ie:missional

Five or so hours sleep put the traveler into a stage of extreme fatigue; that’s five or so hours over 42 hours, thousands of miles and twelve time zones. Needing to stay up late, but totally unable to do so, he crashes to shuffle on his iPhone around 7:00 PM local time and, despite a high-volume conversation in the hallway, he falls into a deep sleep convinced that 6:00 AM will come too early. Unfortunately, 11:00 PM comes first and time zone insomnia with it. He opens the window and listens to the sounds of the city.

Some things are the same no matter where you stay. Cars in motion all night, car alarms, police sirens, conversations, and the thumping sub-woofer of local dance clubs. Tonight there is also some poor sap trying unsuccessfully to get a woefully out of tune car to remain starting. He guns it and gets a few feet before trying again. Over and over. Finally, it catches and he guns it in what can only be a cloud of smoke and an engine begging for oil.

Thoughts of the day come to mind.

Sheremetyevo airports. Any air traveler through Moscow has experienced the insanity that is Sheremetyevo 1 and 2. “1″ was built in 1959, about the time that eight people a day would fly while “2″ was built in time for the opening of the famously boycotted 1980 Moscow Olympics. While safety is rarely an issue, convenience always is. There are not enough seats for waiting passengers, not enough restrooms, not enough line space at Sharometyeva 1 and entirely too many assertive taxi drivers and both. The traveler wonders why both aren’t plowed under or completely renovated. He wonders if landing in an open field would not be better.

The international airport (”2″) is pretty clean and has designated smoking areas outside the main seating areas. The domestic airport (”1″) was built for about 1/10th of the traffic that it currently handles. The smoking area is pretty much gates 8-17, where the lingering blue gray second hand haze waits as a carcinogenic welcoming committee. By the time the flight leaves the traveler has smoked a pack without lighting up.

The traveler also never quite gets accustomed to the fact that lady custodians clean the men’s restrooms without ever fully closing them. This time was better, though. A mop across the doorway refused a goodly number of anxious men, but did not completely solve the issue. At least one fellow stepped over the mop handle to take care of business anyway, while even those who waited for the obstacle to be removed (like our faithful traveler) found themselves hearing the “swish, swash” of the mop whilst standing at the urinal. She never spoke and neither did he.

The drunk. Aeroflot is the official, though certainly not only, airline of Russia. With a significant number of Soviet era aircraft still in service (a few seem not to have been painted since Brezhnev), it always is a crap-shoot as to whether the plane looks and acts airworthy. Thankfully this was a Boeing 767, the plane secure and the flight smooth.

Alcohols tends to flow freely on Russian flights with many of the smaller bottles that Americans are familiar with giving way to flasks. The traveler remembers another Russian flight where flasks gave way to fifths before the plane ever left the runway and in-flight luggage rustling for another when the first bottle of vodka went dry.

About four hours from Moscow, one particular lush missed his seat by about twenty rows, settling beside a woman of about twenty who was playing video games by the seat light. Behaving as friendly drunks are wont to do, he made a boor of himself until two flight attendants herding him and his stupidity back to his seat. At landing the traveler was amused to see two green uniformed Russian policemen enter the plane and meet our friend Otis in the back. He was escorted, quasi-sober, to a waiting police van that surely had been used in the old M.A.S.H. TV series. No one really seemed to car since public drunkenness, though a problem, is not a crime in Russia.

The ticket exchange. The travelers’ companion had need in the afternoon to make a change on a return flight, thus both experienced the undeniable inefficiencies of Russian business, learned, no doubt, from Russian government. With the advent of the internet, heck, with the advent of the telephone, these type changes take fifteen minutes back home: call the airline or the agent, ask for another flight, put charges on the credit card, print out the new ticket (or have it sent to one’s PDA or smartphone) and live the rest of your day. Oops.

Russia is a cash society–no checks and not a lot of places that take credit cards, so few people use them. They two men arrive at the S7 office to find just four people in the “line” to be served, most for ticket changes or purchases. Two and a half hours later they were leaving. One lady behind the counter serving every customer. Three copies of this, two copies of that, “Do you have a passport and your birth certificate?”,”Can you sign here?”, cut this paper with scissors, tape these two pieces together, walk to the copier/printer/fax (the one for the entire office). If one did not know better, the temptation would be to think the entire process was intentionally designed to delay. A second lady in the “travel agency” section of the office who was incapable, unwilling or incompetent to help, spending only about thirty minutes of the total time working. The rest of the time she was talking or walking through a mysterious door just off the lobby which, ostensibly, housed more employees who were doing nothing.

