Okay, that may have been a big motivator for any job, but here I am serving as a manager for a shelter and transitional program for the homeless and working poor. I could be employed doing something that has nothing to do with my life mission. Instead, here I am. And I love it. Why?

As way of explaining why I love this ministry, let me share a story.

A resident — I’ll call him “Gus” — was sitting in my office as I administered a breathalyzer test to him. The night before, his reading was .12 (that’s drunk). Two nights before, I had spent 3o minutes with Gus as he cried and grieved over the recent losses in his life. He was making six figures just 5 years ago. He has two teenage children who are currently living with his estranged wife. His wife has repeatedly cheated on him and finally kicked him out, presumably for excessive drinking and all that drinking entails.

The man who just a few years ago was living the so-called American Dream, was now a resident in a homeless shelter.

And I was noticing a trend. He tends to point at the specks of wood in the eyes of others while ignoring the 2×4 in his own eye.

Gus had been trying to ease his emotional pain with strong liquor. He was not getting with the transitional program. And he was lying to me and my staff to cover it up.

I had prayed with him, helped him secure some income, listened as he processed … all the while I noticed he was in denial as to his culpability of the circumstance he found himself in.

Now, he was sitting in my office again and we were having him blow into a breathalyzer (again) to determine just how much he’d had to drink.

Gus said “just a tall boy about 1pm today.” That would mean he might show a .02 on the meter.

Beep, beep goes the machine. And I read a .10. He’s very drunk again.

In my office with me and Gus is one of my staff members at the shelter — I’ll call him Jim.

After we get the results of Gus’s blood alcohol content, I explain to Gus that he can’t stay at the shelter this night. He now has his 3rd strike. We’ll give him some dinner and a blanket, but he has to face the consequences of his actions.

I’m baffled and frustrated. Not only was he showing up drunk, but he had been previously caught with a fifth of vodka IN THE SHELTER. That’s a big “no no.” He was lucky to be here right now.

He repeatedly had told me what a grace the shelter was: “Two hot meals, a warm shower, a clean bed, a caring staff, a safe place to be.” And he was thumbing his nose at the whole process.

As I tried to fathom why he would push his circumstance to this point, Jim spoke up.

“Gus, you can point at a woman, a bottle of alcohol, life circumstances, everyone else, but nothing is going to fill what’s in here”, as he places the palm of his hand on Gus’s chest, indicating the heart. “That’s a God thing, brother.”

You see, Jim is a staff member who was a resident just 3 months ago when I began the job. He’s one of two former residents who I’ve hired as staff. He had gone 7 years in AA, staying sober. Before that, he had lost his first marriage, his kids, his job, his dignity, his self-respect … everything. After 7 years, he took it upon himself to start over. When he began trusting himself, he fell off the wagon again. This time, none of his family threw him a lifeline. They cut him off. So after running for a long time, he ended up in the shelter.

After proving his sobriety and vowing to be changed, I hired him. Jim wakes up every day and asks God to help him stay sober that day. He is a man of great faith. You wouldn’t find Jim’s theological statements in a systematic theology text. But he has placed his entire life into the hands of someone bigger than himself. He now spends time with his daughters. His rebuilding bridges that seemed nothing but ashes a few months before. Jim trusts God to go before him every step of the way. It’s amazing to watch.

And here was Jim in my office talking to Gus. “Gus, I’ve lost it all: women, family, friends, job, dignity, everything. But nothing addresses the pain in the heart except the One who created you. You can’t turn to him until you recognize you have a problem. It’s a God thing, brother.”

Wow! Here was the gospel being played out right in front of me.

In the typical “church world” I wouldn’t be a witness to this. In fact, every day I work at the shelter, I come home with another story of how I’ve witnessed Jesus in the poor and disenfranchised.

The stuff of Jesus I read in the gospels, I’m privileged to experience almost every day! I never experienced this in the “professional ministry.”

Why am I serving as a shelter manager?

Because I was called to preach the gospel, and when necessary to use words. I finally am living and experiencing the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a daily basis.

It’s humbling, wonderful, heart-breaking, intimidating, joyful, and hopeful all at the same time. I witness lives being transformed. I hang out with the kinds of people Jesus was friends with.

Instead of piddling around with buildings, boards, and budgets I get to offer a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. I get to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, and see the captives set free.

Why would I ever go back to “respectable Christian ministry”?

In future posts, I’ll give more examples to explain the “Why?”. Hopefully, you can see why this is wonderful outpouring of God’s grace: that I be allowed to be part of Christ’s work in this way.

