Get a Trade Pastor - bi-vocational.

"As I write this, I’m sitting in the Denver ChopHouse in terminal A. Two young guys in their midtwenties are sitting right behind me, talking about finishing seminary. One is deciding between staying in seminary forever as a theology professor or taking a church job. The other guy wants to move right into a senior-pastor position. Excuse me while I pull away from you for a moment and try an experiment to see if I can get these guys to consider working a job. I’ll be right back. Twenty minutes later … Okay, so I just met Josh and Evan. Both are newly married, and Josh has a two-year-old son. I bought their dinner, so they were happy to chat, but the talk didn’t go so well. I let them know that in ten years America will be as unchurched as the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Australia, Portland, or Boulder and that there probably won’t be many churches looking for pastors. And even if they choose to start a new church, they won’t be able to make a full-time living for quite a while because people don’t give as much to churches anymore. Also, seminaries, denominations, and other structures that have been formally tied to the growth of local churches and their financial support will also begin to tighten up on spending as they struggle to survive. I asked them the big question I ask most young wannabe ministers: “If there were no churches to pay you to be professional Christians, what would you do to provide for your wife and kids while you answer the full-time call to ministry?” Evan was open to my question and said that he was presently working for UPS and could conceive of doing that for a while but couldn’t wait to get out of it so he could serve God fully in a church. Josh said, “Well, if I had to work a real job, then I wouldn’t feel that I had a full-time call to ministry at all. I’d feel like I would have to pick one or the other.” He continued, “I also don’t think God would ask someone to be so focused on ministry to people and still have to hassle with the normal pressures and fatigue that come with a normal job.” After listening for a while, I said, “Guys, did you know that from the time Jesus was old enough to work, He did? As a Jewish boy, and then a Jewish man, Jesus put in a nine-to-five until He was thirty.” They looked at me like the thought had never occurred to them before. Then I mentioned the apostle Paul’s bivocational life after his conversion, as well as that of the disciples, and reminded them of many great saints throughout history who had massive influences on the movement while sustaining their own livelihood. John the Baptist, Barnabas, Priscilla and Aquila, Saint Patrick, John Wesley, and John Calvin, just to name a few. “Guys, the gospel got to you and me primarily through men and women who were lawyers and plumbers, prostitutes, meat carvers, or folks who just lived off their own land. And the day is coming fast when the gospel will again pass through the lives and ministries of normal people who have a full calling to ministry but also have a trade.”

Hugh Halter. FLESH

Disciple Like A Thirty Year Old Scotch

"Here is what goes through my head: • I rarely feel like I’m doing enough. • I almost always feel that I could do more. • I’m failing in the opportunities that God brings my way. • I tend toward cynicism and apathy because I don’t think my little efforts will do much for the kingdom anyway. But the more I study Jesus and see Him letting God dictate who, when, how, how long, how much, and how often, I find some peace in knowing that God has always showed up before me, that He will be there after I’m gone, and that He loves these people infinitely more than I and will continue to pursue them after my life has rubbed up against theirs. That blows my feelings of inadequacy out of the water. Most of the time, I’m able to look at everyone as a friend and every fleshy moment as an opportunity to help move someone just a few inches closer to seeing God’s glory. Stop for just a second now, and think about the totality of your life and the influence God wants to give you with the people He loves. Your life can be like a thirty-year slow dance, a thirty-year scotch, or a thirty-year oak tree that grows up and gives shade to many."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH )

Evangelism ADD We Don't Want To Stick Around

Longevity is a hidden secret for those who truly want incarnational fruit. If Jesus spent thirty years becoming known, building a reputation, becoming a man of the people, maybe we should reconsider the transient nature of our lives.

I live in Denver, Colorado. People here change their housing locations every eighteen months on average. That includes those who live in the suburbs. As our economy has struggled, as families have been blown apart, as people try to navigate normal life, the new norm is to move around. I tell pastors to mentally prepare to view the ministry in their church just like they would view a college ministry. Expect to have only two to four years with people. Though everyone’s on the go, we can make intentional decisions not to be. Incarnation has a home, and over the course of our lives, we’ll probably have the most impact if we can stay put in an area and be the one constant in a constantly shifting world. I realize that the future economy looks bleak and that you will feel pressure to move whenever you can upgrade, but Jesus honors our prayers and plans to stick around. Incarnational fruit doesn’t just happen. It happens over time, and the more time we can give to a community, a street, a school, a sports club, or a pub, the more impact we will have."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Evangelism Nut Jobs.

