Simple faith

I received an interesting text from my cell phone provider last night. Feeling overwhelmed by the number of applications out there? it asked. Go to this web site to help sort it it out. So I did. And felt even more confused. On the left of the page, I could "Browse by Category" (there were 17 categories). In the center, one block offered "Recommendations" and another "Apps in the News" and another "Hot Apps" and another "Price Cuts" and there were at least five other blocks I could have perused. So much for simplicity. So many of us feel overwhelmed by life in general and our culture continues to give us an endless amount of opportunities to stay connected, learn more, improve ourselves. It's easy to feel that way about faith, too, especially if we're just starting out or renewing our search after time away. Where do we start? One of my mantras in recent months consists of three words: I breathe deeply and tell myself, "Slow down. Simiplify." Every morning when I wake up, I focus on this particular day and give thanks for it. God has given me, for example, October 26, 2011. I will never again have the gift of this particular day. And I am thankful. When I feel a wave of anxiety about all the things I have to do during the day, I break it down even more. I have been given this hour between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. I can handle focusing on this hour. This is a gift. And I am thankful. I've been known to then break that down into 15-minute increments sometimes! For me, this is more than just a simple time management skill. It's prayer. It's a way for me to be reminded of the abundance of life and the strong and constant presence of God. One moment at a time.

Warming up to teaching

Preaching and teaching are often two of the things cited in a pastor's job description. When congregations are asked what they want from a pastor, "a good preacher" is often the number one answer. I really enjoy preaching. I enjoy the crafting of it, the creativity of it, the presentation of it. Teaching, though, has been something I've been lukewarm about. I'm not sure why that is, but I think it has something to do with my sometimes unhealthy need to feel like I should have the answer to any question that's asked.

"You're the pastor," someone might say to me and then ask, "what does this particular passage mean?" If I draw a blank, can I just shrug my shoulders? And if I do that, will the questioner think less of me? Not the best attitude to have. I'm feeling more comfortable, however, with the things I don't know, which isn't to say that I don't prepare or at least have some grasp of what we're discussing.

I'm currently leading a small group that's billed as an introduction to faith/Christianity. These are often the most rewarding and most challenging groups because participants sometimes ask the biggest and most penetrating questions, but they're also sponges for any piece of information that I can share.

One of the things I'm learning about doing ministry with young adults these days is that I have to assume they know absolutely nothing about the Bible. The other day I was in a meeting and someone said turn to the book of Matthew and the woman next to me whispered, "I have no idea where to look for that." I appreciated her honesty and it reminded me that we're really working with clean slates. Which can be kind of exciting.

We had our second small-group gathering last night and we were pondering the different passages that address the question, how should I treat my enemies? We looked through the Old and New Testaments, talked about the differences and discussed what do we do when the Bible seems to contradict itself. Everyone was engaged and at times it looked like lights were going off in their heads ("Oh, that makes sense!") and I got a brief sense of what it must be like for a teacher who really connects with a student.

I've been leading small groups for years and I think I may finally be getting the hang of it.

Figuring each other out

We spent three hours in our staff meeting yesterday figuring each other out. One could argue that we do that every day, but we were led in thinking through our Myers-Briggs types.

Myers-Briggs is what's known as a "type indicator," a way of beginning to ascertain your personality and what makes you tick. Once you begin to figure that out, though, you also have to take into consideration that you deal with other personality types and, well, how in the heck to you deal with all that? That was our task yesterday.

I enjoy these types of exercises and I've had some experience with Myers-Briggs in the past. My indicator is INFJ (Introvert, intuitive, feeling, judging). I won't go into what all these mean (you can do that here), but here's what the little box says about INFJs: "Insightful. Inspiring. Exert influence quietly. Work toward mutual trust. Organize people, processes so all benefit. Articulate team values, vision. Sensitive to group dynamics. Seek meaning, connection in ideas, relationships. Conscientious. Committed. Values driven. Creative." These are all positives, of course, and there are certainly negatives. One of those negatives has to do that that J/judging. Judging doesn't really mean that J's are judgmental, but rather that they tend to like organization, timelines, structure. The opposite of a J is a P (perceiving), who tends to be more easygoing, casual, go-with-the-flow.

One of the biggest learnings for me yesterday was that the "pastors" (myself; Trey, our other lead pastor; and Brittany our associate pastor) are all J's and most of the other staff are P's. Our consultant said that we really need to listen to the P's more because that may fuel creativity and risk-taking. That's hard for J's, who tend to want to control.

But as I was praying this morning, I realized just how controlling I tend to be. It's hard to let go of stuff. But isn't that what faith is all about? Lord, have mercy.