What can we do?

Newtown is not the first unspeakable act of horror that has saddened the nation and caused us to engage in all kinds of self-examination. Columbine, Virginia Tech and even 9/11 itself were only a few of history's recent heart-wrenching atrocities. But Newtown seems worse by several degrees because so many of the victims were young children - and indeed it is for that very reason.

The usual political debates didn't take long to commence - the gun-control talk being the most predictable, the discussion of mental health care and the overuse of psychiatric drugs also coming into prominence. Some of these discussions are more worthy than others, but none really get to the heart of the matter.

Here is something many do not want to hear, but it is the truth: Media types and certain politicians will ask the predictable question, "What must we do to make sure this never happens again?" The answer is: Nothing. There is nothing that can be done because it is impossible to make sure this never happens again. This will happen again.

It will happen again because evil is real, and evil is the result of the decision made by people to disregard God. Responsibility for the shooting lies with the shooter alone, but since people are asking how we as a society must respond to such an incident, here is the answer: Devotion to God brings love, and love brings spiritual power, which brings victory over evil.

How this one man's soul became so corrupted as to bring about an act of evil this egregious, perhaps we will never be able to trace with precision. But in a broader sense, a culture that refuses to devote itself to God leaves itself open to the kind of anger, frustration and fear that creates the atmosphere in which unspeakable evil can flourish. I am not proposing a political or legislative solution here. None can achieve what's necessary. The problem is far more cultural than it is political. A culture that mocks faith and celebrates libertine sensibilities over obedience to the Word of God helps to create the environment in which Newtown can happen.

Why? Because rejection of God lessens the role that God's love plays in bringing peace and deliverance to a nation.

People of faith must also understand: Our imperative is to love far more than it is to condemn. I have never seen anyone argued into loving God, or argued out of living an immoral lifestyle. But I have seen many people brought to the arms of God because someone loved them, and that love brought the spiritual power that won a victory in their lives.

There is much that must be done to comfort the people of Newtown, but when we ask how we must change as a society as a result of this, we must recognize: Newtown did not happen because we have failed to enact the right set of rules. It did not happen because of the way we have allocated public money. It happened because evil is real, and no matter how many laws you pass, evil will find a way to perpetrate unspeakable horror in a society that fails to make the love of God its most precious commodity.

I am not suggesting there is some tipping point, some level of critical mass, some target percentage of the population that - by turning to God - can end all such incidents. Darkness fights back. The people of the light need to understand that. I am also not suggesting some massive new national initiative designed to bring people to God. There are already plenty of ministries that offer God's Word. The change I'm suggesting is that people listen and open their hearts.

There is a weapon we can deploy against such evil. That weapon is love, which allows us to live in the grace of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no guarantee that love will win every battle, or that we will never see the likes of Newtown again. But we know that God's love is eternal, and that the darkness that comes against it is not. This is the only answer for those engaged in soul-searching over yesterday's evil.

"The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace." - Romans 8:6

"I was wrong"

I don't believe there are 3 more difficult words to say in the English language. It doesn't matter how you say it, fast, slow with a British accent, when those words come out of your mouth they leave a bitter taste. Maybe that's why we have such a hard time admitting when we are wrong (that didn't even feel good typing it). But alas being mere humans we are all called upon at least one time in our life to say those dreaded words.

So I write this today to let you know "I was wrong" (nope still doesn't taste good). I am not going to tell you about what I was wrong about because that is irrelevant to this story. I was sitting  in my anger  and righteous indignation, when suddenly I realized I had been the one wrong when for the longest time I thought I had been right.  I quickly became upset with myself knowing that I had spent a year being upset at a perceived injustice that was not an  injustice after all, it was only an injustice in my head. 

As humans why do we fear being told we are wrong and why do we go to such great lengths to cover up that we are wrong? Must be that original sin thing that has been handed down from generation to generation. Remember what happened in the garden nobody wanted to be wrong and take the blame, they played the fun game of pass the buck. Adam said "That Women" Eve said "The Serpent" the Serpent said "What were we talking about". 

