Hand In Hand, United We Stand

I love the Church! We’re like the smartest organization in the world! We’ve figured out the secret of standing together…stand separately! See, if we shove all the people that want to worship one way into one building, then take everyone else that wants to worship in a different style in another building, POOF! All our problems are gone! Everyone acts harmoniously!

You disagree with my interpretation of an obscure verse and its application to my life? Sweet! You can figure out all the people in this church that agree with you and go across the road and make another church!

You are a leader and the congregation isn’t at peace about the direction you’re leading them? There’s a solution to that! Just leave and found another church! The more the merrier, right? That is, as long as we’re not in the same building.

What’s that you say? You want a name for it? Ok, we’ll call them denominominominominations, because they nomnomnom our spiritual health until we’re stagnate and useless. That’s too long a name? Fine, we’ll just shorten it to denominations. They’ll be like different flavors of Christianity! And like if someone feels more like being a brain and not a heart Christian, they can go to this one, and if they feel more like they feel instead of think they can go to the church down the street! Oh, but don’t go to that one over there. They’re wacko. Like, maybe they’ll go to heaven???? I don’t know…but even if they do Jesus is going to poopoo them, so let’s just not become like them OK?

But Myn, why so sarcastic? In Psalm 193 it says “If thou dost not enjoyeth every aspect of the church that thine self is at, thou shouldst join a separate denominominomination for maximum comfort and contemplation.”

Hmm, yea, funny. People keep telling me things that I can’t even find implied anywhere in scripture. I must have a faulty Bible. Too much human and not enough God in my translation I think.

(By now I have facepalmed so much in just reading what I have written that my face has a handprint on it)

Before I dig into this I do want to make one thing clear: there is no “pure” denomination (I’m looking at you Catholics) and there is no “condemned” denomination (I’m looking at you who think Catholics are going straight to Hell). God does not condemn people based on the name of their church but rather on the state of their heart. False teaching is a serious issue to be certain, but I think by the end of this you’ll start to understand why I’m not as worried about it as everyone else seems to be.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27. Words spoken by Jesus that should resonate in every heart and soul that finds themselves picking up their Bible. You see, it was God who called us out of the darkness. God who gave us light. It was God who picked us up from the muck and mire and placed us on solid ground. It was him who breathed new life into our souls and gave us a new song to sing.

It is God who guides our hearts, directing us how to pursue his kingdom and do his work while here on earth.

God is a good commander. He knows that in order to combat the hordes of demons plaguing this world he needs a plethora of types of warriors. He needs many different children, all who have differing gifts, who can come together to make a united front when fighting against the darkness.

And what was our answer to his call?

Denominations.

Let me make this clear. A house divided amongst itself cannot stand. The church right now is so fractured that when the Antichrist finally does rise up (and he will soon) the church will crumble away like chaff in the wind. The church is so divided that all Satan has to do to break up a group of Christians working together is get someone to bring up a topic of contention and the whole group will succumb to discord.

And we justify this with fancy words. We make it seem like it’s a good thing that anyone can retreat into a building of like-minded people where they can just be themselves. They can laugh at the stupidity of the Christians who don’t look like them and cement their hearts into stagnation.

We were meant to be a diverse fighting force that was ready and equipped to deal with every evil thing the devil and his army threw against us.

We have become the most fractured, divisive family that can’t even agree on whether a cross should be at the front, right, left, or rear of the sanctuary, or if it’s sacrilege to have a cross in the sanctuary at all.

We have fallen so far from the vision of the church that Jesus and his apostles cast in the early days of the church.

All that being said I do believe there’s hope. Because right now there’s a war going on. The denominations are like little bubbles of really faint light and it looks like darkness isolated and surrounded these little bubbles, cutting them off from each other. But if these bubbles pushed out in an aggressive push, linking up with other bubbles  one by one, this would turn the tables and cut the enemy off from each other until the darkness was bled dry and the bubbles were joined into a giant fortress of light.

That’s a lot of military imagery so for those that may not have been able to picture that in your head I’ll synthesize it. If we as the church united it would be such a shock to the current state of affairs that we would find darkness that has been oppressing different areas of the Church for centuries melting away in the light of unifying under the banner of Christ.

But there are people that don’t share this vision. Most people in fact laugh at me or roll their eyes whenever I have mentioned that denominations make the Church sick. One of the most common counters I hear brought up (both explicitly and implicitly) is that our interpretations of scripture can be wrong because we’re human and so the Church will always have points it cannot agree on because we are imperfect people, so it minimizes conflict if we just separate into camps.

