Selling or Serving?

Who sells stuff on the Web? Ask a question like that to most anyone and you would expect Amazon.com to be among the first responses. But I have heard a few interviews with Jeff Bezos when someone talks about Amazon.com selling things on the internet; he bristles. He responds by explaining that he doesn’t think of Amazon.com selling anything, but rather… Amazon.com helps people make good purchasing decisions. 

Now that might sound like a bunch of baloney (I’m certain that it is some part baloney)… but I’m confident that the semantics here are important. It flows out of Amazon.com’s customer-centric vision. And I find that it resonates as an Amazon.com customer; when I’m shopping on Amazon.com I generally get the sense that they aren’t selling me anything. They don’t care what I buy… just that I find what I want/need (and while I’m there I might as well buy it from them).  

I think a lot of what I’ve done in my career probably looks a lot like selling, at least from the outside. As a fundraiser, recruiter, and marketer for Christian higher education, my work has looked a lot like the sales function of the organization. Even as a preacher of the Gospel, it could look like sales. In my work over the years, I’ve used most all of the tools and tactics and even jargon of sales. 

But I have never really thought of any of my work as selling. 

I don’t have the charm to sell an institution to a donor in such a way that they write a million-dollar check. But I have been able to help people make good giving decisions. 

I can’t sell a prospective student into committing the time, energy, and cash that it takes to earn a degree. But I have been able to help students make good, life-changing decisions.  

And I certainly don’t have the ability to sell anyone a religion. But I have been able to help people make good decisions… the best decisions.  

For me, these have all been Spiritual transactions. What a privilege to play a small part in helping people follow God’s call to make a sacrificial gift! Some of my most cherished memories are when I watched people write significant checks (regardless of how many zeroes precede the decimal point) that result in accomplishing part of their dreams. Helping them make the decision and then helping apply it to good work is an exhilarating privilege.  

What a privilege to meet graduates that I helped some time ago, now seeing them doing good work. In some cases, I’ve helped directly (doing the hands-on work of recruiting or helping folk navigate financial aid and such). In other cases the help has been indirect as I’ve been part of program development or marketing. Regardless, it is wonderfully gratifying to know that somehow along the way I’ve helped a lot of students (I guess thousands of students) make good decisions.   

And, of course, what can compare to helping someone make a decision for Christ? Whether that be a first step of faith (believing Jesus for salvation) or a next step (trusting Jesus for direction, provision, deliverance…), playing any small part in these decisions is an awesome honor.  

We have probably all seen people approach these kinds of endeavors primarily as selling… and it seems that more often than not people are wrecked along the way. But when selling is replaced by serving, everybody wins. 


 

Not of Our Ilk

I enjoyed a great meal with my friend Verlon not long ago. We have a lot in common since we don’t “do church” like most of those in our ilk. On the other hand… the way we each “do church” is very different, sharing little in common (at least on the surface). Simply put… if there is a spectrum of formality among our ilk, Verlon and I are on the far-flung, opposite ends of the spectrum.

I lead a congregation that is relatively formal… not all that formal when considering the Church universal, but pretty formal for an Assemblies of God church. We have a choir that sings twice most Sundays, sometimes even more. Our congregation prays together, out loud, with prewritten prayers. We read the Scripture aloud every Sunday, and recite a creed together. We write it all down, each part of the order of service, and provide it to each one who enters Pleasant Bay Church on Sunday mornings. 

The congregation that Verlon leads is decidedly informal. It meets in various neighborhoods in Seattle, usually on weeknights. The whole meeting is centered on supper. There is no bulletin, no PowerPoint, no corporate singing or prayers… just supper and a short, simple “Jesus talk.” They don’t even name it church (although the regulars seem to think of it as church… their church); a few years ago they reorganized the oldest Assemblies of God Church in Seattle into Community Dinners.