"The best words come from Jesus in John 5:16–17: “So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, ‘My Father is always working, and so am I’” (NLT). Jesus was saying that even on a day when men and women should be resting, God is still perusing around the minds, souls, and circumstances of people, so we can chill out and just sensitively saunter in when the coach calls.
But, “What if you are on an airplane and you have only one hour?” someone might ask. “Shouldn’t you just dive right in and go for it?” Again, if you believe people perish if you don’t do what you perceive is “your job,” then I guess you should.
But if you believe God has been working in people’s lives, pursuing them, trying to protect them from nut jobs who try to convert them every time they hop on a plane, then your job may be simply to be a Jesus follower who changes their assumptions. Maybe your role is to be kind, to provide an encouraging conversation, pick up the tab for their cheap airplane snacks, or offer help in getting their bags out of storage. These are all seeds of the kingdom."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

I Dont Care If They Chat Or Sing

"Next week, I’ll head back to our Sunday church gathering. Everyone who was at the wedding will be there, and they will be doing the same thing. They will come in, enjoy food, and wait for others to arrive so they can laugh, hug, share more stories, and enjoy their crazy kids together, and it will take me at least thirty minutes to get them to move into the worship center. Oh … oops, I forgot to tell you. Celebration is worship! So we don’t care if they move away from their conversations to come sit down and sing. Their song is their love for one another. But don’t worry—the front rows are always full of Christians who come from other churches to “check us out.” They usually bypass the party zone and quickly sit down with their Thomas Kinkade Bible covers and wait for “church” to begin. I’ve learned over the years to just let them be. They get annoyed by how long it takes for us to start the formalities; they don’t mix well in a community of the King that loves to celebrate, and they eventually leave. That’s the way I like it."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Relationships With Agend Are Most Churches Relatiinships.

"The psychology of agendas is that they make relationships transactional, which means that people are used for a purpose. People become a means to someone else’s end, and this erodes a person’s belief that he or she is valued regardless of any production.

Again, religious leaders have a real problem with this. Religion makes us want to build things and grow things and improve on things, and although none of those ambitions are bad in themselves, they cause a person to be expendable or valuable only if he or she plays along."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

When Your Eyes Dont See- Your Mouth Is Wide Open

"Eyes are a key part of incarnation. When they are open, the ears stay open, and when the ears listen, the heart softens—and soon the hands start moving to touch, help, and heal. But when the eyes are closed, the ears close, and the mouth opens. Words fly out, and quite frankly, the world doesn’t want to hear any more of our religious rhetoric!"

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

How To Curb Pornography

"Pornography is rampant. People think it’s normal and just an ugly part of human existence. Unless you’re a father of two daughters, as I am. As a pastor I’ve tried to help countless hundreds of men fight this battle, and after many years I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s only one way to keep a man from looking lustfully at a woman. No, it doesn’t work to use the age-old philosophy of trying to get men to deny their humanity or to vilify their sensual or “natural” lusts. To say, “God hates it,” when you take a second look at a woman who passes by or to say we are animals with debased passions just never seemed true. There’s just too much evidence that God created us with these natural desires. So what answer seems to work? I tell men to look more closely at a woman they are lusting after. What? Yes, stop denying that you are attracted and stop feeling guilty that you are attracted. Instead look more deeply at this woman. Stare at her longer, and while you do, consider these facts. She is a daughter to someone. She has dreams just like you; she has fears just like you; she desires to be valued and cared for—and all over the world, millions of women just like her are abused, raped, and exploited because men settle for base animal lust over redeemed human identity."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Leadership is Not Influence

Leadership is Not influence... its presence.