I’m sorry but I can’t help but laugh at this argument. I respect many people who say this. But the reality is them believing this betrays a deep misunderstanding of scripture and God’s heart. You see, God did not create us all to be equal. He did not create us all to be the same. He created some of us tall, some of us fast, some of us wise, some of us strong, some of us broken, some of us needy…I can go on and on. We were not meant to be carbon copies of each other. We were meant to be in conflict. We were meant to be iron that sharpens iron, brothers and sisters that come from different backgrounds with different relationships with God that come together and make each other stronger by being ourselves and therefore being different.

Because Christianity is first and foremost a personal relationship between a Father and his child. Christianity is first and foremost an individual relationship that starts and ends at the foot of the cross. So rather than placing God’s children into camps or telling them what to believe, maybe we should instead teach them how to nurture a personal relationship with God. Instead of telling someone they’re not hearing God right or they’re misunderstanding scripture we should instead listen to them, affirming them and serving alongside them while testing their fruit. And if their fruit proves true why would we tell them to change? And if their fruit proves false or dead, we should go to scripture and follow its teaching about brothers and sisters who have lost their way. The Bible prescribes a course of action for confronting others who have strayed with the goal of bringing them back into the fold. This isn’t rocket science. It’s all there. You just have to learn to pick up the dang book and read!

But Myn, it’s so hard to get along. He likes worship this way but I like worship that way. I like praying in Latin but she likes praying in tongues. I’m a woman who’s a pastor but she thinks women can’t be pastors. How are we all supposed to work together in the same church?

Serious question: Where did y’all go to pre-school? Did they not teach you to share? Did they not teach you how to co-exist with your fellow humans? Did you never learn to play with all the different sorts of kids on the playground? Or were you one of the people that divided others into groups, only playing with some and not others?

If you think people who are different can’t come together to pursue a common goal you seriously need to rethink your approach to Christianity. If you don’t understand how a diverse church is stronger than a segregated one you seriously need to go have some alone time and read your Bible. God’s heart wants us all to be ourselves. He loves all the things that make each of us different. And his vision is that we all come together as one and worship together. If that means we switch worship teams every week so be it. If that means one Sunday we pray in Latin and one Sunday in Spanish etc. then so be it! It’s about time we started treating other Christians with respect and trusting them to pursue God on their own. If someone says “God wants me to get a tattoo” maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt and treat them as innocent until proven guilty. Maybe God does want them to get a tattoo for reasons none of us can possibly imagine.

But won’t that make the Church more susceptible to false teaching?

Actually a church divided has no backbone. A building full of similar people is a building of people who are all blind to the same thing. It is only a diverse group of people that will be ready and equipped to face every challenge and every lie they come up against. And besides, I think it’s about time we started trusting Christians to know God’s voice. It’s not only pastors or preachers or miracle workers than can hear him. Jesus says “My sheep know my voice.” Not “My Pastors” or “My special people who are better than everyone else.” He said “My sheep”. That means the whole Church.

And just so y’all know, it is totally possible for many people who are extremely different to come together to achieve a common goal. So let’s stop all the BS about how it’s hard. No one ever said the Christian life was going to be easy. No one worth listening to anyways.

To sum up what I have written about today I’ll end on a sentimental note.

My best friend is a girl (I’m a guy). My best friend is a Unitarian. My best friend believes things that don’t line up with scripture. My best friend acts in ways that many Christians condemn. Many people have looked down on me or challenged me for having her as a best friend.

But God placed my best friend in my life to teach me things. We worked alongside each other in stage crew. We grew up together. We laughed together and cried together. Through her God taught me a multitude of lessons about how to love others. And she is the kind of person most Christians avoid like the plague.

I’m not saying she’s going to heaven. I’m not saying we should become like the world. But if God can use a Unitarian best friend to teach me about his love I think we Christians can set aside our differences and come together to work together and learn from each other, to grow and fight alongside each other. I think God made us to be a stained glass window. Bits and pieces that are all different shapes sizes and colors that come together to make something beautiful. It’s about time we stop segregating ourselves. It’s about time we stopped weakening ourselves. It’s about time we started acting together as one.

It’s about time we let go of our own limited vision and started seeing the Church through God’s eyes.

Dear Younger Me

I know it seems weird that me, a 22 year old, would write a letter to a younger me. I’ve met many people look down on me because I’m young. Many people who say things like “You’ll understand when you’re older” or “You just think that because you’re young” or “You’re too young to miss people.” It’s almost like being young puts you in a camp where you’re not taken seriously, where every mistake justifies others looking down on you or not listening to you. When an adult messes up it’s “Shhh, respect your elders” but when a youth messes up it’s “See, that’s why kids can’t have nice things.”

