...and as a bonus, now my brain's not bored

As a pastor who works another full-time job (also referred to as bivocational), one of the things I'm trying to be intentional about is doing as many things at once as I can.

That didn't come out quite right, but you get the idea.

My second job is driving a FedEx Ground delivery route. The great thing about this job, I've discovered, is that while my body's moving and lifting all day, my brain can take significant chunks of time off. So I asked for - and received - a Zune for Christmas, and I've subscribed to 60 or so podcasts. Sometime I'll list them for you. (In the meantime, feel free to leave your podcast recommendations in the comments section.)

So then I discovered that I can incorporate a spiritual discipline into my work day. This morning, I made a list of people to connect to God on behalf of. I started with the people God's allowed me to pastor, then the people who have attended a church gathering recently, then some guys I work with and that I know in my neighborhood.

I wrote these names on a sheet of card stock, and then before I started my deliveries, I pulled out the sheet and set it on the seat next to me. Before I'd get out, I'd glance over the sheet, pull out a few names, and just start talking to God about them, asking Him to bless them, thinking about specific needs, and so forth.

the tools of my trades: scanner, pickup listing, list of people to remember, half-eaten twinkie

It was really cool to see how this deepened my connection to them. I would think about seeing them as Jesus sees them, asking for the things that He would want them to have, and asking God to show me how I could be part of the things He wants to do in their lives. And I would continue to think about them, even when I wasn't concentrating on a specific prayer.

I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of doing this before. God only tells us to pray for each other - and be in an attitude of constant prayer - hundreds of times or something. But I'm glad I've started, because not only is it right to do, it's a discipline that's going to feel right as an essential rhythm of my life.

I highly recommend you try it. Oh, and definitely use card stock - it holds up to Twinkies and Gatorade better.

our first colts game

So I'm getting ready to leave the FedEx Ground terminal on Thursday morning, and I'm checking with Brent, my boss, to see if there's anything else I should know before taking off. He says everything's all right, then adds: "You and Trey want to go to the Colts game Saturday night?"

Um...yes. Yes we do.

So Brent was kind enough to let us use his tickets to go to tonight's preseason NFL game between our beloved hometown World Champion Indianapolis Colts and the Detroit Lions. We took lots of pictures to show you.

Holding our tickets before we leave the house

Once we found a place to park, we sort of got sucked into a jetstream
of Manning/Harrison/Wayne jerseys moving into the stadium.

This moment is about five minutes before Trey experienced being patted down for the first time.

Next door to the nearly-58,000-seat RCA Dome, they're building
the 63,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium, scheduled to be open for next season.

The game from our vantage point

father and son

Trey holding our popcorn

One of the best parts of the night was seeing Trey hit it off with Jacob, who was sitting
in the row behind us. They had a lot of fun together. Hi Jacob!

By the third quarter, the Colts were up by 24, people were starting to leave, and those
that were left decided to do the wave. So we jumped in.

It was a fun experience, even if it was a preseason game. Trey just took it all in, and he watched the game a lot more closely than I thought he would. For my part, it was fun to see the players in real life, and to see Peyton Manning operating the Colts offense like a well-oiled machine. When he threw the touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne in the second quarter, it was to the corner of the end zone closest to us, which was pretty cool. Reggie got all excited, and threw the football into the stands - right into an air conditioning vent. So much for a souvenir for a lucky fan.

Thanks again, Brent. We had a lot of fun, and our resume of Indy experiences is filling out nicely.

they're not separate

As a pastor, I talk to other pastors, and the conversation often turns toward "pastory" things. Shop talk, I think they call it. Here are a couple of random conversations I've had in the past few weeks:

- A pastor who has a national preaching ministry is discussed, one who appears to have made some errors in judgment recently. "I'd go hear him preach," it was said, "but I'd never go to his church."

- A recently retired pastor told me how much he was enjoying his current position within a church, mostly because he just preaches a lot, and "preaching was always the fun part."

As I listen, I wonder: where do we get off separating the two? If a pastor loses integrity and trust as a leader, is that supposed to stay separate when considering his effectiveness in the pulpit? If someone is a pastor, does preaching really get to be "the fun part?"

Some churches are large enough to have leadership structures that allow for people in the position of pastor to specialize according to their talents. In such structures, a teaching pastor and an executive pastor might serve on the same staff, and have basically the same level of authority.

But in smaller churches, and in most of the churches I'm familiar with, the leadership structure starts with a lead pastor who provides both organizational leadership and preaching/teaching ministry. All others on staff are at an authority level below that of said lead pastor.

