Posted in Rant

I’m not giving up anything for Lent

Posted on by William Douthwaite

That’s right. I”m not giving up anything for Lent. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Over the last few years I’ve heard much more about giving something up for Lent than ever. For some reason it has seen a resurgence not only among Christians, but in the secular world as well. On one popular afternoon talk show in Orlando, an avowed atheist and an individual from a Jewish background were discussing what they would give up for Lent. It seems that the practice has gone viral.

I have a problem with the practice on several levels. First of all, if you are going fast, even if just from one particular food or activity, you aren’t supposed to advertise it on social media or talk about it among your friends. Jesus said that if you were going to fast, it was something between you and God. You were to go about your day as if everything were normal. If you’re going to give up something for Lent and then whine about it for the next 38 days on Facebook, I’m going to block you until after Easter.

Next, God’s not impressed when people fast but then turn around and treat each other like dirt. Read Isaiah 58. The kind of fasting God’s interested in is one that helps other people, especially those who are hurting and going without some of the basics of life. When people who have little interest in church or ministry decide to fast, it means nothing. Why bother?

What do you think of this Lenten prayer by Christian Sine?

We have chosen to fast

Not with ashes but with actions

Not with sackcloth but in sharing

Not in thoughts but in deeds

We will give up our abundance

To share our food with the hungry

We will give up our comfort

To provide homes for the destitute

We will give up our fashions

To see the naked clothed

We will share where others hoard

We will free where others oppress

We will heal where others harm

Then God’s light will break out on us

God’s healing will quickly appear

God will guide us always

God’s righteousness will go before us

We will find our joy in the Lord

We will be like a well watered garden

We will be called repairers of broken walls

Together we will feast at God’s banquet table

Rather than giving something up, maybe we could start doing something new for Lent, something that makes God’s love real. Who knows? After forty days, it might become a habit.

Posted in Grace, Ministry

A little more time

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Yesterday, I needed more time. More time to get things done, get to all the places I needed to be, and more time to spend with people. As the day began (my days typically begin at 5 am, feeding and walking the dog before my devotional time), I knew I’d never get everything done I needed to get done.

I dropped my neighbor off at the restaurant where we have our Thursday morning men’s bible class, went down to the hospital to pray with someone about to go in for surgery, headed back to the restaurant for the rest of the class, picked up my daughter after a doctor’s appointment and took her to school, and then got to church. After that I had two early afternoon appointments, some errands to run, another bible class to attend at night, supper to prepare in-between, and I really wanted to go over my sermon for Sunday. Yeah, one of those days. It’s not like that everyday, but it happens.

Here’s the cool part. I got all that done and had some time left over. It is as if my day had more than 24 hours in it! How did I do that? I guess I could share my secrets in my next best-selling book. But to tell you the truth, I’m not sure I have the answer, other than to give God credit for a day that seemed a little longer than usual.

Now it could be that I overestimated how long some of my tasks would take. Traffic wasn’t too bad, the line at the store wasn’t too long, and I knew the guard at one gated community, so entrance was fast and easy. So I had two chunks of time to go over my sermon, was able to make a few phone calls, didn’t have to rush through dinner with my wife, and had a few bonus conversations with people along the way.

I believe that just as God provides other resources, like wealth and abilities, he can provide some time, too. This should be a surprise, because he did it for both Joshua and Hezekiah in the Old Testament. I never expect it to happen to me, and it doesn’t happen every day, but when it does, it’s pretty cool. Thanks, Lord.

Posted in Ministry

Role reversal

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I didn’t have to preach today. We had a guest preacher for the final week of a stewardship emphasis we had today.

Sometimes it’s harder to sit and listen to a sermon than to preach one. Know why? As a preacher you tend to over-analyze every sermon. You’re constantly critiquing the speaker’s style, content, stories and delivery, rather than just listening, expecting God to speak through that person. It’s not too much different than watching sports and second-guessing the plays that are called. You would have done things so differently. And you would have done so much better.

Perhaps part of the problem is that we get a lot of training in preaching, but very little in listening. Listening is hard work. It’s tough to shut down all the other things going on in your mind and shut out the distractions around you to truly hear what someone is saying. Plus, we preachers get a lot of practice preaching, but little in listening. I did most of my listening before I started preaching, but not much afterwards. I think I need to do more. That’s one resource that’s available to me. There are zillions of sermons I can listen to online.

So even though I really didn’t hear anything new or especially interesting this morning, I did get a message. I need to  learn how to listen better. And to do that, I’ll have to do some listening. I’ll let you know what I learn and who I find to listen to.

Posted in Life

Lunch date

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Today, after tying up some loose ends at church, I headed out to Gainesville to meet my daughter for lunch. Time’s flown by; I hadn’t seen her since Christmas! We sat, ate, and talked at a burger place (Cafe Gardens) near the University of Florida campus for a couple of hours. She’s twenty-two, about to graduate from college, and is actively looking for a job during her last semester. An exciting, uncertain, and hopeful time, both looking forward to being on your own, and yet wondering if you are really ready for that.

Could I possibly remember being that age and in that situation? Actually, I remember it vividly. I typed up dozens of cover letters to go with resumes, and sought out computer programming jobs anywhere and everywhere. I struggled to stay focused on the last few classes I had to finish up and enjoyed being among the seniors in the frat house. I was so ready and so anxious to be out on my own. My job search didn’t come to an end until about six weeks after my last final. Those were a long six weeks at home, but eventually the interviews and then the offer came and I was off.

