Tim Clark’s Blog

July is going to be Internet Independence Month for me. While I appreciate technology and use it as a tool for my ministry and personal life, I’ve noticed something lately: down time has been hijacked by a constant need to check-in and reconnect to the electronic communications grid that I’ve started to need like life-support. And in the process, my personal margins are getting shot.

Little by little my soul has been compromised, not by any untoward concessions that can be given to the enemy in this realm, but through a slowly growing lack of focus on what is essential. I find myself being less than disciplined regarding the time spent twittering, blogging, checking email, and surfing the web.

A personal confession: I can feel that I’ve worked hard all day, when in reality what I’ve mostly done is function distracted by emails or the internet, and accomplishing tasks that could have, and should have, been handled in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, when I get home the arrangement continues: I open my laptop and surf the net or “do” email and neglect giving my family my full presence. Something in the fabric of how I address this needs to change.

There have been times in my past when I’ve stopped doing things that I felt were getting a bit out of control. A couple of times I’ve given up coffee and/or caffeine for a month. Once it was no TV for a season. Right now I’m on my 6th month without soda. I am not talking about fasting (that is a different issue that is also an important part of a believers life) but about focusing. I need to reestablish a healthy framework regarding how to use my time wisely even as I continue to pursue the appropriate use of important and relevant communications tools available to me.

So here’s the plan—I am taking a break from my constant need to stay connected. For me to hit the “reset” button on my patterns, I’m setting a goal to submit myself to the following conditions for the month of July:

Twitter: I’m going off twitter. For one month I’ll forgo the pleasure of staying instantly connected to the quips, thoughts and whereabouts of my friends.

Facebook: Same thing for Facebook (maybe I’ll let Deborah check my account a few times?)

Blog: I won’t update my blog for the month. Even though I only update it once a week (roughly) anyways, I want to spend more time this month reflecting deeply, rather than simply posting quickly.

Email: I plan on disciplining myself to check and respond to my work email only three times a day. Once when I get into work in the morning, once after lunch, and once before I leave for the day.  I will allow myself to look at work email on Saturdays, if necessary, but not at all on Sundays.

WWW: I’m going to use the net for work and research, not just to “browse”. If I’m using it for personal research—where to eat, movie times, update on news, generating directions—then I plan on getting only what I need and then getting out as quickly as possible—like a man shopping at Victoria Secret for a gift for his wife.

The funny thing is, though my palms sweat a little when I think about this (is that a sign of addiction?) I can remember a time, not so long ago, when I didn’t have a smart cell phone and laptop for work, and email was only for fun. And I still got a whole lot done. Maybe even more. So I’m not giving up on technology (I’ll be back in August) but looking for a healthier embrace of it. What are your thoughts? Am I a Luddite for attempting this? Could you do it and would you want to? Why or why not?

Oh…if you are in Oregon, I’ll be speaking at Westside Faith Center on July 26 and East Hill Church in Gresham on August 1 & 2. If you have the time, come by and see me.

For the rest of you, I’ll be “back” on the grid in August.

Grace!

Fathers day, 2009. I’m speaking at church to dads (including myself) about the fact that as fathers we are called to nothing less than represent God to our children. Like it or not, the way our kids see God as Father will depend quite a bit on how we model what a father is like. While we’ll never quite measure up, we should at least understand that we have a sacred responsibility in this area.

In 1992, one dad showed the world what a father is supposed to be like. World-class athlete Derek Redmond was competing in the simi-finals of the Olympic 400 meter race. As a favorite, he should have gone on to the finals, and possibly onto a gold. Part way into the race, Redmond went down with a torn hamstring. In pain he watched the other runners finish, but decided to get up and do whatever he could to complete the race.

It wasn’t looking good; as the pain became unbearable, a big man jumped out of the stands and fought security to get to Derek. It was his dad. He put his arm around his son’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “we’re going to finish this together”. Waving off officials who were trying to clear the track, son and father walked, and wept, across the finish line—dead last, but to the standing ovation of thousands.

I’ve told that story a number of times, but came across the video on YouTube only a couple of days ago…it wrecked me to actually see it. I want you to see it too. If you are a dad, this is the way we are to encourage our kids. Help them across the finish line, because our heavenly Father loves us the same way.

The other day I overheard someone talk about how church organizations (in general) and pastors (in specific) need to be “more professional”. Regardless of how I feel about that statement, I found myself playing along, and asking myself the following question:

“So, what type of professional should the church be?”

I quickly thought of three different kinds of professional frameworks we might emulate:

First, we could be corporate professional. This construct would ensure we came to work clothed in our best business-wear, had pristine org charts & strategic plans, clocked in right at 8 to conduct back-to-back meetings, and were assured of our impact primarily by the numbers (salvations, attendance, tithes) we produced.

Then there is clinical professional. Maybe we could provide proper service to “patients” that come in for some sort of counseling or spiritual therapy. Careful records of each member could be kept, and personal ministry could be well maintained (provided we kept our professional clinical distance).

Finally creative professionals came to mind. What if the church office looked more like a movie studio, television production, or band practice space? Say what you want about late nights, no dress codes, and unorthodox work habits, but you can’t say that creative professionals aren’t a part of defining our culture.