"Everyone wants to have influence. We count Facebook fans, Google circles, and Twitter followers. We measure Sunday church attendance and yearly budget numbers, all the while thinking we are creating our own wave. The multitude that followed Jesus was more than willing to speed up His influence and make Him the leader they wanted. But Jesus knew that real influence could be gained only as people were made into disciples one by one."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Stories Of What Did Not Happen

"Imagine the day you find yourself in heaven, sitting in a recovery circle with Abraham, Moses, Rahab, Peter, Paul, and Jesus, and one by one, you get to show your scars and tell the story of all the things you did for God that didn’t work."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Blessed are PeaceMAKERS not Peacekeepers.

Peacemaking costs? Hue difference between peacekeeper and peacemaker...
Wow...
"Last year, my daughter McKenna was assaulted by a boy in her high school. She was trying to break up a fight between him and his girlfriend, who happened to be her best friend. The boy turned on my daughter and slammed her head against a car. This was just two months after her doctor told her that if she had any more blows to the head, she would have to quit playing hockey. Because she came to the rescue, she lost a hockey scholarship, and a year later she is still not completely back to her vibrant self. Of course I tried to find this boy and remove him and his family from the universe. In my rage, I called McKenna and asked her to tell me where he lived, but she wouldn’t give me his address. She told me to come home, and then, as I sat on her bed, she said, “Dad, you always taught me to be a peacemaker. Do you actually think that will always work out without any pain?” Through my own tears, I was deeply proud of the woman she had become, but the gut check was more real than I wanted it to be!"
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

It Costs When You Serve?

"Looking back on twenty years of living by faith and leading my own family into the mission of God, I’ve come to one conclusion. Living the gospel costs! If you follow Jesus, you will lose energy, time, money, friends, and quite possibly even more."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Jesus' Neighborhood

"We miss the incarnation when we view Jesus only through His death on the cross instead of through His life in the neighborhood."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Here Is How Your Good News Sounds

Words from our own mouths.

"Here’s how people hear our “gospel” today: God loves you but can’t stand you unless you become a Christian. God wants to set you free, but here’s a long list of dos and don’ts. God loves the poor but wants you to give your money to rich churches. God loves lost people but wants you to have only Christian friends. God is preparing a beautiful heaven for after this life, but only those who pray a prayer and go to church get to go. God didn’t come to judge but applauds when His people picket abortion clinics....."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

As Excited About Shoes As Prayer Meeting?

"Sometimes we are fresh and eager to attend a prayer meeting, but do we feel the same freshness for such mundane tasks as polishing shoes."

- Oswald Chambers

Hey Trump - Hey Church Muscling

"No king succeeds with a big army alone,
no warrior wins by brute strength.
Horsepower is not the answer;
no one gets by on muscle alone."
Psalm 33:16-17

No Working Love Agenda

"I'm not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God's love, is not on your working agenda."

Jesus, John 5:41-42

Exhaustion Of Comparison

"I confess that I live much of my life that way too: comparing myself to those who achieve more and greater things. I do so even though I know that this means endless and inevitable pressures."

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Church Will Outlive the Universe, Nations and Institutions

"That structural position in the Church which the humblest Christian occupies is eternal and even cosmic. The Church will outlive the universe; in it the individual person will outlive the universe.....
There will come a time when every culture, every institution, every nation, the human race, all biological life, is extinct, and every one of us is still alive. Immortality is promised to us, nit to these generalities. It was not for societies or states that Christ dies, but for men."

(C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory)

Wind of God, Blow!

Blow, wind of God! With wisdom blow
Until our minds are free
From mists of error, clouds of doubt,
Which blind our eyes to thee!
(Hymn - Spirit of the Living God)

Don'r Look Up To Find God - Look Down

"An old Rabbi was once asked why so few people were finding God. He wisely replied that people are not willing to look that low. Jesus was born in a stable, and God is especially concerned for the poorest, the lowliest, the lost, and the neglected."

-Harvy & Lois Seifert. Liberation of Life

A World Of Wounds...

As Aldo Leopold famously lamented, "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."

The more we learn, the more we see how much is wrong and destructive, and too often it feels like others neither know nor care to know.

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Church as Institution or Community?

From Turkey.... community....

"Persecution changes how you view our faith. For example here in turkey we live our faith as a minority, and this defines the way we live the faith. In the way that we understand ourselves and the relation we have with God, and in the way we understand the church h as institution or as spiritual reality. When you are a minority and you are a minority which was, up to very recent years, was persecuted, literally.

You see things different.