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

• Why I’m Serving as a Shelter Manager – Part 2
• Why Preaching Has Been Too Narrowly Defined
• Still Detoxing
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• Bresee and Rejection

For now, I must share the page from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest for yesterday, September 30.  It was timely and a perfect expression of where I am these days:

The Assigning of the Call

” I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . “

-Colossians 1:24

We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” ( Isaiah 6:8 ).

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed- you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

The grapes are being squeezed.  This is the sacramental life!Related Posts:

• Not Living By Bread Alone
• God Producing God
• Covenant: A Promise to Serve
• Stirring Up the Hornet’s Nest
• Where is God in Brokenness?

I am finding out time and time again that we do not have a welcoming culture, but a culture that says it is your job to become one of us. Do the paperwork in a timely matter and that proves your worth. Do this and do that and that will show you care enough…

I have learned that a call for a pastor should not be a call to “come be one of us, do what we want you to do.”  No, no, no.  The call comes from God and invites us to go be agents of change, renewal, and vision.

It seems that our Church culture has not embraced this movement yet.Related Posts:

• Still Detoxing
• Why I’m Serving as a Shelter Manager – Part 2
• Thoughts while considering the future of my local church
• What Is Emergent? Who Is Emergent? – Part 1
• “If I could just be one . . .”

I was walking from the kitchen to my study in the Grace Community training site, when I saw one of our older parishioners out for her morning walk.  She lives about a mile from here.

My to do list is long today, the pressure is mounting to get stuff done before leaving town on a family holiday, I need to do some planning … etc.  But I decided to get off my timeframe and just go say “Hi” to her, coffee cup in hand.

She is approaching 90, has a husband she cares for.  She’s an amazing woman with a tender heart.  She has weathered the difficulties in re-birthing this local congregation.

I was able to just listen, and learn, and give a hug.  I stood there for about 30 minutes in the coastal Georgia heat (sipping my cup off Starbucks brew, which added to the sweat factor).  All she wanted and needed from me was to be present and listen.  I learned so much about her life story, her extended family, her outlook on life.

I wonder if I was blessed more than her by our conversation.

It’s an art, you know … being patient enough to put aside mental pressures and just focus on someone talking to you.  It’s an art I’ve been trying to practice more these days.  I find myself changed somehow each time I practice it: a bit more humble, a bit more patient, a bit more about others, a bit less about me.

What a great part of my day … seeing Jesus in the presence and words and history of this woman.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
In what ways are you practicing the art of presence?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

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• Where is God in Brokenness?
• What is Sacramental Living?
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In my dealings with people over the last month of my busy life, I’ve relied on three things I’ve learned about Christian leadership to keep me focused on God’s calling, my priorities, and the need for Jesus in my community.

#1 — Just because I used to think a certain way doesn’t mean it’s true.

There are often times I take a retrospective look at my life and wish I could go back and get a second take on some situations and events. I shake my head as I remember how I used to passionately and unreservedly push my opinion through at meetings and encounters. It didn’t matter if I was right (and I’m wise enough to now realize about half the time I wasn’t right). What matters is how I handled the situation.

I used to think that if something was the right action then everyone else had better get on board or get out of the way. I still think there are rare occasions where this tact is appropriate, but it is seldom necessary. It’s far better to gain consensus. These days when I think I’m right about something, I sort of float the idea out and let others run with it. I figure if several others find it to be right, then we might be onto something. If not, then I eat my humble pie and move on.

This approach allows for a real sense of community. I think it pleases God.

#2 — Just because someone with more experience than me thinks something is right doesn’t mean it is.

I’ve never been one to blindly follow authority. I tended to be a skeptic of authority and try to find ways to “be better” than those over me. It was a fruitless exercise that caused me much grief … not to mention the headaches I gave to those over me!

These days I’m more apt to try to discover how an authority figure is trying to help me. Instead of focusing on our points of contention, I try to remember that the odds are this person is trying to help me but something is getting lost in translation.

Instead of making sure they fully understand my point at all costs, I try to retain a relationship that is open and honest. I may still disagree with the person in authority … I may still take a different course than what they want me to … But I do so letting them know I deeply appreciate their insight and good intentions. I ask them to pray for me as I take the next step.

#3 — When all else fails, look at what Jesus did and try to emulate that.

Several years ago during the WWJD craze, I never was a fan of the phrase. The more important question to me is “What DID Jesus do?” Granted, Jesus never sat in a church board meeting, or negotiated terms with a bank, nor hired staff, nor many of the other myriad things a Christian leader does that sometimes feels so unrelated to what he or she is called to do. But Jesus did have dealings with small groups of people: some for him and some against him. Jesus did try to deal with material matters in a way that pleased his Holy Father. Jesus did invite people to “come and see” and, despite hundreds of them turning away, a handful did become his disciples.