The lobby waiting area was entirely too small, so people were constantly going outside to smoke (for which the traveler was thankful), make phone calls or go buy something to drink at the corner store. There being no actual queue or “Please Take A Number” gizmo, each new arrival simply asked, “Who is last?” and then assumed his or her place in the proceedings. The traveler noticed that no one ever got mad, ever stomped out, or cursed out the employees contrasting starkly with his homeland where threats would have been made, promises of a class action law suit would have been offered, constant, loud complaints would have been leveled and the only helpful employee would have likely been equated with her gender of canis familiaris. But, since there is no expectation of efficiency, there is no problem when none is experienced.

Traffic grid. The traffic in Krasnoyarsk cannot touch the traffic of Novosibirsk, another Siberian city several hours away by air, but is trying to match it in spirit. Lane cutting, poor street layouts, make-it-yourself parking and bold-beyond-brains drivers combine to make it an strange experience. The street layouts are such that you must constantly be watching the signs, rather than the road, in order not to miss your left hand turn. If you do miss it, there might be several blocks before the middle line breaks open to allow the correction. Inexplicably, the names of the roads are not on road signs, but are on the sides of buildings creating a situation in which drivers have to constantly be looking sideways for street information rather than straight-ahead for the automobiles, trucks and buses. Adding to the chaos is the strangeness of their only being one traffic signal facing the driver and it isn’t overhead, it’s on a sign post where the street sign should have been. The lighting sequence features yellow light in all directions with each change from red to green or green to red. The yellows are supposed to encourage caution from all drivers that the traffic flow is about to change. Instead it encourages those going from green to red to accelerate and those going from red to green to leave the line early. The traveler also notices an almost equal number of left and right hand cars, learning that Siberia is the used car lot for Japan.

12:46 AM. Eyelids are getting heavy. Perhaps sleep will return after all.

The Slovenian Choir, Perpetuum Jazzile, perform a storm and then Africa by Toto:

Rick Biesiadecki is a good friend. I met him in Georgia prior to his move to Missouri to work at the state Baptist convention. He hinted at a series of posts having to do with pastoral life. This series will be loosely based on the points of this post.

Most pastors know that God rested on the Sabbath and that man was commanded to do the same, yet somehow we find ourselves running, like a hamster on a wheel, going and going and going, but, unlike our coal-eyed, whiskered friends, rarely stopping for water or a nap in the cedar shavings. This post is to encourage you to rest.

God knew what He was doing. Every seven days, there should be one filled with, well, thoughts of Him, attention to Him and not much else. Heck, in God’s economy even the land got an entire year’s rest every seven years! Unfortunately, in our “success by the numbers” society any amount of rest tends to be correlated with laziness. This should not be so.

There are a significant number of pastors who are just as workaholic as other people are alcoholic and both are deadly. Both kill relationships, sensitivity, passion, and ability to function well. Not to mention longevity. I recently visited with man who’s Dad had passed away at an early age. The son spoke of his Dad’s drive and overwork saying, “Marty, my Dad thought the Marines were too slow.” Not good.

So, will little fanfare, here are a few suggestions to help pastors get the rest that they need.

1. Admit to yourself that the continuing existence of neither the kingdom of God nor your church are dependent on you. I know pastors who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, feeling that if a single opportunity for ministry is lost that in some cosmic way God has been let down. This is simply not the case. The kingdom existed before us and will continue in power after our earthly sojourn is over.

While Jesus did affirm that the gates of Hell would never prevail against the church, this was not a promise of the eternality of each local assembly. Even if, perhaps especially if, you are a church planter success does not lie on you alone. A worked-to-death church planter is hardly a benefit for the kingdom or his church. Fatigue, born from fear of failure, has caused many pastors to neglect their homes, fall into sin or suffer physical problems and even death.

Pastor, it does not depend on you. Get some rest.

2. Learn the rhythm of your own body and work from it. Some people are early risers and some people are night owls. A few have their body change in mid-life. Some people need 10 hours sleep, some eight and some only four or five. I’m personally an early riser and need 7-8 hours normally to function on any level close to humanness. But I also know that I have a 2:00 afternoon run down almost each day, nodding at my desk with eyelids at half-mast. Hardly productive, but I’ve learned that no amount of guilt over that mid-afternoon slowdown causes me to have more energy. Sometimes I can do a few rounds of push-ups in the office floor and get a burst of energy, but other times I just need a nap.

My Dad should be in the Guinness Book of World Records for napping. The man can fall asleep and be rattling the windows in no time flat (but it usually follows a hearty lunch). Even when he worked for Ford and could not take a nap at work, it was the first thing he did when he got home. My Dad worked night shift when I was a kid and I remember him taking a shower to get ready for church, going and singing in the choir wearing sunglasses so he could sleep sitting up during the sermon…in the choir loft. I don’t think most people ever knew.

