CORPS!

          A few weeks ago, I began a series called “My” ministry. I recommend you start with Part 1- as this is a continuation of previous thoughts….

               I explained in Part Two that while God had given me a destination to go regarding His plans for my future, I was guilty of running out ahead of Him and trying to do it on my own. Not intentionally, mind you. Most of our departures aren’t intentional. I saw myself as a “good soldier” marching to the orders God had given me. My own experience with failure has shown me that we cannot sustain success for God’s plans without Him. This week I had a very shocking (and painful) realization of another reason this is a catastrophically bad idea.

        When you walk the path to your destiny alone, doing it out of your own strength and will-power, the attacks of the enemy and the temptations from Satan are so much louder and more powerful because you’re not walking with Jesus at your side. I hope somehow my words are able to scare the absolute mess right out of you! It’s the equivalent of rushing head long into a battle without your armor. It’s the equivalent of rushing into a battle without knowing the commands and objectives of your superior officers. It means your unprepared for what you will face on the journey. If you do not heed my words, you will be wounded, badly. And those wounds will come from battles that the Lord didn’t even call you to fight.

What if the Israelites had just abandoned God’s presence after crossing the Red Sea?

 “I got this now God, thanks!”

      What if they had deserted God in the desert and walked toward the Promised Land all alone? Really consider that for a minute. Would they have gotten very far? Let’s face it, it would have been a disaster! They were only a few weeks in and ran out of water. Then they ran out of food. When they did get there, they freaked out and said, “There are giants in the land!” We miss the point that God was keeping them that dependent on Him for a reason. They would have been sitting ducks for the enemy if they had wandered around in their own strength with their own objectives. That’s what I did and when I failed I could see it was because I did it on my own. Now I also see that the abuse I took at the hands of Satan was also because of my wanderings. I opened myself up to attack and didn’t even know it. I’m just now seeing how vulnerable my rebellion made me.

               God’s path rarely looks like the right one. Looking at a map, we see God took the Israelites around the long way to the Red Sea. He knew if they went the short way they would encounter an army and they weren’t prepared to handle it. I don’t mean just physically, but mentally and emotionally. We know they weren’t prepared because they panicked when Pharaoh’s army finally chased them down. They literally wanted to surrender and blamed God for letting them be corned for a slaughter. That’s my main point here. Sometimes God gives us a destination or a direction to march toward. Somewhere along the way we take a side road that looks really good, like it’s going to get us there faster. We don’t realize we left the Lord’s presence until we’re under attack and failing.

“What happened, we cry? Where did you go, God?”

He answers, “You left my side a long while ago!”

       We too easily forget that God wants to get us there. And when he lingers at spots we wish He wouldn’t, when He takes the long way, when He lets the journey look the exact opposite of what we were promised….it would be completely foolish to go our own way. Not JUST because you will fail, but also because we open ourselves up for such a horrible onslaught when we go it alone.

        This very recent realization had me in a fit of hysterical laughter as I contemplated how badly I was wounded by the arrows of the enemy the last time I walked toward the goal God has set before me. It was truly an absurdity. A hysterical absurdity! And then I wept until I could barely breathe. The anguish in my soul for my foolishness wrecked me. I never did understand why the journey had been so hard. Why I had been so miserable. But by leaving Wisdom, by leaving the presence of My Helper, I had put myself in a situation that was open to spiritual attack. It was open season on Leah. Oh, the longsuffering of our God!

        Satan doesn’t want you to realize your full potential in Christ. We’d all be so much more dangerous if we were walking in our destiny. The enemy is going to put stumbling blocks in your path, regardless of whether we’re on the right path. Think back on the enemies who attacked Israel as they made their journey toward their Promised Land. The right path still had them encountering battles. If we are going to encounter trial- and we are - then here’s the question we have to ask ourselves. Can we fight those battles alone? Do you even want to? How many more unnecessary battles are you willing to fight just to do it your own way? How many extra wounds do you want? Much of the trouble I’ve endured I made for myself! How humbling! Getting the direction is the easy part. Staying completely dependent upon the Lord and never leaving his presence- that’s the hard part! We’re not so lucky to get a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night! I think that’s what the journey is really about; to teach us to abide in His presence. In doing so we come to understand His ways and are made more aware of His love for us. I am changed into His likeness, which I will need when I finally arrive.

              Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a series I called Chaplain Wilberforce. I call him “chaplain” because his life exemplified “workplace chaplaincy” in a marvelous way. I call him “chaplain” because he so perfectly illustrates the secular purpose of a chaplain. He lived in a culture very similar to ours, one in desperate need of change and yet deeply suspicious of religion. Yet, he was able to make huge changes to his cultural surroundings. I recommend you read the first three parts below…

               Well, Wilberforce lived almost three hundred years ago. Maybe that’s too far removed. Maybe you need a more recent example of successful cultural transformation. Possibly you think the way Wilberforce achieved success couldn’t be repeated today. Well….in this post I will introduce you to someone who has done just that.

               His name is Sunday Adelaja and he is a Nigerian missionary to the Ukraine. Yes, I really just said that. God is hilarious! You can read the full story in his book Church Shift, which I highly recommend. For now, let me tell you a little of his story. Sunday grew up as an orphan in Nigeria. Later raised by his grandmother, he was desperate to leave the poverty that permeated his life and country. He worked hard and put himself through school. As a teenager, he found Jesus. At the end of High School, he received a scholarship to attend university in Russia in 1986. He would have preferred to go to the U.S. or England, but only Russia offered him the scholarship. He had only just found Jesus, and here he was being sent to the Soviet Union to study; a place vehemently hostile to religious faith of any kind.  Sunday studied journalism and experienced severe persecution there. Other Christian friends were removed from the university, deported or placed in mental institutions for their faith. But God kept Sunday safe and showed him a picture of his future; that some day he would be the pastor of a large church in the Ukraine.