But I’m not here to fight a war against adults. I’ve been mistreated by many adults, but my soul is not weighed down by the pain they’ve caused. I’ve been healed by God and the Holy Spirit that lives inside me and patches me up every day. I mean seriously, it’s a miracle I still love the Church after what it has put me through.

But that’s the thing. That’s part of what I would write about.

Dear younger me, it’s not your fault. Words that weren’t penned by me (it’s a song by Mercy Me) but probably what I’d start by writing. I may not be old in human years but my soul has already weathered many storms. I’m anchored in the knowledge that many more are to come but it already seems like an incredibly long journey. I wake up almost every day and look up to God and say “I miss you.”

Because I want to go home. My true home.

So I think the first thing I’d tell myself is that the journey is long. I remember the night God opened my eyes and showed me all the pain and suffering around me. I remember the names of the people who my heart was broken for. I remember crying out to God and asking him to give me the power and strength to do something. My eight grade me that realized there was something very wrong with this world and that so many people were aching for love. And I asked God to take my life, to use it however he wanted. I asked him to use me to heal people and fight for people. I told him he could do whatever he wanted and that I would go wherever he wanted.

I had no clue what that would look like.

I mean seriously you take a kid who sees people’s souls, who sees through all their masks and can cut through to the very heart of someone within five minutes of meeting them, someone who hears the voices of spirits that whisper in other people’s heads and can understand the warfare that’s being waged in the spiritual realm…but you give him a child’s heart and a child’s mind and a child’s body. I guess what I’m saying is that even when I was young I was in way over my head.

But God guided me. I think if I wrote a letter to my younger self I would tell myself not to be afraid. To find courage and that God would teach me to fight for these people that my heart broke for. That he would teach me to discern the spirits and to understand what was good and what was evil. That he would show me that my gift was beautiful and would help people.

You know that’s what my best friend taught me. She showed me that I was beautiful and that I could help people. Maybe my best friend was kind of like a letter God sent to me.

I would also tell myself I have a lot to learn but not to rush things or get frustrated with myself. I would tell me that God will lead me at his own pace in his own time, teaching me the things he needs me to know to do the things he wants me to do when he wants me to do them. That yes, I was doing a lot of things wrong, but that God knew that and he was going to fix me one piece at a time.

I would also tell me to stop trying to fix the world and start fixing hearts. That’s definitely a huge lesson I needed to learn before I started helping people. My job is the individual; God’s job is the universe. Very important lesson to understand.

I would tell myself to cherish every moment I have with the people I love. There are a few people in my life I will never forget, that the memories I made with them will warm my heart even in the worst days. A girl sitting next to me on a bus after seeing Les Mis. Hiking in Colorado. Watching Psych with my lil sis, playing video games with my bro, reading with my mom or biking with my dad. Listening to my youth leader talk about God. Laughing with my college friends over ice cream in commons. Beautiful memories that helped me when I was lying in my bed not able to breathe, or struggling with school during college.

But I would also tell myself that I need to let go. That I can’t hold onto these people forever, that the memories will stay but life carries on. I would look myself in the eye and tell me that not everyone loves God like I do. That too few people are ready to make the journey with me. That I need to prepare for a lonely life, that those people I do meet who understand God like me are precious and that their friendship should be guarded jealously.

Dear younger me. There’s a lot of pain in following God.

There’s also a lot of loneliness.

But there are people you can trust. There’s just many many more that you can’t. Don’t trust the big loud and powerful. Trust the broken needy and pain-filled hearts. They understand God like you do.

Finally, always say yes to God. Always. It will get hectic, it will get hard, it will be chaos and peace all at the same time. The most difficult times will be followed by more and more challenges until he finally pulls you from the front lines to rest. But he will heal you. Healing will take a long time. Years and years and years, but he is faithful. He will heal you completely. Maybe not completely in this life, but he will definitely comfort and heal you so that you can continue to fight another day.

And trust your gut. It’s God living inside you telling you what to do.

So why am I sharing this post? It is a weird one I’ll give you that. It’s also a little out there. Not something that seems really practical to the reader at first glance.

I’m sharing this with you because I’m meeting more and more people that God is training like he trained me. He is pushing them and growing them in areas that he’s taught me as well. He’s challenging them and testing them to bring them to combat readiness like he’s prepared me. And no, it’s no that I’m better or wiser than everyone else. But I did start earlier than many people God’s been having me meet.

