Leadership Thought: The Day I Stood with Others Under the Flag at the Leonardo 9/11 Memorial.

Dear Friend,

I know it is Saturday, and I normally only do a Leadership Though on M-F, but I had to share with you a powerful event I experienced on 9/11. On Thursday Jean and I attended a 9/11 Ceremony at Leonardo, a location that looks some 30 miles across the water to what was Ground Zero. Our Middletown area lost more people, 37, in the World Trade Center bombing than any other community in the country. One of our own church members  Mike Reuter, a Middletown policeman, was in charge of the event, and he led a group of 30 Middletown policeman on a four-mile run from the Middletown Train Station to the Memorial Park in Leonardo. He was pushing his two boys ahead of him in a stroller. Our pastor Jared Nicastro led us in prayer, and our Middletown mayor paid tribute to the police and firemen who so faithfully serve our community. With a huge flag attached to a fire truck ladder flying high above our heads, the ceremony was a beautiful and unifying experience that Jean and I were thrilled to experience. As we  stood there, I thought to myself,  "I wish all of America could come together today in the same way we did after 9/11.

When I returned home, I received the following e-mail with a video of the day President George Bush threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium following the disaster. It is worth seeing again, if only as a reminder, of what it feels like when our nation is united in mind and spirt.

May our prayer be, "Lord, help me be a part of the solution and not the problem. Help me reach out to everyone I meet in love, and regardless of their color, political party, economic status, or any other issue that has the potential to divide us, may I see each of them as a person to love and as a person for whom Christ died.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

http://www.youtube.com/embed/bxR1tZ08FcI?rel=0

Leadership Thought: How the Pandemic is Changing the Church and Its Pastors.

Dear Friends,

This Pandemic season is bringing a lot of change with it, and such change can be unsettling. Someone once said the only one that likes changing is a wet baby. That person was probably right. Change is not always a popular experience, and it can produce a lot of damage if it is not done wisely, carefully, and lovingly.

Today we face a culture that is fast changing, and that change has not been lost on those of us in the church. Outdoor services, masks, social distancing, and online zooming for meetings and small groups are a new phenomenon for all of us who are so used to the traditional way of doing church. This change has been hard for church members, but it has been especially  hard for pastors. Many of them are stressed by these changes-increased workloads, inability to be with their people in time of need,  endless hours of video taping services, and  incessant chatter about masks or no masks- are taking their toll on them. Just yesterday I read an article, “6 Reasons Why Pastors Are Quitting Their Churches ” during the pandemic, and they are doing so in  large numbers because the changes have been just too much for many of them to handle.

Change is never trivial no matter how small that change may be. I remember the first time I ditched my robe while pastoring one Sunday morning a number of years ago in a church I served, and you can’t imagine the uproar from some of those in the pews.  “What is Tom doing walking around the pulpit teaching without wearing a robe?” It was as if I had ascended the pulpit in my birthday suit.  I can write and laugh about it today, but I can tell you I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction I received. That experience was a stark reminder to me of the ‘tumult’ that  change can produce, no matter how small that change may be.

When people allow their own personal preferences to usurp the church’s efforts to reach people for Christ, the church is in danger of becoming irrelevant. When change happens in the church that I don’t like, I have to remind myself that the church is not here to serve me and my preferences or traditions. It is here to reach the world, and if that change can help in accomplishing that goal, I better be championing it no matter how I personally feel about it.

In the book, Gaining by Losing, J D. Greear,  shares a story of how one of his members dealt with change. She had a great appreciation for hand bell music, and she became upset when she  discovered the church was about to sell their hand bell set so they could purchase some newer music equipment, specifically some new guitars. “This lady, who loved worship, was more of the organ, bells, and horns persuasion than the drums, guitars, and rhythm one.”

Confronting the pastor, she shared something that he didn’t know. Those hand bells, which had been stored away in the closet for years, were the result of a gift her mother had given to the church shortly before she died.

In speaking with the woman, Greear writes “After a couple of long, awkward seconds, I said to her, “Well, don’t you think your mom in heaven would be glad to see us using instruments that would help us reach this next generation-including her grand kids and their friends?”