Even though we are very different when it comes to formality, it seems to me that we share a lot in common, including: 

• We looked to history to meet the demands of the future. When we set our course a dozen years ago at Pleasant Bay, we looked to church history to form our worship. In some cases that meant going back decades or hundreds of years as we include hymns in our blended worship; in other cases that meant going back thousands of years as we use ancient creeds in our worship. When Verlon’s church reorganized, they looked to history… all the way back to the early church; Verlon finds the theological underpinnings for Community Dinners in The Lord’s Supper and the way the early church worshiped in love feasts. 
• We were misunderstood by our ilk. Reflecting on what Verlon is doing, I’ve heard many from our ilk determine that Community Dinners is more like a para-church ministry than a church (I came to that conclusion before I actually went; believe me, Community Dinners is not a soup kitchen). I know that our ilk misunderstands Pleasant Bay as well, thinking of it as a liturgical church (whatever then means) that is outside of the mainstream of our kind of churches. 
• We highly value visible participation. It is easy to let our worship become more and more like entertainment. Volunteer choirs and orchestras give way to small, highly-polished worship bands; the proclamation of the Word resembles a Ted Talk with the real thing happening on the big screen (live, recorded, or piped in). At Community Dinners it seemed like as many as half of the people were actively involved in serving and leading and helping. At Pleasant Bay on a Sunday, everyone is involved in reading and praying and proclaiming aloud… and a lot of people are visibly involved on the platform, in the choir, reading Scripture and such. 
• We are seeking the lost. Community Dinners identified and set out to serve and reach the people in Seattle’s walking villages; it didn’t appear that they were being reached and it was time for an innovative approach. At Pleasant Bay, we identify with people who are looking for a more formal, ritualistic, and even academic approach. It seemed that these folks were limited to choices that may not hold to Biblical truth or standards; in their search for something more formal, many might have settled for something theologically flimsy and ultimately unsatisfying… so we set out to reach them.

I’ll be back at Community Dinners again, not because I think their tactics suit our church, but because their approach challenges me, expands my thinking, and inspires me to be even more creative in our pursuit of God and His Work. 

 

Lead in 3D

I was on the phone this afternoon with a former colleague in Christian higher education who works for a school in the region. Once I gave him the information he sought, we waxed philosophic for a few minutes. 

 

I was reminded how important it is to lead in 3D. Here’s what I'm getting at. One of the benefits of having two eyes is that we can perceive depth. Especially when objects are in motion, our brains integrate perspective from each eye resulting in the full, three-dimensional image. 

 

When making decisions as a leader, it is vital to have the sort of 3D vision that results from various perspectives. 

 

For example, on today’s call we were talking about building a finance team for a college. In my experience, I’ve benefited from the productive tension that comes from a finance officer who usually saw the big picture paired with a finance officer who focused on the details (the roles are often titled CFO and Comptroller). The CFO gets it when it comes to the business, can communicate with stakeholders, and can speak into decision making from a finance perspective; the Comptroller knows the spreadsheets backwards and forwards, can generate detailed reports that anticipate and answer crucial questions, and can speak into decision making from budget and accounting perspectives. When the perspectives are well integrated, the institution can hit fiscal fastballs. 

 

The same sort of thing happens all the time in my partnership with my wife Laurie. I tend to see things in terms of systems over time; Laurie tends to see things in terms of relationships in the present. When we are making decisions in the context of our family or our Church (we serve as pastors together) the productive tension results in a more 3D vision of the problems and solutions. 

 

It seems to me that a lot of leaders are intent on leading with one eye shut. We fail to be able to lead in 3D when we:

• Build teams without diverse perspectives, mistaking uniformity for unity (I blogged on this recently). 
• Only reward agreement and/or punish disagreement (the lesson of The Emperor’s New Clothes). 
• Rush or make unnecessarily quick decisions that limits input. 
• Otherwise isolate decision making.   

Stop Speaking in Tongues

We are working through a sermon series based in 1 Corinthians at Pleasant Bay Church. Last Sunday we were in chapter 14. In a nutshell… the ancient church in Corinth appeared to misunderstand what it meant to be spiritual; one of the ways that demonstrated how misguided they were was that their public gatherings appeared to be dominated by a cacophony of speaking in tongues (chaotic, simultaneous, and uninterpreted). The Apostle worked to get them back on track by urging them to seek gifts of the Spirit that were intelligible so that the church would be built up, and unbelievers would hear and believe. 

This is not our problem. Nobody has ever come up to me and said “the problem with this church is that there is too much chaotic speaking in tongues!” If anything, criticism has come from the opposing bias. 

But what if we thought a bit more metaphorically? Now please don’t misunderstand me; the primary meaning of the text is not to be understood as a metaphor. But I think we can get at something very important, something directly tied to the big idea of the text, by thinking metaphorically. 

The big idea of the text is that we must be understood for the building up of the Church. Furthermore, we can understand building up to mean both:

1. The edification of the Church (strengthening, encouraging, healing, teaching) and
2. The growth of the Church.

It isn’t just about insiders. There is concern for those who do not yet believe too. Here is what it says starting with verse 23.