So while many people might read this and think “Eh, this is for someone younger” that’s ok. Your spirit is probably not ready for this anyways.

But for many of you that I have met and many more that God has put on my heart, to the many of you who are taking your first steps into the deep waters of serving God, to those who feel like they’ve just stepped into a deeper Christianity and to those who are just waking up to the spiritual warfare raging around them, don’t be afraid. Don’t be ashamed. I’m very spiritually mature and I know a lot of other people from all ages are just starting down this path. But the reality is that many have come before you and seen what you have seen and understood what you have understood…and failed. They parade around with robes of “wisdom”, claiming that they are wise and that you should listen to them but DON’T. They hide their cowardice behind walls of self-righteousness, pretending that it is wisdom to not believe that God is on the move. Trust your heart to know your maker. Always come back to him for truth and guidance. Keep marching on, no matter what befalls you or what manner of obstacle presents itself in your way. Find leaders who believe in you, who will equip you to succeed and grow. Be humble, knowing that you are a servant of God, but don’t let others humiliate you or put you down, because you are also a child of God. You do have the power to change the world and the responsibility to do just that.

Don’t fall where the ones who have come before you have fallen.

Take a stand amidst this growing darkness.

Remember what truly matters.

And for God’s sake pray. Pray until the kingdom comes and this war is over.

There are others like you out there.

We’re just very few and far between.

Choosing A Leader

In the spirit of the American elections when every citizen in America gets to help choose a leader for the nation I think I’d like to spend a little time on how we as Christians choose our leaders in the church. Or, to be more theologically correct, how our leaders are not chosen by us but by God and how we sometimes forget that.

I’m writing this post because several times in the past few weeks I’ve been in conversations that revolve around the topic of Christian leaders. I have many friends who feel a call to be a leader in the Church but they’re trying to figure out what that looks like. And whenever we talk it seems like they’re thoughts, worries and concerns always revolve around one thing; what God’s children are saying to them.

Either it’s “Yea my whole life people have been telling me I should be a pastor” or “This prophet told me that I was a prophet which is really cool” or “I’m worried because I’m a woman and there’s a lot of people in my life that I look up to that are telling me I can’t be a pastor” or “Well I never went to seminary” or “I’m more of a background person, not like those other people”. I also can’t tell you the number of girls I’ve talked to who say while they were growing up their dream guy was a youth pastor who wanted to be a missionary or pastor who strolled around with bare feet and ripped jeans and strumming an acoustic guitar while smiling at everything.

I’m pretty sure my friends aren’t the only ones who think this. Maybe not because we were dreaming of our future husband…maybe for most of us we just have an image in our mind of what a Christian looks like, what a pastor looks like, what a youth minister looks like, and everyone around us confirms these imaginings with the way they act and speak. The truth is that we as the Church have kind of gotten into a rhythm. Go do some mission work, be a youth pastor for a couple years while studying at seminary, then graduate seminary and leave the youth to become a full-time pastor under an older pastor and then eventually have a church of your own. Sure, the stories may vary a little because God does that, right? But still, if you want to be a leader in the church, this is the path you follow. I mean sure there are elders and deacons but pastors man, that’s where it’s at. A pastor is the epitome of our faith. They know everything there is to know about anything and they’re never wrong, at least not on the things that matter. They’re the hallmark of our faith, the ones who’s job it is to sell the message to the masses, Christians and non-Christians alike. They are appointed by God so what they say goes. You’re just a lost, stupid sheep and they are your shepherd. They have a lot on their plate so give them grace and just do what they say. If you disagree, just conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know…well now I’m really off track. Let’s get back to the point.

Pastors are the be all end all. And if you’re a senior pastor? Yea, at that point everyone else should probably just keep quiet because you know what’s best. You’ve seen everything there is to see, you know the signs of someone who will fizzle out when the going gets tough. You know that everyone’s against you but without you they’d be lost. Your job is to herd sheep after all and at some point in the past you lost your patience for them so now you just tell them where to go and if they don’t follow that’s ok because they’re rebelling against God and not you.

Now I bet at this point you’re thinking “Wow, who spit in his bean curd?” (For anyone who imagined the grandma from Mulan when reading that you get 50 God points) But seriously man, aren’t you being harsh on pastors? The Bible does say they have a really hard job and that we should respect them at all times and that God will punish those who mistreat his leaders. Seriously man, don’t be like Israel and reject the ones God sends to you. They just want to help.