“She thought about that for a second, and then said, ‘Well, yes . . . I suppose my mom would be happy with that.’”

 “She requested that we not sell the hand bells but donate them to another church, which we gladly did. Yet she did not resist seeing them go, and she did not leave our church when we shifted our worship to a more contemporary one. Today over 2,000 college students attend our church each weekend.”

Greear concludes the story with these words: “Because of the selflessness of this woman and many others, our church is reaching a whole new generation (Gaining by Losing, J. D. Greear, p. 90).

It is true that as Robert Schuller once wrote, “every end is a new beginning.” And those of us who protest change may miss the joy of seeing what God is ready to do with “new beginnings.”

See you Sunday!

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

 

Leadership Thought: Why Being  Called Meek is a Compliment.

 Dear Friends.

There is a time when if someone were to call me meek, I would have been insulted. To me, meekness was synonymous with weakness. A person who was meek was a person who had no backbone, who was timid, spiritless, subdued and weak. But I now know that this is not the case for biblically the word for meekness means something completely different than most of us understand it. Didn’t Jesus affirm meekness when he said “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth?

To be called meek is not an insult, but a wonderful compliment. Meekness is a Greek word which refers "strength under control." It is harnessed energy. It describes the victorious horse in the race. What makes the horse a winner is his total obedience to the jockey’s wishes. The horse had not used his self-will, but instead had been obedient and submissive to the will of the jockey. He didn’t have to submit. Instead he could have exercised his power in any way he chose. However, he chose to exercise it by being submissive.

The poet Carl Sandberg described Abraham Lincoln as a man of “velvet steel.” He was a man of strength, but a man whose strength was under control. No one could ever accuse Moses of being weak and timid, yet God identified him as the meekest man on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3).

Jesus was the most courageous man to ever walk among men, and yet He said of Himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” Both Moses and Jesus faced difficult and dangerous situations, but they triumphed through them because they exercised power that was under control.

“There is nothing wrong with losing my temper,”  a lady once told the evangelist, Billy Sunday. “I blow up, and then it is all over with.” “So does a shotgun,” the evangelist replied, “but look at the damage that is left behind.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (Proverbs 15:1). What do we often do when a harsh word is spoken to us? We usually shout louder. Arguments generally continue when each person fails to exercise meekness, or strength under control. They last because both people involved keep yelling. If only one person would exercise meekness, or “strength under control.”  by closing his/her mouth and ceasing to yell, the other person will  usually run out of steam like a car running out of gas.

Let us pray today for a special measure of meekness as we relate to others, for as Timothy writes, “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him, he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

Yours in faith,

Tom

P.S. “Meekness may be the most counter-cultural act any Christian can do in our angry, polarized world.” Rich Hansen, a former pastoral associate and presently a ministry life coach

Leadership Thought: How a Janitor Determined a President (Humility).

Dear Friends,

Some years ago, St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City was seeking a new president. Over one hundred candidates applied for the position. The search committee narrowed the list to five eminently qualified persons. Then somebody came  up with a brilliant idea: let’s send a person to the institution where each of the finalists is currently employed, and then interview the janitor at each place, asking him what he thinks of the man seeking to be our next president. This was done and a janitor gave such a glowing appraisal of William Mac Elvaney that he was selected President of St. Paul’s School of Theology.(Story taken off the internet from esermonsw.com).

Somebody on that search committee understood in a flash of genius, that those who live close to Christ become so secure in their love that they no longer relate to other people according to rank or power, or money, or prestige. They treat janitors and governors with equal dignity. They regard everybody as a VIP. Children seem to do this intuitively; adult Christians often have to relearn it.  

Proverbs reminds us that “rich and poor have this in common. The Lord is maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2). There is no room for distinctions in the family of God. There should be no pecking orders, but instead we must see people though God’s eye-equal in value.

In Management by Proverbs, the author Michal Zingarelli writes, “The cornerstone of managing people in humility is to recognize that those under us at work  stand next to us, where it really matters, before the Creator (P. 62).

