June Gloom in an Endless Summer

I write this as the temperature blazes its way through 100ºF on its way to a record 108! Although it's summer, this kind of heat-wave is uncommon for June. Californians refer to the normally overcast weather as June Gloom, the month when everybody's ready for summer but the sun is hiding behind the clouds like an out-of-shape swimmer behind his Hawaiian shirt. Well, today in June, the sun is flaunting himself in all his glory, thank you very much. Thank God for the common grace of air conditioner. 

As a pastor in my 9th Californian summer, I've come to notice my own kind of June Gloom. I tend to get a bit gloomy in my soul around this time of year,  partly because my kids start their vacation in June and I have to carry on working so I feel like I'm missing out. I love summer when I'm on vacation with them but that's less than 20% of the time. Secondly, it just feels too long. Three months is why they called the movie Endless Summer. I'm told it's still a hang-over from the agricultural era when kids used to help their parents on the farm during harvest-time, but the last time I checked, Californian kids weren't doing any yard work, let alone farm work, so why can't they just halve it and give us more time to rest in December before the year begins? 

If I'm honest though, the real reason for my June Gloom is that for three months the church thins out and slows down. I don't begrudge anyone taking vacation. The pace of life is relentless here, and people need to breathe. I'm looking forward to that on our own vacation  greatly. But it is difficult leading a church when, for 3 months, people are more absent than present, gatherings feel more sparse, mission slows down and you feel like you are preaching to a passing parade. To add insult to injury, vacation often takes it's own toll on people spiritually and relationally, so you end up doing a fair bit of crisis pastoring. And then there are those people who get  job transfers that take them out of state. They normally tell you about that in June. 

To top it all, we are about to send our 3rd team of planters out in 3 years, this time to plant a church in Thailand! I lead a remarkably generous and faithful church, but right now I find myself wanting to jump up and down and shout, "Hey everyone! We are planting a church into Thailand! It's not business as usual! We are a Battle ship going to war. We need all hands-on-deck! If we live like we are on a summer Cruise-Liner we won't make it!" I know you're probably thinking, "Man this guy needs to lighten up," and that may be, but this this is my reality. Summer can feel like a big, sunny, church momentum-killer. 

Yesterday, as I worshipped and preached on how Jesus came to set us free from slavishness, I felt the Father minister to me around my June Gloom. I sensed Him speak to me about my tendency to find my identity in ministry, which means that it is not just church momentum that takes a hit in summer. It is my sense of validation. This turns a challenging, yet very normal rhythm, into my very own June Gloom. If my validation is in ministry momentum, then a lack thereof will turn me into an invalid. As an adopted son of my Father in heaven, my status does not change with less momentum. My validation is secure because Jesus was completely invalidated for me on the cross. When the Son sets me free, I am free indeed, even from slavishness to ministry validation. I've felt a new buoyancy and intimacy with God since then. 

Many of us suffer from our own June Gloom in other ways. It may be that summer comes with a slowing down of business. Or perhaps because of financial lack you have to take a long staycation while everyone else travels. Or your lack of relationships causes you to feel isolated while everyone else seems to have so much fun together. Maybe the sense of escalating conflict and tragedy in the world right now has caused a gloominess, or perhaps you don't like the way you look in a swimsuit! All these are valid and real reasons to dread and endure this season rather than enjoy it.  But when we live from our status as adopted sons and daughters, we are freed from a slavishness to the things we strive for, and are given an unsinkable buoyancy amidst the ebbs and flows of work, relationships, ministry and life in general. 

Today, I pray for you what I pray for myself; that God, by His Spirit, would remove slavishness and replace it with a spirit of sonship, and that by His Spirit we would cry out to our Father who knows us and loves us more than anyone. 

"Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away, Giver of immortal gladness fill us with the light of day." 

Happy Summer, everyone! 

God-sized prayers. God-shaped rhythms

There's a wall in our children's ministry area with the words God-Sized Prayers written on it. Each child has been asked to write one God-sized prayer request on it that they pray for during 2016. My son's prayer request is for our friend Bob to be healed of Motor-Neuron Disease. One girl prayed for her siblings to come to faith, another for the homeless in our city to be fed. As usual, our kids lead the way in faith.

Towards the end of last year as we preached through the book of Ephesians, God got our attention about our tendency to pray survival prayers. The Apostle Paul reminded the church in Ephesus of God's powerful prayer-answering ability, calling them to pray beyond their own needs and beyond their own life-times.  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you can ask or imagine, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever Amen. (3:20) 

Of course, our Father hears our desperate prayers for survival, because He graciously cares for every detail of our lives. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. But He taught them to pray, Your kingdom come before and after that! He was shaping their prayers to go from the tyranny of their self-centered urgency to the priority of God's grand, eternal reign. From the above-mentioned verse, one might describe God-sized prayer as "Prayer, empowered by the Spirit and emboldened by our position in Christ, that confidently asks God to show His glory through the church in ways that exceed our imagination and outlast our generation, for the sake of Christ's fame." Perhaps this kind of prayer is less about survival and more about revival? What if we asked God to help us pray more like this in 2016?

And what about God-shaped rhythms? While Paul viewed God as Sovereign, this didn't breed any sense of prayer passivity in him. He said that we needed Christ's power to pray these God-sized  prayers. He also said, "I keep asking God," knowing that this kind of prayer required perseverance. Jesus famously told the prayer parables of the persistent widow and neighbor who kept asking, seeking and knocking. (Luke 11) He told these so that we should pray and not give up. Praying God-sized prayers requires power and perseverance from God himself,  because we so easily retreat into small, survival prayers through defeat or delay.

When a distraught father brought a son suffering with epilepsy to Jesus for healing, he said that the disciples were not able to heal him. After Jesus had cast out the demon and healed the boy, the disciples asked him in private, "Why were we not able to cast it out?" and His answer to them was, "This kind only comes out only through prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29) The disciples had seen people healed and delivered before as they prayed. But this particular situation seemed to be a mountain that could not be moved. Jesus' solution was to call them to greater private prayer for the sake of greater public power. It is not a neat formula.We ultimately rely on God's sovereign grace. But God-shaped rhythms of prayer and fasting do empower God-sized prayers.

As a church we pray together the second Wednesday of each month at 133, and fast together twice a year for three days. These times have been absolutely indispensable to our life as a church over the years. They are like the engine room of a ship, bringing heat, power and forward momentum. We will continue to fast twice a year, but have felt prompted in 2016, to fast once a month on the day of 133, in response to Jesus' words, "This kind only comes out through prayer and fasting." We are not doing this to twist God's arm. We simply believe that as we fast and pray together consistently, He is wanting to empower us to pray beyond survival towards revival,  confident that He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. Won't you join us this Wednesday the 13th January, as we fast and gather at 6:30pm at our Brea campus to pray.