One time I was having a difficult conversation with a spiritual leader in my area. He had done something really hurtful. When we were praying for our school he used someone as an example in his prayer and named her name. You know the whole never share someone else’s personal struggles with an entire group of people that the person kind of knows but not really while the person isn’t even there? Yea he broke that rule. And did some other things too which I don’t have to get into. But it turned into me meeting with this guy over coffee/tea and me calling him out on these things. I did it in my usual respectful way, but the things this leader was doing were hurtful to many people and had been going on for months and he asked me to be up front with him so I did. A couple of nights later he called me up. He started with the whole flattery thing Christians were taught to do when they want to challenge someone like “I really appreciate how God uses you in…” and it’s always paired with a “but you’re wrong wrong wrong wrong” (personally I find this very disrespectful and unproductive but hey, everyone thinks that’s how God wants you to do it so I’m not even going to fight that battle). Then he acknowledged that what I had said was true and that it was from God and that several things I had challenged him on were things that God had been poking him about too. But then he said something I will never forget. “You can’t be so harsh when you’re speaking truth. You can’t speak to us like prophets in the old testament spoke. It’s hard being a Christian leader. And unlike people in the old testament, we in North America have feelings.” Now let me tell you this took all of my self-restraint not to burst out laughing. I mean I was in ministry mode and by God’s grace I was able to finish the conversation in a respectful manner. But as soon as I hung up the phone I died laughing. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. This guy seriously thought that I should give him a bunch of slack because he was a leader and because he had more feelings than the people in the OT. Even writing this I am shocked speechless that someone would say that to me in a serious tone as if God himself had spoke those words directly to him.

I think I’ve made my point that the way we Christians view leaders in the church today is unhealthy at best. And no, I’m not saying let’s rebel against the leadership and make their lives more difficult than they already are. And yes, we should respect all of God’s leaders at all times as they work diligently in the difficult task that God has appointed them to. What I’m saying is that I’m not surprised so many of my young friends are having difficulty finding the path that God is leading them down as he calls them to a position of leadership in the Church.

So let’s start at the beginning. Forget everything you know about Christian Leadership. Let help you build a foundation, and then you can go from there and readdress the things you learned previously from a place of solid ground that will allow you to interact with these ideas in a way that builds you and the Church up.

Because I have addressed several of these concepts in previous blogs and in my “About” and “Home” section I won’t go into full detail but I’ll briefly summarize what I’ve said before. Christian leadership is put in place by God to first draw us into a deeper understanding of God, Christ and the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is there to equip the Church as a whole to fight the coming battles against darkness and lies. It equips with truth and tools that help us interact with the world and those who reside in it. It is not there to fight the battles for the congregation, but rather to equip the congregation to fight for themselves on whatever battlefield God leads them to.

But how do we know if we’re called to leadership or not?

As in most things I’d say God makes it pretty clear in our hearts. That is the job of the Holy Spirit…to teach us how to live as God wants us to, to nudge our hearts to let us know what he wants us to do when he wants us to do it and where he wants us to do it, whatever it is. the Holy Spirit lives inside of us…it isn’t some passive presence that makes us feel all warm and tingly inside, it is a consuming fire that drives us forward and as we learn to listen to those nudges we grow in both faith and power as the Holy Spirit moves through us more and more each day. And don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit tinglies are definitely a plus. But they’re given to us not for us to chase how they make us feel, but rather as an affirmation that we’re on the right track and that God is moving through us.

So in short, listen to your gut.

But why do I have to say this? Why do I feel like I have to write an entire blog post on this?

I’m writing this because too many people are asking what others think or are paying attention to what others are saying. Others. As in other people. As in humans. They are looking around them for affirmation and answers when the only being in the universe that can answer questions like what is your calling is the God of the universe, and he just happens to be living inside of you through the Holy Spirit. Scripture says multiple times that the Holy Spirit is given to us to reveal the secrets of God so that we can learn to see the world through his eyes. This includes ourselves. Your journey is a personal walk with God which means it’s something you and Him figure out together. God doesn’t just dictate his orders to us, he ultimately wants to work with us. That means that you and him need to talk more than just when you’re about to eat or about to go to sleep. This also means that you are responsible for hearing God. Not your pastor, your teacher, your family or your friends. These people can help and certainly some have gifts that allow them to help others hear better, but God ultimately wants a relationship with you.

But too many people don’t trust themselves.

