Eric Taylor

"____________" Pastor

Fill in the blank... __________ Pastor.  Be nice... no profanity! I've been reading Eugene Peterson's book, The Contemplative Pastor and it's wrecking me.  He says "a healthy noun doesn’t need adjectives. Adjectives clutter a noun that is robust. But if the noun is culture-damaged or culture-diseased, adjectives are necessary."  Pastor used to be like that... now it needs an adjective for further clarification.  It can describe what role we play:  Lead pastor, Worship pastor, Youth pastor, etc;  it can describe a proficiency we have:  Praying pastor, caring pastor, storytelling pastor.  But sometimes the adjectives can describe a dysfunction... and the pastor may not even know it.   Peterson describes the "Busy" Pastor.  Some people might see this as good thing... but it can be the very thing that keeps us from being most effective in ministry.  I confess that the phrase describes me more often than I would like it to.  But Peterson says the word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal.  It is not devotion, but defection.  It should sound to our ears like Adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzeling to describe a banker.  

Peterson says we pastors become busy for two reasons:  Because we're vain and because we're lazy. 

We are vain and we want to appear significant and relevant... Busyness helps feed that illusion. 

In our quest to be relevant to our culture, to our collegues, and , we can become irrelevant because we've abandoned the core of our calling-- Prayer and the ministry of the Word. (At least that's what the Apostles said was at the core of their job description.- Acts 6:4)  

There's nothing more frightening to me as a pastor, an as a person, than to think that I will live all of my life and be completely irrelevant... invisible... making no contribution whatsoever.   That's what Wrecks me about Peterson's book.

The other reason we're busy is because we're lazy.  I'm not talking about the couch potato pastor who comes in at 10 and goes home at 2.  There have always been certain groups of people who think pastors only work one day a week... there are some pastors that fuel that speculation.  But the kind of lazy I'm talking about here is when we're lazy with our schedule.  We bounce around from Twitter to Facebook to emails and we wait for someone to call us and give us something "spiritual to do".  This happens because we are too lazy to put in the hard work of sifting through the hundreds of GOOD things that could be done and diligently choosing to do the BEST thing to do.  The things that move us and the church forward.    C.S. Lewis once said that "only lazy people work hard.  By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone."

Busy isn't always good... in fact... it's rarely good.  Productive is good.  The question I have to constantly ask myself is "How am I ordering my life to be the most productive and the most purposeful?"  The answer for me is that I must be very intentional about the 5 things that I MUST do to make sure I fulfill my calling as a pastor.  Over the next few days I'll be unpacking each one of them here so you'll have a better idea about what I'm called to do and be.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1.  Nurture Spiritual Vitality in my own life and in my family. (It takes a lifetime to build integrity and a minute to destroy)

2.  Focus on Prayer and Ministry of the Word.  (if I'm not hearing from God, I'm sunk and my church is sunk.)

3.  Equipping, Enabling, Empowering, Encouraging others to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4)

4.  Communication of the Gospel, the Mission, the Vision and the Stories of life change along the way.

5.  Model the Values of our church (things like personal evangelism, authenticity, prayer, generosity, taking big risks)

Check back as I unpack these.  I'd love to hear from all you pastors... how do you "Unbusy" yourself?

Monday Rewind

Great Sunday at Journey!  We began a new series called "Christmas is For-Giving".  We're talking about forgiveness all month long.  It's the greatest gift you can give... and receive!  

• I was blown away at the response to the message today.  Several people commented that the message hit them hard.  We had some folks recommit their lives to Christ today!  Whooo Hoo!
• I am continually blown away at our volunteers how they work so hard setting up and tearing down each week.  These guys and girls are the heroes of Journey Church!  
• The holiday season is awesome and wonderful... but it's crazy trying to figure out who's going to be in town and who's not.  Makes scheduling volunteers a headache sometimes.  That's why we're about to go to planningcenteronline.  We've been using it with our worship team for a few months... it's awesome.  I think we're going to plug all our volunteers in and that way we can make sure we have enough each Sunday!
• As great as today was, my mind and heart was heavy for an old friend in ministry, Thomas Young. Thomas and I connected through the ministry of Kelly Green several years ago.  He was the pastor of The Sanctuary Church in the Houston area.  I hadn't talked to him in years, but got word late Saturday night that he had died tragically.  No details were given at that time since they wanted to share the details with their church on Sunday morning.  I found out later that he took his own life.  It's rocked my Sunday afternoon.  Our prayers are with his wife Erin and their children and their church.
• It seems like a bunch of pastors and churches have dealt with some major stuff this year...moral failures, major medical issues and now, suicide.  All the more reason for pastors to focus on caring for themselves as much we care for our flock.  

