Constant Student of Jesus

I am slowly reading through The Great Omission by Dallas Willard. I say slowly because as my coworker Jan Lynn describes this book "it will kick your butt," simply meaning it has some deep and life challenging statements. The premise is that we are to become Disciples not "just" Christians. This mornings reading ended on page 17 (I did say slowly :-)).

"But only constant students of Jesus will be given adequate power to fulfill their calling to be God's person for their time and their place in this world. They are the only ones who develop the character which makes it safe to have such power."

WOW - I really want to fulfill my calling, I want to accomplish all that God has put in my heart to accomplish. As I so often struggle with accomplishing enough, I interpret this as I have to: work harder, study more, have a greater influence, simply put I feel I have to "DO MORE". I don't believe that is what Mr. Willard is stating nor do I believe it's what Christ wants. When we become students of Christ our character should change, our thought processes change, the fruit of the spirit (the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit) flows through us. With that comes His power to accomplish more than we ever could of our own strength. It is a contradiction, almost an oxymoron that by "Doing less" and building a stronger relationship with Christ we have the potential to accomplish more.

The statement regarding our developing of character is one of the "butt kicking" statements. Yes I want His power, yes I want His character but it's no wonder I feel I have less of both as a result of my poor priorities. It really is about pursuing Christ, my relationship with Him, my trust in Him, my confidence that He will use me to the fullest extent of my willingness to submit to Him. Another painful word, SUBMIT, yet that is a resounding theme in our relationship with Christ. "The last shall be first", "surrender it all", "walk away from what you have known to follow me". We must submit ourselves to His will, to His desires. This will require an extra effort of humility and determination of our wills.

I conclude these ramblings with the thought for the new year. I must be a greater student of Christ, for several reasons. To be a better husband and father, to be a better friend and pastor, and to accomplish to the fullest extent the calling Christ has given to me. I want His power more than my own position...

Saying Grace and Torture

Today is Christmas eve. Just a few details to accomplish and most of the day is dedicated to family. One of the "details" is to make sure my nine and twelve year old boys get hair cuts. When this is announced to them you'd think the world was coming to an end. One even made the statement that it was torture having their hair cut. Needless to say we ended up having a fun afternoon, golf range, playing around and even got the hair cuts in. Then we all sat down for a family Christmas eve dinner.

As I said Grace, thanked the Lord for all our blessings, the thought occurred to me how thankful I am that the only "torture" my family experienced was on the scale of HAIRCUTS. What a Christmas gift from our Lord. We could be experiencing real physical torture, or emotional torture at the loss of a loved one, or the loss of financial security or any other countless means of "torture". We are truely blessed and that is one of the most wonderful gifts God could give.

God gives good gifts. This Christmas count those gifts and give Him honor.

Merry Christmas

Fundamentalist, Creative Arts & Worship

I'm beginning to think that I might be a closet creative arts connoisseur. These last two weeks I've enjoyed great worship at our church. Much of the enjoyment has come from the worship leaders, the song selections and even my own choice to join in and worship. Additionally to these reasons we've added a couple different elements. Elements that are common in some worship experiences yet so many leaders are afraid or have other reasons for not taking the risk and utilizing them.

The two elements were the painting of a picture during one of the songs (the picture was of Christ) and the other was including a ballet style dance during a Christmas worship song. These expressions of God given gifts helped point me to the wonder of our savior, to the vast blessings of His gifts to his people. As a worship experience they contributed to my striving to know Christ better, even to preparing me for the teaching that followed.

As the local church strives to be relevant to our society let's reclaim expressions of worship that perhaps have become diluted by misuse. Let's bring honor to Christ through a variety of worship expressions. For some of us this will probably mean breaking away from some of our "fundamentals". It probably won't feel comfortable and you may even receive some "persecution". Move through it, honor God, reach the lost and disciple those around you! Know that His "fundamentals" are given to His children and I have to believe that He is proud when the gifts He's given are put to good use, to expressions of worship, to point people towards Him. Join me as I come out of the closet.

Christmas Terror

I was woken up this morning by the vibrations of my cell phone. The first words out of the callers mouth was that they had found a money bag apparently belonging to our church. My heart dropped, fear welled up that we have now experienced a major burglery. Coincidently there had been a planned power outage in our churches vacinity. I relunctantly dressed and headed to the church. Upon arriving, I entered the office where the supposed money bag had been secured. Much to my pleasure I immediatly noticed that computers and other valuables were still where they should be. Doors were secure, no glass broken, everything appeared to be ok. I then found our staff person that had secured the returned bag and we began looking through it.