Admittedly, most people think of corporate or possibly clinical, when they talk about being more professional. Though we find excellence and impact produced from creative fields all the time, I have only noticed the outside fringes of the church embrace that as a valid professional model.

I think we can learn from and apply parts of all of these but I’m not arguing for us to uncritically reproduce any of it. We can, of course, learn from other models (you can think of more professionals: athletics, academics, military…) but before we decide we are going to copy the culture, can we remember some things? Things like…

• … the church is not a business; it is a body.

• …though we are in need of structure and excellence and hard work (I’m not suggesting we are called to laziness), what defines us is prophetic, not professional.

• …the fact that organic relationships drive our life together, not the org charts, staff manuals, job descriptions and performance reviews that—as good as they may be—at best can only serve to provide support for what we are really all about.

As I was considering all of this, I heard about a book by John Piper, written to pastors: Brothers We Are Not Professionals. Though I share Piper’s passion for Jesus, I don’t always share his theology. I do, however, look forward to reading this book if the following quote I found reflects the rest of it:

“We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet—Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts, too!

As I was reading Ephesians 4 and 5 this morning, something jumped out at me. The wisdom about how to live a life worthy of the calling we have received is at the same time deeply powerful and intensely practical.

To begin to mine the depths of this wonderful calling, we must carefully understand the first three chapters of Ephesians. There is an amazing family inheritance for us given by an amazing God; we have an amazing hope and we belong to an amazing Body with an amazing Head. Really, embracing these truths will absolutely blow you away…it’s amazing!

So after those three elevated chapters about how awesome our new life in Christ really is, you might expect that the directive about how to live that life would be full of elegant platitudes and lofty principles—instead the counsel is very practical. Chapter 4 says because of what we have been called to be, what we need to do is love people.

It says: Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient. Bear with one another in love.  Make every effort to live in unity. Serve one another to build others up.

And it doesn’t stop there. Later we are told to take off the things we used to ‘wear’ and put on the ‘clothes’ that reflect the life to which we have been called—Take off falsehood and instead speak truthfully to our neighbors. Stop stealing and instead work to have something to give away to the needy. Don’t speak in an unwholesome way, but instead only use words that are helpful for building others up to meet their needs and for their benefit. Don’t do things that bring hurt (bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, malice), but instead be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving someone when they have done something that would cause bitterness, rage, etc.

And here is the key: We do those things as imitators of God. We forgive others because in Christ God forgave us. We love others with everything we’ve got because we are dearly loved children of God. We live a life of sacrifice because Christ gave his life up for us.

Imitating God by loving people results in staying away from sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking. Those kind of things don’t build others up; they only tear people and relationships apart. And they tear our own souls apart, too. We were not designed to—nor were we saved to—live like that.

However, it’s very important that we know this is not simply a checklist of things we can and can’t do as believers, but it is a masterful painting of what a full-of-God person who lives a life of love really looks like. If this doesn’t look like us, we don’t need to try harder to conform; instead we return to the source of our life, and make sure we are plugged in well.

And from John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit…when you obey my commandments you remain in my love…this is my commandment: Love each other in the same way as I have loved you.”

I just returned from a week of gathering with other leaders from my extended church family. This convention is something that I have tried to attend since I became a pastor 17 years ago and I have  been at each of the last 12 of these assemblies.

It’s not because this time is always so much fun. There are moments when I have been frustrated at the schedule, the structure, or the ceremony. I have heard friends complain that Convention does not do much for them—“Why should I spend so much money to attend an event that does not personally pay off great dividends?”

But I don’t go because it’s fun; I go because it’s family. My generation tends to complain quite a bit about the non-relational aspect of church and denominational life. We cry out for leaders to ditch the heavy programming and logistics, but we are not willing to step up to the plate and be part of the solution. A small part of Convention is what I get out of it, the largest part concerns what I can give towards relational connections—some of which happen only once a year. I’ve found that the answer is not in my complaining, it’s in my contribution.

As a newly married young adult, my wife and I realized that Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner (that we had to spend lots of money on and travel hundreds of miles to) was not always everything we wanted it to be. We decided that instead of complaining or simply putting up with it, we would seek to contribute to make it better. Over the last few years we’ve had a blast by offering themes, planning outings, preparing special dishes (thank you Sunset Magazine) and even occasionally making the turkey or prime rib.

The point is that we could have become cynical about or ditched the family gathering, but we chose to enjoy the relationships and the food, even when some of the relationships and food were not—and might never be—deeply enjoyable.

Our family holiday gatherings have become much more delightful over time. So has our Foursquare Convention. As a group of people in my generation has faithfully attended and contributed over the last 10+ years, we have seen change. We’ve started to recognize that the older generation wants to include us, they just haven’t always known how to do it. There are still things about the week that are not to our liking (just like there are certain dishes at Thanksgiving I’ve learned to skip). But when family gets together it will never exclusively appeal to any one person or generation—in fact trying to require that would be very selfish.

In family, in church, and even in denominations we need to contribute and serve one another, and in the contribution, we will find a much more fulfilling experience.

Oh, and by the way, this Convention was, hands-down, the best I’ve ever been to. And I’ve already calendared next year’s connection with my extended church family. I woudln’t miss it for anything!