May 4, 2011

5-4-11 Wednesday, 6:49 am Springfield, 41 degrees, clear.

As I stepped out onto the deck, a ruby throated hummingbird was buzzing the feeder. On the fence the mail Eastern Bluebird was close to the nest where is wife is sitting on the 5 eggs. I opened the box yesterday to inspect and the very surprised momma was as startled as I was. I wonder when her eggs will hatch. The high is to be in the mid eighties by the weekend. I think I will plant a couple more of the tomato plants I have been raising. The ones already in the garden have been nibbled by critters, and the cold, cloudy days have not helped them any.

Today we have our executive staff meeting, pastors meeting in the afternoon, and staff parish tonight. I will participate in a book study with local pastors, mainly Baptist, at the neighboring Ridgecrest church at noon. We will be reviewing the book Five Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them.

Here are the 5 (pastoral) ministry killers named by Charles Stone:
1. A head-in-the-sand mentality that denies problems
2. Emotional investment in the wrong issues
3. Unhealthy responses to ministry frustrations
4. A Lone Ranger attitude that says “God and I can handle this”
5. Attitudes and actions that lead to lonely, hurting spouses
The book itself seems to ramble, with helpful quotes from research and a wide range of authors. The author seeks to describe issues that lead to burnout and withdrawal from ministry in ways that assist a pastor to make adjustments and avoid crashing or bailing.



Judges 19-20

These chapters contain the grizzly tale of rape, desecration, murder and war. It starts with a man and his concubine. She leaves him at his remote home in the hill country of Ephraim, and after four months he goes to her fathers home in Bethlehem. Welcomed and entertained by her father, he parties there four and a half days. He doesn’t leave till late in the fifth day, and then faces nightfall in a strange place. Taken in a by an old man, troublemakers from the town surround the house, and this guy gives them his concubine to save his own skin. She is raped all night, and dies at the doorstep by morning. He is highly offended, and cuts her body into 12 pieces and sends a piece to each tribe, which rallies troops, attacks Gibeah and the Benjamites where the rape occurred. Thousands of men are killed on both sides.

Whenever I have read this account during the last 37 years of following Christ, I have cringed and lamented the multiple tragedies. It seems to me that the guy (he is unnamed, referred to as “the Levite”) is as guilty as any of wrongdoing. He does not have the discipline to depart from Bethlehem early enough to secure good lodging. When facing the threat of trouble, he does not defend the woman, but throws her to the dogs of the town. He then incites a war against the town.

As I sit in this comfortable house in this quiet neighborhood I hope that if and when faced with this kind of violence and evil I would not catipulate, but confront it. The book of Judges is gruesome and violent, during a time in Israel’s history when there was no king, and the people did as they pleased. Leadership and order are imperative for people to live harmonious lives. This is true in the church also. Guide me Lord as I serve in the pastoral office.