So when the logic of this world just isn’t making sense, and people who call themselves Christians aren’t acting like Christ-followers, and I seem to be surrounded by a lack of faith, and I’m unnecessarily challenged, I ask myself “What did Jesus do?”

Not only does that help me maneuver many situations I’d rather not deal with, it almost always opens me up to a surprise about this Jesus I serve. I learn a little more about who God is and what this life is about. That’s always worth the exercise.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
If you’re in leadership, what’s something you’ve learned?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

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• We Need Culture Change in the Church

Now I’ll finally spell out my perspective … a perspective that has been honed that last few months (and will likely change with time as perspectives are want to do).

I’m reminded that Paul often wrote, “This is from me and not the Lord.” So be warned, this is of Brian and not necessarily the Lord (but it certainly doesn’t run counter to what I understand of Christian history and Jesus’ own ministry.)

A minister should have two primary purposes:

• to preach the gospel;
• to equip others to be ministers;

Let me flesh these two purposes out a bit. Preaching the gospel is much more than what happens in a Sunday worship gathering. At present, the faith community where I serve holds two Sunday worship gatherings … each addresses a different learning and participatory style. Consequently, the two sermons or teachings I give each Sunday are often delivered quite differently with different emphases (although the theme is always the same).

When I am done with the Sunday sermons, teachings, dialogues, experiences, I know full well I’m not done preaching for the week. Yes, one aspect of preaching is being God’s mouthpiece. But an equally important part of preaching is the way I live my life. I must strive for Christ to shape me into a walking example of Paul’s admonition: “Follow my example as I follow Christ’s.”

I don’t say what Paul says, but rather I try to live in such a way that my example can be followed. That means I am a servant, a giver, an encourager, a God-bearer.

Now, I’ve been preaching this way long enough to know that I will have both good soil and bad soil in my sphere of influence.

What is good soil? Those persons who desire to be and experience Jesus above all else.

What is bad soil? Everyone else.

Can bad soil become good soil? Absolutely … but the outcome is not my responsibility. I simply spread the seed and leave the rest to the Spirit of God. When I find good soil, I focus the majority of my energy, time, and resource in that good soil.

This will inevitably mean that I can’t spend much time with those not hungering to be disciples. I hear the groans now: “Isn’t a pastor supposed to treat all parishioners the same, after all?: In a word: No! A pastor who operates through this fruitless exercise may be more spiritual than even Jesus. Because Jesus invested his time and energy and resource in the good soil; not the bad. The greatest waste of my life would be investing in bad soil.

Now about equipping others to be ministers. This is exactly what Jesus did. He gathered twelve around him, invested his life in them, equipped them, and sent them out to ministry. Sure, one proved faithless. But through the rest of that rag-tag bunch, the world was turned upside down.

What if I invest in equipping just twelve other people? What if I disciple them to grow in grace? What if I enable them to be ministers who preach the gospel by the way they live their lives and, in turn, they equip others to be ministers? I think at least Coastal Georgia might be turned upside down!

So that’s what I believe my calling is: preaching and equippping. I’m not called to:

• steady a sinking ship;
• mediate petty, un-Christlike arguments;
• be a quivering mass of availability;
• lay down God’s call and vision for the selfish desires and wrong thinking of others;
• marry and bury people;
• run programs;
• be the only dispenser of grace in a faith community;
• etc., etc., etc. …

Oh, I may do some of that … only in as much as it serves the core calling. And in that calling, I am fearless for I trust a God who consistently and without fail weaves beauty out of brokenness.

SO TELL ME:
Are you preaching and equipping? If so, how?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS. Related Posts:

• What Is a Minister? – Part 1
• What Is a Minister? – Part 2
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Tags: perspective, preach, gospel, equip others, ministers, community, Jesus, ministry, disciple

Why?

As stated on NPR’s Morning Edition large agribusiness interests (lobbyists) are just too strong. The richest 10% of American farmers and farming industries pour millions into congressional campaigns and threaten to oust incumbents over this one issue. All the while, the Farm Bill increases persecution of the poor world-wide and on US soil.

As Christians, we are to speak truth to power. Yet, there comes a time when power must embrace truth and act truthfully. How can our representative form of government be an authentic republic when the “power” entities succumb to threats to their power, rather than embracing truthful ways of living and being even at the expense of their power?

An example of truthful living … I’m a pastor. But God did not call me to be a pastor, rather to preach the gospel (in words and by the way I live my life in community). Now, it could be said that a pastor wields power (though it is ebbing away in our post-Christian society). That power is usually within one’s own faith community. When I am faced with the choice of living and/or speaking truthfully OR clinging to my power of influence and being well-liked, I must choose being truthful … even if that comes at the expense of my “pastor” position. I can always be truthful to the call to preach/live the gospel … though I may sacrifice the “power” of pastoring in order to do it.