You do not feel an institution, but as a living community.

(Fr. Albrto Ambroise An eastern Orthodox in Turkey.

Interview with Krista Tippet On Being, podcast. August 2, 2012)

How Can One Reorient A Lifetime Of Customs?

"How can we, in a few sentences, bring context to a confused conversation someone has been having in his or her own consciousness for twenty-five years?How can each of us, as one person, help our friends reorient after a lifetime of tradition, doctrine, customs, and beliefs picked up from the overwhelming majority around them?"

(Hugh Halter. Flesh)

Scarred From Repulsive Religion

"But you know that the proclamation of truth seldom penetrates the rocky soil of a heart that’s been scarred by repulsive religion and the agony of a hard life."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Benevolent Atheist Because of Murder

"Roscoe is an atheist. A really benevolent one. Thirty-seven years ago, at the age of five, Rosco found himself hiding under a table in his family’s small Northern Ireland cottage, desperately trying to keep his dog quiet by distracting him with a bowl of milk. He was hiding under the table because his mother, in fear of losing more family members, had scattered the children just seconds before a band of IRA henchmen came in, holding his father at gunpoint. In that moment, Rosco prayed that God would save his father. The answer? The sound of a pistol discharging, followed by a deadening thud as his father hit the kitchen floor right next to the table. The fading memories of the day God didn’t answer, combined with seeing his father’s murderer singing hymns and taking Communion in Mass the next week, left Roscoe with no faith in God at all and only the lingering memory of the smell of his dog and the milk. How do I know Rosco? I just performed a marriage between him and his fiancée, Tanya. I heard this amazing story over coffee at Starbucks before Rosco flew in to Denver."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Jesus Did Not Pray For Activity. BUT oneness.

"........ the most astounding lines comes in verse 21: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one” (NLT). Notice that Jesus didn’t pray that they would grow churches or make converts, start nonprofits, or stop sinning. He didn’t pray that they would do a ton of miracles, get people’s attention, go on speaking tours, start Bible studies, or lead successful evangelism efforts. He prayed that they would be linked into the family of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He prayed that every person rippling out from this handful of men would become grafted into the fellowship of the family. The incarnational way of life is not about conversion. It’s about adoption."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH )

He Did Not Come So You Could Go To Church.

"He didn’t come and take on flesh so that you would someday pray a salvation prayer, go to church, and settle for a semireligious life. He has bigger hopes and dreams for you than that. He came so that His divine life could actually take root in you and so that you could relate to Him like humans used to before sin messed everything up."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Hey Church- God Wants His Family Back

"Christians often make it sound like Jesus came only to die for sin and then make converts, grow a religion called Christianity, and make more converts. But God never wanted converts, church attenders, prisoners, or parishioners. He wanted His family back."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

When Church Can't See People.

"For two days they talked about how to build their churches, how to multiply their congregations and develop leaders. I know they didn’t mean to, but little mention was given to real people. It was like we were looking out the tiny passenger window from a 747 jet and seeing a plane fly by in the other direction; I felt that somehow we were missing Jesus and human beings amid all this church stuff."
(Hugh Halter,. Flesh)

How Would Jeaus Live Your Life?

Dallas Willard

“Jesus teaches you to live your life as He would live your life.”

How Would Jeaus Live Your Life?

Dallas Willard

“Jesus teaches you to live your life as He would live your life.”

In Life You Run Into Theology

"I suppose when you boil all of life’s wins and losses down to the real issues, you’ll run into theology. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. Life is about God. Everything is about God. It can be said that the most important thing about each and every one of us is what we believe about God—and more specifically, what we are convinced about regarding Jesus."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Outside The House.

"One Thanksgiving, our family hosted Fred, a Masai  man from Kenya, who was studying at the Seminary where I teach. He spoke about how his nomadic fellow tribes people are not vulnerable to political disruption because they can easily move into the bush whenever the need arises. He told us, "All your wealth and possessions are in this house, but ours are outside." Their Investments, he meant, we're in the cattle that Masai own. He pointedly reminded us that we North Americans see homes as our own private domain.......
And our sense of Independence means we are often concerned only for what goes on in our home but not do not worry about the astonishing waste and
poisons put out on the curb, flush down their toilets or let run down our sinks."