This goes back to something I blogged about before, but it is just incredibly apparent to me that somewhere along the line our modern church decided to teach its members that we are so messed up that we can’t trust ourselves to hear God. We are so incredibly sinful that no matter what we do we’re going to mess things up at some point so it would just be better for everyone involved if God did everything and we sat back like an audience and watched. Which to most modern Christians makes perfect sense, I mean why would you want a little child ruining a Shakespeare performance by having them play Romeo or Othello?

The thing is that’s not how God thinks. That’s not how God works. If you believe this you seriously need to get it out of your system. Maybe that means asking your friends what they love about you. Maybe that means you stare in the mirror every morning and say the words “I am beautiful.” Whatever it takes you seriously need to start seeing yourself as God sees you. If God commands us to “Love your neighbors as yourself” and you don’t love yourself like God loves you then you can never love your neighbors the way God wants you to. It’s as simple as that.

God does not want a bunch of Christians who sit on the sidelines. He hates seeing you mope around wallowing in self pity. Everyone’s like “Ahhh we’re so sinful how can we ever measure up to you!” and God’s like “Yea, I know, that’s why I sent my son to die on a cross. That was two thousand years ago…can we move on and like save the world since it’s falling apart?” I’m not belittling the work on the cross…I’m reminding you that what’s done is done and God wants us to move forward in the grace and blood that he covered us with when Jesus died on the cross. He wants us to pick up our cross and go. Not sit at the foot of our cross crippled for life thinking that that’s what’s going to make us righteous.

Ok, long post I know, there’s just so much ground to cover on such an important topic. Quick Recap: Christians as a whole have an unhealthy view of leadership. We’re not so broken that God doesn’t want to use us. This is all foundational though. When push comes to shove, it comes down to faith. If God puts something on your heart, will you follow through?

Remember that night in summer camp when you felt like God broke your heart for something and it was almost like you could hear his voice in your head saying “GO!”? What if you had listened to that voice? What if you listened every time your heart was nudged? What if every time God said “Go!” you responded by jumping up and running wherever he was pointing until he said to go somewhere else? What if you based your whole life on following those gut feelings inside of you that really are the Holy Spirit poking you? What if I’m really not that crazy and this is what we call faith? Following his pokes and prods down a crazy winding path that we can’t see the end of is one of the scariest things we can do in life, especially when everything falls apart. But we have to remind ourselves that we are God’s and everything in our life is God’s. Success and failure through human eyes is immaterial. You win some you lose some. What’s important is always following the footsteps God plants for you.

If you’ve never felt these nudges, if you’ve never heard his voice, ask. Start praying. And don’t stop until you get an answer. Be it one day, fifty days or fifty years, keep praying. If you really truly seek his voice, he’ll answer. Because, to put it simply, this world is falling apart. God needs all the workers he can get. He won’t sideline you, he needs you, and he’s tired of lukewarm Christians who give up as soon as they get bored or the going gets tough.

That’s why all that matters are the words God is speaking to you.

So in wrapping up I want to make myself clear by bringing it all back to the original question I posed: How do we Christians pick our leaders?

It doesn’t matter how many doctorates you get. It doesn’t matter what college you did or didn’t graduate from. It doesn’t matter how many times you failed a math test or how many verses you memorized. It doesn’t matter if you know Greek or Hebrew or Latin. It doesn’t matter if you grew up with nothing or grew up with everything. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for five, ten or twenty years. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve “given up” to become a leader. It doesn’t matter how many years of service you did, even as a kid. It doesn’t matter how eloquent or pretty or clean you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Asian or Hispanic, Jew or Gentile,  slave or free, man or woman or any label that you or anyone else ever puts on you. I don’t want to know how many pastors there were in your family, I don’t want to know what seminary you graduated from, I don’t want to know what title you’ve been given or what pope’s hand you kissed. I don’t even want to know what you think God’s calling you to.

I want to know what God calls you.

Does God call you a prophet? Then you are my prophet.

Does God call you a teacher? Then you are my teacher.

Does God call you a pastor? Then you are my pastor.

Does God call you a worker of miracles? Then you are a worker of miracles.

Does God call you a prayer warrior? Then you are a prayer warrior.

I know, I know, it’s a lot of writing for such a simple answer. But I’ve learned how to see the world through God’s eyes. And you can too because it’s not about anything you do or don’t possess on your own. It has everything to do with listening to the Holy Spirit and conforming your heart to God’s. Learn how he sees other people through His eyes and you won’t be surprised when a college girl who’s been quietly sitting in the corner pew for weeks comes up to you after a service and says “Can we pray a little? I think God wants me to be a pastor but I’m so confused. Can you help me hear his voice?”