For pastors in this position, I believe it is essential that we be men of integrity in every facet of ministry with which we have been entrusted. Integrity is not an either/or proposition: being more likeable or effective or dynamic in a more public area of ministry is not supposed to compensate for a lack of integrity in other areas. I don't think it sits well with God, and certainly it eventually doesn't sit well with the people we've been called to lead toward God.

Of course, this is not to say that every pastor has to be perfect, or even really good, at every aspect of ministry. It certainly isn't the end of the world for a pastor to not be comfortable or good at something. But we must be honest about it, and we must not use the things we're good at to hide our deficiencies.

Honesty, integrity, accountability - in every aspect of our service for God, and of our lives. That's a pastor whose example will display to our world a truer sense of the life that God intended all of us to live.

uncle matt

Trey, Uncle Matt, Derek, and Gracie

My brother Matt lives in central Illinois with his wife, Corena, and their three boys. Matt works for Yarger Machinery, delivering and assembling farm implements.

Today, he passed through Indy on his way to pick up a wagon, so he stopped along the interstate close to our home, and some of us went out to see him and his truck. We had a lot of fun with Uncle Matt, and he bought us ice cream, so now he's the best uncle ever.

Thanks for stopping by, Matt. You made our day.

thanks, guys

Andrew, Daniel, me, and Steven

I love friends.

You know how, when you were growing up, you had friends you hung out with and saw occasionally, and now you have no idea where they are or what they're doing? Or you do know, and that's, er, the problem?

Well, I have been blessed to be able to continue some friendships that started when I was a kid. These guys are one such example.

I saw that the Ball Brothers were singing close (read: within 4 hours) to Indy on a Saturday, and that they weren't scheduled to sing anywhere on Sunday. So I called them up, asked them to come sing at our church, and they graciously agreed. They did a great job, and our people were immensely blessed.

After our morning worship gathering had ended, we took them to our home for a quick lunch of ribs and mashed potatoes (you're awesome, babe!), and had a great conversation about their journey, what they were learning, acappella music, the churches we grew up in, Joshua's new iPhone, and so on. Their thought patterns and decisions have similar directions to mine, and I was strengthened and encouraged in talking to them.

Without sounding too sappy, I'm happy for my friends: for the directions their journey is taking them, for their love and respect for their father and their families, for their roots in what's really important.

Guys, my prayers and utmost respect are with you.

I'm also happy to say that I had a small role in their upcoming album, which will be out soon. One that I've heard merits a mention in the liner notes. I'm pretty psyched.

I know that the Ball Brothers would be a blessing to your church, Bar Mitzvah, or Rotary Club meeting. You can contact them through their website - just click on the banner in the sidebar. You can also hear a couple songs from their upcoming album on their Myspace page.

in the flesh

I started heaving my thoughts into the blogosphere a little over two years ago. When I started, one of the things I enjoyed the most was the interaction I could have with people I couldn't always have conversations with otherwise. I enjoy writing anyway, but it was in that period of blogging and response that I discovered that I wasn't alone in my questions, struggles, etc.

Some of the response/conversation came from old friends whom I had grown up with, and I greatly appreciated their perspective then, and still do to this day. Some came from people loosely connected to me in a Kevin Baconish sort of way, and I was exposed to a lot of great thoughts and perspectives I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.

And then, not too far into my blogging journey, a new guy came along. He left a comment as "zealyouthguy," and it caught me off guard because I didn't know this guy. At all. I knew in theory that anyone with an internet connection could read my thoughts, but only people I knew had ever responded before.

So I followed the links back to his blog, and it turned out that zealyouthguy was Pastor Bob, a youth pastor in Ohio who was blogging, sharing his thoughts and questions as well. And thus began an online friendship of emailing, blogging and commenting, and even some IM'ing that I have enjoyed and benefited from immensely.

But in these two years, I had never met Pastor Bob Senz personally.

All that changed this past weekend.

Bob and his family are beginning a time of deputation to raise short-term support for a church plant in western Pennsylvania. I asked them to come this past weekend to present their burden, and it turns out that ours was the first church they visited on deputation.

Bob has a great wife, Amy, and four young kids. Our kids had a great time together - within an hour of their arrival on Saturday evening, they were all playing Cranium Hullabaloo together and having a blast. (Side note: Hullabaloo is the greatest game ever invented for young children. Ever.)

I got to show Bob my city, and talk about my vision and the opportunity here. We had great conversations about what we were reading, about our own faith journeys, and about what Bob wants to do in western PA. It was refreshing, invigorating, and totally enjoyable.

Thanks for coming over, Pastor Bob, and for being my friend. May God bless your time on the road, and your life in Him.

- - -

Be sure to check out the Senz family website, Pastor Bob's site for youth pastors, and his personal blog.


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