               In the mid ‘90’s God moved Sunday and his fiancé to Kyiv. Originally taking a journalism job, God kept pressing upon his heart that journalism wasn’t his calling; starting a church was. He obeyed but met incredible resistance. Here was a culture, like Wilberforce’s, that was incredibly suspicious and skeptical of religion. The only thing that was going to convince people was for them to see it; to see the gospel message lived out and offering solutions to the serious problems that plagued their communities. God spoke to Sunday and said, “Many people think that serving Me means preaching from the pulpit. That is not MY understanding if ministry. Preaching and church ministries are just tools and instruments you can use. But ministry is really about touching people. Get rid of your tie and jacket. Go out of your pulpit.”[1]

               Since then, two million people have come to saving faith in Jesus Christ at his church. His greatest discovery though was that a person doesn’t need to promote religion or church for people to want to come to Christ. Rather, kingdom principles will draw people. When God’s principles are taken out into culture, they simply work. People discover the kingdom within you, and they become convinced of its truth because they’ve seen it in action. Sunday’s church began this journey by launching a program to help drug addicts, alcoholics and the homeless. To get their message into the public school, hospitals, and governmental agencies they presented it in a way that emphasized the principles, not the God behind the principles. They would have never been allowed to enter the schools if they had been waving a bible and calling on the name of Jesus. One of their recovered addicts created a special program for the public schools to help prevent drug abuse from beginning. She did not preach, but simply taught principles like integrity, respect, honesty and so on. Her presentations were so successful that she was continually invited back. You see, like Wilberforce, she was willing to come from their perspective so that she could introduce kingdom principles into a setting where a church would never be welcome. She has since written over 30 curriculums that have been adopted by the public-school system in Kyiv and by the Ministry of Education.[2]

               Pastor Adelaja believes that this in no way denies God. God is committed to His Word, which holds His principles. God is not committed to religion or any particular expression of it. Instead, Sunday argues that we can only enter the public sphere by bringing God’s principles in a secular package. We can wring our hands that prayer was taken out of public school, or we can offer programs that teach these students that God did not design the human body for things like fornication, envy, theft, indecent language, irritation, anger, and drug and alcohol addiction. God designed our minds and bodies to function by kingdom principles. To hate is to slowly self-destruct. To manipulate others is to invite death into your life. It’s against how your mind and body were made. Evil cannot overcome evil. Bodies, brains, and spirits were meant to function on kingdom principles. (Eph. 4:17-18). The main point being made here is not to divorce God from His principles, but to show the dying world that only God has principles that work. It’s ok to present the solution in the way we are allowed, which means emphasizing principles not spirituality. We are each God’s representative. Just by being in a place, God is there. It worked for Wilberforce, and it’s worked for Sunday Adelaja. Members of his church have started over three thousand nongovernmental charity organizations that deal with smoking, teen pregnancy, drinking and so much more. These organizations are addressing and offering practical solutions to every hopeless situation.[3] Members of his church have indirectly written one hundred and forty bills for parliament.

               What does that mean for you? In his book, Sunday teaches that, “You must speak for God in your place of influence…God has placed you there to be His spokesperson. Everyone on earth is called to be a deliverer in their sphere of authority or expertise.” Whether is be the PTA, or a bible study or as the manager at McDonalds, God has given YOU a sphere of influence. It may not seem like much, and it may not be the promised land He is training you for, but we must decide to stand where we are. The place where you are is given to you so that YOU can set the tone, so that YOU can change the atmosphere. You accomplish that when you live the gospel; when you are a man or woman of integrity, kindness, forgiveness, honesty and so forth. To what extent can the world look at you and see Jesus? Your entire life’s journey is meant to train you and lead you to the ultimate place of influence and authority that God has for you. Thankfully, we get lots of practice along the way. If you would like to learn more about discovering and reigning your promised land, I recommend Sunday’s book, Church Shift, a well as the DVD’s produced by Lance Wallnau concerning the 7 Mountain Mandate. I also hope to talk about these things in further blog posts. But I hope you can see how the same methods used by William Wilberforce in the late 1700’s are the very same methods being used by Sunday Adelaja in the Ukraine today. They work and they transform society for the glory of God.

[1] Sunday Adelaja, Church Shift (Florida: Charisma House, 2008), 96.

[2] Ibid, 134-5.

             This is part three in a series I’m doing on William Wilberforce. If you haven’t read the first two parts, I recommend you go back and read these first. They lay the foundation for what we’ll talk about today.

               Last week I left off with Wilberforce’s religious conversion. We’ve talked about his upbringing, his faith and the culture in which he lived. These lay the foundation for who he was and what he accomplished. Today, lets look at how God was able to use William to radically change culture without a single word of “religion”. That may sound sacrilegious, but Wilberforce lived in a culture much like their own. “Religion” and “faith” carried so much baggage that no one took either seriously. If the leaders he was trying to influence had ever associated his proposed changes with “religion”, they would never have supported him. He knew that…. 

                                            Culture Changers

             It’s very interesting to note how Wilberforce and his friends went about making the drastic cultural changes they did. His first idea came to him after reading the book History of the Society for the Reformation of Manners in the Year 1692. In it he learned about the royal proclamation issued by William and Mary when they ascended the throne in 1692. It was tradition that when new royalty ascended the English throne they put forth a royal proclamation. Most such proclamations only paid lip service to reform and were usually ignored by everyone. What made William and Mary’s special was the widespread and genuine effect it had on society. What made theirs different from all others both before and after were the formations of “proclamation societies”. These societies allowed the citizenry to take back control of their neighborhoods by ensuring that the laws were really being followed. Wilberforce knew that such “proclamation societies” could help clean up London. He now set out to get King George III to issue such a proclamation so that similar societies could be formed once again. He knew this was a process that “could make goodness fashionable.” So, how does one get the most powerful man in the country to get one board?

            The strategy William used was brilliant. He first approached the Bishop of London, who also served as personal chaplain to the King. The Bishop and Prime Minister Pitt then approached Queen Charlotte and got her on their side. With all their ducks in a row, they approached the King. On June 1, 1787, King George III issued his royal proclamation and “proclamation societies” were formed across the country with immediate results. What’s most noteworthy is that Wilberforce didn’t put his name anywhere on it. He kept to the background because he knew that if his name got associated with the endeavor that it would be seen as “Methodist” and thus would fail. He was humble enough to place reform above his pride. He also never presented the suggestion as “Christian” or “religious”.  

“It was an effort to ameliorate social conditions, pure and simple. Wilberforce simply focused on reducing crime and on lifting the generally depressed and depressing social climate in which so many of the poor lived…He wished to bring civility and self-respect into a society that had long since spiraled down into vice and misery.” In his dairy he wrote, “God almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”[1]

             Do you see it? Wilberforce was able to use the social capital he had, and speak the language of the times, to initiate a meaningful change. Religious vocabulary would fail. Righteous indignation would fail. Shaming the “sinners” would fail. His goal: simply reach down into the lowest of society and give them a hand up.

            Of all the causes for Wilberforce to champion, slavery was one of the least visible. There were only about 14,000 slaves on the island of Britain. Most of the British slaves lived in the West Indies working the sugar plantations. As such, very few British people knew the conditions in which these slaves worked. Unlike American slave owners, plantation owners on the sugar plantations of the West Indies had no qualms working their slaves to death as they were so much easier to replace. Few female slaves had children as they were worked too hard to conceive. Oddly enough, the Church of England had a great deal of money invested into the East Indian sugar plantations. They saw no disconnect between the tenants of their faith and the hypocrisy of their actions.

