Looking back and seieng what I would do differently, a couple more things come to mind.
I would defenitely take more time to build open relationships with people. This is hard and time consuming but I think there is nothing better than this in terms of things to build people up ( i hate the phrase "build the church up" even though its is biblical. Thats because each time people use that phrase there seems to be someone who will suffer as a result. more on this later)
I did make effort to connect with some and one of the things I learned is to listen to the Holy Spirit as He put put people into my heart and mind. When I feel a tug to just call someone and obey, a lot of times it led to a really significant time when we connected, but more importantly, we connected with God. I look back on these conversations as "God" moments. I guess you can call it impromptu spiritual direction.
I have tried to teach this to others and I do pray and hope it catches on. Spiritual direction is a spiritual discipline I would love to see return more fully to the church in Malaysia. Not in the very evangelical sense of "read you bible and pray" type, but the art of conversation with another that helps us discern what God is doing in our lives and how best to respond to God. I believe that spiritual direction is an important part of discipleship and spiritual formation.
I was speaking with my mrs the other day and we think that though we may not be involved in direct church leadership anymore, we most likely will be involved with the process of helping people grow in God in terms of spiritual formation. But we are not going to go out and start announcing ourselves as people "called" to this "ministry". If it happens, it will happen as we relate to people and share our lives.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Wow. A depth of honesty that feels so right in text form. I am touched by your writings. Now, working in a bar, I listen to people rant all the time. But this is different.
I used to go to church but it proved to be a rather painful affair as well. I say I used to because I have decided to be a bartender twenty-four-seven. I mean, in a bar, everybody's pretty open and honest with each other. And people go there because they wanna celebrate, wanna wallow in sorrow, forget, and so on...All very human.
Maybe I chose bar over church because of the 'humanness' of pubs. It's all good, bad, and ugly. Bars are like havens to lost souls. Not too brightly lit so you can hide your sadness if you want. Not to dark so you can see who you're talking to. Perfect.
So my Jesus comes over time-to-time to my bar. And he sits and has chats with all sorts of flesh. Good people. Low-lifes. He sometimes has time for me as well, and we talk for hours over a beer. One thing, he never gets drunk. And he can tell the difference between a Stella and a crap Tui.
We talk about politics, the polar ice, Iraq, religious hatred between christjewmuslims that never seems to end, comedy movies. We talk about the horrid smell church is to people like me.
I think you gave your church the best shot you could. Now, the leaders of your blessed church may not have understood your vision much. But are you really to take the fall for that? Uh huh. Is it your fault that they are stuck in an old paradigm and slow to show up to the party? Truth is, they may never get to the party.
Some people got the idea that pastors are weak wuss-bellied doormats for other people to walk over.
I think that's clearly bullshite.
If Jesus be the example for pastors to pastor, heck, we won't just be oh-so-compassionate all the time, we'll be storming into crowds of religious people and telling them they're a pain in the neck to God! We'll be calling a spade a spade, not mincing words like some slick haired PR agent for God. We'll be saying 'bring it on' and ready to die for our beliefs. Maybe pastors are scared of getting crucified by their members, their holy-higher-ups, their committees, these days. What happened to shepherds with wolf and bear killing guts? And when people in churches look at emasculated shepherds, how can we blame them for not following their call to be shepherds?
Oh Jesus, help! Send us men after your own heart! MEN.
Catch ya later. Customers.
hey Bartender,
Thanks for sharing. I love what you are doing in a bar. My little fantasy is to be able to do something similar...but in a coffeeshop.
By the way, how did you come across my blog?
dear bartender,
i'm the mrs, and i want to be a bartender too!
Post a Comment