God says “My sheep know my voice.” Maybe instead of rationalizing everything with a strengths and weaknesses list we should teach people how to hear His voice and ask Him where He wants them to go. Maybe instead of trusting our human institutions we should start trusting his children to know his voice. Maybe, just maybe, the person you think should never set foot in a pulpit is actually the person God is raising up to save the church from this coming darkness. Maybe instead of listening to what others think, we should just follow our hearts, providing we have taught our hearts to listen to Him and be conformed to His heart.

I’ve met pastors who act like I can never question anything they do because God appointed them to their role while it was painfully obvious to me that they were in it for themselves and really far from what God wants for his children. I’ve met people who were crippled because of how they and others viewed themselves while it was painfully obvious to me that God was calling them to leadership in the church. We as Christians need to hold our leaders to a higher standard while also nurturing and encouraging those who are just stepping up into the role that God is calling them to.

God is raising up a generation of young people to lead the Church into the night that is fast approaching. It is God who appoints the leaders of his Church. It is between the child and their Father. The child’s job is to obey the Father alone. And I think most of us can tell when someone truly is obeying God alone.

The question is, will the Church accept these leaders?

Will you?

Dear America: I Might Not Vote

I guess I had to write this. I knew it was coming long before now. People have asked me many times what I think of America’s presidential candidates, what I think about government, what I think about pro-life or pro-choice, black lives matter, gay marriage, or any other number of important social issues that are being engaged in the political arena in America today. I do love wrestling with these issues and talking with others to help them reach a better understanding of their own beliefs and people know I’m not afraid to engage in these difficult discussions with them. I know that I have written once before on the Black Lives Matter movement and that most people who read this blog probably know my views on scripture are borderline controversial as well. To put it simply, people don’t like the way I think or what I believe. And that’s ok with me.

My goal is not to change your view. My goal is to help you understand more so that you can be more equipped to deal with the world around you.

So why am I writing about voting?

What gave it away, the title? I really do wish I could have named it something else. I actually had “A Cross On A Hill” typed in but I knew that only encompassed a small part of this piece. I didn’t want to fool you. This piece is about me wrestling with whether I should vote in the upcoming election in America. I’m writing this because anytime I myself or anyone else I’ve heard express the thoughts I’m wrestling with they were immediately beat up and pummeled by anyone nearby regardless of political stance. They use the justification that voting is a right that we fought hard to have and that men and women have died defending that right and that other countries wish they had the right to decide their leader. And once and for all I want to say clearly that I understand this.

I also don’t think our boys and girls who fought and bled and died over hundreds of years on this continent and others died to give us Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Hmm…Hillary Clinton. I can’t trust her farther than I can throw her. I can’t trust her because of all the things she’s done leading up to this election. No, I’m not counting all the crap the Republicans like to dig up on Democrats. I truly mean that I had little to no respect for the woman before she even tried to become president. And I can’t vote for someone I don’t trust.

Then there’s Donald Trump. Someone who is clearly overtly racist and therefore will not act in a way that is just for my closest friends. Then again, he would be the Commander in Chief, so he may very well be aggressive against my friends. But I can’t vote for someone who will blatantly target my friends. That’s not the kind of president I want. And before you say I’m just listening to the crap the Democrats like to dig up on Republicans, I ask you to honestly just go to youtube and search clips of Trump being racist. You don’t need a news anchor to do your research for you, take ownership and look for yourself. It’s not that hard to find.

Then there’s the third party candidates. Well I’m not going to bother listing all my thoughts about them. I just wanted you to get an understanding of where I stand. The reality is that no one who is on the ballot represents me. No one on the ballot is someone that I would willingly endorse.

Which leaves me in a dilemma.

*cue all the people who think it is their God-given task to convince me to vote for a higher cause rather than one person*

Let me get one thing straight: I think I’ve made it clear that I really truly do not care what other people think of me. I’ve been called many things in my and accused of many things like being a racist, sexist, bigot, coward, Jew-hater (never understood that one), naïve, etc. But you know for all the people that love to tell me I’m wrong there’s also people who come to me for advice when the going gets tough and they can’t see two feet in front of them. It boggles my mind that people seem to forget that I’ve actually put some time and effort into my beliefs and that just because I’m young doesn’t mean I’m dumb. I base my beliefs on my relationship with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Simple as that.

So when I look at this presidential race I don’t look at it through the eyes of a liberal or a conservative. I don’t look at it through Democratic or Republican eyes. I look at this election through God’s eyes. And let me tell you a little of what I see.