I now realize that I spent too much time and effort to appear right and not enough time listening and understanding what was actually happening. My quest to be right had blinded me to the truth and reality of the situation. It was a hard and valuable lesson to learn, provided I actually learn something from this and don't fall back into thinking I am always right.  At least for now I understand I was wrong in this situation, that's right, I said it, I was wrong (Nope still doesn't taste any better).

I'll never be wrong again I promise

Pastor Steve

I said it straight, they heard it crooked!

Like many people today I have a Facebook page and I try to update my status regularly. Most of the time I try and put something that will make people laugh or at least make them smile. But it seems I can't because when people call you "Pastor" they expect your Facebook status to be a scripture or something spiritual. I have been told several times by well meaning people that as a "Pastor" my Facebook status should be up lifting to the people who read it. Kind of makes me feel like a preforming monkey dancing around entertaining the crowd " I'm here to make you feel good about yourself", Whoa I just had a Zoolander flashback.


So being the loving and giving person I am, I decide to sit down and write a status that would make people say: " Ahhhh what a Pastoral status that was" or something like that. Little did I realize that people don't always see things the way you do. I wrote this as my Facebook status:

I have decided to start an occupy movement of my own. I am going to occupy my life. I am going to occupy my life with following Christ, loving family and friends and trying to change the world by being as much like Christ as possible. During the occupation of my life I am not going to blame others for my life and ask them to give me things for which I did not work.The occupation of my life will not be to take up space and interfere in the lives of others but to help others along the way as they occupy their lives.


 I thought this was acceptable and from the comments I received it all was going well until a friend of mine liked my status and copied it as their  status and gave me credit for it. This is where it went strangely wrong. My friend has a friend whom I do not know or have never met got extremely upset at my post and started ranting about me on my friends Facebook page. Here are a few comments of the comments by one person.


1. McClanahan's Jesus sounds an awful lot like a good enlightened liberal rather than the 1st century Palestinian prophet. Maybe he should get to know the Christ he purports to follow instead of using innuendo to insult the very people whose company Jesus preferred to the respectable status quo of which McClanahan apparently belongs.


2. McClanahan is misguided, mistaken. The blunt version is that, wittingly or not, he is using the name of the Lord in vain. 


3. McClanahan is only using the name of Jesus to insult the poor and those who work for justice. That's the wrong thing to do, and I hope your he repents.


4. The plain fact is that Pastor Steve (whoever that is) misrepresents what it means to follow Christ.


5.   I don't need to know Steve's heart to know what he stands for. 


And I will stop there because you can see where it was heading.


My friend let me know what was happening on her facebook page so I thought I would check it out. Little did I know my comments would cause such a fire storm of controversy, at least for one person. Several of my friends were defending me to this person I do not know and I wasn't going to get involved. But I couldn't resist the temptation to add fuel to the fire. I know that doesn't sound very Pastorly.  After a few exchanges of Ideas and thoughts,  mostly him telling me how I was wrong, I finally contacted him directly and we are actually started having a conversation.


What I have learned from this is it doesn't matter what you write someone is going to hear it differn't than how you wrote it. Much the same way people hear it differn't than how you said it.
I believe there are a lot of people who are the same way with Jesus.They hear Him talk about love and they like that so they grab on to it and forget all the other things He had to say. They like the love and don't want to hear anything else about Him.  I have the love why do I need Grace or Holiness  or Rightoeusness?  When we do this I believe we make for ourselves a small managable Jesus that we can handle. Like the young man that attcked my staus, his Jesus was the Jesus that went around forgiving debts, feeding the hungry and slamming anyone who had money.


 Jesus is much more than the attributes that we like about Him, you can't only love just a couple of things about Him you have to love all of Jesus , yes even the points that don't sit well with you or fit into your way of thinking.  When we love only part of Jesus we miss the whole that He has in store for us. 


Next time I change my status it's going to be about puppies, Unicorns, rainbows or flowers, how can anyone not like those things?


Stay Thirsty for the Lord my friends
Pastor Steve


P.S 
Sorry It has been so long since my last post. Sometimes life gets in the way of life. 