Monday Rewind - Train Wreck!

By most measurements yesterday at Journey was a train wreck  We knew attendance would be down because of the Thanksgiving Holidays.  But what we didn't count on was the Sound System would have a mind of it's own and do freaky things.  Our team worked hard trying to fix the problem and it seemed to be fixed ... right at 10:15 too!  But about halfway through the first song Joey's guitar kept going in and out.  So we unplugged everything, came off the stage and did a fully acoustic worship set.  No lights.  No Sound System.  No really cool loops.  No video roll in.  Nothing. Nada.  When I got up to speak... the recording didn't work for the podcast (I don't know why I even wore my headset mic-- it wasn't even on!)... Sounds like a train wreck!  But it actually turned out to be a pretty refreshing service.  I heard people worshipping more than I have heard in a long time.  Our transitions were HORRIBLE and AWKWARD.  We certainly don't want that to be the norm... but as we were finishing up our Wild Goose Chase Series, we had to break free from just about every cage we had talked about over the past 6 weeks:  

• The Cage of Routine-- We definitely were knocked out of our normal routine.  It was uncomfortable... but it stretched us
• The Cage of Assumptions-- People show up each week (and volunteers too) assuming that the sound and lights and music and video and all the technology stuff will work.  BAD ASSUMPTION yesterday!
• The Cage of Guilt--Our sound guys yesterday felt guilty that they couldn't get it to work right. 
• The Cage of Responsibility-- I was responsible for all of it and it failed on my watch.
• The Cage of Failure-- Murphy's Law was in full force yesterday!  Fail!
• The Cage of Fear-- I think lots of pastors feel this fear when they experience train wrecks like we did yesterday-- Will anyone show up next week?  Did we screw up so bad that we'll chase people away?  

The reality -- it was a train wreck.  But even in the middle of a train wreck, God's Presence shows up and shows His power.  This was a huge reminder that God doesn't need a kicking band, amazing sound, innovative lighting and creative video or even a great message to show up and move powerfully. Don't get me wrong... I'm all for excellence.  In fact, I'm obsessed with it.  I saw one of our signs that was crooked, I walked out to the parking lot in the rain to straighten it up... I think excellence honors God.  But, when God shows up... your light show becomes insignificant.  When God transforms a life... it doesn't matter that a sign was not completely level... When God moves mightily and heals a person's hurts... they usually don't remember the feedback in the speakers.  I don't want to experience any more train wrecks... but what I can't get enough of is when God breaks through our rigid structures and systems and works despite our best efforts.  That shows how big and mighty and majestic He is!

Weekend Preview & Contemplation

Don't Miss this weekend at Journey. We finish our Wild Goose Chase series and it's going to hit home with at least 99.9% of people. So this is a great time to bring a friend or two, or ten!

Lately I've been in a very contemplative mood. If you know me, you know that's not my natural drift. I've very action oriented... sometimes it gets me in trouble too! But the last few weeks, God has slowed my pace a bit and I've been trying to explore some of the spiritual disciplines like solitude, contemplation and meditation. Yesterday I was turned on to a book by Eugene Peterson (the guy who wrote "The Message" translation of the bible) called "The Contemplative Pastor". (Thanks to my friend Ritchie Miller for recommending it... and even greater thanks for showing me that I already owned it through my Logos Bible Software library). I'm just starting it, but I can tell it's going to be one of those books that I have to take in small chunks. LOTS of meat in there and I've got to chew on it for a while. But I know that God is focusing my attention on these areas because I have been running wide open for too long... whether you're a pastor, a teacher, a student or businessman... wherever you are, whatever you do, you need this too. Busyness is not a fruit of the spirit! I know we all have deadlines, schedules and projects... but to allow that to consume our existence is detrimental to our health. Think about this-- in the Gospels, Jesus never once appeared busy. He was focused; He was intentional; Everything He did was purposeful. And even in the midst of great needs and huge opportunities... He left... He walked away to He could go spend time with the Father. How much more do we need that time where we "unbusy" ourselves and go seeking the Father's presence... the Father's voice? I'm trying now to recapture that discipline in my life after a season of sheer busyness. I hope you can do that too.