Have you ever read through Habakkuk? I mean really read through it, like more than once and more than in a sermon series or a class for school. Like have you sat down and read it all the way through several days in a row meditating on it? Because if you did I think you would understand.

Habakkuk the prophet looks up to heaven and cries out “How long oh Lord will you let the wickedness and evil and injustice of these people stand? How long until you save us?” and the Lord answers “Don’t worry, I am coming. See? I am raising up a fearsome and terrible people. They are arrogant and strong and will crush those who seek injustice and harm against others. They will punish those you cry out against.” and Habakkuk replies “Wait a second…You’re God, you’re replacing one evil force with another.” and God replies “My child, shush, be silent and see. This second evil nation will rise up and conquer and do my bidding until its own evil devours itself and it too will be punished because only those who are righteous and serve me will last.” After all this Habakkuk concludes by saying “I have heard of your power and might but now I know you are strong and good and have complete sovereignty. Therefore I will wait patiently until you for the final time strike down the evil nations of this world, and even though famine and darkness and pain and death abound I will trust in the Lord; I will rejoice in him because He is my strength.” This is all paraphrased from the book of Habakkuk. It’s a very good summary if I do say so myself but I highly recommend you spend a week reading it through once or twice each day to truly let it sink in.

So what does this have to do with voting?

To explain this I need to share one more story and then I promise I will explain myself. I worked for a summer in South Dakota on a Native American reservation with the Lakota tribe. They accepted me as a brother and the time I spent there I will treasure for my whole life. They have been brutally abused by our government for years, including being set upon by our military twice (this tribe is the tribe that suffered at both Wounded Knee massacres). After hearing their story and living with them for months I still struggled with how to help. I knew what I was supposed to do (I have a lot of skill, knowledge and gifts that allow me to run kids camps really well) but I didn’t know bigger picture what could be done to solve the injustice that was so blatant on that reservation. I knew the system, I could see what was wrong but I honestly could not see a way that this conflict could be resolved.

So after months of praying I broke down one day. I climbed the hill that was the sight of the Wounded Knee massacre and I crumpled at the foot of the white cross that still stands at the top of it and I cried. I cried because all of the pain that couldn’t be fixed. And I asked God what we were supposed to do as humans to stop this pain.

He answered. He said “David, no human government or organization can fix the brokenness of the world. The world has gone past the breaking point. It is on a downward slope into darkness. The only thing that can save this world now is my son Jesus. That is why I want you to have no allegiance on this earth, not political parties or countries or denominations or anything that ties you to a human entity. You are mine. Only Jesus can fix this mess and he is the one you will swear allegiance to, to do his work until he comes to finish what was started in the beginning.”

At that moment I understood how Habakkuk felt.

You see, this world holds no answers. We humans have chosen to say no to God time and time and time again. And there are consequences for that, consequences that we deal with every day. But I’m not talking about some abstract concept of original sin. I’m talking about the fact that we humans have constructed a society that is so corrupt and unjust that the only person in this universe that can fix it is Jesus, and it will not be fixed until he comes back.

But can’t God use nations to do his will?

Yes of course. We see that in Habakkuk. But we also see in Habakkuk that those nations are not righteous because they do his will, and if they are wicked and unjust they will be destroyed themselves because only a nation with God at the head is sovereign because that nation puts its trust in the good King. And if I wasn’t being clear that means the Church (the true Church) is the only sovereign human entity that will last because by its very nature it is centered on Christ and any human institution that breaks away from that foundation (even if they call themselves a church with fancy names and justify themselves with fancy words) will perish with the rest of those who have broken away from God. And I think it is pretty clear in Habakkuk that just because you are part of a nation doing “God’s will” it doesn’t make you right.

Now to bring it all back to voting. Our political system is enamored with itself. The injustice and corruption feeds itself inside our system. This has even spread to our judicial system (if you still trust our judicial system read the recent news story about a guy raping an unconscious woman and being let off because it would interfere with his college experience). I’m not saying America can’t have a good president. But when the country offers me…well Hillary and Trump, am I really obligated to participate in the injustice and wickedness that will come with either?

Many people say I am.

But that’s not good enough for me. My hope is in the Lord, and if America can’t offer me someone who isn’t directly opposed to God’s vision for humanity why would I vote? Why would I “settle” for injustice when God calls me to seek justice? Because one injustice is worse than the other? Friends, I’m sorry, but that’s not how God works. No, I think I will choose to remain with Habakkuk and watch and wait for the Lord to come. Because Jesus is the only one I can trust to fix this mess, and He is the only one who makes me glad amidst this darkness and death.