Not really ministry related

This is now the third time I've stood in line at MacDonald's and noticed this...

Don't usually eat at Mickey Dees, but occasionally we like to get a shake or some fries. Tonight was a shake. While I was waiting I noticed the register display: "Avg svc time: 42 secs." So I watched the clock as the cashier filled the order for the couple in front of me. Three minutes. 180 seconds. Well, there went the average. So I was curious what would happen when I ordered my shake. From the time I was greeted to the time I received my shake, two minutes passed. 120 seconds. And the display read: "Avg svc time: 38 secs."

The last two times I was in MacDonald's, I waited seven and 10 minutes.

So this measurement has NOTHING to do with customer satisfaction or service. It DOES measure how efficient the cashier in getting the customer's money.

Next time I go in, I think I'll stutter and change my mind a few times and really messup their average. Or better yet, I'll go in with a stopwatch. Let them know I plan to check the accuracy of their published service times.

I'll probably have to wait an hour for my fries.

Musings for the new year (a tad long...)

This is (mostly) what I wrote in my Annual Report for 2006. I deceided to try a different tack that the usual "what-I-did-this-year" treatment, which always sounds like I'm trying to justifiy my paycheck. This is an opportunity to share my heart with the congregation, so here's what I gave them. Hope you enjoy it.
* * * * *

Following Christ is anything but tidy and neat, balanced and orderly. Far from it.
—Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality (p. 17)

Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion… ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.
—Mr. Beaver, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (p. 86)

One of the elders said to me: “Stop weeping! Behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome…”
—Revelation 5:5

Untamed. Wild. Messy. Unpredictable. Life is anything but ordered. More chaotic, truth be told. Some may suggest this is because of Adam and Eve’s sin, but I’m not so sure. We follow and serve a God who cannot be reduced to formulas, programs or convenient platitudes. God is the Lion of Judah. He’s not nice; but dangerous, to be feared. Worthy of respect. Worthy of honor. Worthy of our lives.

When the Pevensy children learn that Aslan is a lion, Lucy expresses disappointment he’s not human. They’d assumed he was human—like them. That way he could be understood. Studied, catalogued, packaged and distributed so others could also understand him. But that’s not Aslan, and that’s not God. Rick McKinley, in his wonderfully insightful book, This Beautiful Mess, comments that theology, the study of God, can only go take us so far. We risk knowing God in His parts, McKinley says, but missing God in His Being. Like Aslan, God, in His Being, is dangerous. But He is good.

I’m very comfortable with processes, procedures and lists. And much of what I’ve done in my lifetime can be defined by these. That’s not bad in itself. But if I allow them to limit how God can use me, then I become a liability and not an asset. If God can’t work through me unless He behaves according to my preferences and specifications—according to the proper procedures and processes I’ve carefully developed, then my ministry is worthless. And I’m discovering I do have such chinks in my spiritual armor.

This past year, I’ve learned that ministry occurs more often in the interruptions than in my careful plans. Oh, plans are good. And it’s been said that if you don’t define the target and shoot at it, you won’t hit anything. But God’s kingdom is messy and unpredictable. I know there were days I didn’t check off one item on the “to do” list. But God needed other things done. Bigger things; better because they were part of kingdom life. [You really need to read McKinley’s book.]

Another book I just finished, John Eldridge’s Wild At Heart, is a great discussion of what is means to be made in God’s image, male and female. Eldridge also challenges the Western church’s idea that godly men are nice and well-behaved. [Was Jesus being “nice” when He purged the temple? Or when He called the Pharisees stinking tombs that looked good on the outside?] I heartily recommend this and McKinley’s book for your 2007 reading list.

So what does all this mean for 2007? I can only guess. I hope to spend more time getting to know people, and I don’t mean just a year-long visitation program. A former pastor of mine once remarked, “The problem with the Church nowadays is that it’s full of nearly dead people who claim to follow Christ. But when someone comes along with a normal temperature—a passion and love for Jesus that can’t be bridled—he or she is branded as a heretic.”

I hope to develop such heretics this year. People who are learning that the God we serve is so much bigger, “badder,” and wilder—and good—than the God they know. People who are willing to follow Jesus where He leads them.

Jesus’ ministry on earth was ultimately about connecting with the people around Him. Mike Yaconelli says in Messy Spirituality, “Spirituality is not a formula, it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it’s about connection.” (p. 13)

May we all become more connected to and intimate with our God—the dangerous, untamed, unpredictable Lion and King—and with the people He loves so desperately and completely that He entered into their mess to walk along side them and help them through it. He does that through us.

That’s what the kingdom of heaven is all about.