Tim Clark’s Blog

It’s been almost 3 weeks since my last blog post (sounds a little like a confession). I’ve got a bunch of stuff rolling around in my head, but as I press towards the end of the College year, there just is not enough time in the day to get any of it down in writing. After graduation (May 9) I plan to be back in business.

For now I’ll share something I spoke in chapel at LPC a couple of days ago. I talked with the students about attitudes that will mess up a person’s ministry. As some of our students get ready to graduate and put into practice all they have been learning over the last few years, I sensed a  need to share some caution. Pastors regularly fall. Ministries often fail because of a misstep by a pastor or leader. Families get damaged. We need to be on our guard against the schemes of the enemy. Here are the 6 things I communicated that can destroy a person’s ministry:

1. Having an undue love for the world. (1 John 2:15-16/1 Tim 4:10) When we love the things of the world more than the things of the Kingdom, we will end up feeding our flesh (with sexuality immorality, love of money, love of recognition, etc…). We talk about how leaders need to be disciplined, but I think the deeper issue is what we really love—we will always pursue whatever we love.

2. Being stubborn instead of correctable (Proverbs 10:17 & 12:1) We may have learned to look like we are not disrespecting our elders, but we often disregard their correction. Prov 10:17 says that if we ignore correction we will lead others astray. As leaders, that’s not OK. We need to seek out and weigh carefully any discipline or correction that will challenge us to grow.

3. Having soft skin but a hard heart (Proverbs 19:11 & Phil 2:3) Don’t be easily offended; give people the benefit of the doubt; work through your hurt by others; treat others the way you would want to be treated. If we are like Jesus, we will always keep a soft heart towards others and the Father, and we will not be easily hurt or offended by what others do or say (and in ministry, we will always have people saying/doing things that can hurt or offend if we let it).

4. Not being trustworthy in everything (2 Timothy 2:15) Don’t take shortcuts; don’t compromise your integrity no matter how hard it is to keep it. Be trustworthy teaching the Word, but also in the way you handle your schedule, your finances, people, etc. If I am untrustworthy in any area of my life, even just a little, it will reflect in my ministry.

5. Thinking that you are in ministry to be served rather than to serve (Matthew 20:26/1 Chronicles 14:2). Our call is to be servant-leaders. We don’t ever take a ministry assignment (whether for a night or a lifetime) because of what it can do for us. We go to a place for what we can do to serve them. If it ever becomes about what you can get out of it, then get out! We are servant/stewards assigned for the sake of His people.

6. Putting ministry first instead of Jesus (John 15:4). We must have organic life with Jesus first before pursuing organizational effetiveness. I like to remind myself that the Pharisees were great scholars and that King Saul was actually a good leader—but they were totally disconnected from the source of life.

If I have one prayer for you, it is that you would stay closely connected to the source of life and that all ministry will flow from that.

It’s been going on for years now…the night before Easter I can’t sleep at all. I want it to be the next morning so badly that you would think I was a kid on the night before a big trip to Disneyland or waiting for Christmas day to show up.

Today, I got up at 5am (after being awake since 4), told my wife “He is Risen” (to which she has learned to cheerfully reply, “He is risen, indeed” and then turn over and go back to sleep until the kids wake her up about an hour later). I got ready and drove to a Sunrise service at a large traditional church at 6. By 8 I had downed my Grande Americano and showed up at my church, where I met the staff and volunteers who would serve at our Easter service.

Our gathering was, in a word, awesome. There was a great celebration of Jesus Christ, who conquered, death, sin, hell and Satan on the cross, and proved that He was who He claimed to be when He rose from the dead three days later. Because He died on the cross, my sin can be wiped clean. Because He rose from the dead, I will, too. That is radically exciting.

So we celebrated. Our kids heard the gospel story and hunted for Easter eggs. The adults heard the gospel story and ate donuts and coffee. There were decorations, there was fellowship, there was music. There was joy! In the same way that we somberly reflect on our sin and the cross on Good Friday, we pull out all the stops and celebrate on Easter. I want us to splurge on Easter…I want my kids to have candy. Not because Easter is about candy, but because it is part of any good celebration!

As I’m writing this, I’m watching a live online service from a church in Seattle whose pastor I know. They are having a blast, too. They are baptizing scores (maybe hundreds today?) of newly saved people on the spot! Easter is supposed to be just that fantastic. Jesus is alive, so we are alive too. Because He died for me and rose again, my sins can die and He will live through me if I give my life to Him. There is NOTHING better than that reality, and though believers need to celebrate that every day, there is something special about enjoying Easter with my flawed brothers and sisters (me being chief among the flawed) that nothing compares to. Being with the church for Easter vs. hanging out alone between “you and God” is, to me, the difference between going to the Super-bowl with 20 of your best buddies and sitting on the 1st row 50 yard line or watching it alone with a bag of stale chips on a 13-inch black and white TV.

