randalevan's blog

it's hard to keep going to church

I have been a pastor for a long time.  One of the things I have found to be true as a follower of Jesus is this: those of us who choose to actively engage with Him together with others in a healthy local church have a much more enjoyable, productive, adventure-filled, "challenged-to-go-beyond our-comfort-zone" life than those who try to go it alone.  (*I don't have time to define "healthy" here, but can recommend a great book if you would like to go deeper.  It is "Life Together" by Bonhoeffer. Pay particular attention to Chapter 1 entitled "Community".)

And as a pastor, I have also found something else to be true: it is really hard to continue to be actively involved in a local church!  This has always been the case...ever since Jesus called 12 disciples together to form the first Church.  Why is it so? While there are many, many reasons, I will mention only two: 1. Wherever there are people, there will be conflict, and, 2. Wherever there are Christians, there will be people with unrealistic expectations placed upon other people...I would suggest greater expectations than they place on their work or school associates, and sometimes more than their own family members.

what is going to make me happy?

There's a story in the Gospel of Mark about a paralytic man who is carried to Jesus by his friends on a mat.  (*To read the story, go to Mark chapter 2, beginning with verse 1.)  One of the remarkable things that happens is that Jesus heals the guy!  But He does something else...something that the man didn't even ask Jesus to do:  He forgives him.  Why did Jesus do that?

jesus makes us bigger

a friend and fellow pastor, liz milner, recently completed an internship at a local jail and the experience stretched her faith a lot. as i read her personal evaluation, i felt encouraged to see people in a different way, to believe that jesus is present even when our world feels like it is falling apart, and to face my fears with more courage. i have copied her evaluation below.

¿whatever happened to the american dream?

I was shocked to read in yesterday's Mercury-News that there are over 13% of Americans who are living in poverty.  How can that be?  Whatever happened to the American Dream?  Sounds more like a nightmare to me!

The problem is so large and complex that there is certainly nothing I can do about it.  (*I used to think this way, but somehow, I don't feel like I have a "free pass" to ignore this awful truth about our country anymore.)

I wonder what the church I go to can do about it. If the Lord's Prayer were to be answered, especially the part that says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven", what that would look like?  I don't think there are going to be any people living in poverty when God's will is always done on the earth!  Lord, what would You have each one of us do?

  (*To read the article, please go to: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13307046?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

why did they follow him?

Our new senior pastor, Alex Van Riesen, taught from the Gospel of Mark this past Sunday.  He read chapter 1, verses 16 thru 20.  (*If you would like to hear the teaching, go to vcfp.org, click-on SERMONS, then select "download" under the teaching for September 6th.)

One of the comments Alex made was that Jesus' invitation to Simon and his brother, Andrew, to "Come, follow me, ... and I will make you fishers of men" (v.17) seemed bizarre.  I mean, can you imagine Jesus saying something similar to you...and if He did, you dropping everything to follow Him?  What was it about Jesus' invitation that was so appealing...appealing enough to leave everything behind in order to go and be with Him, to go and learn to do what He was doing?

Alex did a great job talking about Jesus' invitation to His first followers - and to you and me today - that it was an invitation to be transformed, to adopt a different orientation toward life, to discover a new reason and purpose for living.

As I listened to the teaching this past Sunday, a short DVD called "Dust" by another pastor came to mind.  It talks about what it meant for a 1st century rabbi to invite a 1st century Jew to become his disciple.  The pastor's name is Rob Bell, the DVD series is called NOOMA, and I think it is really worth watching.  I will include it here on my blog. Hope you enjoy it, and, that God uses it to increase your faith!

a pastor's dilemma

A friend of mine and fellow pastor, Sean McMasters, made an interesting post on his blog recently that I would like to share with you.  Here's a brief quote.  (*If you would like to read more, click-on the link below.)

"Pastors are caught within a wonderful dynamic: On the one hand I need to be an example of what it means to be a successful follower of Christ; on the other hand I am not, & never will be totally successful. What makes this more interesting is the never-ending appeal of religion; Those who do good are--gooder & I am the gooderest of them all. Right? However, I'm not good.

What is the role of a pastor? To create the "That's it" image? I need to teach Saints & non-saints how to be: Broken, angry, forgive, sexually appropriate, depressed, frustrated, etc. However, do I teach them from the position of: "When I used to..." or "Last week when I..." Don't I have a pious image to uphold, since no one wants to follow a loser? Especially a pastor who wrestles with sin. No doubt there are limits to my involvement with any sin & it's ability to control me vs. my ability to yield to the Spirit. However, we can so easily create a theology of leadership, which says, "Follow me as I follow Christ" because, "I've arrived," vs. "I've been working on this for years, & I'm still walking."

To read more, please go to:

http://offthewahl.blogspot.com/2009/09/pastors-are-caught-within-wonderful.html

Javalujah!

Well, this is my first shot at posting a youtube video.  Hope it makes it! )(You can´t see the full screen from my blog because of the column width. So, click on the window and watch the clip from youtube!

Two important factors for personal growth

I have a friend from church named Heather.  She shared with me this past week two important factors for personal growth.  It's funny, because I think they are two things we often run away from as fast as we can...and yet...I also believe that we cannot grow in any significant way with out them.  The two things are living in close proximity with others, and, being pruned.

why are palo alto kids killing themselves?

There have been three, local teens who have killed themselves by stepping in front of an oncoming train the past four months in Palo Alto.  (*For the latest suicide, check-out this article: http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_13195853?nclick_check=1

How can this be?  What could possibly motivate a 13 year old girl to end her life?  How did we all fail this young, "all of life before her" teenager?  It seems to me as a member of this community that we aren't helping our neighbors to discover and live a life that's worth holding onto, even when we are going through a hard time.

Whenever I hear an official spokesperson say something about the suicides, they say something about learning to watch for the early signs of depression.  OK, so why are teens depressed?  What are they putting their hopes in?  How are their parents helping them?  Their teachers?  Their friends?  If they go to church, their fellow churchgoers?  How do they spend their time?  What are the messages they are hearing about what is important in life and who is it that imparts these values to them?

If we don't do something about the way that we live, and the way we teach our kids to live, there will be more child suicides.

is jesus alive or dead?

The church that Jacquie and I are part of is about to begin a new teaching series on the Gospel of Mark.  As a member of the pastoral staff team, I started thinking about Mark, reading it, and reading books about the gospel.  I just read something that I think is really cool that I would like to share with you about Jesus.