Other than the sleeping in church part (though, admittedly, some of my sermons can have that affect on me, too), I’ve inherited that particular rhythm. I function better if I have a nap several days a week. Sometimes I put the office phone on do not disturb, put my feet up on the desk, set my phone alarm and sleep for 10-20 minutes. On days when I can’t catch a nap in the office I take one when I get home. On the whole, sleep when you need to as much as you need to. If you find yourself needing inordinate amounts of sleep, go to the doctor or check your exercise or diet.

Pastor, get some sleep.

3. Try to orient your office schedule around your body rhythms. This can be difficult sometimes, but is great if you can make it happen. Many times it is a matter of simple communication as to why you don’t keep normal 9:00-5:00 office hours. If you are an early riser and dread the afternoon doldrums sitting behind your desk, then come in at 7:00 and leave at 3:00. Do studying and other individual stuff before the office opens, schedule appointments when you are still alert and return phone calls after lunch.

Don’t have evening meetings unless it is necessary to meet the availability of someone who works 8:00-5:00, but use every possible lunch engagement to avoid having late meetings. Reserve your evenings for yourself and/or your family.

If you are a night person, try to do all of your people interacting during office hours and save your study time until everyone else is asleep. Come to the office at 10:00 and stay until 5:00. Simply try to configure your day, as much as it is within your power, to play to the norms of your bio-rhythm.

Pastor, know thyself.

4. Exercise and eat right. An entire post will address this.

Pastor, put down that fried chicken leg.

5. Work from your strengths and giftedness. Pastors will always have to do things that are “busy work,” since ministry involves interacting with others, but you will drain yourself dry if you are continually being loaded with things that you are areas of weakness. Behavioral experts tell us that we actually are energized when we are living according to our own personality (introverted vs extroverted, for example). When circumstances force us to behave differently than we are wired we can quickly grow frustrated or fatigued.

While life does not afford us the luxury of always being able to dictate this, learn to design your life and ministry from your natural strengths and your spiritual gifts; this is the way that God has designed you to operate, so work with Him on it. I do not have the time to go into all the facets of leadership development that can affect this, but determine to move in a direction so that you begin to intentionally work from how God has created you.

Pastor, be who God created.

While certainly not an exhaustive (sorry) list, these things will help you to live in a more restful state, avoiding the fatigue that leads many to failure.

I’ve had my iPhone for about 18 months now, having purchased it at the time of the first price break. Having never had an iPod or Crackberry prior, I felt the spending of the money was justfied as it was time for a new phone anyway.

With the new 3G S coming out in a week or so, I know there will be a truck load of people wondering if they should buy an iPhone or any one of the number of “buy-one-get-one-free” phones that seem to inhabit every retail shop.

Here are a few observations from my months of use:

First, the iPhone is extremely durable. The glass-like appearance of the screen belies is ruggedness. It is not that the screen cannot be scratched; it can, but not with normal use. Mine has no screen nicks at all and only a minor screen discoloration from the mistake of leaving it in direct sunlight in a closed truck on a very hot day.

Second, it has a great interface. It is important to remember that the iPhone is really a computer with a phone, instead of a phone with some cool applications or even an iPod with a built in phone. It has a complete operating system with regular software updates, just like your computer. Since it has a Mac style OS it is very intuitive, even to the point of being fun. Commands are simple and straightforward. It is almost completely idiot proof.

It works well. The touch screen works amazingly well even through layers of grime and skin oil. Only when truly dirty will it cause screen commands to jump or falter. A dry cotton cloth or shirt tail will take care of this quickly. Though I have dropped mine a few times, it never fails to work. I did jar the SIM card loose once from a direct hit on a concrete floor, but a quick hit to my palm in the other direction reset it immediately.

It is durable. Not only does it stand up to normal dropping and jostling, the battery still works as well as when new. An early concern was over the owner’s inability to change the battery; it must be sent to the factory. However, I have charged mine literally hundreds of times and the battery is still good. I do follow the age old advice to let it run down pretty far before recharging.

It’s just plain sexy. The thing just looks good and feels good. It has the perfect weight, not too heavy and not too light. You’ll never leave Chili’s and get three miles down the road before remembering that you left it on the table. I carry mine in my back or cargo pocket and it is easily missed. You’ll forget your sunglasses a hundred times before you forget your iPhone once.

I do recommend, without hesitation, that you activate your password protect feature. If you do not, then anyone who were to pick it up would be able to access any email account that you have tied to it. This could be a disaster. It takes 5 seconds to “clear security” and it is worth it.

