Anyway

I was sitting in church yesterday when I heard the song Anyway by Martina McBride sung by the worship team and for some reason it really struck me. In a nut shell the song is about persevering despite not always knowing the results or the results not being what you expected. The chorus sums up how we as Christ-follower should face our daily struggles:

God is great, but sometimes life ain't good
When I pray it doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

Sometimes in life we face situations that in short suck. The thing that we need to remember is that God is Great and with His wisdom and guidance we can persevere.  It is the same thing when we pray. God doesn't always answer like we think He should, but that isn't the point. God wants us to pray not with a with lists, but with a desire to build and strengthen our relationship with Him.

The song encourages us to build, dream, love and sing - anyway. We need to put ourselves out there - win, loose or draw. We also need to keep in mind no matter the results - God is great, but sometimes life ain't good - just do it anyways. Go ahead and dream, build, love and sing - anyway!

God Is With Us

Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, "I am with you, declares the Lord." (Haggai 1:13 ESV)

In a couple of weeks I will be preaching in Becker and the text for my sermon is Haggai, talking about the remnant's lost focus. This morning as I was reading the verse above jumped out at me. The promise that is contained in this verse is so wonderful - "I am with you, declares the Lord." With this final word of encouragement from God the people said we are all in, we will complete the task we were called to do.

These people gave up on the initial task because they lost their focus on God and started to focus on the dangers that were around them. I don't fault them we do the same thing today. We are affraid to stand up for what we believe as Christ-followers. We give in to the persecution we might face if we declare our commitment to Christ. We fail to follow through on the things God has called us to do. What we need to do is lean into our fears knowing that God is with us. Erwin McManus defines courage, not as the absences of fear but as the absence of self. This is what the remnant did, they let go of their own fears and turned to the promise that God gave them. Notice that He didn't say things would be easy, He simply said that He would be with them in any struggles or trials that may come along.

Do you have a God given task that you are struggling with because of outside pressures? As we take the focus off of us and put the focus back on God, knowing that he is with us, we can continue to allow God's purpose for our life to unfold before us.

Next Move

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the "what" questions as I ponder about my encore career. I have already had four or five career changes so what's one more? The answer I have come up with to the question of purpose is simply to come along side others and walk with them in their sojourning, offering advice when asked and helping them to draw closer to God. In my current job the only tweak is that I am helping people navigate the use of technology in their teaching, but then again maybe this helps them draw closer to God as well.

In ministry context, this is what I am doing with my work at Lino on Monday nights with my group of men. In the fall I begin training for a new ministry opportunity through my church where I will be trained to work one on one with a person who is in need of someone to listen to their story for a while. These two opportunities begin to answer the "how" and "where" questions I am thinking about now.

How do I carry out my purpose is the question of the hour now. Do I keep on doing what I am doing - part-time volunteer ministry, full-tme career? Do I seek a different career path all together in a church or para-church setting? Do I start some sort of ministry on my own?

I share this with all of you because these questions are ones that I think we all thing about at times. My thinking and pondering has probably risen to the level of obsession, but that is simply the adventure that God has brought me on. My question to you is what are the gifts and talents that God has given to you to use to build up the body of Christ? These could be spiritual gifts, natural talents or acquired skills. They are probably the same gifts and talents you use everyday. Have you ever thought about how you could use them for Kingdom work as well? In Romans 12 Paul writes about every believer not only knowing their part but doing it to the benefit of others and to glorify God.

Position Desired - Soul Care Pastor

For the last few days I have been thinking about what kind of position I may be looking for as I continue to discern my possible new adventure. What you will find below is a made up job description of what I would think is a good fit for where I sense God leading me.

Sometimes as we listen to God speaking into our life, it help to take the bits and pieces we are gathering and put them together into form where they make sense to you, to your understanding of a possible future.

What are the bits and pieces in your life that you can piece together to create a new ministry opportunity. I am not necessarily talking about a career change, rather I am asking the question, "Is God leaving you some clues as to something He may be wanting you to do?" Maybe there is a new ministry opportunity waiting for you just around the next corner and God is simply waiting for you to catch up to Him.

Job Posting - Soul Care Pastor

Job Description

The soul care pastor will be responsible for creating an environment where people can grow and develop into the person God is calling them to be. They will meet people where they are - spiritual & emotionally and walk along side them for a period of time. This is not a counseling position, but the ability to recognize and refer people to a counselor is important. The soul care pastor will also develop a team of individual who can work with the soul care pastor in ministering to others. The soul care ministry may be carried out with individuals, couples or small groups.

