*SPECIAL EDITION* Preacher of the Month - October

October is "Pastor Appreciation Month". I am not sure the history as to how or why this came to be but I also don't know why April is "National Welding Month" and the fourth week in August is "Be Kind to Humankind Week". 

In the spirit of this month and the spirit of Preacher of the Month, I thought it would be interesting to extend an invitation to you to highlight your own preacher this month. 

Here is how it works.

Get with your preacher and ask them if you could interview them. If you would like, feel free to use some of the same questions I have been asking other preachers:

• What is one sermon you preach?
• What is another sermon you preach?
• What is another sermon you preach?
• What is the oddest experience you have had while preaching?
• Who are preachers that you listen to?

Of course you always can generate your own questions. Perhaps you want to know more about their style, so ask them if they are inductive or deductive preachers (then ask them what the difference is!). Perhaps you want to know where they get their stories or inspiration? Perhaps you would like to hear about their spiritual life, how they pray or what they read or how they practice the disciplines. 

At some point I would then suggest that you share with your preacher two or three specific things that you have found helpful or good about their preaching ministry. Avoid general comments like, "I just love your sermons" or 'You really make me think." Share things that you have found to be the most helpful and transformative for you. Trust me when I say that this sort of feedback is the most helpful form of feedback you can share with many preachers.

Be aware - Preachers feel uncomfortable talking about themselves. It is part of the reason we preach, so we can talk about God and not talk about ourselves. So when they try conversational judo on you to get you to talk, don't let them off the hook. Preachers often are more comfortable hearing criticism than praise, so just be patient with your preacher.

Take some time. Take the month. Share a word of Grace to those who try their best to share a word of Grace.

Bad for Your Diet, Great for Spiritual Formation?

For a myriad of reasons, humans are not very good at imagining their future selves. For many aspects of life this creates a problem. For instance, if we indulge in the delicious double chocolate cookies everyday then we may pay the price in the future when we are diabetic. Like water dripping on a rock, we are shaping our future selves with the actions of our present selves. 

While our inability to imagine our future selves can be a burden in some aspects of our lives, it can be a benefit when it comes to spiritual formation. 

Spiritual formation is often about encouraging us to trust the future so that we can live in the present. When we are fully present then we begin to do things that affect our future selves in ways that are helpful. For instance, when we are fully present to our neighbor when they are going through difficult times, we learn how to be still and listen. When we are fully present to our own hearts, we grow more at ease with silence. When we are fully present to the economic decision we make, we will begin to get a handle on instant gratification. When we are fully present, we will appreciate the amount of work it took to get those cookies to us and we might share the cookies with others. 

While it may be frustrating for financial planning, being unable to envision our future selves can be a great gift from God if we live in the full present.

Get in the long line

In college my roommate and I engaged in a number of practices that looking back on them they were odd but I am so glad that I did them. For instance, we spent several weeks sleeping on the hard floor and not in our individual bunks. We called people from the phone book in San Antonio and introduced ourselves and just said that we would be praying for them. We gave ourselves a budget of $100 a month.

The best thing we did was stand in line. 

Wherever we went we would intentionally choose the long lines to wait in. We would go to the grocery store and then begin to look for the longest line we could find to wait in to check out. We did this time and time again for months. And over time something in us began to change. 

We saw that we were less anxious when we were in a rush because we had practice waiting. We were more thankful when we did have a shorter line and things went quickly. We were more attentive to the parents of small children who needed the shorter line in order to get their tired child home. We were able to engage in conversation with others in line and learn some great stories of people (like the guy worked as a clown in the circus for 15+ years). 

So for what it is worth, take every opportunity you can to get into the long line. Wait there and see what you see. Listen to the people around you. See God in the midst of it all. Remember that lines are less a way to order people an more a way to connect with people.