Ricky Smith of RB Smith Grading in Buford is a great friend and discipleship partner. He and I meet almost every Wednesday with 2 or 3 other men at a Waffle House, the same place where Jesus met with His disciples. He drives large dozers, low-boys, tractors, etc in doing site work for gas stations, schools, and commercial buildings. A while back he bought an iPhone, but he drops it a lot. A lot. And since he rarely works over carpet, his drops really have impact.

Recently he dropped his iPhone screen down on a concrete curb, creating a spider web of cracks all across it, but short of shattering it out of the frame. Below is a picture of the screen after the EMTs got through with it. It is completely covered with Scotch tape. The cracks and tape are easily seen. The second picture is proof that it still works. The screen you see is after logging through security. The touch screen feature still works. [Note: The fuzziness is photographer error, not phone display problems.]

Get one; I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I regularly blogged about matters relating to the Southern Baptist Convention. After a couple of years of such writing, I retired from it and began to blog about other matters. I’m writing this particular post as a couple of friends, for whom I have great respect, have asked me to weigh in with a few thoughts on the proposed Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) in the Southern Baptist Convention. I’m not returning to the fray.

Though some, perhaps many, will take my writing as negative, it is only how things are viewed from my seat. I hope against hope for nothing but success for all those who are involved in this attempt and would be happy to be proven wrong.

Beginning at least as early as Dr. Jimmy Draper’s Younger Leader Initiative in the SBC, calls for major institutional, structural and Cooperative Program reform have been a part of conversation from the fringes to the center of SBC life and leadership. The Younger Leader discussion board that went online just before Thanksgiving of 2004 (now defunct) was flooded with concerns about the wastefulness of the current denominational structure and suggestions on how to address those issues. Those younger leaders ultimately divided into at least three branches: those who continued their path out of the convention, those who tried a concerted effort (ie, political) to effect change (I was here) and those who more or less eschewed the politics to focus on bringing change via their local churches. This is a simplification, I’m aware, but I think it holds up well enough for this post.

After two years of blogging multiple times a week and gaining insight into the mechanics, politics and personalities of the SBC, I came to the conclusion that attempt at denominational reform were hopeless and efforts to bring it about were futile, bordering on bad time management. (One can read those posts here, here, here and here. Independent of my own writing, Michael Spencer came to very similar conclusions regarding the collapse of evangelicalism Part 1 and Part 2.)

Recently Dr. Danny Akin of Southeastern Seminary issued a call for denominational reform under the name Great Commission Resurgence which term has been credited with coinage by Dr. Thom Rainer, president of Lifeway Christian Resources. This original 13 point message was distilled into ten points and promoted by current SBC president, Dr. Johnny Hunt, who, as I understand it, intends to make it a focus of the 2009 Convention in Louisville. As of this writing, the document boasts 3,346 signatures, which is less than the annual attendance of the SBC and .0002% of the claimed 16M SBC membership, but, to be fair, substantially more than movements of the recent past have garnered (ie, The Memphis Declaration and the Joshua Convergence).

Responses to the GCR document have been, shall we say, wildly varied. Shortly after Danny Akin’s message, Baptist Press published a subtle rebuttel from the normally far afield Dr. Malcolm Yarnell who did not disappoint. Dr. Hunt has taken flack for proposing such a thing as the GCR, accusations about base motives are swimming just under the surface. A document attempting to call the SBC back to a focus on the Great Commission has not been signed by 75% of the Executive Directors of state conventions/fellowships, who, ostensibly, are for the Great Commission, and there is suspicion within the ranks over who would be the president of a potentially combined IMB/NAMB mission agency. With the less than stellar performance of late at NAMB and the perennial candidacy of the SBTC’s Jim Richards, I do not know that much trust would be engendered by a search team, assurances of “God’s will being done” notwithstanding.

My thoughts are few and, sadly, are little changed from the thoughts that led to me abandon any hope of a true change in the SBC from a vestige of a nostalgic past to a rebirth as a missional powerhouse. Nevertheless, here are a few for what they are worth.

1. The SBC has ADHD. EKG, GPS, GCR. The SBC sounds like alphabet soup or the federal government. There is scarcely enough time to promote one program or idea before it makes way for the next one, none of which catch hold. There are programs that emanate from different offices and different entities (The Net and F.A.I.T.H. for example) giving the impression that some entities are actually in competition with each other. This is not even to get into different promotions within given states that alternately duplicate or ignore national movements (Promise Keepers becomes Legacy Builders in the GBC).

