HCLM BLOG

The second generation Hoyer family is spending the weekend in Pensacola. I have the privilege of officiating at the wedding of Megan’s cousin and our friend. We drove up after work on Thursday; the seven hours was a little long that late at night, but it was nice to have Wes sleep most of the way. When we arrived my Father-in-law was sitting amidst a whole slew of letters. He is an elected member of the school board and all the letters were from folks who wanted him to hear their opinion. Over the next half hour we got the scoop.

Some time ago the ACLU brought a suit against the school district. The union was concerned about the place prayers had been given in various aspects of the schools, including graduation ceremonies. So this year the board is being very careful: because the valedictorian and salutatorian are selected without faculty influence they can speak and even pray (if they want),however because student government officers need recommendations from faculty(which means they are somehow endorsed by the school) they cannot pray.  This has caused quite a stir.

There are signs in yards all over the area that read “Pray for Our Schools.” A local church held a rally where people came together in some show of solidarity against the changes, we saw a car this morning with “let them speak” on the windshield, and school board members like my father in-law are being pressured with slews of letters and emails.

The letters speak of disappointment and Christian foundations; the rally’s call for grand gestures and refusals to cooperate.They’re reacting like they are a church under persecution. They seem to think limiting prayer during public school ceremonies is persecution. The irony is that most of the churches pushing this view grew out of the revivals of the first and second great awakenings. The leaders of those movements were great proponents of a clear separation between church and state. They knew if the lines were blurred it would be bad for the church.

They knew that if we started relying on the government to teach creation, we’d get some watered down version like intelligent design.They knew that prayer would boil down to “our thoughts are with you” or prayers sent out to god generically (think of the political conventions last year). I appreciate a clear separation of church and state it lets Christian and government be themselves unabashedly. 

I had a friend come into the office the other day and ask a simple question: how do I best share my faith. It's not that he didn't know what his faith was in, I think he was just trying to think about where to start when sharing it.

Then on the way home I was listening to a podcast (the radio in my classic ford ranger pickup doesn't work so I put one headphone from my ipod in my ear). They were telling stories of people who had lost belief in things. This one girl had lost faith in God when a friend of hers died. Through a series of funny and interesting events she ended up on the phone with a pastor/football coach. The podcast played their phone conversation as the pastor/football coach tried to share his faith.

I had told my friend earlier to remember that it's never his job to convert. All we are asked to do is "provide and answer for the hope that we have." We just put in out there, and allow the Holy Spirit to do what he will with it. A guiding principle for me in conversations of faith has been to be as transparent as possible. I don't try to sound holy or give a good answer, just the one that occurs to me.

The guy on this podcast slowly walked the girl through philosophical proofs of God, and refutations of evolution. He tried to explain to her the problem of sin, and the importance of objective truth. She got off the phone confused and frustrated. All she wanted was someone to hear her out about the loss of her friend, and help her process where God was. But instead of really listening and having a real conversation the guy loaded is barrel full of excerpts from tracts. It was pretty disheartening, and reminded me why I focus on helping people create authentic relationships; cause sharing our faith is not about proving anything it is a moment of authenticity and vulnerability...at least it otta be.

 

As we get ready to start this memorial day weekend, I find myself remembering high school and the Vietnam War. In the classes that graduated the three years before me they lost almost half of the boys to the war. We flew the flag at half mast most of the time as we lost so many boys to the War.

Some times I feel bad that I did not serve. It was 1972 and my draft number was "51" I was classified 1-A then they stopped the draft, but at the same time I am glad that I did not have to go. I cherish my memories of those who died and also remember those who have died since in so many conflicts. They made this country into something that we could all die for.

Today I have trouble even imagining what it must be like for parents to send their children to war. I am so grateful for the children and now grandchildren that God has blessed us with and can't bear the thought of losing any of them to war.

Here is a cool site for this memorial day.

