Opening the Unopened Present

Has someone ever given you a present you never opened?

Maybe you took it and put it under your arm, but because the box didn't feel heavy enough or the wrapping paper didn't look pretty enough, you sat it down with intentions to open it later.  But maybe you never actually opened it; maybe you got distracted and forgot.  It's like you took the present that was given to you, but you never truly received what it had to offer.   

Kids are different in that way.  Kids don't save their presents for later.  They don't get distracted or forget.  We've all seen this unfold; the wrapping paper gets shredded, the box is destroyed, and that red ribbon that grandma keeps yelling for them to save gets annihilated most of all.  Kids prove to us that they have a special knack for receiving presents.  And when they see what it is for the first time–

Pure.  Joy.

Do you ever get jealous about the way kids open presents? 

Do you ever wish for that kind of joy?

But let’s be realistic, you have more to think about than answering such silly questions.  Only kids are supposed to open presents like that, right?  And maybe you pay more attention to your real responsibilities and the things in your life that you think are more relevant.  Instead, maybe you talk about how you're going to cut back on gift-giving this year.  Or maybe your hope is to survive the routine of the holidays.  Like, you hold your breath, close your eyes, and ask somebody to wake you up when it’s all over.  Or perhaps you just go with the flow and try to not get too irritated by the moments, the people, the food, the music, or the white elephant presents.

In your mind, maybe Christmas isn’t what it used to be. 

You’re not a kid anymore and it affect the way you celebrate Christmas.

Something changed about the holiday season.   

The Christmas lights don’t have the magic they used to have.

And it seems Christmas will never be like it used to be…

That is,

until you realize

you never received it;

you never opened

that one present

you were given.

That present, the original present, the present of presents,

the present all the other presents symbolize; 

it needs to be opened.

You never opened it.  You forgot about it.  You rummage though your mind trying to remember.  You remember the weightlessness of the box.  You remember its ugly wrapping paper.  You remember the bow that was on top. But as strange as it is, you can't remember actually opening and receiving the present.

Why didn't I open it?  What was in it?  Will I get another chance?

You start searching with determination, refusing to become distracted.  This time, you’re gonna open it.  You can’t wait for a chance to shred the paper, destroy the box, and annihilate that red ribbon in order to see what’s inside.  The anticipation sort of makes you feel like a kid again. 

Suddenly, you see the unopened present.  It’s really not much to look at.  No wonder you didn’t take the time to open it before; your focus on the present’s packaging kept you from receiving the present.  All this time, you were focused on the present’s form instead of its function.

Maybe that’s how it is.  When the present is opened and received, maybe Christmas becomes a whole lot bigger, deeper, and more beautiful.  Maybe our faith needs to be more like that of a child opening a present.

 Christmas is this beautiful thing.  And people, for thousands of years, have had their lives completely changed in receiving the present God offers in Jesus – the present of Christmas.  On the flip side, Christmas doesn’t have the same appeal for those who haven’t really received the present.

Maybe this Christmas, we need to rip into the present.  Like kids, maybe we need to know what it's like to receive pure joy.  


And maybe that might look something like this:

Click Here:  Opening the Unopened Present

What might God say...

What has God been saying to you about you, your pastoral calling, and the church in the world?

Recently, this question was given to me and I was asked to write an answer.  I was asked to write what I think God has been saying to me recently.  This is what I think God is saying:

"Joel, you need to embrace Me and discontinue your unhealthy motivations that leave you dry and empty.  You need to allow Me to be your Salvation - I Am.  You know I’ve been faithful in the past, what makes you think I won’t be in the future?  Why do you turn your back on Me?  Why do you take your eyes off of Me?  Why do you exhaust yourself in pursuit of achievement when you can truly achieve by surrendering your self?  Joel, you already know this.  I am the One you need to trust because apart from Me, you will have nothing.  And I love you too much to see you do this to yourself.  I painfully watch you do this time and time again.  Why continue?  Where is your faith?  Where is your trust?  Where is your hope?  Certainly you’ve learned by now that life's fulfillment cannot by found in yourself or what you can accomplish.  When will it stop?  Let Me ask you again, when will it stop?  I love you and want to provide the deepest fulfillment of your heart, but you really need to trust Me.  I will give you true affirmation, I will give you true confidence, I will provide for your true needs.  Will you let Me?  Do you trust Me?  The ball is in your court, Joel.  I’m here walking this journey alongside you whether you like it or not.  You can accept My companionship or ignore it but either way, I’m here.  I love you.  I just want you to truly know that!  I love you, Joel!" (7-30-14)

That's what God has been putting on my heart.