Unashamedly biased, I know my kids have much more going for them than I did, and I can’t wait to see where they’ll end up. I can’t imagine anyone not being drawn to their talents, creativity, and character. I have a lot of hope for the future when I see them about to step into theirs.

Posted in Rant

“I need to talk to the pastor…”

Posted on by William Douthwaite

The other day I got a phone call from a member who had a question for me. She wouldn’t tell the office administrator what the call was about. She had to speak to me. A question about something she read in the Bible? Something that came up in a discussion of her faith with someone? Perhaps she wanted to get involved with a ministry at church!

Nope. “Is it OK if I come by at 1:30 tomorrow to show a caterer our kitchen?” For this you need to speak to the pastor? This fits in the category of pulling me aside 30 seconds before a worship service starts to inform me, “The ladies room is out of TP.” Thanks for the timely info. And then there’s the ever-popular, “Pastor, is anything going on at the church June 19th?” Of course I have all the events for the year committed to memory.

I guess the predominant thought in churches is that the pastor pretty much runs everything. I would like to dispel that myth right now. I would love to pray with you about someone you are witnessing to. Let’s discuss a controversial sermon topic. Let’s toss around ideas about where you think God wants to use you and your abilities.

For the other stuff you might want to talk to someone else.

Posted in Life

Band boosters

Posted on by William Douthwaite

One of the things I’ve been doing in the community is volunteering with the band boosters at my daughter’s high school. It began as volunteering to help out at football games during marching season, then developed into coordinating some of the volunteers, to now coordinating a whole winter percussion show.

I’ve enjoyed doing this and have really learned a lot, not just about how much band has changed since I was in it, but about people and myself. First, it’s been an adjustment to be at and run meetings that don’t begin with prayer, like the multitude of church meetings I’ve attended. Not a negative, just a reminder of the secular world we’re in. Next, secular organizations have the same problems as the church does. A shortage of leadership, volunteers that don’t show up, and the constant challenge of communication within an organization. Third, these folks are hard-core fundraisers. They think of everything. Everything has a money making angle. Granted, this is what they mostly exist for, but they go for it. Finally, they are a nice bunch of people. Moms and dads supporting their kids in band and colorguard. Too often we assume that people outside of our church are evil. No so. They are committed, friendly, creative, caring, hard-working, love their kids, and are nice to be around.

Since my job involves a lot of church stuff with church people, I don’t get to be in that world very often. It’s been good for me, has kept me grounded, and I like it.

Posted in Ministry

Lenten series thoughts

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I am working on my midweek Lenten worship series this week. Good thing — Lent is just a little over a week away. I looked at a lot of published stuff for ideas, but wasn’t thrilled by any of them. I find it very hard to use someone else’s stuff. So I took out a harmony of the passion of our Lord and just read through it to see what catch my interest or imagination. I jotted down these images:

  • a kiss
  • hands tied
  • a slap in the face
  • spit in the face
  • hands washed
  • the tears of denial

Each led me to something we all deal with:

  • when you receive affection from someone who then turns on you,
  • when you feel like your “hands are tied and can’t do anything,”
  • when someone’s comment is a “slap in the face”
  • when you’re treated like dirt,
  • when you just want to be out of a situation, and
  • when the tears of failure come.

We find in Christ so many opposites, such as a God who wipes away our tears, who uses spit to heal, who washes feet, and binds up our wounds. I don’t have all the dots connected, but it’s coming together. I am thinking about tying it together with the theme Deal With It, but I want to let it simmer a little, and then I’ll taste it again.

Posted in Life

Rats the size of dogs

Posted on by William Douthwaite

My wife may have the opportunity to go to Haiti next month, helping with earthquake relief through Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod World relief. She recently received some descriptive information to help her prepare for the trip: there are rats in Haiti the size of small dogs.

In response, she reflected on our home in Baltimore, MD, during our vicarage year. Married three months, we moved into a row home in  the inner city which had been through some pretty rough times and refurbished on the cheap. The home included a shower where the bathroom tiles were held to the wall with a plastic garbage bag duct taped in place, a basement which I only dared venture into once the entire year, bars on every window, and rats in the backyard which we initially mistook for cats. “Is that a cat out there on top of the garbage can?” “I don’t think so. Cats don’t have skinny, hairless tails, do they?”

Twenty-five years ago it was pretty hard to figure out why God had us live in a place like that. Now, my wife’s reaction to “rats the size of small dogs” is, “been there, done that, bring it on.” So God was acutally preparing us for future ministry we never dreamed of.

Oh, one more thing: we also used to have a small dog the size of a rat.

Posted in Life

Hey, who filled up my calendar?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Uh-oh. I smell trouble. My schedule is getting out of control. Yesterday, I got out of a meeting because it would have meant being out eight days in a row. Tonight, I was trying to figure out a meeting time with a few people and couldn’t come up with any time in February. I know that sounds exaggerated, but now that we are into high school lacrosse season and winter percussion competitions, the majority of my evenings and weekends suddenly have commitments. And I was just congratulating myself on my time management skills. Down the drain, just like that.

It’s not such a bad thing, though. When my schedule is filled with time spent with family rather than meetings of dubious necessity, it appears that I’ve got a handle on at least some of my priorities. No self-congratulations here. Just thanks for the chance to be at games and events.