 

So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

 

Isn’t that what we want? What use is it if people don’t understand us, thinking that we are out of our minds? We want people to join us in worshiping God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

 

We may not be speaking in tongues… but are we understood? Are we speaking in a language that is easily understood? Or are we speaking our own language, metaphorically speaking in tongues?

 

Metaphorically speaking, do you know where I’ve encountered the most speaking in tongues? Microsoft. At least in the group that I contracted with for several months, all they did was speak in tongues. It seemed like it was all jargon and acronyms. This was a marketing group… a group charged with convincing and motivating customers and partners. As they were asking “how do we connect with customers so we can sell this stuff?” on a few occasions I mustered up the courage to suggest that they might try speaking English.

 

Truth is, speaking in technical jargon and acronyms is an important tactic. It helps differentiate between the insiders and the outsiders. Being able to speak in tongues (acronyms and jargons) makes it clear that you are qualified to be in the club. You know how seriously to take people when you hear them speak in tongues. It serves as a secret password or a secret handshake.

 

So when you are breaking in, you fake it until you make it. I’ve acquired some skills and can usually pickup and use jargon pretty quickly and effectively. It is handy, especially when working on deals. I can put people at ease when I’ve done my homework and can speak at least a bit of their language.

 

Now there is some risk involved; it can backfire if we get it wrong. Sometimes when trying to make ourselves sound smart, or like an insider, we make a fatal error and completely blow our credibility. Fake it until you make it only works when we successfully fake it… otherwise our cover is blown and rather than merely appearing ignorant, we appear pitiful or, even worse, deceitful.

 

My point is, in the Church I think it is easy for us to be speaking in tongues even when we are not speaking in tongues. We are metaphorically speaking in tongues when:  

• We have our own jargon. In the songs we sing, and the words we pray, and the things we preach, and even in our casual conversation… Christians have our own jargon. We need to be on the lookout for Christianese and root it out of our vocabulary as much as possible. 
• We assume prior knowledge. I worry about this here at Pleasant Bay. We tend to be an educated bunch with a high degree of Biblical literacy. A lot of us have been at this for a long time and it is too easy for us to leave people out who may not have a base of knowledge. 
• We operate in familiarity. This is the sort of thing that keeps small churches like us small. It is truly wonderful that we find here at Pleasant Bay a group that knows one another; we have a history together that results in strong ties. But when that turns into cliques that cannot be penetrated by outsiders, then we are missing the mark. 
• We make peripheral things the main thing. Because so many of us have been at this a while, and we have a sort of academic bias, and we love the Bible and theology and such… we could get so fascinated with the fine points and nuances of theology that we fail to keep the main thing the main thing. We want to be sure that we don’t become irrelevant Bible geeks who are so fascinated by some peripheral aspect of our faith that we fail to demonstrate the central message: the power of the Gospel to save and change lives. Being intelligible is more important than being perceived as intelligent.

What are some other ways that we metaphorically speak in tongues?

 

For more of what I had to say on the topic, check out the sermon, available at http://pleasantbay.cedarpark.org/services

Another Ordinance: Giving?

In my theological tradition, we have two ordinances: water baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. In other traditions these might be referenced as sacraments.

One of the great things about ordinances is the tactile nature of it all. We take regular stuff (water, bread, the cup) and make it Holy stuff for a few moments.

We take water, maybe in a river or swimming pool or a specially-dedicated tank or even drops from a bowl, and make it Holy. In my tradition, we get in… and the one being baptized goes all in, completely soaked, completely immersed. The regular stuff becomes Holy stuff as we symbolically bury everything about the old life and the new life rises… every inch of us wet from the washing.

We take the bread and the cup, just as regular as it was when Jesus picked it up from His dinner table, and for a few moments that regular stuff becomes Holy stuff as we remember that Jesus suffered, bled, and died for us. We remember all that He did in order to commune with us. We remember that He is alive and communes with us today. And we remember His promise of eternity with Him.

The regular stuff that becomes Holy stuff helps us more fully understand and more fully believe… it helps us worship with our heads and our hearts and our hands. All of our senses are better encompassed and enveloped when we involve stuff. Thank God for ordinances. 

Along these lines, I wish we approached giving more like an ordinance. 