HE IS RISEN, INDEED!

Muse: To be absorbed in one’s thoughts.

The writer of Psalm 77 (Asaph) is in distress. He feels like God has deserted him, and he doesn’t know why. During sleepless nights, his brain and his heart are working overtime. Questioning. Wrestling. Seeking. The NIV translates this activity as musing. Eventually this Psalmist’s thoughts lead him to questions: “Has the Lord’s unfailing loved vanished forever? Has His promise failed? Has God forgotten to be merciful?”

I have to admit, I am a ‘muser’, too. I have the unfortunate gift of regularly having to lay awake for hours with my brain screaming at a million miles a minute. At best, those are radically creative moments, and I’m glad for those—but often they are times of musing and questioning. When I let my brain go for too long with no boundaries I’m afraid I can also end up down dark pathways like Asaph did.

Meditate: To consider, think on, i.e., ponder and so give serious consideration to information, or a situation

Half way through this Psalm, though, the atmosphere suddenly changes. Asaph decides to focus his musing on something specific: the Word and works of God. The NIV translates this as meditation. Though the Hebrew word translated muse and meditation are actually the same here, I think the difference of word choice in English is helpful. One kind of meditation centers on our situations and easily leads to a downward spiral as we, in our own power, try to figure out “why?”; the other kind of meditation centers on God and His Word and will bring us up towards Him, as we see in verses 10-20.

Meditation can be one of the greatest benefits for our lives, provided that our meditation is on God’s truth. When we simply open and empty our hearts and minds, as some non-Biblical meditation practices suggest, our lives can be filled with unnecessary worry and even errant understanding of God’s stance towards us (“Has the Lord stopped loving me?”). When we ponder and give serious consideration to the Word of God and His works, we get to embrace the rock-solid reality that God is big enough and loving enough to take care of us well.

Yesterday a friend posted the following quote on Facebook:

We are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. -A.W. TOZER-

First off, full disclosure—I love Tozer. The Pursuit of God is one of my “top 10″.  And this quote by him captures my attention as I’ve been wrestling for a few years with the highly programmed church life that I have been so used to being a part of and leading. When you examine many program-driven churches, the external effect may look healthy, and even vibrant, but when you get closer to the tree you tend to notice that there is much foliage but little or no fruit (like this episode from Jesus’ life—Matthew 11:12-14).

Another thing you tend to notice is a small, committed core of very worn-out people who are working really hard to make it all look so vibrant. They are good folks who love Jesus and love others but who have found themselves caught in a religious trap.

What if we all just took a deep breath and decided to say no to the kind of religion that replaces real relationship with “nervous activity”? What if those of us who are in leadership structured the organizational life of the church much more simply, and in such a way that each ministry, function, and administrative detail was focused towards a clear purpose instead of just because “that’s what churches are supposed to do”, or “we’ve always done it that way”? What if, once an inspired program had run its course, we were content to–or even happy to—end it before it took on a life of its own?

I plan to write more about simplifying church organization and keeping our lives and ministries focused. When programs, organizations, and institutional structures—as necessary and good as they can be—become the point, we’ve missed the point entirely.

And, by the way, as good as simplicity is, it is not the goal. We never simplify for the sake of simplicity alone; it is always so we can make more clear the purpose of God in our individual and corporate lives, and to free more resources so that those purposes can happen.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Yesterday I heard a great sermon about the different ways we encounter God. At one point, the speaker, Glenn Burris Jr., said, “Someone else’s God encounter could be found through your life”.  For instance, someone may be praying for encouragement, and you look that person in the eye and speak a timely and encouraging word. To you it may be a simple, forgettable, expression—to them it is the God-moment they truly needed.  That statement really impacted me. How can I be aware of the people around me and be open to truly express God’s touch to them just where they might need it most?

Then, this morning I read 2 Corinthians 1:3—“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

There is a theological truth that says when we are blessed, it is so that we can be a blessing. Here we see that when we are comforted by God, we can in turn be a comfort. My mom is currently being treated for cancer; she has been comforted by people who have gone through the same treatment. While their experience was painful and difficult, they now have the authority to truly comfort someone who is going through a similar experience.

As I thought about all of this together, I realized that our pain and confusion today is likely the foundation for the encounter with God that someone else will have in the future. I shouldn’t despise my struggles, not only because they will produce good things in my life (Romans 5:3 & James 1:2-4), but also because they will be exactly what God uses to touch and speak into someone else’s life in the future.

I want to train myself to pray the following prayer as I start each day, “Lord, open my eyes that I might see and respond to an opportunity to provide a God-encounter for someone who needs it today. “