Just a thought or two: Spiritual narcissism, and other things...

Just had a conversation with Dan Rockwell, he writes one of the blogs that I follow regularly, called Leadership Freak. We have never met in person, but the beauty and the upside of social media is the ability to connect with people who are interested in the same things you are, people who are wiser or have more experience than you. Or, as in my case, connect with someone to talk about organizational issues who is  not mired down in it. I'd like to give him a shout-out and thank him for personally reaching out.

As seem to be the way God moves, this comes on the heels of stumbling across across a short blog by John Bishop about his new book, Dangerous Church (I haven't read the book, yet). Bishop's piece gives such a wonderful definition of what it means to be narcissistic, that I think you should read it context for yourself. Like reading the Bible, I think it is always important to read things I context. Anyway, the quote is this:

Entitlement in the simplest form is spiritual narcissism. A person who struggles with being narcissistic is someone who is essentially all about themselves. When leaders are all about themselves, they will eventually realize they are all by themselves.

I love this definition:

Narcissists hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and automatic compliance because they consider themselves special. Failure to comply is considered an attack on their superiority, and the perpetrator is considered an "awkward" or "difficult" person.

What kind of churches have we made for ourselves? Yes, for ourselves, because we certainly have not made them to honor and worship God. When did what we do everyday become more important that what Jesus has done for us?

I am prayerful and anxious to see our churches alive with passion for fulfilling the "Great Commission" again. How do we accomplish our calling when we are being inundated with meeting after meeting, followed by power struggles between the powerful and the insignificant, pushing and pulling us down a path to nowhere? Aren't we supposed to be building up the body of Christ, searching for and saving the lost? Are we doing our job?

How do we overcome our spiritual narcissism?

So, what's a church to do? Change or die.

What's a member to do? The Apostle Paul might say, stay and fight the good fight....Or go?

Maybe it's just me. Thoughts, Comments, Suggestions?

No Sermon notes, BUT....a thought or two

I missed service this morning, but oddly this afforded me an opportunity to slow down and think a little. Although I didn't put my notes up from our Easter service, I did do a short sermon about Good Friday.

The takeaway lesson from working on that sermon has remained with me, has continued to churn away in my mind, and has even convicted me.

Whether we are believers or not, if we understand nothing else in the drama surrounding Calvary, we can see that Jesus gave everything. He laid everything on the line, trusting that no matter what else might happen to Him, God would see His work to completion.

We live in a quick fix society, something beyond instant gratification, and our attention spans have all but evaporated. We don't know how to wait. We don't know how to trust. We are rapidly losing our capacity to see things through to the end.

Again, this is not really about belief in Christ, or rather not just about belief in Christ, but belief in what you're doing, belief in where you're going, belief in what you feel you are here to accomplish. It's about going all-in, taking the leap, leaving little or nothing in reserve.

Do we dare risk? Can we lay it all on the line? Are we willing to take the chance that we may lose everything? What if we look foolish?

Jesus' life and sojourn to Calvary reminds us that the cross comes before the crown.

We must answer the call. Do you know what you're here for? Are you committed to getting it done? Will you stay in the race?

Just a thought: Bible study

I am considering trying to facilitate a Bible study. I would like to find a way to do live (in or at church) as well as blog, if anyone is interested. For those who are physically close, we can meet-up, probably at my church or some other "neutral" ground. For those further away, questions and comments can be posted.

One of my concerns about Bible studies in general is that sometimes we focus too much on a particular characteristic (like pride) or "3 ways to ...," or a particular book. All of these methods are fine and have their place. But, I am not certain that enough of us have actually read the all, or even most of Bible for ourselves.

This does not preclude using any of these methods, but I have just been thinking...

What I am proposing is setting up a schedule to work our way through the Bible itself. This will likely entail some daily reading and questions to consider and answer. That means that it will require additional work and commitment for me and for you.

I do not know if anyone is interested in this concept, so I need some feedback from my readers. This may prove to be to difficult a task for me to handle, but we won't know unless we try. This is just a pressing thought right now. So, let me know what you think.