2. There is too much turfism. The local association, the state convention and the national convention are often at odds with each other over who is to do what, when and where. State evangelism offices and directors are at odds with NAMB. The entities are concerned about money and who’s getting it. For years at least one of the seminary presidents has been pushing hard for a “seminary offering” to be observed in the convention’s churches, but has been rebuffed. The states balk at the idea of sending a greater percentage of funds to X-Comm, though the IMB is now unable to send M’s who are currently trained and ready. Much of this is related to denominational protectionism or fiefdoms that must be protected at all costs, even kingdom costs.

3. The SBC’s greatest strength, autonomy, has become its greatest weakness. Since each level makes it’s own decisions independently of the other levels (though each claims to be the servant of the churches), there is not enough cooperation and often redundancy. When Dr. Akin mentioned “bloated bureaucracy” he was met with cries of “foul” from other areas. No one thinks that their own area is bloated only that others are. For that reason, as some have noted, passing a resolution on this document means little since the states and not obligated to do anything as a result (Others have noted that restructuring will not bring revival). Even if a study committee returns and makes recommendations for streamlining, each individual state would have to act independently and would be loath to do so for fear of another state keeping or receiving more CP money.

4. There is not enough trust. Everything that I learned in two years keeps me believing that there is ample reason for this, but this is a terrible situation. Adult men and women all of whom are assumed to be maturing Christians, but cannot trust that there are no agendas other than a kingdom agenda. There is not even trust on the upper levels of leadership; how is there going to be trust down the line? Anyone who has read Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team knows that trust is foundational to effectiveness.

5. There are too many viable options for education, fellowship and mission. Southern Baptists no longer need an SBC education. The proliferation of online education has made it possible to have more (and sometimes cheaper) alternatives. Not being forced to move in order to attend seminary may be a bane to the schools, but it is a blessing to the students. Not only that, but currently I’m in a degree program that is not offered by SBC seminaries and is a less expensive option even counting CP subsidies.

Networks such as Acts 29 and Glocal with discussions like ChurchAsMissionary have made it possible to have meaningful partnerships outside rigid SBC structures and, in many cases, individual churches provide more church plant money than all levels of the denomination combined. Fellowship is as readily attained in online communities and impromptu phone calls than at the Monday Morning Pastors Conference at Shoney’s.

6. God does not need the SBC. At least one SBCer, Jedediah Coppenger, has written a lament about the drop in Cooperative Program funds relating to international missions asking if the Great Commission is filing for bankruptcy. While I appreciate the concern, I cannot join the chorus of despair because I do not think that God is dependent on the SBC. Was there no fulfillment of the Great Commission before the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention? If not, how did the gospel get to our ancestors? Was the modern missions movement founded in Nashville? Did Adonirum Judson go through the International Learning Center?

A few years ago I sat in a room with 20 or so other men and ladies and we discussed the future of the SBC. My primary contribution to the conversation was this: “If we are not prepared to admit that God may be envisioning a future without the SBC, then we are not prepared to envision a future with it.” That is, the SBC must be willing to at least seriously and thoughtfully consider that God is done with the SBC before serious thought can be given to a potential future. Otherwise we think and act from a position of triumphalism–that God needs us to fulfill His plans, when, in fact, He does not.

7. There is more concern about job security than about soul salvation. Every time someone mentions b’cracy, downsizing, and streamlining, someone usually brings up the fact that people will lose their jobs. So? And? I see a commission in the Word to take the gospel to all the world, but see nothing about denominational job creation. This particular concern should never enter the discussion. It simply is not relevant to the mission. Glorifying God by getting the gospel to those who have not heard is the mission; everything about the SBC should flow from and into that.

8. There is no compelling vision. Still.

9. We do not need a Great Denominational Resurgence. In case you spend all of your time inside the SBC beltway, the GCR has already been pegged as such by some outside your circles and a few in them. I just don’t know anyone who is crying themselves to sleep at night because of the SBC. Over the condition of our world? Yes. Over the lost? Yes. Over the denomination? No. Pastors are leading churches to be involved in the Great Commission. I know scads of them who have adopted unreached people groups, have partnered with M’s and nationals, have sent countless teams and planted churches all without denominational assistance. Why spend so much time and energy trying to change the saddle on a dying horse? Pastors and churches should recognize the efficiency and effectiveness of channels that exist outside the bureaucratic structures of denominations and exploit them to the fullest.

10. Any study team will likely have the wrong people on it. The order of thinking that could get the SBC out of this mess will of necessity be a different order of thinking than got the SBC into this mess and that “different order” kind of thinking will have to come from different people none of whom will be asked to serve. Why? Because they are on the fringe. The fringe is where creativity happens. Revolutionary thinking scares the status-quo which is why it gets pushed out to the fringe.

