dckenney.com <-here
Poets Prophets and Preachers
•July 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment1. The Original Guerilla Theatre
2. Elbow Video One Day Like This
6. How Technology Shapes the Sermon
7. The Fig Tree and the Failure of Language
8. Fumbling Around with your radar…
10. For Those With Ears to Hear…
12. The One Thing I’ve Never Heard Someone Talk About That Has Changed Everything For Me
The One Thing I’ve Never Heard Someone Talk About That Has Changed Everything For Me
•July 7, 2009 • Leave a CommentRob Bell
A note or an aside where someone veils a complaint or insult amidst a compliment or suggestion becomes a “chocolate covered turd.”
What do I extract from these encounters? What do I take away?
It’s the 9 to 1 ratio killer. I could get 9 praises, but I only focus on the 1 complaint.
And we think, “I’m the pastor, I should be able to shake this stuff off.”
Have you ever heard a rumor about yourself? …and it was true?
Acts 21
37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”
“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”
What is that about? What are these rumors about Paul?
What continues to play in my inner dialogue?
Who has my attention? Are they the “self-appointed…”
The official committee for Doctrinal Purity, orthodox Rhetoric and general Theological Correctness?
Don’t these people [groups] often speak words to you when you don’t need it. Over time these tiny words become paper-cuts and we suffer….
Death by paper cuts.
And then what happens? How do we act?
We hold back from our congregations – we hold back creatively, we hold back prophetically and we hold back personally.
We list the “those people” and we label the “bad people.”
We take revenge and we punish passively.
If we expect to stay in this game for the long run…
…we must be masters of forgiveness.
Name the wound, what exactly was it about the comment that hurt us?
Did it expose me?
Did it over analyze me?
Do I feel studied?
Am I hurt/insulted because I want to control the words I speak, but also control the people’s response to what it is I say?
They may be sheep, but sheep have teeth
Proverbs 26v11
As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.
Some people are just toxic and it is ok to set up boundaries.
Titus 3v10
Warn divisive people once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.
Some people are divisive.
You [as the pastor] are not an ecclesiastical punching bag. The unhealth of the church can be placed on you. And no, that is not what they pay you for.
Luke 12v13-14
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
Was Jesus’ role as a Rabbi to settle disputes of family or law? Apparently not. Jesus flat out says, “dude, this isn’t my job.”
You are a precious resource.
If Jesus asks you to love your neighbor as yourself, then you must first love yourself.
Learning to forgive is learning to be free.
On the cross in Luke 23, Jesus forgives even those who sought to kill him. As a last act, he forgave his “special friends.”
The Christ pattern of the cosmos is an understanding of death and resurrection.
Tim Keller in his book the Reason for God says,
“You can forgive. It’s a form of suffering. Forgiveness means refusing to make them pay for what they did. … However, …you are absorbing the debt, taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of taking it out on the other person… Yes, but it is a death that leads to resurrection instead of the life long death of bitterness and cynicism.
Parker Palmer said, “…the cross says, ‘the pain stops here.’ The way of the cross is a way of absorbing pain, not passing it on, a way that transforms pain from destructive impulse into creative power. When Jesus accepted the cross, his death opened up the channel for the redeeming power of love.”
Free your identity from how you are received by others.
Practice forgiveness
Exercise forgiveness
Master forgiveness
Who do you need to forgive?
Pictures from the conference:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1190321@N22/
“I had fun everyone, thanks to everyone for the talks, the handshakes and the heartfelt nods.”