Much to our pleasure we discovered that it wasn't our churches bag but one of the venders we do business with. Apparently they had collected one of our checks in addition to several other companies funds and somehow the bag had ended up in the street. It appeared to have been run over, yet there was still cash inside with the checks.

A gentleman named Lonnie, I have no other identification, saw the bag on the side of the road, looked through it discovering our check and assumed the bag must be ours and returned it. I don't think Lonnie was an angel but with a real life illustration of "man's" generosity at least some of my faith in "man kind" is restored. There are still honest people, people who understand the essence of Christmas - a spirit of giving. I am very grateful to now be at home, having enjoyed a great breakfast with my family and not figuring out how to have church services without electronics or a damaged facility. Thank you Lonnie, Thank you Lord! May your Christmas "terrors" be turned to Christmas joys.

Scrooges Musings

I’m the last one to get into the Christmas spirit; I dread clearing a path to the buried boxes of Christmas decorations, would rather sit and watch football, than climb on the house hanging lights. I get tired just thinking about fighting the crowds to go shopping. I could easily be characterized as a Scrooge.
Yet, while decorating the Christmas tree with my family, reluctantly drug away from some uneventful sports event on TV, I reach for an ornament given to me by my mom when I was spending Christmas alone in cold, dark Alaska. Warm memories of comfort and family enter my mind. I grab another ornament from the box, this one was given to my wife and I for our first Christmas together, another one pulled from the box, this one a gift representing our first home together, then another representing my oldest son’s first Christmas another one from Jimmy and Jonathan’s arts and craft phase. I begin looking at all the ornaments on the tree, the floor the table yet to be placed and realize that they represent more than ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. These ornaments represent love and friendship, family and great times together. They represent personal growth and family growth, hard times and great times, they represent the “Jim Hill” family.
These ornaments are more than just plastic or glass, crystal or wood. They are symbols, they are representations of my investment in people and others investment into me and my family. Christmas joy began to well up in my heart – the trappings of scrooge began falling aside and I’m trying to not only leave them on the floor but sweep them out of my life. To my family and friends I say thank you! Thank you for filling my Christmas season with great memories and giving me hope for many more fantastic seasons to come.

Mumbai Tragedy

As I listen to reports coming out of Mumbai India I’m broken hearted and relieved at the same time. I hear stories of friends sitting together for dinner and suddenly half or more of the group are dead or injured, of a father and husband saving people but not able to save his own wife and two daughters as they are lost in fires set by terrorists. The carnage is astounding, the pain unimaginable, it breaks my heart.

Yet, I’m relieved. This happened in “another world”, in a place far far from my safe little corner of the of Southern California. Do I have the luck of my birth to thank, is it the diligence of my government that prevents such attacks in my neighborhood, is it God who protects myself and my family? I thank God that I don’t have to endure the circumstances impressed on the residence’ of Mumbai. I thank God that my world seems safe and secure. And I pray for those in Mumbai and Pakistan and all these other places. Yet my prayers seem so futile.

I’m not one prone to discouragement or depression, in fact as I dwell on this horrific act and experience the emotions accompanying the tragic news I can’t help but think of the many Christians that are in the same boat I’m in. Living safe, concerned about the economy, not a funeral, concerned about job security not being taken as a hostage and for some the biggest challenge is how we are going to meet the requests of family and friends this Christmas season. Allow me to encourage you to take a few minutes each day over the next twenty five and think about the news from places in the world that you and I will probably never visit. After thinking of these stories say a prayer for the people in the middle of the situations, NOT just a prayer thanking God that you aren’t there but one asking Him to bring comfort to the grieving, to embrace the hurting and become the father to the recently made fatherless. In the midst of these horrific situations we have the power through Jesus Christ to release His presence, to make a difference. Can you do that? I’m going to try.

Surviving the Future

Outcomes magazine, in a story entitled Developing Next Generation Leaders predicts that there will be a need for over 50,000 leadership roles in Non profits and churches. I'm not sure of the exact number but am confident that the need for people willing to step into positions of serving Christ on a full time basis is going to be crucial in the coming years. In my denomination the leadership is getting older and there does not seem to be very many "young" leaders in the pipeline. This concerns me and should concern any person serving within the church. If we really believe that the Church is the Hope of the world then we need to enlist and train people. How should we accomplish this?