              Over time Wilberforce came to be seen as the “conscience” of his nation. “A conscience reminds us of what we already know to be right. Wilberforce realized that Britain was a nation that had effectively lost its conscience or grown deaf to it; that claimed in every outward way to be a Christian nation, but that acted upon principles fundamentally at odds with the Christian view of human beings as immortal creatures, created in the image of God.”[2] In so many ways, we are repeating history. America claims to be a Christian nation, and yet so much of our behavior, politics and foreign policy suggest otherwise.

            What’s so informative for us is that Wilberforce made goodness fashionable without using references to God, faith or religion. I’m not suggesting that it’s always wrong to do so. But Wilberforce understood that he lived in a culture where such references carried tremendous baggage that muddied the waters. The excesses of the church in previous centuries had left people very skeptical of anything that smacked of “religion”. Sound familiar? Many Christians today believe we shouldn’t try to separate morality and virtue from God and faith because once untethered, culture tends to pollute and redefine. There is some truth to that.

            Consider this… would it be possible to keep morality and goodness tethered to the source of goodness, God, and yet not dress our actions in priests clothing? We’ve lost an understanding of values and morality that Wilberforce understood - that truth is truth wherever you find it. A clock that’s stuck at 12:00 is still right two times every day. He understood that his society’s skepticism toward religion didn’t prohibit the truth from being spoken and cultivated. He understood that there were “kingdom principles” that affect creation just as much as gravity. That all men are created in the image of God, and should then be treated with dignity and respect was and is true whether people live in accordance with it or not. It’s true whether people acknowledge it or not. This was just one kingdom principle that Wilberforce dedicated his life fighting for. Wilberforce went on to champion the cause of unfair and unsafe labor practices, child labor laws, prison reform, animal cruelty and so much more.

               What does this have to do with Chaplaincy? A chaplain is used right where he/she is. The place where God has set your feet is where you are called to make a difference. God had placed Wilberforce in a “secular” government position. Just like the good slave in the parable of the talents, Wilberforce used the authority that God had given him to make powerful changes in his society. The chaplains purpose is primarily a secular one. Yet so many would wring their hands in despair that God can’t solve problems unless the action is stamped as “Christian”. Wilberforce unequivocally proves otherwise. An action is Christian if its done in the love of Christ. I don’t need to tell my neighbor that I’m mowing their lawn because I hope someday it will get them to come to church. I mow their lawn because I see they are overwhelmed with a recent cancer diagnosis. I do it because showing the love of Jesus more fully introduces them to HIM.  I visit my dear veterans in their nursing home because they are lonely, and Jesus comforts them through me, even when the conversation never turns to faith. I step out of the way and act simply as a conduit. And what an honor, because God could have chosen anyone to take along on the adventure, yet he chose you and I.

 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ Matt. 25:34-40

[1] Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace (Harper: San Francisco, 2007), 84-85.

         Last week I introduced a series I’m doing on William Wilberforce. I believe his life and success can inform our own chaplaincy and cultural impact for today. We left off with his early life. At twenty-four years old Wilberforce had won the most coveted seat in all of Parliament. He was on top of the world, he just didn’t know yet who had placed him there (God) or why. Today we’ll look at his conversion and the religious world he lived in.  

Conversion 

       Shortly after the monumental victory of his professional life, Wilberforce and his friend Isaac Milner traveled to France for a holiday. They would spend the better part of the next month traveling via stagecoach. Wilberforce’s cousin, Bessie Smith had loaned him a book called The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge. During the long journey the two men spoke at great length about faith and God that had been spurred on by the loan of this book. This book would serve as the catalyst to get William to think seriously for the first time about faith. Wilberforce’s conversion was not immediate, but a gradual change was happening as something wrestled deep within him. He was too level-headed and analytical to rush headlong into any belief system.   

“He knew that if he held a belief he would be obliged to act upon it, and not just in small and isolated instances, but in all his life. He knew that the tinniest mustard seed can grow and grow and become a tree in which the birds of the air make their nests. Ideas have far-reaching consequences, and one must be ever so careful about what one allows to lodge in one’s brain.”[1]

          He later wrote in his diary, “What madness is the course I am pursuing. I believe all the great truths of the Christian religion, but I am not acting as though I did.”[2] What powerful, and far too infrequently spoken words! The scales had fallen from his eyes and he came to understand that faith was more than a set of ideologies to agree upon, though he was unsure how to proceed on this new course. Wilberforce began to experience deep internal turmoil with the thought that to be obedient to God would mean leaving his political post and pursuing a career in the church. Thankfully, more level heads persisted. William’s best friend Pitt, and his newly renewed mentor, John Newton, both urged him to stay where God had placed him. In a letter Newton wrote, he said, “It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation.” Pitt wrote Wilberforce saying, “Surely the principles as well as the practices of Christianity are simple and lead not to meditation only, but to action.”[3] How wonderful it is that they both recognized an opportunity for God to use him right where he was. Wilberforce came to realize that obedience to God did not mean the retreat to within the four walls of a church.

       This “conversion” moment forced Wilberforce to now see his entire life, including the culture he lived in, through new lenses. Eighteenth-century England has been described as “brutal, decadent, violent and vulgar…The social evils of his day included epidemic alcoholism, child prostitution, child labor, frequent public executions for petty crimes, public dissections, burnings of executed criminals, and unspeakable public cruelty to animals.”[4] The number of crimes punishable by death was astounding. Approximately 25% of unmarried women in London were prostitutes and the average age for prostitution was sixteen years old. Of the first two bills that Wilberforce championed in Parliament, one regarded parliamentary reform and the other addressed the two morally corrupt practices of burning female prisoners at the stake and the selling of the dead bodies of criminals who had been hanged. (Think Charles Dickens…) This was the morally bankrupt society in which he lived.

         Where was the church in all of this? The answer bears a shocking and poignant resemblance to the church today. British society had retreated from the faith it had once embraced, and so the previous practices of helping the poor and less fortunate in society had all but disappeared. Culture retained the outward trappings of religion- which kept the lower classes in line- but it denied religion any actual power. “Religion had quietly been defanged and declawed.”[5] Wilberforce’s morality wasn’t just suggesting a complete paradigm shift regarding religion, he was also proposing such a shift for the wealthy elites. It had never crossed their minds that their enormous blessings should be used to help those less fortunate. This was the age of Marie Antionette, and the elites figured the poor were akin to wild beasts and should be treated as such. 

There are three critical points for us to recognize here. 

1. Though William had been deeply touched and moved by God, though he now wanted to give his whole life to God, it was obvious that God meant to use him right where he was. If ever there was a picture of “workplace chaplaincy” here it is. He could have retreated to what was easy- a “ministry”. He could have taken the path of least resistance -  a life in the church, and doubtless he would have joined Whitfield and the Wesley brothers as a powerful evangelist. But in the end, he did more good in his “secular” workplace. The church didn’t need another Wesley, the world needed a Wilberforce! 

