro and the colleges and universities here home for 4, 5, or 6 years.

What about college students who leave Statesboro after they finally graduate? Well, consider this, the conversations about Jesus you have with those students will shape who they are and what they become. They may leave here and become missionaries or pastors or ministers who carry the truth of Christianity forward for the next 50 years. They too are ones who will return to their hometown or relocate and invest in local churches and look back over their shoulders at the influence that a follower of Jesus made on them while they nested in the Boro.

I remember well the influence of men and women who I encountered as a college student. Folks who loved me, prayed for me, fed me, encouraged me, taught me, and modeled for me what it means to follow Jesus. People like David and Gina, Lindsey and Robin, Paul and Connie, Colin and Mary, Chuck and Ellen, Mark and Julie, Rick, Scott, Gordon, Joe, and Buddy. It's been over 20 years since I stepped foot on the campus of Mercer University, yet the people who were trying to follow Jesus and let me glimpse that in some way still cross my mind and heart and lips (as I pray for them). What student will remember you and me in 20 years?

So residents of Statesboro, be prepared for the deluge of students about to rain down on our fair city. Don't just curse their big city driving habits and the fact that you won't be able to find anything you need in Walmart for the next 3 weeks. Don't grumble about the crowds at all the restaurants. Greet the incoming and returning students with a warm smile, a kind word, and an invitation to join you in following Jesus.

Join me in praying for God to move in incredible ways on the campuses of our colleges and universities this fall!

Why Churches Need Parachurch Ministries and Parachurch Ministries Need Churches

This week my oldest child is at FCA Leadership Camp. She will be a huddle leader at her school again this year. I'm so proud of her and excited to see how God is using her for the sake of the Kingdom.

Last week I had breakfast with a staffer for Young Life in another county that my family supports each month. As I listened to stories of camp and this past year of serving in ministry I was reminded of the need that is out there to reach the next generation with the gospel.

Our church like other Baptist churches across Georgia is placing an emphasis on getting kids in the word. Helping them to spend time reading the Bible as individuals or as a family. Helping them memorize scripture and learn the books of the Bible. Why are we doing this? Because we believe that reaching children and youth is vital to the health of our church and fulfills the Great Commission.

My wife and I are both involved in the work of Guido Bible College.  A small school situated at Guido Gardens in Metter which is helping to train the next generation of sowers for kingdom work.

As college students we were involved in a local congregation that helped us grow immensely in our faith, but our involvement in a college ministry associated with that denomination is what really helped us lay a foundation of our faith.

Throughout my time in ministry I have wrestled with the tension that exists between the church and parachurch ministries. Often times there is great hostility between the two entities rather than seeing each other as partners and allies in gospel ministry. I am so thankful to be shepherding a congregation that gives to parachurch ministries financially and otherwise. The truth of the matter is that it takes the combined work of the church and parachurch ministries as partners to accomplish the work of God's kingdom. Just as any one church will not reach everyone, any one ministry will not reach everyone either. However, together there is strength and power to be more effective at reaching people for the gospel, training and equipping them for ministry and service, and seeing the world radically changed by Jesus!

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to hear stories of the work of FCA, Young Life, Guido, RUF, BCM, and other ministries that come alongside churches to engage people with the gospel. Perhaps the future of Christianity will be shaped by more cooperation among churches and parachurch ministries to see even greater kingdom impact.

Southern Writing

My wife and children gave me Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman for some occasion in the last few years since it was released. To be honest I can't remember if it was Father's Day, Christmas, or birthday. Either way they know my love language is books, so they purchased it for me. Earlier this year I reread Lee's classic, To Kill A Mockingbird in anticipation of reading Go Set A Watchman. I recall others commenting that they didn't like Atticus Finch in the second book or something else about the book that disillusioned them surrounding the mystique of Harper Lee or the legendary book she was known for nearly all her life. Though I enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird more, I really liked Go Set A Watchman. 