And the Band Played On

The war over hymn's versus choruses has been raging now since the early 70's. And people on both sides are very dogmatic about their style of music. Recently as I heard some people arguing over which music was more spiritual and should be be sung in church, it suddenly hit me. Like a bolt of lightning this thought went streaking through my brain and the answer to this age old problem became crystal clear. 

" IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER". 

 I know you thought it would be some profound answer, nah that's not my style. You see, when we sing in church, in theory we are supposed to be praising God and giving Him glory,drawing closer to Him, at least that's what I've been told. If this true and we are praising God and it is for Him, how come we come to Him with music that we like? Aren't we making a big assumption that God likes the same music as us? 

What if God's favorite music is polka and we have it all wrong? What if we found out tomorrow that God's favorite music was the sounds that whales make. Would you be in church the next Sunday trying to make sounds like a whale looking like Dory in finding Nemo? Or would we continue to sing the songs we like and  say "I don't like that whale music it repeats to much" or " Those whale songs are old, slow and boring and I can't understand them". When did we become the arbiters of what God likes or dislikes. 

So I say it doesn't matter, because it is not about us. It is about worshiping, giving praise and glory and thanks to God our father. And just like a father that gets an ugly tie on fathers day and he tells his child this is the most beautiful tie I've ever seen. Our Father in heaven hears our singing whether it is a hymn or chorus and says "that was beautiful, that was the most beautiful song I've ever heard.  

 1 Corinthians 14:26 says What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. Remember everyone has a hymn and our hymns may be different. I can see it now,100 years in the future people arguing about whether to sing choruses or this new music that has become popular called hymns.

Let me leave you with a joke:

 An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. “Well,” said the farmer, “it was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.” “Praise choruses?” said his wife. “What are those?”

“Oh, they’re OK. They are sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer.

“Well, what’s the difference?” asked his wife. The farmer said, “Well, it’s like this – If I were to say to you “Martha, the cows are in the corn”’ – well, that would be a hymn. If on the other hand, I were to say to you:

Martha, Martha, Martha, 

Oh Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, 

the cows, the big cows, the brown cows,

 the black cows the white cows, the black and white cows, 

the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, 

are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,

 the CORN, CORN, CORN.

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise chorus.”

The next weekend, his nephew, a young, new Christian from the city came to visit and attended the local church of the small town. He went home and his wife asked him how it was. “Well,” said the young man, “it was good. They did something different however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs.”

“Hymns?” asked his wife. “What are those?” “Oh, they’re OK. They are sort of like regular songs, only different,” said the young man. “Well, what’s the difference?”

The young man said, “Well, it’s like this – If I were to say to you ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn’ – well, that would be a regular song. If on the other hand, I were to say to you:

‘Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry

 Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth

Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by

To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth.

‘For the way of the animals who can explain

There in their heads is no shadow of sense

Hearkenest they in God’s sun or His rain, 

Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.

‘Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight

Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed

Then goaded by minions of darkness and night

They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed.

‘So look to the bright shining day by and by

Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn

Where no vicious animals make my soul cry

And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.’

Then if I were to do only verses one, three and four and do a key change on the last verse, well that would be a hymn.

Stay Thirsty My friends

Pastor Steve

Things That Bother Me

As I sit here typing 18 days before my 53rd birthday I realize some things bother me.

1. People who cut into line at amusement parks
2. People who wont  turn right on a red light when it is safe to do so.
3. Justin Bieber (not really sure why, he just does)
4. People that think the world owes them something.
5. Decisions made in our denomination for political reasons

There are more things that bother me but the last on the list is the one that is clouding my mind today. In economic times like this you would expect decisions would be made to help keep expenses down.  However people seem to want there agenda to be implemented no matter what the cost to others. This is wrong no matter who you are, a lay person, pastor, district superintendent or general superintendent. 

 It bothers me because I don't sense Christ in the decisions being made, I can only feel agenda and that bothers me most of all. I am bothered because they either know they are going to retire soon and don't care or they want to position themselves to climb the denominational ladder of success. I am pretty sure Christ is also bothered by this as well. Of course me being bothered doesn't matter to them, they don't seem to care and that is the saddest part of all and the most bothersome.