Job Functions

• Help people discover and apply their spiritual gifts
  
• Listen to peoples stories and help them edit them
  
• Help people connect the dots of their life experiences to see what it is the God my be telling them or guiding them to do
  
• By personal example show others how to use different spiritual disciplines to grow in ones relationship with God
  
• Lead individual and group spiritual retreats
  
• Encourage other to live out in their lives - loving God with all you have, loving others, and making disciples
  

Experience and Education

The candidate for this position should have lived long enough to have a variety of life experiences. They should be maturing in their faith. They need to be able to discern how the Spirit is leading the the soul care of the person(s) being ministered to. They should be able to develop clear beginning and end points, but be willing to let the journey between the two points to develop and shift a needed.

The single most important skill that this candidate will have is the ability to listen - listen to the care receiver, listen to God, and listen to the Spirits leading. This is best done as the candidate them self is in their own self soul care process.

The candidate should have a Masters level understanding of the Bible and theology. They should have a strong background in the are of spiritual formation, the spiritual disciplines, and faith development.

Reflections From My Blog

As I browse through my blog postings I have noticed a couple of things - randomness and themes. Yes I know that these two things seem to be opposites but it is true. Surronding my themes there are a lot of random thoughts. Two books of the Bible that seem to come up again and again are James (theme practical faith) and Haggai (theme regaining focus). The links are to a couple of older posting from my thoughts about James and Haggai.

Both these books are ones that I go back to time and time again to read, ponder about and pray about. These two themes of living out our faith and maintaining focus are parts of my sojourn that I am continually evaluating, refining, and living out. These are also areas of my life that I at times struggle with. I think they are things we all struggle with.

I am preaching in a couple of weeks at a church in Becker. MN and Haggai is the text I will be speaking from. It is a simple message - don't get so busy you forget about God, but it assumes a couple of things. First, that you know what it is God wants from all Christ-followers (love God, love others, make disciples) and that you are willing to do them. Second, that you have taken the time to listen for God's still small voice and have reflected on what specifically God is asking you to do. You see the remnant that Haggai was talking to knew what God wanted of them but they got distracted and lost focus.

It is a lose of focus that causes us to struggle. So the question I leave you with today is how are you doing at loving God, loving other and making disciples? Also, have you taken time lately to sit down and listen for God's still small voice?

Becoming Who God Wants Me To Be (pt 4)

In late 2007 I was reading a blog posting my Josh Kesler about a stupid sheep. I took a different perspective than Josh, thinking rather than being stupid, he was being a barbarian sheep (see my original blog response. To be honest, it is only now as a read back over my original response that I am beginning to make the connection as to why this moved me the way it did. At the time though all I knew was that my mind was whirling.

It was about this time that I started my ministering at Lino, I applied for and got into the Doctor of Ministry program at Bethel, and I was engulfed in this wondrous time with God. It was during this time that I wrote about online community and social justice. I started my twitter prayer project. I read more books than I had in a long time about a lot of different things. During all this, a funny thing happened, I began to change - it was subtle but it was happening. God was transforming me into who He wanted me to be. The themes of community, relationships, and transformation began to jump out at me. I rediscovered the book of James and the practice of my Christian faith. I began to listen to the stories of others and how we as a community can help edit each others stories to strengthen our relationship with God and with others.

So what does this have to do with the stupid sheep? It is about stepping out of your box (comfort zone) and being willing to do what it is God has called you to do. I was comfortable being a geek, integrating technology and learning, but God has other plans for me. This became clear in my last Doctoral class - there were a lot of great conversations but I was drawn to one we had about what I call the ministry of proximity. Actually what I was drawn to is the tension that exists between the need to be in proximity to minister to someone and what we can do at a distance. Right now I am pondering what is meant by "proximity."

So there you have it. After sifting through the last 30 years as a Christ-follower, I think I know what I will do for the last season of my life. I know God has used me in different places at different times with my rather eclectic life. I know sense that there is a new and quite different adventure ahead for me.

It's time to be pushed out of the confines of my sheep pen and to embrace the adventure God has for me. I look forward to coming along side my fellow sojourners, walking with them for a while, helping to edit their story and strengthening their relationship with God and with others.

Becoming Who God Wants Me To Be (pt 3)

These past 10 years have been marked by God ordained events, a willingness to say yes, slowing down and taking the time to listen, and struggles. Any one of these happening on their own would have been good, but the combination of all these together has led to an exponential impact on all areas of my life.

Two events that stand out to me involve the same man, Greg Bourgond and his Heart of a Warrior ministry. The first happened in the fall of 2003 when I was in his office on a work related matter and he said that he was getting a group of men together for a study and he thought I should be involved. The interesting thing is that I didn't go to his office that often and the study happened to be starting that night. reflecting back I am reminded of the disciples reaction when Jesus said "follow me." With little hesitation I said "why not." Little did I know what would follow. Nine months later I would be done after talking about beliefs, values, worldview, motives, and behaviors. It was the ground work for what I later called my personal life platform. This lead to teaching the material to a number of groups of men and later in a way much life the first, being invited to join Greg as he brought this material to a group of men in Lino Lakes state prison - office, invitation, acceptance, new adventure.

