Mad man in Indy

Danno's Dangerous Mind

Had a good trip to Indy yesterday - just love watchin' the gas gauge go down. :( But it was worth it. Jane and I sat right down in the front and watched Norwell, and they did great. Sitting in the front row is not where you want to be at marching band competitions - UNLESS YOUR SON IS THE DRUM MAJOR - but the sound was really good from there, even if we couldn't see the formations very well. Isaac is so awesome at directing. The whole band is awesome. Especiallly during the ballad, I like the classical guitar piece by Josh Fiechter, and the singing part by Megan Confer. They are some talented kids. Josh is going to play at our church on Nov. 20. We all went to the castleton mall afterwards for supper.

So... why was there a mad man in Indy? Just before I left theoffice I had a phone call from another pastor. I asked him if he'd ever been on the emerging cggc site, and he said no, because it wasn't for pastors like us (me and him)... because we're not emerging. I said, "WHAT?" He said the emerging church has nothing to do with country preachers like us in our old, traditional churches. He basically said you had to be in a church plant to be 'emerging.' Then he mentioned a couple of the old heads in my congregation and asked, "Do you minister to them in a postmodern way?" And tha'ts what made me mad.

#1. He doesn't know squat about these people. They might be old, but they are as concerned about what's going on in the world today as anyone. The funny thing about our church, it's the older people that like the more rockin' music we do, even. They get on me when we don't use electric guitars and drums.

#2. He made some mention about me "ministering to" the people in my church. I think that's part of the problem in many churches. People think the pastors job is to minister "to" the people of the church. I agree, the pastor is to teach, and love, and fellowship with. But to me, the pastor's job is to lead the people on the journey of learning to minister to the world. "We" are to minister "together" to others.

#3. And who the heck is this guy to tell me who I am or am not? I admit, I don't really know what the emerging church is all about, but to me it's about learning to do ministry in the 21st century. It's not about what kind of church you have, how you do worship, hw old your church is, how old the pastor is. It's saying, "the world is changing/has changed, and how are we going to share the love of Christ in a practical way TODAY." I think Mike Yaconelli was pretty emergent, and he was old; his church was old.

I don't know why it bothered me so much. I guess I just really dislike people who are always complaining about the church, or pastors who are always complaining about the people in their church. Man, if you cna't love your own people, how in the world can you help them learn to love others? I know it's hard sometimes, but there are too many bitter, angry, cynical people pretending to be sharers of the good news.

Sorry for the rant. I feel sorry for this guy. I wish he could find peace with God; with himself. I wish he could have the joy of his salvation restored. Help him, Lord.

Well, today is the day off. Time to clean the house, mow the yard, then head back to Indy tonight to see if Norwell qualified for semifinals. Have a great day, you know. Life is good. Peace.