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Deal With Our Own Shirt In Our Own Backyards

"My sheltered life too often disconnects me from hard reality. Many of my cloths, possessions and appliances are produced by underpaid laborers abroad and overtaxing the earth. And their disposal is often destructive too. Our alienated way of life is one of the most important spiritual and ecological challenges today.
While I enjoy indoor plumbing and miss it ehen it's not an option, I also know that it's convenience - and the fact that I do not have to deal with what goes down the sink, toilet or drain - makes it easy to be responsible. Perhaps outhouses should be brought back. Maybe we ought to deal with our own garbage in our own backyards."

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Theological Pornography

"Bad theology is like pornography—the imagination of a real relationship without the risk of one. It tends to be transactional and propositional rather than relational and mysterious. You don’t have to trust Person, or care for Person. It becomes an exercise in self-gratification that ultimately dehumanizes the self and the community of humanity in order to avoid the painful processes of humbling and trusting. Bad theology is not a victimless crime. It dehumanizes God and turns the wonder and the messy mystery of intimate relationship into a centerfold to be used and discarded."

William P. Young. Forward to Divine Dance

How Could People Love Your God?

"We have to have a positive image of God.If our God image is lethal, shaming, negative, accusatory, there is no spiritual journey. Why would you go on a journey with some you don't like,or someone you don't trust, or someone you can't entrust yourself to,"

Richard Rohr. Podcast interview. Snarky Faith Radio. Sept 21, 2016)

God Does Not See So Low

"God, You have never had a low view of Humanity.
May our eyes be healed, especially those of us “born blind,” that we might see what You do."

William P. Young. Forward to Divine Dance

Called Forward

....... calling us forward and inviting us to actively change what we let into our hearts, calling us to consciously participate in this divine dance of loving and being loved."

William P. Young. Forward to Divine Dance

GIVE UP ON RELIGION- Please

In Jesus, God has put up a “Gone Fishing” sign on the religion shop. He has done the whole job in Jesus once and for all and simply invited us to believe it—to trust the bizarre, unprovable proposition that in him, every last person on earth is already home free without a single religious exertion: no fasting till your knees fold, no prayers you have to get right or else, no standing on your head with your right thumb in your left ear and reciting the correct creed—no nothing.… The entire show has been set to rights in the Mystery of Christ—even though nobody can see a single improvement. Yes, it’s crazy. And yes, it’s wild, and outrageous, and vulgar. And any God who would do such a thing is a God who has no taste. And worst of all, it doesn’t sell worth beans. But it is Good News—the only permanently good news there is—and therefore I find it absolutely captivating.
-- Robert Farrar Capon
* Quoted in "All is Grace" by Brennan Manning

Church You Don't Know Me.

  "Many whom God has the church does not have, and many whom the church has God does not have."
Augustine

Common Camino

"A prominent paradox of my sojourn—and the one that surprised and taught me the most—is the fact that so few fellow pilgrims I met counted themselves as Christians. How curious that many immersed themselves in a taxing route associated with church traditions for over a millennium but did not necessarily profess Christian faith. And these folks ended up teaching me more than I realized I needed to know. (Stories and examples in this book are based on real people and events, but some names and details were altered to protect the privacy of individuals involved.)

While this Camino was an expression of my Christian faith, what I did was not especially noteworthy or sacrificial. I encountered hundreds of people along the way. Tens of thousands now walk it every year. Many—perhaps even a majority—go without an explicit religious agenda. I met extraordinary Christians on those paths, but also remarkable, gracious and hospitable people of no declared faith. Do we Christians think too highly of ourselves? Are we perhaps on the same journey as everyone else? Often people who most challenged me
with their exemplary way of living, both on this path and elsewhere in my life. were folks who did not call themselves believers."

- Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking

Walked 500 Miles To Church.

Writing about his 500 mike walk on the Camino De Santiago....

"I once walked 500 miles to attend church. It took 31 days, but was no month of Sundays."

~Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking.

Looking For God Too High

"An old Rabbi was once asked why so few people were finding God. He wisely replied that people were not willing to look that low. Jesus was born in a stable, and God is especially concerned for the poorest, the lowest, the lost, and the neglected."

(Harry and Louis Seaford. Liberation of Life)