What is He saying to you?

Expect the church's most important growth to come from people you expect the least

Expect the church's most important growth to come from people you expect the least.

Let me tell you about someone you'd least expect.  

He's a very quiet university student from Sudan; 

one of those people you immediately like as soon as you see his smile.  

But, before I tell you about someone "you expect the least," 

let me first tell you how we should "expect the church's most important growth."

Expect the church's most important growth... 

Not just in quantity, but in quality.

From the time of Jesus and his original twelve students, 

the church grew quickly in quantity and slowly in quality.  

Quantity-

100 years after Jesus, it's estimated that the world population of Christians was at .01%.

200 years after Jesus, it grew to 3.6%.  

300 years after Jesus, it grew to 10.5%.  

350 after Jesus, it grew to 56.5%.  (When Constantine made Christianity Rome's religion)

Quantitatively, the church's population exploded exponentially.  

We count people to assess church growth, 

but throughout the past two-thousand years, 

there's another kind of growth that is more difficult to assess - quality.

Quality-

One-hundred years after Jesus, Christians were willing to die for their faith.

          (When Christian quantity was less, Christian quality was more.)

But...

One-thousand years after Jesus, Christians were willing to kill for their faith.

          (When Christian quantity was more, Christian quality was less.)

Currently, it's estimated that there are 2.18 billion Christians in the world.

Interpreting the present by the events of the past,

we can assume that the quality of those 2.18 Christians will gradually grow.

Shifting from Quantity to Quality-

It's an expected assumption that when we talk about church growth, we're often talking about things like bigger buildings, newer music, better preachers, more people, and increased popularity.  Let's face it, all that stuff is part of it, but that's not all of it.  There's something else - a form of growth that's more significant and important for the church.  There's another side to it and it's something you least expect.

Expect the church's most important growth to come from people you expect the least. 

People you expect the least...

Like my friend from Sudan-

I met him while playing basketball on a university campus in Indiana.  After talking about his passion for the Chicago Bulls and teasing me for recently becoming a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I asked him what he was in school for. 

His answer represents an example of the

church's most important growth.

He’s attending school because he wants to bring Christ's influence into culture in a very specific way.  Instead of accepting the “sex sells” norm, he wants to work in the advertising and marketing industry to provide alternatives.  He said he’s sick of the industry turning women into objects in order to make sales.  And he boldly looked at me and said he’s gonna do something about it.  I smiled and held eye contact as to affirm his passion, but really, I was only thinking about how naive he sounded.  It was almost like he knew what I was thinking because he continued to remind me that Goliath was killed by someone who also sounded naive - David.  The boldness of his faith gave me faith.  And I think he made me a believer...  He's going for it and I pray that he has God's favor just like David did.

What excites me about all of this is how his faith is expressing itself.

This is the sort of thing that accelerates the church's momentum in the world.  

I didn’t expect to hear all that, but it didn’t matter, I listened with a renewed sense of optimism for church growth.  I’m convinced this is the kind of thing that's going bring the most important kind of growth to the church.  When increasing amounts of Christians disperse from their church gatherings to do stuff like this, Christian quality will be added to the Christian quantity. 

Let's not just share Jesus; 

let's live like Jesus and show Jesus.  

Let's not just invite people to our church gatherings; 

let's exit church gatherings and go to people.

We need a growth in Christian quality among our churches and in our cultures.  

My friend from Sudan is someone I’d expect the least, 

but I know from hearing his vision, 

he'll bring about the church's most important growth. 

This is our opportunity.  Each and every one of us can be like my friend from Sudan.  Although some people are gifted to become oversea missionaries, pastors, or Sunday school teachers, there are others of us who are gifted in completely different ways of equal importance.