One SWBTS professor wrote that the SBC is led from the center. This might be true when there is consensus, but is decidedly not true about leading a revolution. Revolutions always begin at the fringe because the center is inhabited by the status quo. Imagine a study group filled with fringe dwellers who bring back a bunch of wild ideas about streamlining, combining, restructuring…stuff that will actually work. Then it gets beat half to death by a bunch of turf protectors, before being subjected to everyone in the blogosphere, then it finally limps into the annual meeting only to be suffer 20 lashes and then pass the votes of not one but two consecutive June meetings.

And while all that energy has been expended trying to change a denomination, the fringe dwellers are out changing the world.

Saw it again last night: a pastor admits to committing adultery, repentant and broken, but out of the ministry nonetheless. I’m not sure that there is anything that weighs on me like hearing that news. This particular pastor led a dynamic church that has seen 100 people saved in the last three weeks, yet he still succumbed to the same temptation that has torn down the mightiest of warriors.

Having been married for more than twenty-five years and having been in the ministry for twenty (next month), I thought it would be appropriate to review some of the things that I think about when I hear such news. These are in no particular order, but should be considered well when desiring to avoid marital infidelity.

1. Get enough rest. Mental and emotional fatigue are open doors to bad decisions, even sinful ones. Many a man “burns the midnight oil” for the kingdom, or so it is supposed, only to find himself in the hotel room or church broom closet with a woman not his wife having lost the will power to say “no,” or even to think it. Pastors, you are not superhuman and while each of us need differing amounts of rest, listen to your body and rest when you need to do so. You cannot push the envelope of energy continually lest you run the risk of mental or physical adultery.

2. Stay true to the Word. This one should be obvious, but there will never come a time that we do not need the Word. Early in ministry we are afraid to even attempt to live without it, but often in later years coasting becomes the norm. “If I can just make it to retirement,” becomes the mantra for too many pastors who’ve long ago lost passion, but are trying to ride out the wave. Don’t become a hireling! The only way to remain a faithful shepherd is to be guided by the Word every step of the way.

3. Be careful. Don’t allow the thirst for adventure to cause you to become careless in how you relate to women. There will never be a time when flirting becomes acceptable or when lingering looks become godly. Internet filters or tracking software (X3 Watch or Covenant Eyes) may be necessary to keep your mind where it needs to be and out of the gutter. Have the TV removed from your hotel room if necessary or at least disconnected from the cable. When your wife says, “Stay away from [a particular woman],” then stay away from her. Somebody else can take her phone calls and do her counseling or she can go to another church.

4. Love your wife always and make love to her as often as possible. Make sure the passion that brought you to marriage does not get swept away in the busyness of life and ministry. When Paul instructed Timothy that a man who ignored the needs of his family is worse than an unbeliever, are we to believe that he was only talking about groceries?

Continue to pursue your wife as if you are still trying to convince her to marry you. Don’t take the attitude of Ward Cleaver: “What’s the use in chasing the bus after I’ve already caught it?” When your kids are young, get them accustomed to early bed times so that you and your wife can spend time together and when they are old, lock them out of the master bedroom for the same reason. Have date nights and don’t apologize or feel guilty.

Keep sex on the leading edge of your marriage. I think we’d be shocked at how many pastor’s wives go to bed with a book because their husband wants to debate online whether or not sex is “gospel-centered.” I think marital sex is God-given, God-blessed and God-expected. Paul wrote to the Corinthians couples that they should only abstain in times of prayer and fasting “with consent” and then resume their normal activity so that Satan did not find a way to tempt them due to a lack of self-control-a lack of self-control that resulted from a lack of sex. I hardly think that once-a-month passion is what he had in mind. Regular sex with one’s spouse is self-control.

If you are a pastor, teacher or evangelist and you travel so much that you have to reintroduce yourself to your wife and children each time you return home and you have such infrequent sex that you have to get the manual out each time, then you are living in a state of foolishness that borders on outright sin before God. Did you miss the part about being tempted for self-control? It amazes me how many guys would pass up a woman in need (with a broken down car, for example) for afraid of “causing a brother to stumble,” but cause their wives to stumble regularly due to the lack of attention and affection shown by her husband.

5. Live your heart. If you are in the middle of a career of ministry and come to the recognition that your passion is no longer for pastoring a local church, then change. A friend and I were discussing this very thing at lunch today. Guys get wiped out, lose their heart, lose their passion and then, it seems, it is easier to commit adultery than to get out. GET OUT OR GET HELP. One or the other. I’m aware that the Bible says, “The gifts and callings of God are without repentance,” but honestly, does that mean a specific job? I could go today and work at Chili’s and still fulfill my life’s calling.