2. In William’s day, religion was nothing more than outward tradition and ceremony. No one believed Christianity offered solutions to the day-to-day problems tormenting society. Culture was wallowing in a putrid mess and denied faith any real power to fix it. The fact that Jesus came feeding the hungry and healing the actual sick was a detail lost on them. To what extent is it lost to us as well? Do I really believe that Jesus has the solution to the homelessness problem that’s overwhelming my city? Do you believe that Jesus, the living Messiah, has a solution to the heroin epidemic overwhelming your neighborhood? Is there actual power, or just empty talk? Wilberforce’s faith was overwhelmingly practical. Is ours?  

3. There were some true believers, but they had retreated to the church to let the world take care of itself. As Christians today, have we retreated within the four walls of our church, hoping Jesus hurries up and returns? We’ve resigned ourselves that in the last days its going to be bad, so lets just grin and bear it until it’s over or until I die. Isn’t that really what we’re doing? You know, the ancient heresy of Gnosticism believed that the world was evil and to be holy one needed to separate oneself as much as possible from anything earthly. The ancient heresy of Gnosticism drew an imaginary line between “sacred” and “secular”. Today, we just separate ourselves from anything “secular”. We keep our religion in a box to open up on Sunday, then put it nicely on a shelf all the other days of the week. That’s what we’ve been told. The world doesn’t want your religion, so keep it to yourself. Wilberforce was hearing the same message, yet it didn’t stop him. It needn’t stop us either.  

Wilberforce lived a culture hostile to religion. Wilberforce lived in a culture in desperate need for a return to morality and goodness. Next week I’m going to show how Wilberforce was able to radically change culture without a single mention of “religion”. There are too many parallels between his times and ours to ignore how he was able to accomplish wonderful success. 

[1] Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace (Harper: San Francisco, 2007), 51. 

[2] Ibid, 53.

[3] Ibid, 68.

[4] Ibid, 67.

              I was recently listening to the Christian speaker, Lance Wallnau, talk about how Christians can effectively engage culture. When he mentioned William Wilberforce, I became intrigued. I teach a high school American History class, and this year in class the question came up as to how the British were able to abolish slavery without a single drop of blood and yet it took the lives of 700,000 American men to abolish slavery here. Why the difference? For the purpose of my history class, I couldn’t answer it; though I searched through many books looking for one! Then I listened to Lance. He had found the answer, and one that I really think can inform our own cultural engagement and ministries today.

               I believe we have a lot to learn from William Wilberforce about how to engage culture in a meaningful and impactful way and about the secular purpose of chaplaincy. So, if you’ll stick around for the next couple weeks I think you’ll be pleased you did! Today, I’m just going to give you a little background of William’s life. It may seem tedious, but it lays an important foundation. In a few weeks we’ll get into the meat of it….

                           Early Life 

            William Wilberforce was born on Aug. 24, 1759. His name came from his grandfather, William. He also had an uncle named William. William means “valiant protector” and what a prophetic name it proved to be! Williams oldest sister and father both died the same year, when William was only eight years old. His mother became ill shortly after and young William was sent to London to live with his Uncle William and Aunt Hannah. They had no children of their own and very much cherished the few years they had with young William. His aunt and uncle were very wealthy and successful; they were also Methodist- which was very unpopular in England at the time. William and Hannah had become friends with George Whitfield, the champion of the Great Awakening. While living with them, William was introduced not only to evangelicalism, but also to many well-connected and powerful men. Though William (the younger) never met Whitfield personally, he did make his first acquaintance with John Newton, the former slave ship captain who would later write “Amazing Grace.”

               The Church of England at this point in history had turned its back on all outward expressions of what we would call serious faith. “Religion was now on full-scale retreat…and the church preached a tepid kind of moralism… and the preservation of the status quo…and so people looked less and less to the church for the ultimate answers to their questions as hopelessness crept over the land.”[1] George Whitfield and the brothers Charles and John Wesley had entered this religious world and shaken it to its core. These three men believed that the bible taught that man can’t become morally perfect on his own, no matter how hard he tries. They instead believed that Jesus was the only answer and that we weren’t supposed to save ourselves but instead rely on Jesus to save us. Sounds about right to us, but no one had ever heard anything like it and crowds as large as 30,000 came to hear Whitfield speak. All three men brought revival to the Unites States; Whitfield alone made thirteen trips and preached over 18,000 sermons.

             But in England, Methodists/evangelicals were despised by the Church of England. Their teachings were challenging the status quo and the elites hated them for it. When William’s grandfather and mother heard of the influences playing in William’s young life they quickly snatched him back home to the port city of Hull. They spent the rest of Williams childhood undoing the Methodism that he had picked up from his aunt and uncle. There he lived until attending Cambridge in 1776. At Cambridge he made many friends that would last throughout his life, many of them sons of influential men. One such friend was William Pitt, whose father (William Pitt the elder) had served as British Prime Minister.

             After Cambridge, Pitt played a substantial role in influencing Wilberforce to run for a seat in Parliament in 1780. Elections in England were easily bought, and with his money Wilberforce purchased more votes than his two opponents combined. Overnight he found himself a member of Parliament and the member of London’s most exclusive clubs; thus rubbing shoulders with the most powerful men of his time. Wilberforce belonged to the Torie party, which opposed war with the American colonies.

            Though slight in stature, Wilberforce was a man who made friends quickly and easily. It is said that he was “incredibly witty and quickly able to lay waste to his opponents through his sarcastic wit and extremely agile repartee.”[2] His true gift though wasn’t in just what he said, but how he said it. He spent much of his young life with friends at the clubs he belonged to, playing cards until early into the morning. With his access to power and wealth, and at such a young age, it easily could have led William deeply astray. But even before his “conversion”, Wilberforce was admired by his peers for his “goodness”. Gerard Edwards said of Wilberforce, “I thank God I live in the age of Wilberforce and that I know one man who is both moral and entertaining.”[3]

               In 1783, King George III appointed William Pitt, then only twenty-four years old, as the youngest prime minister in English history. Wilberforce’s best friend was now one of the most powerful men in England. No one knows why, but the crazy idea then entered Wilberforce’s head to run for the Yorkshire County seat for Parliament, the most powerful seat in all of England. It had always been held by landed gentry, never by the grandson of a shipping merchant. Wilberforce could never really explain it himself, but he took the risk and ran. And then the unthinkable happened, at twenty-four years old Wilberforce won the most coveted seat in all of Parliament.  