Monday Rewind

This week's rewind is going to be in rapid fire mode:

• Baptism yesterday-- Awesome!
• Tiffany Rozier continues to blow us out of the water with her vocals.
• Yesterday she did Francesca Battistelli's "Free to Be Me" and it rocked!  
• Not only did she rock... she set up the message on breaking out of the cage of failure very well.
• The message hit home with lots of people.  Had more people come up afterwards and say the message spoke directly to them and challenged them.
• That's what we aim for every week-- Life change!
• I embarrassed my wife when I recreated my "fake swimmer" move.  I can't believe I did it either.  You'll never get to see it because the videocamera shut off after the baptism.  
• That's one time I'm glad we had some technical glitches!
• Celebrated Ann Elkin's birthday with a surprise party at Red Lobster last night.  Ann's my administrative assistant and a valuable member of our Journey Church team.
• This is how dedicated she is-- she's working on her birthday today!  Even after I told her to take the day off.  I love that kind of commitment in people!
• Wrapped a bunch of shoeboxes yesterday for Operation Christmas Child.  That's one of our favorite things to do... Rachael Thomas, our JourneyKidz director did an awesome job putting it together.  The families had a great time and their work will make many children happy!
• Now, on more of a personal note:
• Finished reading Anne Jackson's book, "Mad Church Disease".  It's about beating the burnout epidemic in ministry.  I've had the book for 8 months but didn't pick it up until last week. That was a God thing!  The timing was perfect.  There are some things in my life that have been jacked up lately...and because of that, I've not led myself, or my church very well.  I'm not burned out... yet.   But I recognize that I have to change some things I'm doing or I will.   I was tired all the time and lost my creative edge.  We quit taking risks and started playing it safe.  (Yesterday's message kicked me in the pants too!)  So, now I'm working on a plan to get healthier... physically, emotionally, spiritually, and in my leadership as well.  I went for a run for the first time in a long time... felt great!  I'm back to scheduling "appointments" with God so that I can prioritize my spiritual growth and health... because one thing I know, unless I'm growing and healthy spiritually, I can't lead people and our church to grow. I'm also putting some things in place in our leadership structure that will help us move forward as an organization.  This may be more than you want to know, or need to know... but one of our values around here is authenticity.  It would be hypocritical of me to preach being real while covering up my own struggle.  In confessing my struggle, maybe I'll give you hope to own up to yours.  We always talk about Journey being a fellowship of the broken... that includes everyone... even the leadership.  We don't have it all together, but through God's help and God's grace, this will strengthen and grow us so that He can bless us with all the blessings under heaven!  Stay tuned to my blog for more.  

Daddy-Daughter College Road Trip

Today we're in Lynchburg, VA at Liberty University for Abby's first real College visit.  We left yesterday for the LONG road trip up here.  We used to live about an hour south of Lynchburg in a town called Danville.  We were both looking forward to getting back up there and reminiscing about old times... well, I was... she was only 2 years old when we lived there, so she doesn't remember anything.  Why are we driving such a long way to visit a college?  There are a couple of reasons:  1)  We began praying about where God wanted Abby to go to school several months ago... Don't ask me why, but Liberty was one of those schools that the Lord impressed upon both of our hearts to visit.  It's a great school with a great heritage.  And it turns out some pretty great people who are serving the Lord faithfully.  The other is 2) I get to spend some quality time with my, almost 17 year old, daughter that I'm about to unleash on the world in 18 months.  This will give us a chance to talk, laugh, and think about the future.  The ride was long and I wanted to be intentional about bringing certain things up in conversation... so, I came up with 10 things I want my daughter to know.  Here are the things I shared with her on our trip:

1. I love her and I'm proud of her-- she brings me great joy not because of anything she's done, but because of who she is.
2. She is loved unconditionally by the Father.  Even when her earthly father screws up and lets her down, she has a heavenly Father who is perfect and will love her perfectly.
3. God has great plans for her.  As long as she seeks the Lord with all her heart, she will find Him and she will find her purpose and calling.
4. Life's too short let worry consume you... so don't
5. You can't control other people or things... so don't let it get to you.
6. Get so lost in God that you attract boys that will pursue Him just to get to you. (from Dannah Gresh)
7. Fulfill your passion.  life's too short not to live out of your passion.
8. Give generously- you can't outgive God... ever!  He will always bless you more
9. Always see the Big Picture. 
10. You can ALWAYS come home, no matter what!

10 things I want her to know as she is preparing to enter into the adult world very soon... sooner than her mom and I are ready for... but this is why God gave her to us... to prepare her, to launch her and to cheer her on in pursuing her God given purpose.  I'll write more about our trip later.  