If you find yourself in the midst of a career-crisis as a pastor and you, deep down, know that you’ve no more to give as a pastor, then plan an exit strategy and start following it. Read Wild at Heart if you haven’t already.

6. Do not let your church (or religious culture) force you into a way of ministry that destroys your ability to minister to yourself and your family. Every pastor is different in structure, personality and function. As soon as you understand how you function best (early morning, late night, mid-morning) you should organize your schedule around it, then communicate it to your church. If you need to be in the office from 6:00 AM until 2:00 PM, then come in early, leave and go fishing or to the gym or whatever. Or go home and help your wife with dinner; or cook dinner so she can go to the gym. Or vacuum the curtains…I understand that is the sexiest thing a husband can do.

If all of your local associational meetings are at night (y’know, when the wife and kids are home and help is needed) then skip them. I see no biblical admonition to attend, but I see multiple biblical admonitions about being a husband and father. As a pastor you are on call 24/7 and often are doing work related to ministry while at home or up early. Don’t feel guilty about calling another pastor and going to the movie after lunch. He needs it and so do you.

7. How about let’s dispense with all the “rock star” talk? John Piper wrote a book called, “Brothers, We are Not Professionals.” Perhaps someone should write one entitled, “Brothers, We are Not Rock-Stars.” Our current star persona promotion of good speakers, exceptional church planters and mega-church pastors borders on idolatry and calling people “rock star” or something similar does not help. In fact, what we have created and continue to promulgate makes mental or moral failure probable if not inevitable. Jesus said, “He that would be the greatest among you must be the servant of all.” When James and John’s mother wanted to know if her sons were going to be rock-stars in the kingdom, Jesus asked about their ability to endure suffering and sacrifice. I’m sure that ticket sales would drop dramatically if torture were the promoted result.

God has called us to one primary calling and that is to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. This can be done from an office or Starbucks, from a house or a boat, from a seminary or an urban center. When we lose that simple focus, rather than following wherever and whenever it leads, then downfall becomes, all too often, the norm.

You can find the actual search engine here, and information about its developer, Stephen Wolfram, in this article at Wired.com.

Wolfram Alpha is a revolutionary (if it works as claimed) search engine that answers question (”How far is the earth from the sun?”) with specific, real time information rather than a page of possible answers based on what matches previous internet contributions (in the way of Google, Yahoo and Ask).

Also posted as a note of my Facebook

This excerpt is from A Brief History of the North American Nations, summary boxes on pages 213, 214, Copyright 2075
For use in seventh grade classrooms in Pacifica

Most historians are now agreed that the breakup of the United States began in the early years of the 20th century with a series of Presidential Directives and Executive Orders aimed at consolidating power in the executive branch of the government. Still operating under the fear following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the sudden collapse of United States and world economies, the legislative branch increasingly allowed its power to be absorbed into various cabinet and “czar” positions at the former White House. Slowly the presidents, beginning with George W. Bush and followed by Barack Obama, assumed the authority to declare martial law for any perceived threat, to suspend elections (which had the effect of creating a dictatorship, as happened under President Jones), to shut down communications and to withhold federal funds from states that protested such expansions and controls.

Though civil libertarian groups had been raising “red flags” since before the passage of the Patriot Act following 9/11, the initially incremental loss of freedoms followed by the massive erosion of personal liberty in the 2010’s finally awakened even the social conservatives, but by then it was too late. When President Jones signed into law the Patriotism Compliance Act forbidding any criticism of the federal government, public or private, the states now known as The Southwestern Alliance began their initial moves toward secession. Following the lead of TX in 2013, the state houses of AZ, UT, NM and CO voted in 2014, by margins exceeding 85%, to leave the United States and form a new country. The response of Washington, DC, as at the beginning of the Civil War, was open discussion about repositioning troops of the United States Army to the borders of the Alliance states.

Emboldened by their southwestern brethren, the governors of the states that now form Southland (GA, AL, TN, NC, SC, MS, LA, FL, KY and AR) met at Savannah, GA for secession talks, as did the governors of CA, OR, WA, and NV, all in the fall of 2015. In December of the same year, when the president, over the objections of the congress, authorized military action against the Southwestern Alliance, troops from all of the states threatening secession went AWOL as did most of the troops from the Midwestern states. Given that many of these states were home to US airbases with trained pilots on hand, the joint chiefs advised the president to stand down. A strong warning was issued to these states as to the difficulty and tenuous nature of any future political relationship with the United States, with the secretary of state going so far as to label the Southwestern Alliance a “rogue state,” a label previously reserved for nations like North Korea and Iran.