Keeping in mind that I don't usually hear from anyone when I ask for comments, if I don't get any feedback, I will be forced to conclude it a bad idea, at least for the moment.

Just a thought or two...What have we done with the love of Christ?

Just a thought or two...What have we done with the love of Christ?

I recently left a church service where we were admonished to spend some time with old friends and make new ones. But we did not.

We circle our wagons and crowd together with people we know well or with whom we feel the most comfortable. That’s human nature. We continue, against our teachings, declarations of our covenants and creeds, and professions of our faith, to continue to build fences and make distinctions; we continue in a spirit of divisiveness, superiority and non-forgiveness.

How is it that we allow others to continue to feel alone and isolated in a room full of people? How is it that we have people falling over themselves worshiping God, but never speak to the person sitting next to them? What I find interesting is that the love and care we can clearly show to each other while we are actively engaged in the service, glorifying God and raising our holy hands, does not extend beyond the sanctuary door or beyond the last chord played by the organist for that unified "Amen." The warmth, benevolence and unity we proclaim to share, we do not.

Is it truly with the heart of God that we serve Him and ostensibly others during our formal worship time, and completely lose sight of immediately after? Or more sadly and I fear more correctly, I do not think we really understand God’s heart during the process and therefore are incapable of sharing it once the service is over. Despite our claims to the contrary, we just don’t get it. We don’t get God’s unwavering love. We don’t get God’s grace. So, we can’t give it. We are repeatedly inundated with the message that the love and grace of God / Christ should be shared with all and shown toward all. But we do not.

Could it be the difference in our fundamental tenets of faith or are we really that afraid to reach out and extend ourselves to the "little people," the not-so-famous, the not-so-attractive, the not-so-popular, the not-so-important, the not-so-clean...or to paraphrase Christ, to the least of these? The hurting? The lost?

Is this not who the love of God is given to us for? It should break our hearts as we look around our sanctuaries, and we should be searching that same place and asking, "How do we fix this?"

It is no small wonder that those who are not firmly attached to the Body of Christ and / or do not have good self-esteem, make little or no attempt at reaching into the Christian family. They may lose a hand. They know, even if we cannot admit it to ourselves, that we eat our young; we destroy our "baby" Christians.

We have people we see every day, who sit in our midst and share our spaces that have been set adrift in the tumultuous sea of life. They are waiting for those of us who live in the lighthouse, those of us who are quick to assert that we are the hands and feet of Jesus to offer them comfort and sanctuary. And we give them none.

They must work to get our attention. They must strive to conform to our ideas and mores even before they can cross our threshold.

I submit that we have not the love of Christ. And if we had it at one time, we have lost it. So, where do we find it? And, after we find it, how do we give it away? Because that is what the love of Christ and the lives that we have been given are for. To squander them unashamedly and without reserve on others. To sow positive deeds, words and thoughts into other peoples live, to encourage them, to prop them up, to help them. To show them the way.

I know you want to say, “Well, I belong to a community of believers?” What does that mean? What makes people into a community, and not just a bunch of people who show up in the same place every week? Coming to worship should not feel like stumbling into a subway car with the same strangers every day. But too often it does. Does a community require physically touching other people? Or is it just the emotional attachment? Do we need to rub up against other people's lives to make us a community? What is missing in our churches is not just physical touch. Nor is it emotional outpouring. We have people who cry and confess every week. What binds us together? Who cares if I don't show up? If I don't reach out? If I never share my story? Who knows if I am at home alone, heartbroken, sad or just lost? The computer can't help me; I don’t have to log on. How will anyone know? Are my cyber-friends going to come to my house and lift me from my gloom? The people sitting in the pew next don’t want to know my pain and don’t really want to hear my story. They want to go to service and go home, back to their own lives.

I think what may be missing, whether we are talking about a physical structure or an online church is emotional accountability. We must be linked to people with whom we share some emotional currency. Most of us just are not built for isolation and anonymity. We all want to feel that we matter to someone.

Where is the love we are to have for each other?

Everyone wants change, but no one wants to change.

Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Have you thought about making some changes in yourself lately?






Just thinking out loud. Maybe it’s just me…