Monday Rewind

Wild Goose Chase is an amazing book... and an awesome Message series!  I'm loving preaching through this series.  Each week gets better and better.  God is using it to change lives and free people from their cages!  Here's what else went on yesterday:

• Worship was awesome.  Tiffany Rozier knocked the ball out of the park singing Revelation Song.  I could actually hear people singing loud yesterday!  There was a great spirit of worship in the service yesterday.
• Joey Seales led worship and did a phenomenal job, as always.  One day he will be on our staff!  
• By now, most of you have heard that Jeff Bush is no longer with us leading our Worship and Creative Arts ministries.  Here's the skinny on it.
• •  Nothing was wrong morally or with his integrity or with his ability.  He did a great job and we were looking forward to having him with us for a long time.  However, he felt like that at this point in his life, he wasn't ready for  a major leadership role like leading an entire Worship and Creative Arts Ministry.  He is back in Montgomery as an intern in the College Ministry there.  While we were very excited about what could have been, we are supportive of Jeff and have left the door open for him to lead worship with us again.  He's a gifted worship leader and we will be blessed to have him lead from time to time, but we are moving forward and looking ahead to what God has for us now.  
  • So what now?  Let me be very clear on a couple of things:
  • • God does not make mistakes!  God allows bumps in the road or wilderness wanderings for our good and for His glory.  We believe the greatest days for Journey Church are ahead of us... in fact, I believe that we are very close to seeing God do amazing things in our community and in our church.  
    • The mission of Journey Church hasn't changed at all!  We are still about reaching people who are far from God and helping them become passionate Christ followers.
    • People will always leave... we live in a college town, the turnover here is crazy.  Our church today doesn't look anything like the church we started with 3 years ago.  And 5 years from now I'm sure we'll say the same thing.  So, whether it's a student who graduates and moves away, or a family who takes a job in a different town, or a staff member who feels God moving them to a different ministry assignment, we always have to remember, they belong to Jesus, not to us.  The Lord blesses us to be a part of their journey and we must always strive to leave people "better than we find them".  That means we pour into their lives grace, mercy, love, truth and purpose.  When they leave... and they will leave...everyone eventually leaves... they will be better equipped to serve the Lord wherever He takes them.  That's the heart of a missional church-- not to see how many we can "seat", but how many we can "send". Sometimes the sending is to places across the world, sometimes it's across the country or sometimes it's even down the street.  
    • I know I waxed poetic on this, but this is a teachable moment and I wanted to take advantage of it.  After all, when someone leaves a church, especially a staff member, people want to know, "what's wrong?"  The answer... Nothing is wrong.  God is still in control.  The Mission of Journey Church is still the same.  The opportunities for us to grow have never been better.  I'm excited about the days ahead.  One thing this has done has reminded me that my MAIN FOCUS as the pastor of Journey Church is to HEAR FROM GOD AND COMMUNICATE IT TO THE PEOPLE.  I'm spending more and more time listening to God's voice and that means I need to give away more and more things so that I can focus on "the MAIN THING".  So, don't be surprised when I come to you and make the "Big Ask" for you to step up and do something BIG for Jesus and for Journey Church.
• Alright... now for the less spiritual stuff...
• • Our iMac is acting goofy.  I'm reformatting it now.  Hopefully it will perform like I know Macs should.  
  • I'm excited that Auburn is back on the winning track!  This week is homecoming week.  We have some friends that want to come down and we're trying to find a BUNCH of tickets--7 to be exact. Anyone know how I can get my hand on them, let me know.
  • Even more exciting is Auburn High School begins the Playoffs this Friday night ranked #1 in 6A.  They are really more fun to watch than AU.  And the Band rocks at halftime too-- especially the percussion section where my son plays the quads!
  • Today is the day.  We've put it off for too long.  It's happening today at 4:30.  Sonja and I start back with P90X again.  I'm doing the meal plan this time.  I'm going to try to lose about 25 pounds.  I have to because my winter clothes are all too tight!  I'm too cheap to go buy more, so I'm going to drop some weight.
  • And, finally, on a sad note... maybe not so sad... I'm considering killing my blog.  Not sure about it yet, but since Twitter came along my blog has been getting neglected.  I also want to make sure that I'm adding value to people's lives who read it.  I'll decide later this week and let you know.

Book Reviews- Fiction or Non Fiction?

I am a couple of days late posting this review.  I read the books a while back but last week was such a busy week, I'm just getting around to writing the review. 

The 2 books I reviewed are Shadow Government by Grant Jeffrey and Wisdom Hunter by Randall Arthur.  Are they fiction or non fiction?  You be the judge. 

Shadow Government was an interesting read.  Here's the summary from the back cover of the book. 