The spring of 2016 saw more conflict and more moves toward dissolution. The Southwestern Alliance continued to meet, furthering plans for a new union. As a follow-up to Savannah, representatives from those states met again and drew up a draft constitution based on the Bible. CA, OR, WA, and NV, now with ID as a partner, founded Pacifica and began to explore secession options. In short order, HI and AK joined Pacifica, Alaska bringing its vast energy reserves to the table, while HI continued to debate whether to officially join or revert and declare independence.

Responding to these quickly changing scenarios, several Midwestern states for a loose affiliation (primarily for bargaining power), while the northern and plains states of SD, ND, MN, WI, MO, NE and WY held preliminary meetings. Unknown at the time, but later revealed through official meeting minutes, the governors and congressional leaders of the former “New England” states met for a weekend in Portland, ME for discussions surrounding their futures. This series of meetings took place in the summer of 2016.

Since many states had recalled their representatives and senators, Washington, reticent to declare force and losing the power to do so, used the only weapon that it had left-money. On Tuesday, Sept ____, the day after Labor Day 2016, the president signed into law the States Assistance Compliance Act which restricted federal government funds to those states who were not in secession talks (though some of them were not meeting openly at the time). The states of Pacifica, having been authorized by their citizenry in a special referendum, wasted no time. One week to the day after the passage of SACA, the six states voted to secede from the United States of America. Five days later The Southwestern Alliance did the same. The following week Southland was officially formed at a constitutional convention in Atlanta, while SD, ND, MN, WI, MO, NE and WY stopping short of nationalizing, each voted to secede on the last day of September 2016.

On October 3, 2016, at 2:00 pm, the states now known as “New America” (all the New England states plus MI, IL, OH, IN, VA, WV and PA) voted secession and signed a new constitution in Boston, effectively dissolving the federal government and the United States. Since each and every seceding state had agreed to hold harmless any of their citizens that refused to pay United States income tax, it’s government was bankrupted. At noon on October 5, 2016, the president dissolved his cabinet and, along with the vice-president, resigned posts in a country that, technically at least, no longer existed. The remaining senators and representatives left for home and did all members of the Supreme Court.

The states that had not formally affiliated did so in rapid form. The states of SD, ND, MN, WI, MO, NE, WY and IO, calling themselves “The States of the North” attempted to maintain independence for a couple of decades, but eventually joined their neighbors to the north and are now known as the province of South Canada. Owing to their memory and spirit they are sometimes called American Canada. After years of wrangling the in the former Midwest, Kansas joined the Southwester alliance though Oklahoma was ultimately taken by force in the Plains War of 2027-2028.

For the next three decades, Pacifica became known as “the North American Middle East,” as the extensive Alaskan oil and natural gas fields were finally tapped. Interestingly, much of the oil money was used to fund renewable energy research so that Pacifica, as one and the same time, was the North American leader in fossil fuel production and the world leader in renewable energy research and production. Rumors of “broadcast energy” or “atmosphere energy” never bore fruit.

As of this writing, there is relative peace among the many nations of North America, though the religious factionalism of Southland led to three coup attempts over its nearly fifty year existence, only one was successful and that in 2052.

I did not start watching 24 with the rest of humanity. It only caught my interest with the movie “Redemption” that aired in the winter and then only because it involved the African child soldier aspect.

Since then, I’ve watched almost all the previous six seasons either online or rental. (A person can really cover some ground on rent-one-get-one free days.)

Here are some observations that have come as a result of watching 6 seasons in a month.

1. Anytime Jack Bauer says, “You’re gonna have to trust me,” your life is about to go very much south.

2. The most used line in the series is, “I know how you must feel.” This line is usually used by people who don’t.

3. With the exception of Jack Bauer, all CTU field agents are terrible shots and typically last four minutes before being killed.

4. The only time that Jack Bauer ever runs out of ammo in a pistol is when he needs to stand up and make a show of ejecting the clip. As long as he is behind a car/crate/cardboard box/greeting card he never runs out of ammo.

5. Jack Bauer is impervious to machine gun fire.

6. Life expectancy for cast members is nil; I hope you have other career plans.

7. Jack Bauer can drive or pilot any type of machinery or craft that mankind has ever invented.

8. Jack Bauer is McGyver with a grimace.

9. He shouts…a lot. He also says, “Thank you,” a lot; usually right after he’s ruined your life.

10. Bauer is always right, even when he’s wrong.

11. The producers believe in resurrection.

12. Killing off Edgar Stiles (Styles) was great drama, but I miss the interaction between he and Chloe.

13. Tony, Tony, Tony, you killed me this week, dude.

A review of Wade Burleson’s book, Hardball Religion that I co-authored with Ben Cole is now online at ABP News.