There was a final exam, if you will, to my studies with Greg. This final exam was not part of the curriculum, rather is was given by God. You see shortly after I finished the study I ran in the Twin Cities marathon, 26.2 miles of questioning my sanity for doing such a thing at the age of 44. As tough as the race was the real test came a week or two after the race when I received in the mail a letter for the marathon saying congratulation, hope you enjoyed the race, yada, yada, yads. Behind the letter was a check for $3500 made out to Scott Strand. I thought for a moment that I found my new career, I would be come a professional marathoner. I reasoned that if I could make $3500 finishing in the mid-6000th place I could make a lot more moving up a couple of places. I only thought this for a moment though. You see I some times Google myself to see what the web has to say about me and so I knew that there was another Scott Strand who is a world class marathoner who also happened to run the race and finished in the top 10. I had a friend who asked me earlier if that was me. Leagly, I don't think the marathon could have done anything to me if I had kept the money and cashed the check. It was made out to me, and there was no indication in the letter or the check on why I received it. I believe it was God testing my integrity, something that I had just spent the last 10 months learning about. I called the marathon, selected what I though was the right person from the phone tree, there were now choices for returning your prize money because it was sent to the wrong person. I told the person who answered who I was and explained what had happened. After a few seconds of silence the person respond with the statement "I'm glad you were an honest person." Yes, I aced the final, at least for this day. In the end I got a variety of marathon merchandise including a sweatshirt that I joking say cost mey only $3500.

Much of the mid-2000's was given over to reading, pondering, listening, and reflecting. It was a time when I put into practice a number of spiritual disciplines that help draw me closer to God.

This brings me to the fall of 2007 and a blog posting about a stupid sheep. This is what really got me going with regards to what God has been doing to me, through me, and for me. But the rest of the story will have to wait for part 4.

Becoming Who God Wants Me To Be (pt 2)

A couple of days ago I wrote about what I feel God calling for me is - to come along side others in their sojourning through life. But the question to answer today is, "How did I arrive at this point?"

This journey for me has been a, borrowing from The Beatles, a long and winding road - educationally, spiritually, experientially, and personally. It began on a fall night in 1981, though the ground work was laid long before that, when I said yes to Christ. Adventures and challenges have been part of my life ever since - marriage, moving, living, growing, listening, and obeying. My internal wiring, living, learning, loving, and laboring has been part of the transformational process God has had me on for the past 30 years.

There have been some key people and events that I look at as markers that define this adventure. Jim Duncan, the man who first discipled me in what it meant to be a Christian. We were brought together from Ohio and Minnesota in Havre, MT for a 3 year crash course in Christianity. While in Havre, I preached my first sermon, it wasn't that good, it wasn't that long, but I know that it was the message God had for that congregation that day.

From Havre, there as a nomadic phase where we learned to trust more fully on God as we spent time in Minnesota, Missoula, MT, back to Bemidji, MN before finally settling in Grand Rapids, MN. It was in Grand Rapids where my leadership skills were developed, my preaching skills were honed a bit more, and I took on a variety of teaching opportunities with in the church and a private Christian school. The latter experience once again proved God's faithfulness. It was during this time that we adopted both our kids, built our home and thought that we were there for the long haul. It was here that I also learned that my plans aren't always God's plans.

In 1997 I was in Washington DC for a Promise Keepers event, when I heard that still small voice of God saying it's time to go to seminary. I didn't know why, but in the fall of 1998 we packed our things and move back the the Twin Cities. Just before I was to begin seminary my dad died and while we were down for the funeral, my wife interviewed for a number of of jobs and by weeks end had a number of job offers. I know that God was in it.

Seminary was good, I got a lot of head knowledge, but by the end of my time God had become more of an academic pursuit rather and a relational pursuit. It was at seminary that I started doing something call instructional technology - the art of using technology to enhance the learning process. When I graduated in 2001, I was offered a job at Bethel doing what I have been doing for the last three years. I thought that this was what God had in plan for me for the rest of my working career. To be honest this is a question I am pondering right now. More on that later.

None of this would have been possible if it weren't for the gift God gave me in my wife who has been with me through this whole adventure. God gave her a talent in the medical field that has allowed her to find work and in a large part finance the adventure called life that we have been on. She has put up with my educational endeavors, occupational changes, home relocations, and me, her rather eclectic husband and sojourner in life these past 29 years.