Call them. We as leaders need to get over our apologizing, shameful and even "poor me" mentality of calling people to serve. Serving Christ in any capacity is a privilege, serving Him as your vocation is an honor. Where do we get off apologizing to people we recruit that they may not make as much money as they would in the secular market place. We're not in the secular market place and we're not trying to establish that kingdom. Whether we get "rich" or not should not be our motivation, our motivation should be the eternal. Let's boldly call the young, those looking for mid life career changes and those boomers who are ready to do something signficant with their lives.


Train them. We must utilize the experiences and resources available to us. Our colleges and universities have done adequate to good jobs providing academic and even theological foundations for those in the ministry. The weakness is that they have not accomplished the "on the job" training required to move quickly into serving as leaders. As existing leaders we have to spend time investing in these individuals, we have to replicate ourselves. We have to provide opportunities for the inexperienced to get experience AND learn from it. I'm not talking about sending Billy Ray out to the South Forty where the "old timers" beat him and his family until they can't imagine ever serving in ministry again. I'm talking about creating communities of people that respect the growth potential of new leaders, embrace them with encouragement and we as leaders are on the spot to correct and help process these individuals into stronger servants. We must provide the systems and the relationships!


Adjust our paradigm: Lastly we must adjust our paradigm, our view of accomplishing ministry and serving. The age of a Senior Pastor, Worship Pastor, Youth Pastor and Children's Pastor leading the church are fading into the past. As we move deeper into the information age, roles like graphic arts, technical communications, information services, creative communications, and finance directors may be higher paid and even stronger leadership roles than some of our "pastoral" positions. For many this is a paradigm shift. We have to recognize that our ability to remain relevant is hugely influenced by the MEANs we are communicating the message of Jesus Christ.


We HAVE to make changes, we NEED to make them soon. Are you willing to endure the personal change to make this happen? Are you willing to change how you've served to accomplish the great commision?

The Power of Friends

I made a small observation this morning as I was reading Acts. In Acts 28:15 it says "The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged".

After all the trials and tough times Paul has gone through, beatings, jailed, ship wrecked it can almost be over looked that he still desired human companionship - relationship. He "thanked God AND was encouraged" that friends had traveled to see him.

I draw from this the importance of both being willing to invest in the friends that I have and recognize the friends that invest in me. To accomplish what God has set before us we must make the effort. From short communications via twitter, email, facebook to getting in the car or on an airplane and going. I really believe that when we invest we are also blessed.

Give people a reason to thank God for you.

Learning Styles

I'm a huge proponent of small groups. I believe that great relationships and discipleship can occur within them. Having said this I've recently been wondering how learning styles interact with the effectiveness of small groups? Based on my personal history of learning I have two primary means of learning. The first is from peers and networking - this can usually be construed as brainstorming and filtering through options, topics or opinions to determine which I most believe or accept.

The second means is from an authority. When I quickly and confidently want to learn something I go to an authority. This authority may be in the form of a professional, an author or someone I perceive as having extensive knowledge on the topic.

If how I learn is anywhere close to others I think I may have "stumbled" on a weakness of our small groups. People desiring a greater knowledge of Christ that learn better from an "authority" feel that their small group only meets the peer approach thus is inadequate to accomplish a level of spiritual growth desired. This path may lead to the comments frequently heard within the church as "I'm not being fed".

If this has any accuracy how do we resolve this as a church?

Spiritual Growth

It's been a while since my last post, hard to beleive it was summer and now it's almost winter. Recently I was golfing with friend of mine and in the midst of our conversation we stumbled upon the question of "what are my indicators of spiritual growth?". I thought this should be an easy question for a pastor to answer - it wasn't. a week later I'm still trying to come up with MY inidicators - something more than the rituals (yes important but are they indicators - reading the Bible, Praying...) How do I measure my Spiritual Growth?

Allow me to throw out some ideas: I monitor my family growth by increased trust, desire to be with, since of fulfillment at serving their needs AND wants. WOW, these could be the same for my relationship with Christ.

Am I trusting Him more? Is He trusting me more?
Do I desire to spend more time with Him? Do I want to pray (not feel I have to out of guilt), Do I want to read the Bible? Do I want to just spend time thinking about Him? I spend time just thinking about my kids and wife...

