Chapter 3 - The Pastor

(Yep, still going with my (old) new series!)

“You’re the kind of person who pastors hate, because you’re so damn valuable to the church, but you’re a pain in the ass.” – a good friend, about me, said in much love and laughter.

It’s true. I know that it’s true. The associate pastor at my church is one of my best friends. I go in to his office and talk with him anytime I just “need to talk” about an issue. When I’m struggling with my school’s ridiculous theology, when I have car problems, or even if I’m just bored I will stop by his office. I could describe every aspect of his office so well that if anything is ever stolen I will be the first to know. Andy has a 18 month baby at home, but I would feel no shame calling him at 3 in the morning if I had a problem. No shame.

Matthew Turner writes about his many experiences with pastors. He writes about the balding fat pastor who came into his town to start a new church, the pastor who asks on a visitor’s first Sunday if he or she believes in tithing, and the pastor who has his own stylist. He also deals with the issue of “pastor worship.”

I love my pastors. When I graduated high school I invited 11 United Methodist pastors to my party. When I graduate college I will invite at least 3 more.

As a child Rod was the pastor and finisher of my faith. He was the only pastor I knew and all truth was contained within him. He was a phenomenal pastor on every level. He could have easily been a CEO of a major company, but he chose to follow God’s plan and became a pastor. He coached the High School team and took them far every year. He seemed omni-present and we knew that he walked on water in his spare time.

Our next pastor was the Reverend Dr. Deryl Kent Larsen. He was a very intelligent man with a passion for God, but he wasn’t Rod. We immediately rejected him.

My home church’s current pastor is David Lake. I love him and his family. I pray for his ministry in Kane all the time.

Bill Beatty and I share a blog. He’s my godfather (if my parent’s had died before I turned 18 Bill and Lori would have inherited my sister and I – this is long past, but I know they still love me.) My mom agonized over who to put in a will as the caretaker for her children. Mom couldn’t put a family member because if it weren’t an Airgood my dad’s mom would be furious. She wanted someone who would love my sister and I as she had. She was praying one day and the thought of Bill and Lori popped into her mind. She started crying because she knew it was perfect. My mom and dad took Bill and Lori out to eat. When mom asked the question (from my mother’s story) Bill and Lori both immediately said yes – they didn’t even need to look at each other or confer. Through the changing of pastors at my home church, my trip to college, and my crazy life out on my own I still consider Bill my pastor.

I love the concept of a pastor. The idea of a person guiding you in spiritual matters is so simple and yet so many people don’t take advantage of it. People have “life coaches,” therapists, councilors, and mechanics. My pastors fill all of those shoes. Yes, even mechanic in some cases.

God save us from ourselves is right. I did have to switch and join the Googlemania, but I am content with that switch. I haven't been blogging as often as of late because I've been trying to think less.

I stand with the bold proposition that an academic knowledge of the Bible is in no way related to our relationship with Jesus. I've taken the Bible classes and I have realized that my brain no longer wants to follow Jesus ... but, thank God, my heart stills longs passionately for my Savior and for His influence daily on my life. My heart wins out.

I'm changing, too. I used to be a rational thinker - and now I am beginning to reject that. Rational thought hasn't given me any great revelations of faith; my heart is content in not fully understanding the grace and forgiveness that Christ offers but accepting it in blind trust.

It's difficult for me - I counted myself among those who think that with enough study we can truly understand God (or atleast get pretty close), but now I understand that my brain is so small in comparison to the Creator God's - and I realize that part of humility is humble accepting the fact that if all of the great minds of our day got together and thought about God for the rest of their lives we would be no closer to understanding God than the child who first understands that God loves her.

That's my theology for the moment. God is love. I don't know about the rest, I'm not entirely convinced that anything else matters, and I'm not so sure that it's a bad line of thinking.

Give me hermeneutics? Give me exegesis? Give me Armenianism? No, for right now I'm going to stick with "Give me Jesus!"

A life in change. God save us from ourselves.

Change

Okay - nobody likes change, right? And nobody likes to be forced into making a change. In my using Blogger, I've had a lot of trouble with old blogger - crashing, losing posts, etc. So, I changed to New Blogger for the stability... sigh... So now I'm part of the Google universe...which isn't a big deal, I guess...

But - half way through the process, with no turning back, of course, I get this notice that if I have an shared blogs then EVERYBODY who contributes has to sign up for New Blogger and become a part of the Googlesphere...Googleverse...um...?

So, if Michael never posts here again it's because I changed to New Google... I never knew that making that change would affect anybody else...

But that's life, isn't it? I make a change - good, bad, whatever - and it doesn't affect just me. I decide to become a vegitarian (fat chance!!) and suddenly my household isn't the same anymore - meals are different. Lori decides to carpool to work and it affects me (for the better, mind you - less gas expense and she takes my Expedition fewer times because of the roads).

Faith is like that too... When the jailer in Philippi asked what it would take for salvation, Paul's response is:

They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Believe and you and your household will be saved. That's amazing. Is it really that easy? Well, no. But the change affects everyone, doesn't it? There's a little more to the story:

They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

Change affects everyone. But sometimes for the better. If we will live like we really believe what we say we believe - that we really believe WHO we say we believe - then the whole WORLD will change...

But change is hard....and we don't like it...

God, save us from ourselves....