           This is just a brief background of Wilberforce’s early life. What I want you to note though was how God was supernaturally lining Wilberforce up to be in a position to make the cultural changes necessary for his country. He had been raised as a middle-class nobody. His uncle, in London, had paved the way through his own success and wealth to be well respected, but social class and pedigree were still a requirement for success in their world- things Wilberforce didn’t have. Next week I’ll talk about his conversion and how faith finally found William Wilberforce.

[1] Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace (Harper: San Francisco, 2007), 7.

[2] Ibid, 30.

         A few weeks ago I began a story about a move within my own ministry that I believe God’s calling me to. (I recommend you read Part 1 before reading further.) One of the main lessons I’ve had to learn on this journey is that God doesn’t need my help in accomplishing HIS plans. That sounds obvious, but we don’t typically trip over boulders but small pebbles. “Helping” God is not usually how we see it when we’re doing it!

               Many years ago, when God began telling me where He wanted me to go, I was so amazed that He was showing me a destination that I forgot HE was also supposed to get me there. God wants to do all the work so that all glory will be His. He loves us so much that it’s like your spouse saying, “Honey, grab your flip flops and book (or fishing pole), and I’ve got an amazing adventure planned for us!” He makes all the reservations, books all the restaurants, we just have to hold on for the ride.

               The “obstacles” that stand in the way to our destination aren’t really obstacles either, they are opportunities. Opportunities for God to do amazing things. Opportunities for Him to remind us of His love and faithfulness. Each is an occasion for God to make us more dependent upon Him and less dependent upon our own skills, knowledge or even gifting's.

               But when God showed me the destination, I was so excited that I just started running toward it. In my own strength. Out of my own will-power. I was so proud of myself because I was being “obedient”. “Look at me God, I’m going where you told me!” And I gave God all the glory! Mine was a legitimate mental failure to realize that God doesn’t just hand out destination maps, He would really rather be the guide who takes us there. But what I built I could not maintain. The ground I conquered I could not hold. What’s most embarrassing to admit is that it’s taken five years for me to really see how my failures where founded upon me trying to get to the destination alone. I didn’t have any idea how to let HIM do it. How to let HIM do the conquering and leading. How to find my strength not in my own will-power but in His. I was in my own way and I didn’t know it. And I didn’t know how to hand over the reins. Conceptually, I understood. But my heart hadn’t learned what my brain already knew.

                There’s a parallel here in scripture I would like to share. In 1 Kings we see that King Solomon proceeded his father David onto the throne of Israel. But at the end of Solomon’s life he left God and began worshipping other god’s. As punishment, God declared that he would take away the throne from Solomon’s son. Rehoboam became king next and his arrogance proved God’s prophecy true, the kingdom was split between Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Solomon’s son Rehoboam only ruled the southern kingdom of Judah. God gave Jeroboam the kingdom of Israel in the north. (1 Kings 11:38) God sends Jeroboam a prophet and makes to him the same promise He made to David; if Jeroboam will be loyal to God then God would make his an everlasting throne. An amazing promise! God hands this man ten tribes and a kingdom. Jeroboam did nothing to get it. There were no battles to fight, it was literally handed over on a silver platter.

               Then Jeroboam starting thinking…if “my” people go down to Judah for the festivals, they may change their minds and want to reunite with Judah. He started thinking, “how can I keep “my” kingdom together? How can I maintain what I did not build? How do I keep control?” Well, who knows what he was really thinking? But he feared what he had would slip through his hands; and so he built alters on the high places. He created false festivals and appointed fake priests and then made two golden calf’s and said “behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” (1 Kings 12:28) Seriously!

               I’m reminded that anything given to me from God, I didn’t have to attain on my own. A very wise pastor once said, “if you build it, you have to maintain it. If God builds it, God will maintain it.” Jeroboam exchanged his ministry for the illusion of power, he exchanged a perpetual kingship for temporary peace of mind. And it would someday come to pass that a king (Josiah) would sit on the throne of Judah and tear down the high places Jeroboam had built and sacrifice upon them the bodies of the false priests.

               I am humbled by this warning! Oh that I would remember that not only does God not need my “help”, and that I don’t have to, in my own strength, sustain the good gifts He so freely gives to those He loves! I don’t have to uphold “my” ministry, for I did nothing to receive it.  

For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. (Ps. 51:16-17)

             A few weeks ago I mentioned a funeral that myself and another chaplain led. While I have done funerals for strangers before, this was my first for a non-believer. And as I asked around for advice on how to proceed, I was surprised by how few chaplains have directed a non-believer funeral. That’s why I thought it might be a good idea to give some of my own lessons learned here.

               Honestly, these are tough. What do you say? To complicate matters, the family asked me not to make the service “too religious” and if I gave a salvation message at all to make it brief and at the end. So, I really struggled with what to say. And then I realized that I could still offer them hope. I could still assure them that while the woman’s passing was sudden and unexpected, that God was not surprised. That while the situation felt full of unanswered questions and chaos, that God holds all things in His hands. While they were all struggling with guilt that the deceased passed away alone, I could reassure them that she was never alone, God was there the whole time. If we will listen to the Spirit’s leading, He will show us how to convey hope even in tragic circumstances such as these. I love the poet Emily Dickenson, and her wisdom is fitting in situations like these.

                “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.”

               We have to be true to the truth, but there’s often a way to make the pill a little easier to swallow.

               Another valuable lesson I learned was that, for the most part, even the most irreligious person will expect and tolerate at least some “religion” at a funeral. My fear that the mere mention of God would anger people was misplaced. Funerals may be the one last place where people who have no religious inclinations at all will listen to the mention of God and faith and not be too annoyed.

               That said, I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit, as I prepared my speech, that for some of the audience, they may never step foot in a church again. This audience does not go to church, nor do they even want to. And if this was the only moment they would hear about God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, then I had to be true to that. You see, I had momentarily considered completely glossing over salvation and had contemplated turning my talk into just a fluffy, feel-good message.

               Instead, John 14:1-6 came to mind.  

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  

I tactfully shared my belief that death is not the end of life, but the beginning of a new life. And that everyone has access to that eternal life through a belief in Jesus Christ. I kept it brief and to the point. I placed it at the end, as I was asked, and no one was upset or angry by my words. Actually, many people came up to us at the end and thanked us for the lovely service. My own fears had been misplaced. But sensitivity, professionalism and listening to the Spirits leading must play a leading role as you wade out into such deep waters.

I feel like I need to add one final disclaimer. We as chaplains may be asked someday to conduct a completely “religion-free” service. If the family says, “absolutely no god talk”, I will honor their request or humbly decline directing the service. But as the chaplain, my aim is to serve the hurting family with love and if they had genuinely wanted a completely religion-free service I would have done that. Partly because I know they would have found nearly no pastor who would agree to it, which would leave them with no officiant. Every person, made in the image of the creator, deserves to be laid to rest with dignity and respect and we can do that without a single mention of faith or God. It will be a sad day if I’m ever asked to do one like this, but for me personally, I would honor what the family asked.