Are our politicians called to be truthful representatives that make right choices on behalf of the republic, or are they called to be career politicians that must be powerful members of Congress at all costs?

SO TELL ME:
What power do you sacrifice in order to live truthfully?

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS. Related Posts:

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Tags: Farm Bill, agribusiness, persecution, poor, power, truthful

Ideas are brimming these days. Before my traveling began, God was already tipping the dominoes on several different chains of events that could have significant impact for the kingdom in the earth. Seeing what God is doing and searching to find my place in it leads me to several observations:

My frustration level is higher and God’s progress is diverted only when two things happen–

I disobey the Lord’s prompting by not carrying through with what God is inpsiring in my heart; either because of fear or because the inspiration usually doesn’t fit within the usual parameters of “doing church” (though it spurs us on to be the church); OR

I attempt to control the beginnings of what God is doing for what I perceive to be the logical results.

Guess what … God’s activity is most prevalent when I just jump into what God is already doing … when I call for those I serve to jump with me into God’s future … when I don’t waste time on “bad soil” that isn’t willing to let go of comfort zones and step into the Spirit-led future of Christ.

So, I’ve jumped! I’m in 100%.

Living this way as a Christ-follower in a Christian faith community is an organic way to be the Church. It’s messy, somewhat chaotic, unpredictable … but alive and so much better than what the Church has encountered for 40+ years.

Imagine a faith community that actually means something to its neighborhood, its neighbors, its city and county. Imagine people discovering how uniquely God has created them for just such a time as this. Imagine a God that does not even see a box and calls us to be more than outside a box, but to be blind to any parameters as well.

Sounds like what was happening when Jesus, Peter, and Paul were alive. Sounds ancient. Sounds like the future, too.

SO TELL ME:
Are you ready to jump? If so, what are you jumping into?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS. Related Posts:

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Tags: praying, relationship, God, kingdom, inspiration, doing church, be the church, God’s activity, future, Christ, Christ-follower, faith, organic, Jesus, ancient

I feel it’s my responsibility to be as honest with such a dialogue as possible. The great ideas we read in books regarding the paradigm shift of the Church from a Christendom mentality to a practiced communal faith and life are just that — things we read in books.

Oh, they are happening somewhere. Someone has witnessed them. But not usually the ones who read the books.

I’m discovering that Christian life — being a follower of Jesus in relationship with other followers — is far more improvised than I read it described it books.

To truly be a follower of Jesus places us at odds with lots of folks. As a pastor who is a follower of Jesus, that sometimes means I’m even at odds with those who have been Christians longer than I’ve been alive.

It’s not easy. But it’s rewarding to know that we’re being obedient. It’s rejuvenating to see God actually working. It’s the stuff that someday could be the makings of a book.

But I’d rather live it than read it.

SO TELL ME:
Are you “in vocational ministry” and trying to “live it?”

SO TELL ME SOMETHING ELSE:
What’s it like for you?
——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS. Related Posts:

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Tags: chat, ministry, seminary, dialogue, Church, Christendom, faith, Christian, follower, Jesus, relationship

The Question:

I am assuming that you have an emergent church outlook. If this is a correct assumption, then could you tell me what the goal of the Emergent Church is? Specifically is there a reformation being sought or simply a separation from the present Church?

My Reply:

I wouldn’t say I have an emergent movement outlook toward the Church and ministry. Yet, I am sympathetic to much in the emergent movement.

That said, there are separatists in the movement. I do not identify with the separatists.

I do believe the Church should always be in the reform process. Much in the emergent movement helps in that endeavor. The difficulty with any spiritual movement is that it tends to become a religious institution. Look at the Protestant Reformation. A great move of the Spirit that resulted in more denominations than I can count or am even aware of … each with its own “manual� or governing policy. As I read Luther, I am convinced that’s not what he had in mind when he nailed the 95 to the door.

In our own movement (yet another “split� in Protestantism that emerged about 100 years ago), some spiritual leaders wanted to identify with the disenfranchised in society. 50 years later there is an emphasis in the heartland and southeast on holiness defined by what an individual does not do. Only in recent decades have we begun to remember and rehearse what began the movement titled “Church of the Nazarene.� In so doing, we are beginning to live a renewed and reformed faith.

Any good “emerging� perspective will make a half-turn toward orthodoxy while keeping a steady pace toward the future.

SO TELL ME:
Do you discern a difference between “emergent perspective” and “Emergent Church?”

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: pastor, emergent, church, Emergent Church, reformation, separatists, reform, spiritual, religious, Luther, disenfranchised, Nazarene, orthodoxy, future