Jesus embraced humility and so should we. When teaching his disciples, a lesson on servanthood and how the first must be last; He provides us with a wonderful object lesson on humility. He takes a little child in his arms, and He says to the disciples, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me not only welcomes me, but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37). Jesus was teaching through example that the first principle of greatness is to treat everyone equally. Most people think if you want to get ahead in the world’s eyes, you don’t do so by spending your time with little children. They can’t do much to advance your status or career.  I don’t think Jesus is  speaking just chronologically, but He is speaking to anyone who is ‘the less” in  this world’s eyes.

In every church I have pastored, I have always asked the janitor to be a part of our staff meetings. I do this because I know that it is the janitor who is best able to see whether the church is living out this important principle of equality.

Paul told the Christians in Rome, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement (Romans 12:3) Every leader must keep in mind Paul’s words to the church at Philippi, “in humility consider others better than yourself” (Philippians 2:3). That is the challenge I leave for all of us today. May God help each of us to achieve it.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: A Labor Day Thought: “Be Careful How You Build.”

 Dear Friends,

 Happy Labor Day. I often sign my letters with a biblical verse, and the most common verse I use is Colossians 3:17. For me it is a reminder of the importance of striving to always do my very best at whatever I am asked to do. Whatever I do, I want it to have value. Whatever I produce, I would like to think that I could present it to Jesus without embarrassment.

Paul writes in Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”  What kind of work will you leave behind when you exit planet earth? What will people say about its quality?  Will people remember you as one who always gave your best? Will you be one who is known because you go out of your way to serve others? Will they say of you, he/she was a person who could always be counted on to be on time, to honor commitment’s, to give his/her best?

In 1 Corinthians Paul reminds us that we have a choice when it comes to how we will build our lives. We can build using wood, hay and stubble, or we can use gold, silver and precious stones as we build on the foundation which has been laid in Jesus Christ. Jesus has laid the foundation of our life, and He is an expert builder. He warns each of us to be “ careful how we build…for our work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light” (1 Corinthians 3:13).

Maybe the following story will serve as a reminder to each of us of the importance of the life we are constructing as we daily labor for the Lord. An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife and extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.  The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor to him. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

The carpenter finished his work and the construction owner came to inspect the house. Before inspecting it, however,  he had a surprise for his retiring carpenter. He handed him the front door key, and said to him, “This is your house;” it is my final gift to you.”

And so, it is with us We are daily building our lives and what we create is what we are left to live with. 

The results of our efforts become a clear revelation of who we are. When we do not give our very best, we create a picture for others that says he/she is a shoddy workman. I don’t want that said about me, and neither do you.

Our life today is the result of all our past choices. Our life tomorrow will be the result of  the choices we make today. Let’s make sure that the choices we make are the best choices, and the materials we use are of the best quality, so that when our work is revealed people will say, “Wow, what a masterpiece!”

Enjoy this Labor Day, and never forget to “be careful how you build.”

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

 P.S. “A man’s work is a portrait of himself.”

Leadership Thought: The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side of the Street.

Dear Friend,

We have heard that “the grass is always greener on the other side of the street,” and that is often true. But as someone once remarked, "so also is the water bill.” You and I have an awful habit of comparing ourselves and what we have with those who have more.  As a result, we often miss the best God has for us because we fail to appreciate the blessings we already have.

The apostle lived what most of us would consider a stressful life, but yet he found the prescription for his stress. At the close of his message to the Philippian Church, he writes I have learned the secret of contentment” (Philippians 4:12). No matter what my circumstances, whether I live under a bridge or in a penthouse, whether I am rich or poor I have learned to be content.

Unfortunately, in today’s world when we are bombarded by ads of every variety that are always promising comfort and convenience, happiness and contentment, we are tempted to think we will also find that happiness in some product or some service. But these things seldom bring happiness or contentment. Just ask some of the lottery winners whose newfound wealth has brought them nothing but misery and discontentment. 

We are too much like the guy described in the following bit of doggerel:

“As a rule, mans a fool

When it cool, he wants it hot.

And when it’s hot, he wants it cool.

Always wanting what is not.”

