And they praised God because of me?

It has been a long summer dealing with health problems in my mother in law and preparing for a wedding for our son two weeks from today.  This past week I took my 3rd of 4 D.Min modules where I go to Atlanta for an entire week.  What a way to spend a vacation.  But I'm within 470 days from graduation.  But who is counting?

This morning in my devotions I was reading in Galatians 1.  Paul is giving a defense of his apostleship.  He said something in the last verse that hit me.

And they praised God because of me.

I wonder how many people praise God because of me?  We all want to be liked.  But being liked doesn't always lead to people praising God for you.  Sometimes I need to be told the ugly truth.  Some of the best bosses I had were very truthful.  It hurt but I knew they loved me.  I've had other bosses who could care less about me. They just want to get the job done.  I want to be known as one who cares and makes people better.  My favorite Bible character besides Jesus is Barnabas.  Why?  Because his name was changed to "Encourager."  That is what I want to be known for.  Kevin was an encourager and for that I praise God.  

Sandwich Generation

I haven’t written because life has been kind of out of control the last few weeks.  My wife has been overloaded with her job and a wedding for our son a month a way.  I have been trying to take up the slack for her.   My mother in law moved in with us 2 years ago.  We moved to a bigger house with a basement and have built out a mother in law suite.  We have had our share of struggles with her living with us.   She went to the hospital in June and she went to rehab for 2 weeks.  One nurse pulled my wife aside and told her she saw through her mom and that we could not keep living like this.  Her mom is nice to me but horrible to her mom.  The day before she moved back my wife put her mom on speakerphone and when she began to talk ugly to my wife I stepped in and told her mom she had 2 choices.   She could respect Cass and stay with us or we would find somewhere else for her to live.

Amazingly, her mom had been nice every since then.  The problem is her health is deteriorating daily.   We had a shower for our son and fiancé on Saturday and I’m not even sure how she made it to the shower.   Last night she fell and I had to pick her up.  We are to the point that we don’t think she can continue to live with us like this.  One option is to hire someone to help her.  But she doesn’t want to spend the money.  Don’t get that.  The 2nd option is to move her to a nursing home.  We really don’t want to do that but we are unable to care for her.  What a mess.  The sandwich generation is a real thing.

Relationships

The past two weeks I found out that two friends were no longer married to their spouse.  I also heard a podcast where another famous Christian author lost his marriage.  I'm not here to judge anyone.  But does make me sad.  What good does being in ministry if you can't make your marriage work? Just really bummed hearing about these men. 

Culture

There is a lot of talk about culture in society.  What about the culture of an organization?  I've been a part of some toxic environments.  The sad thing is many of them were churches and religious organizations.   If Jesus has transformed our lives, why doesn't the culture look like that?

This week I got to serve at GROW 19.  It is a conference that Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama puts on every year to help pastors grow their church.  The secret to Highlands is prayer and culture.   I'm not naive to believe that it is a perfect environment.  Nowhere this side of heaven is perfect.  But the culture is contagious.  We had hundreds of Dream Teamers (volunteers) giving of their time to serve almost 4000 pastors.  I am passionate about serving at Grow because I was one of the desperate pastors 12 years ago.  

What the pastors and staff find when they visit Highlands is that there is a healthy culture.  Perfect, by no means.  But healthy, yes.  Trust me, I know the difference.  I've been a part of 4 church splits.  One as a child and three as a staff member.  One of those splits was a mutiny.   In unhealthy cultures, the staff and members don't work together.   They are territorial.  The last church I pastored, I had groups formed to get rid of me.  They met in the back of a local restaurant with stacks of complaints about me.  I don't want to make it sound like I'm perfect either.  I'm sure I was the cause of some unhealthiness at places I served. 

When we joined Highlands the excellence and culture was what attracted us.  It is a church that is truly about going after the lost.   It excites me every time I enter the doors or go out monthly serving at the Dream Center.  Thursday was my birthday.  I'm not one who cares about being noticed.  I didn't tell anyone on the team I was serving at Grow that it was my birthday.  But one of my friends who is on staff at the church wished me a happy birthday because he saw it on Facebook.  Next thing I know the whole team I was serving with is singing happy birthday.

Several of my co-workers called and wished me a happy birthday.  Then someone from the ministry I serve at called.  When I saw it I just assumed he was calling to wish me a happy birthday.  That was a bad assumption.  He wanted to know why I had not done my monthly reports.  I always get my reports in on time but they recently changed the date of our deadline and I thought it was the 1st not the last day of the month.   Nothing was said about my birthday or even asked about my family.  Let's just say, it was a contrast of two cultures.  Thankful that I can be part of a healthy culture at church.  That is more than most people can say.