In Christ,
Pastor Paul

  We did the Christian Sharing Center's Annual Fund Raising Breakfast this morning, there were over 100 people present and more than $120,000.00 was pledged. Those who pledged became a part of "The Good Samaritan Club" these people have all pledged more than $1000.00 per year for 5 years. We had two video taped testimonies and one live testimony at the breakfast. Each of these made you want to cry as you heard just what their families have been through. You have to wonder just what would happen if the Christian Sharing Center was not there. Many of the people here in Florida only have family back up North and the Orlando area is so transient that people often do not make many friends. Where do you go when you have a problem?   

   I was thinking of the bible story of the Good Samaritan and the question the young man asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" The story of the Samaritan is Jesus answer to that question. Too often we think that this story is simply about how the Samaritan treats this man that he did not know. He treated him very well, but Jesus point was that the Samaritan considered this wounded man his NEIGHBOR!  Everyone else walked by, he was unclean, an alien in their land, a gentile,         In the end Jesus makes His point that "Everyone who is in need, is my Neighbor." Which makes me wonder, what if every believer lived their life with that motto? How many people could we help? What kind of things would we do? So Who's Your Neighbor?

In Christ,
Pastor Paul

So I found myself today, as I have been lately, trying to answer the question "So you are wanting to start a church right?" I was in the office of an old friend and hesitated as I answered.

Yesterday I mentioned a story that several people remarked on as they left church. It was the one about the guy that died as they brought the ark up to Jerusalem. That is actually one small piece of a really cool story.

David had set up Jerusalem as capital in the newly conquered promise land and agreed with the men of Israel that it was time to bring the ark, "the place where the Ancient of days sits enthroned between the wings of the cherubim" up to it. God had prescribed a way for it to be carried, poles through the rings on the side, but David probably wanted something more grand. He had a new cart built for it, and they rolled it down a path. That's when the guy, Uzzah, died. He reached up to stabilize the ark. The text says that God's anger burned because of the irreverence of touching the Ark, but it's what happened next that gets cool.

David is afraid and a little upset so he leaves the ark in a guy's house near there and seems to abandon the plan. Then he hear's word that everything about the guy whose house holds the ark is being blessed. So he decides God really is present in the ark and he ought to be in the city. He pulls together a group of levites this time, and they make poles to carry the ark the right way. They take six careful steps, when no one died they paused made sacrifices to God and praised him. Then they picked it back up and made their way to the capital city. Here's where it gets crazy.

Not only did David carefully pick who would carry the Ark, but he appointed people to be waiting to praise and worship as they brought it in. When they get to Jerusalem they're all going crazy praising God, with all the instruments and voices they can find. David is dancing all around and celebrating, he is so excited to bring the presence of God into the city, and to offer sacrifices to the one God who is God. It's for this occasion that he writes psalm 24 where it says, "Lift up your head, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle." He gets so carried away in his dancing and celebrating that his outer robe comes off. A woman of the court is offended and tells David that he's not being dignified enough for a King, and he replies "I will become even more undignified than this in the praise of my God!"

I love that story. God is holy, perfectly pure and set against sin. God is mighty in battle, big enough for any of your problems. Knowing that he's on our side ought to drive us to reckless abandon and lives that are dedicated to his praise!

Today we met with a guy who is looking to start his own church, he seemed a little frustrated with the organized church. It's not hard, when your connected to a local church body, to lose perspective. You can get so worked into the mechanics of keeping an organization running that you forget what it's about. Or on the member side. You can get worked into doing things for the church that you forget to be the church. I think that's a real challenge.
I am trying to remember myself, and initiate systems (what's your L Team?) that help others remember that life with Jesus is better than life without him. It is true that the lessons of Sunday sermons and confirmation classes and of bible studies are meant to be put into practice. Following Jesus is about a better experience of life now and later. Anyway my lunch with that guy made me think of that.

Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy was the best-compensated CEO of 2008 at $112 million. This according to an article in USA Today Monday May 4,2009.