This is the background that I have needed to lay in order to answer the questions "How do I know what God wants for me and from me?" The third and hopefully finally part of this pondering will tie things together - spiritual disciplines, spiritual director, being open and willing to say "yes", and believe it or not a blog posting about a stupid sheep.

In short these last 10 years have been the most transformation years of my spiritual life.

Becoming Who God Wants Me To Be (pt 1)

I am who I am becoming. No this is not some philosophical, pie in the sky statement, it is an idea taken from the Apostle Paul in his writings to the church in Corinth:

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
2 Corinthians 5:17 The Message

As a new creation I already am who I am, the goal now is to do the work of stripping away the old and letting the new shine forth.

I will admit that it is easy to strip away some of the old, those things that stare you in the face and you know are not honoring to our newly created life. I sometimes talk about this using an onion as my illustration. Take an onion and around the outside is the dried, papery layer that easily falls away. As you move in the layers of the onion become harder and harder to separate. As new creations we are able to put away some of our old habits that are not needed or wanted in our new life. These things are the outer layers of the onion. But then we get into the tough stuff. Those habits, actions, sins that we try to keep "hidden" in our new life. These aren't as easily reomoved. Let me make a point here, God can and at times does remove these hard, hidden things, but I believe that going thought this transformation process is what gives us the Godly character and wisdom that the world needs to not only hear from us but see lived out in our life.

For me this has not been an overnight, a ha moment. I have been a Christ-follower for close to 30 years. I have completed 2 post graduate degrees, a certificate and I am currently working on my Doctor of Ministy degree. Though all these years, through all this education, though all my life experiences this is what I have learned - God wants me to be someone who walks along side others as they do life, listen to their stories, offer advise when asked and help them move one step closer in their relationship with other but more importantly in their relationship with God.

This is getting a little long so tomorrow I will share with you how it is I got to the point where I could make the above statement with confidence and clarity. The question I leave you with today is "Who does God want you to become?"

Distractions

There are a number of Bible books that I keep coming back to - they just seem to resonate with me. One of these books was written by the prophet Haggai. In this short two chapter book, we drop in on the Isrealites who have lost their focus, they have become distracted. I know I have written about Haggai in the past, but what I want to focus on today is the idea of distractions. I am coming off a five day staycation. We were going to travel, but ended up staying home. I had great plans of spending a couple of days reading and pondering and then spending some time doing things with my wife. Unfortunately I lost my focus almost immediately.

Bathroom redo, new rotors on the car, roof vents, extra shift running a camera at church - don't get me wrong these were all good things, but they became distractions for me when what I wanted/needed was some time alone with God. I got that in the mornings, but as I thought about what needed to get done I would run to Ikea or Menards, I would Google how to replace a rotor(not really that hard), and sometimes I would just let my mind wander- it goes to a lot of interesting places. This all added to an interesting sermon prep as I was living out what Haggai was warning the remnant about. It was as if Haggai was speaking to me in a way that it hadn't in the past.

The question that is forming for my sermon is "What is distracting you from your God given focus - loving God, loving others, making disciples, or making use of your spiritual gifts?" Haggai wasn't condeming the people for living their life, rather he was talking to them because they seemed to have forgotten God in the process.

Knowing That God Is In It

I don't know why, but I am often surprised by how God is at work orchestrating things so that I am able to use the gifts and newly formed passions that He has stirred in my heart. Let me explain.

For the last 4 years or so I have been spending my Wednesday night being locked up in Lino Lakes state prison, working with a group of offenders who have finished or are just finishing their 18 month long IFI program. I work with the me n to help them understand their core beliefs and values and encourage them to live them out in specific ways. This is a ministry that energizes me. In June I was asked if I could switch to Monday nights as the IFI staff was going to me doing some different things on Wednesday with the men. I didn't mind the switch, but I didn't know why we had to move. The question "why" was rolling around in my head. Some times God has us do thing where He knows the "why" but we are just to follow.

Jumping ahead a couple weeks now, I have decided to become part of our HopeLink ministry team at my church. This is a ministry where you come along side an individual to help them through a tough time in their life. This is the type of ministry the God has been stirring in my heart for a while now. To wrap this rambling up, I applied for and was accept into the training program for this ministry. So how do I know God was in this, training starts in September on Wednesday nights. If the IFI program hadn't shifted, if I hadn't agreed to switch come September I would have had to made a choice between IFI and HopeLink. But due to, I believe, God's timing I am able to do both.

So do you have a story of where you know that God is in it? Have you been inconvenienced or asked to change something and you're not quite sure why? Maybe God has something new and exciting for you to try or do. Be open, be listening, Be willing.