I get great satisfaction meeting the needs and wants of Ceri, Jimmy and Jonathan. Last week we took Jimmy and Jonathan to grandma's they were so excited they could hardly stand it - I was so thrilled because they were thrilled - I well up inside just thinking about it (I'm also loving the time with my wife and the kids at grandma's). How much joy do I generate PLEASING Christ - are my actions out of obligation, responsibility or for the sake of bringing pleasure to Him? I know Christ wants this. Why is it so hard to make this a regular measurement of my life's success?

wrapping a pretty good day.

wrapping a pretty good day. Good mtgs. Progress on office discovery. Swimming & outdoor movie w family. Boston's more than a fee

Eternal Perspective

Worship team is warming up - singing "everlasting God". What a concept, our God is outside of our comphension of time and space. He exists in the future as much as in our present. He knows the decisions we'll make and yet allows us the "free will" to make them - for good or bad.

Our 70 to 80 years seems so short when compared to eternity. How do our actions now impact that eternity? Obviously we want it to be in the presence of God, yet what does that mean? To not only live our lives from an eternal perspective but design our ministries that way. To live a life of worship, & touch the "lost", & work to impact our families...

Some interesting thoughts as we imbark on a great Sunday morning.

Hot summer and Fires

It's shaping up to be a hot summer. Just got word that my brother is going to be able to leave the "fire lines" and return to his city fire department after only a week on the Northern California fires. He's had some big adventures and worked really hard - the great news is he's safe!

RE: threadless

Agreed. The analogy only goes so far, then totally breaks down.

What I like about the part that does carry weight is that the whole idea/philosophy that threadless is functioning under and all these academics and corporate types are touting as a “new thing” really isn’t that new – Here’s a thought: The way threadless is operating requires or at least at the start up, required “faith” that the people would respond. Has our desire in the church for control and predictability of results created an environment that we don’t take as big of steps of faith? We want guaranteed results and we know how to produce them – this could be said by corporate types and church leaders alike… So by pushing certain buttons or spending certain amounts of money specific results can be temporarily achieved. If this approach is accurate the next “broken link” would be that there would be no high level of commitment because the participant would more than likely feel coerced, manipulated or … into the situation. This will not create viral impact or even generate “user innovation” such as Von Hippel’s theory desires.

Interesting article – who knew a simple INC article could spark such discussion.

Jim Hill

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html

From: Jan Lynn
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 3:54 PM
To: Jim Hill; Van Metschke
Subject: Re: threadless

...yes... but unlike Threadless, I’d have to say the church isn’t about letting people decide what they want. (I know that’s not what you were saying, I’m just pointing out the other side of the coin.) A good bit of the Gospel is like taking terrible medicine because it’s good for you. :-)

so... finding a balance.... ?

And oh yeah, blog on it!


On 6/6/08 11:32 AM, "Jim Hill" wrote:

Good article.
I appreciate the web 2.0 concept. I’d like to further discuss the general principle that what Threadless is doing is simply flowing with the consumer vs telling the consumer what they should buy. Can a parallel be drawn that this is how the church was designed (originally) to be run. Remove the technology component and add the boundaries of the scriptures. Isn’t the teacher/preacher of today supposed to analyze the “need for clothing” submitted and then produce it for them? Example: families are crying out for help in raising blended family situations – God has a “size” for that (Ephesians). People are looking for purpose – God has a purpose for our lives…

Has the church lost it’s perspective of analyzing needs and meeting them instead we “perform” out of our own perspective, hurts, strengths or for the almighty dollar (or fear of losing it)…

Just a few meandering thoughts as I get ready to go to lunch with a local business person. (I feel this could be the stuff blogs are made of :-0)

Jim Hill

PS. INC is a great magazine – I used to subscribe, for a period of time they had quite few “Christian” leaning articles…


From: Van Metschke
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 6:21 PM
To: Jim Hill; Jan Lynn
Subject: FW:

See link below.


Van Metschke
Technical Arts Director
South Hills Church

---

From: Van Metschke
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 8:34 PM
To: Van Metschke
Subject:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html

Van Metschke

Found out this morning that

Found out this morning that jonathan, our son, probably isn't allergic to peanuts. Grt news!!!

Testing my first blog

Well, here's my first post to my blog...