The company did not want to look bad in these economic times so his increase was nominal, however they did buy his collection of historical maps, books, paintings and photos, artwork that was on the walls in the administrative building. The purchase price for these was $12.2 million! The board said that they got a bargain.

The article listed the ten highest pay packages for CEOs. The number ten CEO was James Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase (they have been in the news) who made $35.7 million. Many of these men got large increases even while their companies were going down. As we watch the jobless rate and the stock market it seems hard to take.

We had a member 15 years ago who was offered a job in Chicago for $1,000,000.00 a year, when I asked if he planned to take it he said no! I asked why and he said that there is nothing that he could do that would be worth $1 million, "no person should be paid $1 million."

It would seem that we have lost all perspective when athletes and others make so very much money. One wonders what you would do with that much money? One of the wealthiest men in the world said that money is simply the way that we keep score! He went on to say that he does not need any more money but that is how he measures his worth in our society.

As followers of Christ that has got to make us think. Today our church family lost an older gentleman who once owned a very profitable company and he was worth a great deal. When he gets to heaven I would have to believe that his worth is not going to be counted in $$$!

The hard part for us as believers is to figure out just how much of a role money, our net worth and salaries should play in our plans for this life. The temptation is to do like the early Christians of Acts and sell all that we have and live together as children of the same heavenly father. But at the same time we know that we are expected to be "Good Stewards" of all that the Lord gives us in this life.

The Apostle Paul once said "I have learned to be content, whether I have much or very little". I think that gives us a hint of how we are to live, we need to remember that our salary and even our wealth are only a PART of our life they are not our life. Whether I have a great deal of wealth or whether I am poor I am too live for the Lord. My life will be measured by my closeness to the Lord, not my closeness to my money!

So in these unusual times we need to show the world that we do not measure our worth by the money that we make but by the difference that we make.

In Christ,
Pastor Paul

My brother, who has been out of the country for several months, recently sent me an email asking about our newest president. He said that he and the people he’s traveling with have heard a lot about “the changing face of America.” He wanted to know what he should check out to figure out what that really means. Three things came immediately to mind:

1.      I don’t know if he was here for this point in the election, but I will first tell him to check out the speech that Obama gave on race relations. You know when the news wanted to talk about his pastor. I thought that speech was pretty good

2.    The next thing I will tell him to check out I learned about in a Time article. They mentioned how Obama and his team are sort of leaving classical economics behind in favor of what is called “behavioral economics.” Apparently classical economics is based on the theory that consumers will make decisions in their best interest, and those consumers will keep companies in check; this way if you feed the systems it works in the best interest of all involved. As I read it part of the new approach says that consumers won’t always choose in their best interest (they won’t spend more money for the electric car even though it’s better for them in the long run) so the government puts things in place to nudge the system in the direction of the greater good. Sounds smart until you realize that someone has to decide what the greater good is.

3.     The last thing that came to mind is that his first interview with al jazeerah. I will tell him to read some about his approach to foreign policy. He seems to be ready to talk in a fairly open-ended way.

He usually reads this blog, so you should tell him how you think Obama is contributing to a changing face.

Last week I was at this conference and heard two smart,successful, and passionate guys speak about church planting. One of the guys plants churches out of his church in east texas (I know the home of big churches and bigger hats). Nevertheless, he has some good ideas that encouraged what I’ve been thinking and are still rattling around in my head.

Here’s the point I’ll share: the reason to start churches is to bring more people into the kingdom of God and the key to starting churches is to make disciples. This may not sound very groundbreaking until you realize that disciple making is tough, and filling up worship service for one hour a week may be easier. This guy says if we are able to release the Holy Spirit into people’s lives to such an extent that their lives are transformed and they become disciples, a church will just naturally happen.

He even takes this approach with his mission work, both locally and globally. He is making friends and with his words and actions releasing the Holy Spirit. Trusting that the Spirit will do the heavy lifting, of conversions. Here’s an op/ed about him in the Washington Post.