I’ve expressed a lot of opinion today, and I realize some may not agree with all of it. That’s ok. My hope is to help your own funeral journeys by hearing about my own. Our common ground is love. I mentioned in my last post that I come to feel very protective of the families I serve. They have come to say good-bye; an incredibly painful thing. I hold it in high esteem to be asked to be a part of that. Words fail to express what a privilege it is to honor the life of someone else. That’s no small thing! That’s a monumental thing! We have to be worthy of the trust they place in us by never being pushy, heavy-handed or laden with ulterior motive.  

It is highly recommended that chaplains take the NIMS IS-100, IS-200 and IS-700 classes. You may find them offered as in-class locally, but they are also available online. These courses ensure that we are trained and able to work with governmental agencies in times of crisis. FEMA is pleased to release two revised online NIMS.  

IS-100.c, An Introduction to the Incident Command System, ICS 100

This course introduces the Incident Command System (ICS) and provides the foundation for higher level ICS training. The course describes the history, features and principles, and organizational structure of the Incident Command System. It also explains the relationship between ICS and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). 

IS-700.b, An Introduction to the National Incident Management System

This course provides an overview of NIMS. NIMS defines the comprehensive approach guiding the whole community - all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and the private sector - to work together seamlessly to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the effects of incidents. The course provides learners with a basic understanding of NIMS concepts, principles, and components. 

Together, these two online courses form the foundation of NIMS training for all incident personnel.

The classroom versions of IS-100.c and IS-700.b are also under revision and will be released later this summer. 

Please note that IS-100.c and IS-700.b are updated versions of the IS-100.b and IS-700.a courses. If you have successfully completed a previous version of these courses there is no FEMA requirement to take the revised versions of the courses. However, because these courses contain new information based on the revised NIMS, October 2017, you may find it informative to review the new versions of these courses. Previous versions of these revised courses will be archived upon release of the revised courses. This will include archiving the seven discipline-specific versions of ICS 100 for the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Workers, Healthcare/Hospitals, Higher Education, Law Enforcement, Public Works and Schools. The new ICS 100 includes discipline-specific content. 

The new courses will be available through the EMI website https://training.fema.gov/is/. Students will still have access to tests for the legacy versions of these courses (IS-100.b and IS-700.a) for 30 days after release of the new courses. 

          There are things we dream….things we hope for; particularly regarding ministry and calling. The Lord has been showing me some things about this lately that I wanted to share with all of you. My hope is that it encourages you as it has me.

               For many years there’s been this deep fire in my belly to move back into the military as a military reserve chaplain. It’s gotten ahold of me and just won’t let go. But there are some pretty major obstacles in the way of that dream becoming a reality. But I know, as best as I can “know” anything, that God is calling me there. I believe I’ve heard Him say he needs me there, that I would be good at it, that all my training and experience are leading up to that.

               There have been days (years) I just gave up on the dream. The obstacles are too great, and I lack the will-power or strength to move them. I’ve tried, boy have I tried! And failed miserably. But in the back of my mind, it’s the only thing I really want. It’s my heart desire. A desire that I believe God placed there.

               God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He! He’s been speaking to me about “time” and “waiting”. He’s led me to multiple books that He’s used to address my concept of time. In particular, I seem to be living out the Abraham story; the waiting for a promise.

               In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, God calls Abram to leave his home and head to a land he does not know. God makes Abram many promises if he will obey, but all those promises hinge upon having a son to pass them onto. Abram is 75 years old and his wife is barren, but Abram leaves his family and starts walking. Despite Abram’s giving Sarah over to an Egyptian pharaoh and the King of Gerar as a wife, despite Sarah’s attempts to “help” God by giving Abraham her maid Hagar, God continues to promise Abraham a son through Sarah. Most of you know this story. But I’ve only just realized how this story played out from God’s perspective.

               When He promised Abraham a son, that reality already existed. From God’s vantage point, outside of time, Abraham had a son. The fact that Abraham had to wait 25 years for it’s fulfillment does not mean that God waited. God waits for nothing. God doesn’t experience time as we do. A.W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of The Holy says it better than I can… 

“Time is known to us by a succession of events. It is the way we account for consecutive changes in the universe. Changes take place not all at once, but in succession, one after the other, and it is the relation of “after” and “before” that gives us our idea of time. We wait for the hour hand to move around the face of the clock, but God is not compelled so to wait. For Him, everything that will happen has already happened…He sees the end and the beginning in one view.”  

               It’s taken me a really long time to grasp this, but it’s been incredibly encouraging and uplifting since I have. I can see that when God promised Abraham a son, it was already there. Abraham couldn’t see it, but Isaac was already there. It was like God was saying, “Abraham, believe what I tell you and step into the reality I have for you. It is a beautiful, amazing reality that your mind cannot fathom. Step into alignment with MY plans, and stand upon MY word, for it already is as I have said.”

               We see in Romans 4:3- “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 

               Abraham was asked to believe in something he could not see. The test was whether he would trust God to stay true to his word. Could he stand upon the foundation of who God is even when the external circumstances screamed otherwise?

               For us, who believe that God has called us to a certain place or into a certain ministry, or maybe even into a certain career; I know many are waiting. Waiting for it to look like what God said it would look like. Waiting for the right doors to open. Waiting for all the obstacles to part like the Red Sea did.

               In this season, for me, God is asking me to believe that that reality already exists. I may not have it in hand yet, and I have no idea if my wait will be 25 years too! Stepping into HIS reality still requires my obedience in the waiting. (Abraham still had to start walking!) It does NOT require me to “help” God, though I’ve tried to no avail! But this has really been a paradigm shift in not only how I handle the waiting, but how I have faith. For when God makes a promise, He cannot say later, “Oh never mind.” “I change my mind.” “Just kidding.” Faith is found in the waiting. Faith is forged in the waiting. What God has said, dear friends, it already IS.

               I leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. In it, Screwtape, a demon, speaks to another demon about a man they are trying to lead away from God… 

“Men are easily confused. But you must remember that he (man) takes Time for an ultimate reality. He supposes that God, like himself, sees some things as present, remembers others as past, and anticipates others as future. He doesn’t really think that God, being spirit, sees all things as they are.”

        My eleven-year-old daughter has fallen in love with “life-hack” videos. Found all over the internet, they show all sorts of useful shortcuts for life. Well, in this post I hope to share with you a (sorta) new chaplain-hack that I’ve (re)discovered.

               Many many years ago, in a seminary preaching class, the professor offered us a piece of advice. He suggested we create a rolodex or sorts, (or expanding file system) where we stored helpful references and illustrations we found. I ignored the advice…I couldn’t conceive of how I would organize something like that; but two recent events have persuaded me to change my mind.