The church will continue to grow in quantity, but it’s up to you and me to help it grow in quality.  Instead of relying on the church, its missions, its programs, its employees, and it's alter calls to grow in numbers, let's recognize that each and every one of us can contribute to the quality of church growth.

Expect the church to grow the most through people you expect the least. 

                                                                        (Matthew 18)

Family

This is my love, Kelly Jo (I call her "Nia").

This is Jude, our firstborn (we call him "Juder").

This is Calvin, our youngest (we call him "Brudder Bear").

They LOVE ice cream like their mamma.  :)

Jude and I on 4th of July (2014).

This is my family!

It takes a team, a vision, and it makes a culture

It takes a team, a vision, and it makes a culture.

I had a spontaneous idea today.  I thought it would be a great idea to hunt for morel mushrooms – something I had never done before.  What a great idea!  I thought I’d try it while I took a break from the computer work I was stuck in all day.  I didn’t really know what I was doing and I didn’t really know where to look, but I figured it couldn’t be too hard.  Or could it?   I assumed my passion to hunt morels would compensate for my lack of knowledge.

After the first thousand mosquito bites and absolutely no luck, I decided to get on my phone and Google where morel mushrooms could be found.  It sounds silly now, but for some reason I assumed I was just going to aimlessly wander into a patch of morels or something.  I finally found a website that gave incredibly practical advice for new mushroom hunters; advice that would have come in handy before the mosquitos had almost eaten me alive.  Come to find out, the website said that morels are found in certain locations throughout the progressing stages of their growing season.  That would have been nice to know ahead of time.  Another thing the website suggested was the use of mosquito spray.  It said that because morel season is in the spring, people tend to forget about mosquitos and their need for repellent until it’s too late.  It was too late!  The website also suggested morel hunting as a unique and recreational way to spend time with friends.  It makes sense I guess, but I’ve never really had that thought cross my mind before.  Besides, deciding to go was a last second thing. 

I walked around for over an hour with absolutely no luck.  After another thousand mosquito bites, I was irritated and itchy, but I wasn’t going to give up quite that easy.  Then, after running into a thorn bush and also having felt and picked off a pesky deer tick that crawled up my leg, I called it quits and started my way back to the car.  For some strange reason, morel hunting wasn’t interesting anymore.  

How many people fall prey to this sort of trap?  You set out by yourself and think you can succeed because you have an idea you’re passionate about.  New ideas and big passions can make you feel so incredible, they can consume you and make you think that what you’ve set out to do is the only thing worth doing.  The passion that comes with a new idea can be so intoxicating; it can make you feel as if you’re the only one in existence.  If you pursue your new idea without preparation, you’ll have a long journey ahead of you.  And if you attempt it by yourself, you’ll soon come to find out that it won’t matter how much passion you once had; you’ll find out that your intense passion will fade and your original idea will become incredibly unattractive. 

It only takes a little bit of time, empty hands, some mosquito bites, and a pesky tick before you find yourself heading back to the car while thinking to yourself, “That was a dumb idea.”  That is, until you get back to your car and hear four enthusiastic friends talk with one another about the fifteen pounds of morels they just found on their excursion.  Apparently, they thought it was a really good idea.  Well, good for them.  I’d have fun too if I found that many morels.  

The thing is, even if those four friends didn’t find any morels, they probably would have found a way to have fun anyway.  It's not always about the morels.

The smallest situations can teach the greatest lessons.

Failing from unpreparedness is unproductive.

Winning from unpreparedness is counterproductive.

Failing despite preparedness is productive.

Winning from preparedness is glorious.

Winning alone isn't gratifying,
But failing alone is intolerable.

Failing with friends isn’t all that bad,

But winning with friends is a freaking party.

Being alone isn’t enough.

Original ideas aren’t enough. 

Intense passions won’t be enough.

It takes a team instead of just an individual. 

It takes a vision instead of just an idea. 

It takes a culture instead of a short-lived passion.

It takes a team, a vision, and it makes a culture. 

If you’re with friends it'll be worth it, regardless of whether you win or lose.

I want to be part of that kind of culture.

Does anybody want to go hunt morels with me?