There was a day when I think I approached giving more like an ordinance. For a number of years I never let an offering plate go by without putting something in… even if it was just a coin, or the smallest bill in my pocket. On more than one occasion, unprepared, I found that the only thing I had in my pocket was a paperclip or a stray button… in it went. I’ve even written the occasional IOU when caught unprepared. I wanted to participate in worship with my giving whenever presented with the opportunity, and I wanted to experience the tactile exercise of it all… my stuff coming out of my pocket, through my hands, and into the offering plate. 

There was even a time when I encouraged folks to participate in just that way when I was given the opportunity to receive offerings. I would tell folks, “just give something… even if you have to borrow a dollar from a neighbor… even if you have to borrow a dollar from me.” 

But, even though I receive at least one offering a week these days, it has been a long time since I’ve encouraged everyone to give something every time. It just doesn’t seem to suit our times anymore. People give online, or once a month, or swipe their card. In a text-to-give or wave-your-smartphone-across-a-scanner culture, it just seems sort of primitive to think that everyone out to put something in an archaic brass plate every Sunday. 

By making giving so electronic and automatic, it seems like we are missing a mystical opportunity when regular stuff could become Holy stuff for a few moments. Just as regular water or regular bread becomes Holy stuff, could the stuff in our hands, before dropped in a plate, become Holy stuff in our regular worship?

Insert Name Here

I’ve been reading Gordon Fee’s commentary on 1 Corinthians as part of my study for our current sermon series at Pleasant Bay. In a sort of pastoral aside summarizing chapter 13 (page 640), Fee suggested, "Perhaps that point could best be captured by putting one's own name in place of the noun love, and not neglecting thereafter to find a proper place for repentance and forgiveness."

I’m generally not a big fan of cute tricks like this; it usually comes off as a bit too precious for me. But this time I tried it. This simple exercise knocked the wind out of me. 

It is certainly not out of bounds to do so with this passage. More than the sappy love poem about we might try to make it out to be with our cheesy plaques that we might see at a Christian bookstore or a card we might find at a Hallmark store… this passage is meant to be instructive. This definition of love was meant to correct errors in the ancient church in Corinth, and to set the standard of behavior for Christians throughout the ages. The text plainly challenges us, and calls us, to live in such a way… putting such love into action. We are called to this kind of Christ likeness. 

Shall we today? If we were to read it with our names inserted, could we do so with a straight face and a strong voice? There might be moments when such statements resonate, but then there would also be statements that would sound pretty hollow (maybe something like a clanging cymbal). 

Go ahead and read it… read it out loud, saying your name every place there is a blank. And where it could sound hollow, make it a moment of reflection, repentance and prayer. Where we fall short, let’s make these moments for faith to arise… allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us and call us to align ourselves again with God’s plan and purpose for our lives.


____ is patient, ____ is kind.



____ does not envy, ____ does not boast, ____ is not proud.



____ does not dishonor others, ____ is not self-seeking,



____ is not easily angered, ____ keeps no record of wrongs.



____ does not delight in evil but ____ rejoices with the truth.



____ always protects, ____ always trusts,



____ always hopes, ____ always perseveres.



____ never fails.



For more along these lines, listen to my sermon from today at Pleasant Bay, available here: http://pleasantbay.cedarpark.org/services

When Creeds Really Matter

I had a conversation yesterday that was especially gratifying as a pastor. We were reflecting on a meeting we had with our church’s leadership recently that resulted in a few edits to one of our creeds. 

Our Sunday morning worship at Pleasant Bay includes reciting a creed together. We often use an ancient creed like the Apostles’ Creed. Some Sundays we use a creed derived from our denomination’s doctrinal statements. And there are creeds that we have written ourselves, like the one we recently edited regarding the purpose of the church. (Many of the creeds we use at Pleasant Bay are available here: http://pleasantbay.cedarpark.org/resource)

My friend explained that these creeds find their way into his conversations from time to time. Someone asked the broad question, “what do you believe?” and the outline of the Apostles’ Creed guided his response (not reciting the creed… that might be weird… but using the creed as mental cue cards). In another conversation the topic of praying for the sick came up, and key phrases of our creed on divine healing peppered the conversation. When opportunity arose to clearly state what he believed, our creeds provided a handy toolbox. 

Obviously, I think it is worthwhile to take a moment in each worship service and proclaim together a foundational statement about our beliefs. I’m glad that our congregation has stuck with the discipline, even when most churches of our ilk do not. But when do creeds really matter? Creeds really matter when they apply directly in our day-to-day lives and conversations.