I liked it for the same reason I like most southern writing, particularly southern fiction. In the pages of Flannery O' Connor, Harper Lee, Walker Percy, Will Campbell, Ferrol Sams,  Pat Conroy, and others one is confronted with the hypocrisy of the south in all its glory. One is forced to wrestle not just ideologically but personally with issues of rich and poor, black and white, educated and uneducated. One reads the characters in these pieces of literature and finds glimpses of self shining through. Questions of ideals, racism, sexism, and even theological tensions. Many of the famed southern authors have faith or at least religion somewhere in his or her identity which manifests itself in the ink of the page. I read these authors because I find traces of myself in each book. Things about me that I like, things I don't like. Things I have changed, things I want to change. Ultimately each author and each of the books by them I have read push me to examine who I am as a person, a Christian, a husband, a father, and a friend...because of this I will keep reading.

Food for Thought

I measure the value of a book by how long I keep chewing on thoughts and ideas from the book long after I have reshelved it. Here we are halfway through 2018 and I keep being drawn back to things I read in Eugene Peterson's book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire. You may recall seeing headlines with Peterson after his interview with Jonathan Merritt a year ago in which Peterson first came out seeming to support same-sex marriage. Peterson later retracted his statements and affirmed a traditional understanding of marriage between one man and one woman.

I was eager to read As Kingfishers Catch Fire because I had benefited so much from many of Peterson's other books. I also was at a crossroads in ministry in which I was evaluating where and what God was calling me to do for the next phase of my life. The book is a simple collection of sermons spanning the 29 years Peterson pastor Christ Our King Presbyterian Church, which he planted. The collection is grouped around various biblical characters as Peterson saw himself preaching in the company of those individuals and the larger company of the saints of God. Now to be honest, reading sermons is usually less moving that hearing the sermons. This maxim holds true in this collection as well, though there are some stellar moments in the sermonic journal.

Perhaps for me it was my identity with Peterson's own struggle to find his way of being a pastor in the midst of the expectations that his denomination and culture put on him to be a pastor. In other words, the denomination expected him to grow in attendance by a certain percentage, grow in giving, educational endeavors, and various other "measurables". From the Preface, "But as time went on, I found myself increasingly at odds with my advisors on matters of means, the methods proposed for ensuring the numerical and financial viability of the congregation but without even a footnote regarding the nurturing of souls." He goes on to write that he had grown weary with laying out strategies and "casting visions". Instead, he wanted to nurture the souls of his congregation and walk alongside people as they figured out what it means to follow Jesus throughout life. As I read the Scriptures and grow in my own faith I have come to the conclusion that making disciples is not the same as casting a vision or developing a strategy to make disciples...it is MAKING disciples. It is building relationships with people, getting to know them, and patiently but boldly sharing with them the good news that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead thereby bringing reconciliation between us and God. This indeed is the gospel, this indeed is good news!!

Peterson drawing on inspiration from Gerard Manley Hopkins traces the way that Christ plays in ten thousand faces and places. He writes, "The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence--congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture and our living out what is written, congruence between a ship and its prow, congruence between preaching and living, congruence between the sermon and what is lived in both preacher and congregation, the congruence of the Word made flesh in Jesus with what is lived in our flesh."

Like so much of Peterson's library, there aren't always small nuggets of truth to tease out and quote on social media. Instead Peterson ushers you into the throne room of God and allows you to reflect on all that is and all that could be in a life of faith. Peterson nurtures the souls of his congregation while also nurturing the souls of his larger adopted congregation of his readers. He doesn't disappoint, nor does he wow the reader. Instead he simply offers his thoughts on what it means to follow Jesus and invites us to follow along with him. One year later I am still finding strength and encouragement from this book.

VBS 2018

Last week was VBS at Friendship Baptist Church. I have experienced VBS in so many different roles and capacities but this was the first time as Pastor of the church. It was a fantastic week! VBS really is a whole church effort. It takes teachers and leaders to make it a great experience for the children. It also takes volunteers serving behind the scenes and in unassuming roles to prepare meals, clean up, take out the trash, decorate the classrooms, and the worship room. I was blown away last week as I saw the entire church being the hands and feet of Jesus to reach the Next Generation. I told our congregation yesterday that it was my favorite VBS thus far in life. I think part of my feelings stem from getting to serve this congregation as pastor. What an incredibly humbling experience in so many ways. Last week was also the six month mark of my tenure as pastor, so I'm sure part of my enthusiasm flows out of gratitude to the Lord for giving me the opportunity to do what he called me to do. I can't wait to see what's next in the life of our congregation.