               One, the many speaking engagements and memorial services I’ve been asked to speak at has left me scrounging for illustration material. You know, the short stories, quotes, or anecdotes that we pepper our talk with; to make it interesting and drive home our main point. The best teachers I’ve ever sat under used stories profusely.

               Two, I’ve been reading a lot of amazing and inspiring books lately. I’ve always been “that person” who writes in her books and leaves little side notes throughout the margins. While I’ve gathered an impressive Christian library, I’m coming to realize that when I need one of those notes, I don’t know where to look. For example, I know I’ve underlined and made note of many book passages that talk about faith. And when asked to speak at a memorial service, those would really come in handy…but who has time to riffle through all their old books to find the one gem?

               Whether it be a poem, short story, historical reference, quote…whatever, I’ve come to really wish I had taken my professors advice all those years ago. But it’s never too late! For me, I created a Word document and started creating headings in alphabetical order. Topics like: “Faith”, “Love”, “Service”, “Ministry of Presence” and “Forgiveness”. As I read or hear interesting illustrations I would like to use later, I paste them into the document. As it expands, I may need to use multiple documents for faster reference.

               I would like to leave you with three such illustrations that I’ve found that I wish every chaplain knew about. Maybe this will help you start your own such collection….but I really encourage you to start. You never know when your going to be asked to say the invocation at an event, or to conduct a wedding. Having illustrations that you like and relate to will help you be that much more prepared!

 1. At a funeral recently I heard the most amazing poem, “The Dash”. Here it is. 

The Dash

I read of a man who stood to speak at a funeral of a friend.  He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning...to the end. 

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars..the house...the cash.  What matters is how we lived and loved and how we spend our dash. 

So think about this long and hard; are there things you'd like to change? For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.

To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more, And love the people in our lives like we've never loved before. 

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile...Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read, with your life's actions to rehash, Would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?  (By Linda Ellis)

 2. My second illustration is a short story, though it’s too long to post here. Regardless of your specific calling, our main ministry as Chaplains is the ministry of presence. Being there. Listening. Understanding. Patience.

               The famed Russian writer, Anton Chekov wrote a short story called “The Lament”. In it, an elderly man named Iona has lost his son. As the driver of a carriage (taxi) in town, he looks for someone to open up to, to share his burden. Instead, no one has the time or love to spare. I don’t want to spoil the ending; but I’ve used this story to show the importance of being available; of being kind; of being present. In our day-to-day busyness we can miss the person who most needs us. The over-worked cashier, the haggard college student, the frustrated barista. They are each an opportunity to be present. This short story drives that home. 

               I am attaching the PDF of the story, but it can also be found easily online by searching for it. iTunes also has it in an audiobook version. I had my chaplains listen to the iTunes reading while following along with their own printed version. It’s very poignant and meaningful.

 3. Finally, I leave you with a quote that I found while reading one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s books, Life Together. This book is about what Christian community and fellowship should look like. What struck me was how much his words ring true of chaplaincy. 

“The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each the Christ who is present in the body.” 

               Essentially, we are Christs’ hands and feet!

 There you are, just three illustrations that I hope you will find useful starting your own collection. Tell us what one of your favorite illustrations is by commenting below. 

               Another chaplain and I were recently asked to officiate a funeral. While I’ve done my share of these already, this one presented a couple unique challenges in that (1) the service was for a complete stranger who was (2) an unbeliever and (3) while they wanted a message of “hope”, they didn’t want the service “religious”. Well, to see how we handled that hurdle, you’ll have to come back in a few weeks. For now, I want to share three other important lessons that I learned from this experience that I hope will help you as well.

 1. Please silence your cell phones. You would think this would be common sense, but to my wonderment, I was interrupted by no less the THREE cell phones going off during the service. As the lead chaplain, we usually act as “MC”, introducing the next speaker and helping the service move along and stay on track. But I learned that in my opening statements, at the very beginning, I need to ask everyone to “please silence your cell phone.” I plan to do that in as light-hearted a manner as possible. I’ll probably make a joke about how “being the mother of young children has taught me to speak over anything, including Star Wars ring tones, but for the sake of the family, and out of respect, please double check that your phone is really on silent.” Truth is, as I looked out into the faces of the grieving family, I could see that the constant interruptions were adding to their grief, and I will try much harder to avoid that in the future.

 2. Please take crying children from the room. This is similar to the request above, and apparently necessary as I was almost joined on stage, multiple times, by an angry toddler. A funeral is the last place anyone wants to take a small child, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. It is a somber affair, with nothing to keep a child entertained. And while I’ve had to take my own small children to funerals, I knew to take them out when they became disruptive. In my most recent case, I’ll admit that I began to feel a little protective of the family I was there to serve and comfort. On their behalf, I began to feel quite frustrated. They were there to say goodbye and find closure for the traumatic and unexpected passing of a loved one. Between the cell phones and the screaming children, that was a difficult task that day.  

3. Highly encourage the family to have a trial run-through. For this funeral I was pleasantly surprised to find that one relative had handled all of the funeral arrangements. They had found a location, made the bulletin, came up with the order of events and made a memorial video, all with no help from me. This is usually not the case. But despite all these wonderful preparations, when it came time for the video to be shown, the sound didn’t work right. I’m not a tech person. And the chaplain isn’t there to fix technical difficulties. I couldn’t have even if I wanted to. I have no idea why the songs skipped throughout the entire seven-minute video. But now I regret not suggesting she play it through once, before everyone arrived, just to make sure it worked correctly. Every technical setup is different at every location, and just because something runs beautifully on your computer doesn’t mean it’s going to work on the church’s monitors. And it was so sad to see because she had put so much time and effort into it and so desperately wanted it to go perfect to honor her mother. So many issues can be alleviated if we’ll have a “practice run” first.  

I hope you’ve found these tips useful. Please comment below with any tips you have. Thanks!

              I recently began a position as a chaplain at a nursing care facility just for veterans and their spouses. Sometimes God takes us in unexpected directions! Up until now, my chaplain ministry had always centered around either community service or emergency response efforts. So, I really didn’t know what to expect when God opened doors for a ministry to seniors and veterans. I never doubted God’s providence, but also had no idea how much fun, rewarding and blessed I would be by it. Take the following story as just one example…

               I had only been working there a few weeks; not enough time to really form any close relationships with the residents. And certainly not enough time to know everyone yet. But I was informed one afternoon that a male resident, whom I had not met yet, was on end of life care. His wife was sitting with him, and would I go and see if she wanted some company. Of course I would!