Happiness comes from within and not without. If there is a vacuum within your heart, Satan will steal in and convince you that happiness is found in a credit card. However, like cotton candy, our purchases may bring temporary pleasure, but soon after the purchase we want something newer and bigger, which almost always means more money. As someone said, “greed has a growling stomach.”

Paul tells us in Philippians 4:10, “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”.

Christ will meet all of our needs, but never all our greed. God wants the best for us, but often we miss that best because we fail to recognize the blessings we already possess.

An ancient Persian legend tells of a wealthy man by the name of Al Haffed, who owned a large farm. One evening a visitor related to him tales of fabulous amounts of diamonds that could be found in other parts of the world, and of the great riches they could bring him. The vision of all this wealth made him feel poor by comparison. So instead of caring for his own prosperous farm, he sold it and went out to find these treasures. But the search proved to be fruitless. Finally, penniless and in despair, he committed suicide by jumping into the sea.

Meanwhile, the man who had purchased his farm noticed one day the glint of an unusual stone in a shallow stream on the property. He reached into the water and, to his amazement, he pulled out a huge diamond. Later when working in his garden, he uncovered many more valuable gems. Poor Al Haffed had spent his life traveling to distant lands seeking jewels, when on the farm he had left behind were all the precious stones his heart could have ever desired.

Security can never be found in a safe deposit box. Jesus has taught us that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15), and He advised his disciples “to lay up treasures for themselves in heaven rather than on earth” (Mt. 6:19f).

Let us never forget that contentment never comes from the accumulation of things, but from the assurance that “God will never leave us or forsake us”, and that’s a promise we can count on.

Yours in faith,

Pastor Tom

Leadership Thought: Something We and Our Political Leaders Need to Hear.

Dear Family,

What do you do when people say unkind things about you? When your motives are questioned, or your integrity is challenged, how do you respond? If we are honest, most all of us would admit that we us don’t like to be criticized and often our response is motivated by anger, and I don’t mean the righteous kind.

Let me suggest a good response to the above concern regarding our response to criticism as told by the late pastor Robert Schuller. Schuller tells a story that illustrates how we might want to handle those who criticize us or impugn our character. It’s good advice; however, let me warn you it is not always so easy to put into practice.

Schuller tells of a judge who was campaigning for reelection. He had a reputation for integrity. He was a distinguished and honorable gentleman of no small charity. His opponent was conducting a vicious mud smearing, unfair campaign against him. Somebody approached the judge and asked, “Do you know what your opponent is saying about you? Do you know he is criticizing you? How are you going to handle it? What are you going to do about it?” The judge looked at his counselors and his campaign committee and calmly replied, “Well, when I was a boy, I had a dog. And every time the moon was full, that hound dog would howl and bark at the bright face of the moon. We never did sleep very well those nights. He would bark and howl at the moon all night.” 

“That’s beside the point,” the campaign manager impatiently responded. “You’ve told us a nice story about your dog, what are you going to do, about your critic?” The judge explained, “I just answered you! When the dog barked at the moon, the moon kept right on shining! And I’ll ignore the criticism, as the moon ignored the dog. I’ll just keep right on shining! Quietly, calmly, beautifully.” Integrity, Ted Engstrom, p. 13.

By our response to criticism, we have the opportunity to become a bright and shining star in the midst of this world’s darkness. Sometimes it is best to remain silent when criticized. Jesus remained silent in the face of the accusations made against him by the chief priests and other Jewish leaders who were demanding answer to their charges. (Matthew 27:12-14).

Yes, there are times when the wisest things we can do is to remain silent in the face of criticism and false accusations. Just keep your mouth closed and listen. Don’t speak or try to be defensive. Don’t point the finger of blame in some other direction. Just remain quiet in the face of the one who would criticize you, and in so doing you may become that bright and shining star that this dark world so desperately needs to see.

Let’s remember the wise words of Henry Ironside, a well-known preacher of this last century, who said on facing criticism, “If what they are saying about you is true, mend your ways. If it isn’t true, forget it, and go on and serve the Lord. Good advice for all of us to follow, especially those candidates running for president.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom