Today I was stewing on some of the pressures I feel pretty regularly as a pastor- in purely a random list I started typing….

• be funny
• be young at heart
• be athletic and physically fit
• be a great communicator
• be organized
• be on facebook
• be on myspace
• be a pop-culture wiz
• be aware of all things youtube
• be a travel agent
• be a graphic artist
• be a web designer
• be a great writer
• be photographic memory man with student’s faces and names
• be a janitor
• be ultimately responsible for the ministry
• be caring
• be loving
• be available to those in need
• be trustworthy
• be a visionary
• be a corrector
• be devoted to prayer
• be memorizing scripture
• be reading my Bible
• be fasting
• be a videographer
• be a seminary student
• be a learner
• be a booking agent
• be great with money
• be creative
• be informed about politics
• be aware of the big news in the world
• be a blog updater
• be a listener
• be healthy
• be ready to eat pizza and junk food so I can hang out with students
• be on campus
• be relational and know the lives of my leaders
• be a small group leader
• be connected with my students
• be involved in our network
• be willing to say yes
• be willing to say no
• be a friend
• be a mentor
• be raising up lots of other mentors
• be a dad to the dadless
• be wise
• be a pastor
• be a forgiver
• be thinking about the future
• be reading lots and lots of current books
• be writing blog posts about what I’m reading
• be at every youth conference in the country
• be up on what the “emerging church” says
• be up on what Luther and Ignatius and Spurgeon and Calvin and….
• be up on what such and such a church is doing
• be watching survivor, american idol, and the office
• be aware of the latest and greatest on mtv
• be a surfer
• be mad skilled at all things xbox and such
• be a movie goer
• be texting my students
• be e-mailing
• be sending snail mail encouragement notes
• be thinking of others
• be a listener of podcast teaching
• be a member of a pastor team
• be a counselor for pastoral drop in needs in the office
• be caring for creation
• be playing some band on my ipod no one else has ever heard of but makes me cool
• be a family man
• be a manager
• be a leader
• be a pleaser of God
• be a pleaser of people
• be…….

Um… yeah. Obviously some of this is healthy and some not so much. Some comes naturally. Some I suck at quite naturally too. On a good day this list makes me give up and lean on Jesus and just be me and rest in God alone. On a bad day, it beats me up, makes me feel like a loser, and makes me want to quit under the weight of feeling like an utter failure.

Um… after my first day of facebook existence it has become clear to me, I’m obviously very late to the facebook party. Half the world is on facebook. I think everyone in my world but me.

My church just finished a 21 days of prayer and fasting period. Evidently we missed the mark.

This church issued 30 days of sex according to this CNN video. After watching this video, I have nothing to write here that is appropriate. Most of my snide remarks are going to remain in my head. I just voice these 4 ponderings:

• their website they created for this “campaign” has crashed due to too many hits.

• I wonder if this pastor is really trying to re-kindle marriages or just get on TV?

• I really want to know what his wife thinks of his plan. I’m sure he thinks it’s pure genius and gets him lots of high fives at the mens group.

• I wonder if they’re passing out condoms in the bulletins or if they just have plans for expanding their church nursery, but are struggling to get enough congregational support.

Today I got the chance to sit and have lunch at Bethel Seminary with about 50 people and Barry C. Black, the 62nd US. Senate Chaplain. In light of my frustrations with Politics, I was hoping to get some fresh eyes and perspective from a man much older, much wiser, and very much on the front row of history in America. He has a list of degrees and ph.d’s and awards, and achievements that takes about 10 minutes to read. He’s seen the world from so many vantage points. I was eager to listen.

Well, my lunch did not disappoint.

I loved the insights he had on ministry and faith on Capitol Hill. He is obviously a well studied and very very smart man. I felt stupid and ignorant just being in his presence- not because he was arrogant, just because he was so clearly so much farther down the road than I. Dude is sharp, witty, fun, sincere, humble, and clearly walking with the Holy Spirit. I wish I could have had a year of lunches with him. I’d pay for that.

But the nuggets I most walked away with today were ones for preaching. Here’s what I gleaned today by watching and listening to Barry C. Black- a very eloquent African American pastor, Retired Navy Admiral, father of 3 boys.. and well… a whole lot more.

• Read. Read. Read. I need to read more. Smart people read. Well studied people read. People who don’t repeat the mistakes of the past and learn from History read. I need to read more. This dude clearly reads. A lot.

• Pray. Pray. Pray. He holds 5 bible studies a week for senators. He is a father and a husband. He has a list of responsibilities and opportunities a mile long. He does one on one spiritual counseling for everyone from the president to the senate floor and still makes time to pray for one hour a day. He said he learned it from who he considers to be one of his greatest mentors in his life: Fulton J Sheen, a catholic priest of which he has read a lot of his works. Evidently Fulton Sheen prayed in a church for an hour a day every day for 20 years, only missing twice. It was the position they found him dead in, praying in church, on his knees. Black says he no longer has to write sermons, he just talks to God and listens to God and reads his word and talks to people out of the overflow of that time. Well, however he does it, it’s working. Trust me.

• Memorize Scripture. Lots of scripture. I’d be a better preacher if I had more of my Bible memorized. Period.

• “If I have not experienced it, I don’t preach it.” Take that to the bank. That’s good stuff.

• Use pauses, voice inflection, and words on purpose. It really is a great speaking skill to master. Anyone can rant and ramble. Great communicators choose their words, tone, speed, intensity and volume carefully and intentionally.

If you ever have a chance to hear the Chaplain, Barry C. Black, drop what you’re doing and go. It will be some of the best hours you’ve spent in the presence of a truly genuine man of God in a long time.

“It’s a volcano”.

“Let’s shoot people with them. Peeneeer. Peneeer.”

“Mine’s bigger. Well mine’s the cleanest. Yours is a sand monster.”

“Look, it’s like a video game controller.”

We took our family out to breakfast and to dog beach after last monday. It had been a long week and I worked almost all weekend and we need some family time and the dog deserved some time too. But, despite out plans to just let the dog run in the ocean, um all 3 of kids got soaked. Soaked and sandy from head to toe. So the only way to get them home without ruining our car or causing me to have to clean it for 3 days was to strip them down and let them ride home, all 3 buck naked in the back seat. It was a warm sunny day, so what the heck- why not?

Well, um for future notice… naked boy boredom is the answer to “why not?”. Shannon kept telling me I had to make them stop. I just sat there laughing to the point of tears and wondering what will happen to me if I get pulled over. Oh the joy of raising boys.