Security cameras, surveillance of private financial transactions, radio frequency spy chips hidden in consumer products, eavesdropping on e-mail correspondence and phone calls, and Internet tracking. No one is protected, and privacy is a thing of the past. 

An ultra-secret global elite, functioning as a very real shadow government, controls technology, finance, international law, world trade, political power, and vast military capabilities. These unnamed, unrivaled leaders answer to no earthly authority, and they won’t stop until they control the world.

In Shadow Government, prophecy expert Grant Jeffrey removes the screen that, up to now, has hidden the work of these diabolical agents. Jeffrey reveals the biblical description of Satan’s global conquest and identifies the tools of technology that the Antichrist will use to rule the world.

Readers will have their eyes opened to the real power that is working behind the scenes to destroy America and merge it into the coming global government. Armed with this knowledge, readers will be equipped to face spiritual darkness with the light of prophetic truth.

I've never been into the prophecy books or the gloom and doom writers, and I'll have to say this was a little out there for me.  However, He does make some great points about the seizure of our freedoms and the ramifications that has on our future as well as how much information that different internet companies can access on you.  Pretty scary stuff.  If you like prophecy books, or if you like a good conspiracy theory, you'll like Shadow Government.

If you'd like to buy Shadow Government, please click here and you'll find out how.

The other book, Wisdom Hunter, by Randall Arthur was one of my favorite books Ive read.  I'm usually not a novel reader.  I
 prefer non fiction over fiction, but Wisdom Hunter, while written as a novel deals with very real issues that pastors and their families face.  It's about a pastor named Jason Faircloth.  He is a prominent pastor in Atlanta and he knows what he beleives-- and he's very arrogant about it.  And eventually it cost him his marriage  and his daughter who left home because she was "rebellious".  A tragedy strikes and Jason realizes that the only family he has is a granddaughter that he has never met.  He sets out to find her and on that quest, he finds himself... and real faith.  If you have ever dealt with legalism... this book is for you. If you are a pastor and you've tried to control your family like you control your church... this book is for you.  This is my favorite Christian novel of all time.  When I first read it years ago, it caused me to rethink some things in my own ministry.  This time around it helped remind me that legalism, arrogance and pride never helps anyone connect with God or develop their faith.  

To me... Wisdom Hunter, while it is listed as fiction, a novel... is very much a true story.  It's the story of every pastor, minister, husband and father who have fallen into the trap of legalism.  You've got to read this book.  You can pick it up here. 

 

Time Change Weekend

Don't forget to move your clocks BACK one hour on Saturday night.  Then, remember to join us on Sunday morning at 10:15am as we continue our Wild Goose Chase series.  

Monday Rewind

Week 2 of "Wild Goose Chase" was awesome!  Just looking at the connection cards briefly yesterday I could see that God did some very significant things at Journey yesterday.  Several people indicated they wanted to go public with their faith through baptism.  By the way, our next Baptism Celebration is November 15th.  There's still time for you to sign up if you'd like.

• I had more fun teaching yesterday than I have in a long time.  
• Maybe it was because everyone laughed at my jokes!  
• The message was all about breaking out of our Cage of Routine.  In preparation for the message I wore my watch on my other arm all week long to remind myself of what creatures of habit and routine we are. 
• It was funny watching a lot of the people change their watch during the message... it was even funnier watching them change it back 2 minutes later because it freaked them out so bad.
• There are some GREAT things happening at our church right now.  There are people getting involved in leadership that will help us move to the next level as a church!
• We appear to be a baby factory... we have several pregnant couples... and they're all in the same Growth Group.  Wonder what they've been studying this semester?  Seriously, Congratulations to all of you.
• This week I'm going to be heading to Birmingham for a surgery of one of our leaders.  Pray for Keith Thompson on Thursday as he has back surgery at Brookwood Hospital. (I told him I would do the pastoral thing and come see him, but my real motivation is to visit Johnny Ray's BBQ and get some Chocolate Pie!!!!)  That's not true... I'm there for their family... but I will be getting some pie!
• I'm going to spend a couple of days this week beginning to plan my preaching calendar for 2010.  I've got enough material and ideas for the next 3 years, but the key is going to be listening to the voice of God and hearing what He wants to say to our people over the next year.  
• I will be sending off my MacBook Pro for service this week.  Everyone at the office gives me a hard time because they know it's going to be hard for me to part with it.  Even if I have a backup computer!  Hopefully Apple can fix it quickly and get it back to me soon!
• I can't believe it's  9 weeks til Christmas.  Dang, where did this year go?