               I will call her Jane. Jane was watching t.v. and sitting by her husband’s bedside. He had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor many months before, and now she was coming and sitting by his side all day, every day, until his passing. I gently knocked on the open door and introduced myself as one of the chaplains.

“Would you like some company?” I offered.

Now, I’m not a super discerning person, subtlety usually goes right over my head. But not even I could miss the wall that went up immediately upon hearing the word “chaplain”. She was too gracious to tell me to go away but informed me immediately that she already had a church and was “good with Jesus.”

“That’s not why I’m here”, I informed her, “I’m just here to keep you company.”

I could tell she was going to politely tolerate my presence, at least until I made a nuisance of myself. We watched some tv and chatted about life. I hadn’t gotten to know her husband, and expressed my genuine curiosity about his life, hobbies, and military service. Over the next 30 minutes, the “deathcon” caution level of Jane’s body language toward me dropped to about a “wary and not fully convinced” caution level. Challenge accepted, I thought to myself!

I returned the next day, and was met with genuine surprise. I could almost read on her face: “does this person really care? Like, for real?” We spent another 30 minutes, much in silence. But Jane opened up more, confided more, trusted more. The wall of self-protection was crumbling. My presence, my quiet patience, was proving that I really did care. I really was there so that she didn’t have to sit alone. I truly had no ulterior motives. By the end of the third and final day of her husband’s life, Jane and I had become fast friends.

You see, I really did have no ulterior motives. My role, our role as chaplains, is a ministry of presence. I had never in my life been met with such obvious caution and skepticism as I was on that first day of meeting Jane. And it is my confession that such caution and skepticism are now among my favorite things. I hope I’m met with it a hundred more times. Because there is nothing more fun than showing cynical, wary people that you are genuine, authentic, and sincere. There is nothing more fun than watching the wall come tumbling down and on the other side finding a new friend.

The world needs more genuine, authentic, and sincere people. Only a fool will try to use their influence, as a chaplain or otherwise, to cram their agendas down someone else’s throats. The world has got enough of that, and I fully believe that when we demonstrate we are different, then we will prove ourselves as a safe place for the hurting and wounded masses.

Sometimes it is the little things that make a difference. Recently, I was at a coffee shop and the usual Barista was there and it was easy to see she was not having a good day.  So, following a “hunch” I asked her a question;  “How do you do that?“  She acted surprised and asked me “do what?"  I said, "light up the room with your smile and make it a brighter place”.  Well, it is not hard to guess what happened and she talked about that for weeks.  Giving away kindness…

New Tool for Nonprofits to Provide Support in Times if Crisis

In an effort to stay current on emergency response trends, I found this new Facebook page very interesting. Once you click on the web address below, you can select “United States” just to see emergencies in the U.S. We may find that our familiarity with such social media tools will only make us more knowledgeable of crisis response efforts in the future. 

The power of our communities in times of crisis have shown time and again that quick response can benefit many. More and more people are coming to Facebook in times of crisis and to lend a hand and gain access to necessary supplies such as shelter, transportation and food.

Now, through Facebook Community Help YOU can quickly respond in times of crisis. We've given access to Home Spun Ministries to make it possible to provide critical information and services for people to get the help they need in crisis. These new tools are currently available for US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Step by step instruction and organization example below.

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How to Create a Community Help Post

Page Admins, go to https:/facebook.com/crisisresponse to find a Crisis Page

Click on the specific incident you want to provide support for

Click ‘Support’ in the upper left corner

Click ‘Give Help’

Select the category that matches the type of help you’re offering

Click ‘Create Post’

Fill out the information and select your Page from the ‘Author’ field

Click ‘Create’

Reminders

Business Manager users must go through https://business.facebook.com/crisisresponse to create a Community Help Post

Posts should not be promotional in nature or contain commercial offers

To post, you must be a Page Admin that can create content

        I was reminded recently of the importance of fellowship in ministry; of being a part of a team that has your back. One part of my own ministry is as a chaplain to a nursing care facility for veterans in Washington. With six other chaplains, we serve approximately one hundred veterans. These men and women have served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War. Some were drafted, others joined. They represent every branch of the military, and in the year that I’ve served them, God has knit my heart to theirs. I fondly think of them as grandmothers and grandfathers. My cup runeth over!

               One of the first friends I made there was a woman I’ll call Ella. Even the name I knew her by wasn’t her real name. I still don’t know the name her parents gave to her at birth. Her Asian name was too difficult to pronounce so she was known to everyone by a simple American name like Ella. She wasn’t a veteran, but the spouse of a veteran, and she was so well aged that I didn’t realize that she was in her 90’s!

               Ella was sweet and quiet. She was friendly to everyone she met; which is probably the reason she was the first friend I made after becoming chaplain there. She loved the Mariners and the Seahawks; I don’t think I ever saw her when she wasn’t wearing either Mariners or Seahawks gear. I also don’t think I ever saw her not smiling. But her English was broken, and so we didn’t talk much. Words aren’t always necessary. It’s possible to get to know someone, to begin a relationship with someone, by just being present. By just being available. That’s what Ella and I did, we sat and watched Seahawks games together, and became friends.

               One Sunday a few weeks ago, a resident approached me and said that I should go see Ella. That I should go and say good-bye. Ella was passing away. I was shocked. It couldn’t be. We had just watched the Super Bowl together; and laughed and had fun. I later took his advice and went to her room. She was asleep, and within ten minutes, she drew her last breath. I was saddened by how quick things had happened; how I had had no warning or chance to say a real goodbye. I worried how the other residents would respond to losing such a sweet soul. I decided I would sit with her until her daughter arrived. It seemed like the right thing to do.

               After Ella’s daughter arrived I slipped away. My shift was over. I needed to go home and make dinner for my family who was waiting on me. I was sad, but I thought I was ok. But as I made the drive home a heaviness weighed on my heart. The tears I didn’t think I would have, began spilling down my face. Emotions have a way of sneaking up on us. Especially those of us who give so much to others- we carry their burdens without always initially realizing how heavy our own is. And then something happens, or comes along, and reminds us to lay our own burden down. That we aren’t meant to carry any of it. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus in Matt. 11:28-30

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

       As care givers from all walks of life and ministries, sometimes we forget to lay our burdens down where they belong; at the feet of Jesus. It’s easy to become over-burdened. To take on too much. Its easy to forget that we are saddened too. That in our service to others, we are also affected by the loss. Sometimes we are surprised by it. Maybe we don’t expect it to impact us that way. We can be surprised by grief.

       On my way home that evening, I pulled into an empty parking lot to spend some time with the Lord before I got home. (I didn’t figure showing up home a complete mess would be wise!) I laid my day down, and all that I was carrying, before him and received the rest that scripture promises. I encourage you, as those who daily show the love of Jesus to a hurting world, to remember Psalm 121:1-2. 

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.