Pastor Smith’s (unfortunately) Powerful Tongue

Written for my wife for our 26th anniversary today.

Pastor Smith stuck out his tongue at the congregation during his sermon. It was the last time Barbara and Floyd Cloyd would be in that church. Of course, Pastor Smith was making a point totally other than the rudeness of a Bronx cheer. He was making a huge point! He stuck out his tongue at the idols in our lives. And The Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Cloyds missed it. He spoke about idolatry that morning. That’s all.

Afterward, when the elders had convened an emergency meeting to discuss their pastor’s tongue-y behavior, Pastor Smith admitted that if it were a Woodstock crowd he would have mooned the idols! The elders all chuckled, and told him he could just go on preaching with passion. It worked. They’d handle the Cloyd’s.

But Pastor Smith did not let it go. He could fret for days! He knew worry was a sin, but the Cloyd’s had been members for two years. The sat in the front row. Now what? Everyone would see that the woman with the pink hair, and the husband who looked like Mr. Cleaver, would be absent, missing, maybe even “disgruntled.” Those disgruntled members really ate at Pastor Smith’s psyche.

Someone once gave him a three-foot Q-tip to remind him to “Quit Taking It Personally.” It didn’t work. He woke in the night sweating out his anxiety, gave it to God, then analyzed his behavior and the others to see how it could fit together all over again. He knew that in the morning it wouldn’t matter, but even now, after thirty years of ministry, people’s behavior toward him destroyed him for days.

Pastor Smith woke on Monday morning to bright sunshine, crisp air, and a new day. His first thought wasn’t pink hair in the front row or the elder’s chuckling, but the smell from the kitchen. Mattie must have gotten up early to make him breakfast. There she was, fixing eggs, whole wheat toast, and oatmeal. She knew he needed a picker-upper-morning. Starbucks Breakfast Blend was brewed in the coffee press. She read him a short devotional that she had read that morning, and prayed before they ate. “Unbelievable,” he thought. “How did she know that all I needed was to know the world was still a safe place with someone who loved me?”

The rest of the day, Pastor Smith waited for the elders to get back to him about the Cloyd conversation. How did he know that sticking out his tongue to make a point would kick the Floyd Cloyd’s clear out the front door of church. No wonder James says the tongue is so powerful!

Sermons, Rob Bell, Pastoral Ministry

Interesting that the almost primordial thinker, mega church pastor, and prolific public speaker and videographer, Rob Bell, reveals the depth of his “technique” and struggles to turn over and over the soil of truth. He, once again, exposes himself to the vitriolic hatred of the so-called Christians who cannot imagine a discussion about truth without red faces and 220/140 readings on the doc’s sphygmomanometer. He speaks of finding truth in scripture and expressing it relevantly in teaching and preaching as “Tying the Clouds Together.” I can imagine the spitting and hissing over that phrase!

Yet, he grounds his insight in verse-by-verse preaching, even through Leviticus. He understands that God has left his fingerprints in everything. Preachers, pastors and church leaders everywhere should get a dose of this kind of fascination with truth, and its commensurate effect on transforming lives. The more we can understand the multiple layers of scripture the more we point people to the center of all truth, Jesus, Lord and Savior.

I highly recommend reading and radiating with Rob Bell in this Leadership Interview here. Pastors: find your boundaries. Turn off the gadgets. Turn on the “one anothers” and the fascinating clouds of truth God puffs into our lives from every known and yet to be discovered angle!

An excerpt of the interview follows…

Your sermons are known for pulling from unexpected sources—everything from art history to quantum physics. Why?

When Jacob woke up after his vision of angels ascending and descending on the ladder, he declared, “Surely God was in this place and I did not know it.” And Jesus says, “My Father is always at work even to this very day.” Jesus lives with an awareness, an assumption that God is here and he’s at work. Dallas Willard calls this “the God-bathed world.” This has deeply shaped me.

My assumption is that God can be found in all of the interesting things buzzing

God Does Not Judge External Appearance

God does not judge by external appearance. Gal. 2:6

The marks of an apostle were obvious.

2 Corinthians12:12 The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance.

But Satan, also can masquerade as an angel of light and do counterfeit miracles.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders.

When we who believe in God’s grace through the gospel (i.e. the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and all that historic event means!) the question of “Who are you?” or implied “Are you legitimate?” rises in people. Why should someone listen? What makes us legitimate?

Jesus used the analogy of a shepherd in John 10. The hired hand runs away when trouble comes. The good shepherd lies down in front of the gate and gives up his life. To Jesus, legitimacy was serving, sacrifice and perseverance. (See the parable of the four soils in Luke 8:15)

The Corinthian church was dismissing Paul’s legitimacy. Paul uses evidence that puts many of us Christians to shame to show his legitimacy.

1 Cor. 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power….23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…

He told them the fact of gospel history over and over again.

1Cor. 2:1   When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,  5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

He knows there is only one foundation to build on to promote legitimacy.

1 Cor. 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Paul knew that the Corinthian church people were distancing themselves from him because he seemed so simple. He said that they were saying he was a fool (i.e. simpleton) and that his words were not wise (Gk: sophia from which we get the word sophisticated)

1 Cor. 4:10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

1 Cor. 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

External appearances can be deceiving. What we consider successful or sophisticated includes large monuments, big buildings, beautiful steeples, respectful peers, large crowds and the spectacular “excellence” in worship. The external signs of a successful ministry can masquerade around for years and dupe people as Satan does. It can make people think they are making a difference in the world, but are really just “hired hands.”

Throughout his ministry, Paul was perplexed by what is a legitimate church. His final comments from his final letter in prison at the end of his life goes like this:

Phil. 1:15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

The goal wasn’t external success. If that was the case, he failed. Success is Christ and the gospel, plain and simple. Preach Christ. Tell the gospel (his death, burial and resurrection). Preach Jesus. Unpack the way, the truth and the life. Knowing the truth sets us free. His death proves his love and grace can be unharnessed in our lives. Knowing the truth, that is, a belief in the historical facts of Christ’s death and resurrection is the greatest mark of the church. Separate this from The Journey or any church and we are duped and de-legit!