Woke up this morning with the deep sense and desire that I wanted to join with my fellow ICC’ers an have a great time of worship together….so I prayed for that.
It was a great morning in church…encouraging, great great music and a real sense of God with us.
Watched the Eagles get their hapless butts kicked, and finished it off with some homemade nacho’s …… good day!
This came via Rodney Olsens Blog…and has been certified as accurate and not an urban myth from Snopes.
“Dolores Aguilar 1929 – Aug. 7, 2008
Dolores Aguilar, born in 1929 in New Mexico, left us on August 7, 2008.
She will be met in the afterlife by her husband, Raymond, her son, Paul Jr., and daughter, Ruby.
She is survived by her daughters Marietta, Mitzi, Stella, Beatrice, Virginia and Ramona, and son Billy; grandchildren, Donnelle, Joe, Mitzie, Maria, Mario, Marty, Tynette, Tania, Leta, Alexandria, Tommy, Billy, Mathew, Raymond, Kenny, Javier, Lisa, Ashlie and Michael; great-grandchildren, Brendan, Joseph, Karissa, Jacob, Delaney, Shawn, Cienna, Bailey, Christian, Andre Jr., Andrea, Keith, Saeed, Nujaymah, Salma, Merissa, Emily, Jayci, Isabella, Samantha and Emily. I apologize if I missed anyone.
Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.
Her family will remember Dolores and amongst ourselves we will remember her in our own way, which were mostly sad and troubling times throughout the years. We may have some fond memories of her and perhaps we will think of those times too. But I truly believe at the end of the day ALL of us will really only miss what we never had, a good and kind mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I hope she is finally at peace with herself. As for the rest of us left behind, I hope this is the beginning of a time of healing and learning to be a family again.
There will be no service, no prayers and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart. We cannot come together in the end to see to it that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can say their goodbyes. So I say here for all of us, GOOD BYE, MOM.”
You know…I have performed probably 100 funerals…maybe more. The one that sticks out the most, apart from my own fathers….is one where the mother of the children was seriously disliked by her children. She loved horses…to the extent of neglect of her children. They told me story after story of her leaving them in the rain, not feeding them, not doing any of the normal things a mum did, because she was down at the horse stables. None of the horses came to the funeral, but the children did, now grown up and distant from a mother who cared little for them.
Funny thing was, although they were frank with me, when it came to the funeral, everything was politically correct…they told half truths and a resemblance of the truth…but the truth was, none of them had much to do with their mum once they left home.
There comes time to tell the truth, it sets us free….telling the truth in love.
I dont know whether Dolores’ daughter did the right thing, but something about it smacks of more authenticity than saying how great she was, when she clearly was not…for whatever reason.
Anything the religious right can do….the liberal left can do better…and neither should be…in my view.
Part One
I had my peer group today in Mandurah, and we had a ‘newbie’ join us. It was great. Wayne shared some insights from his MA program on leadership. One key passage was this one from
Luke 4. 40 As the sun went down that evening, people throughout the village brought sick family members to Jesus. No matter what their diseases were, the touch of his hand healed every one. 41 Many were possessed by demons; and the demons came out at his command, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But because they knew he was the Messiah, he rebuked them and refused to let them speak.
Jesus Continues to Preach 42 Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. 43 But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.”
How do you think the people felt when Jesus said….no…I am not hanging around here to do more healing, even though they needed it? I mean there were sick people there…. That is the difference between leadership and ministry. Jesus ministered, loved them. But there was also a time he needed to move onto leadership. He saw the bigger picture. This would have upset the people, why did Jesus not minister in the way they wanted Him too? Because He had to lead.
One accusation Pastors who lead can get is that we don’t listen. It may be that the Pastor is listening, but he cant agree, or aquiese, even if it is something worthwhile. Sometimes he has to make a leadership decision to actually not minister. That is the pain, but the necessity of leadership.
Part Two
After the public failure of Todd Bentley, the last thing the church needed was another high profile failure.
Many who read this blog may not have heard of Mike Gugliemucci. But you would have heard of Hillsong. If you listen to the song “Healer” you will see it is written by someone who presumably has needed to experience the Lords healing. In fact when the dvd was released, the main singer was Mike, who wrote the song, and who in the video has visible air tubes stuck into his face. Furthermore, the story he has been sharing with everyone for two years is that he has aggresive cancer. Unfortunatly it is just a story. Mike has confessed that for two years he has lied to his wife, his children, his father (Danny a prominent minister) and to the hundreds of thousands of people who he has ministered to. To give you some context, Mike is like Australia’s Chris Tomlin….and this news is all over the secular media. It is so sad. Story
Here are some key thoughts I have about how to respond when leaders fail.
The failure does not negate the ministry….but it may disqualify or hinder the minister. The true ministry is done by the Spirit, carried out through frail vessels, who commit adultery, look at women in lustful ways, and lie to thousands of people about imaginary cancers. This does not mean the Spirit has not done great work in peoples lives throught their messages, song writing or even healing gifts.
People and the media only notice when the Minister crashes Whens the last time Channel Seven reported on a 747 taking off succesfully and everyone getting their complimetary peanuts on time? The bigger your ministry, the greater the intensity, and the greater the responsibility. Accountability and witness is important. None of us might not fail. Someone I know told me about his former pastor, who in his words ‘had an affair, but I dont know how, he was a short ugly fat guy”
Grace is needed, but niavety is stupid Yes we need to forgive, and offer grace, and when appropriate offer restoration. But lets not be stupid….sometimes a person is not being attacked by Satan, it is a simple case of lust, pride or escapism. Our pastors and leaders are just human. We are all priests before God, lets respect and support our leaders, but lets not make them into something they are not.
Last years womens conference was really valuable. My wife is helping organise it this year. It is contemporary, energetic, refreshing and a great time.
It is important to place yourself in positions where God can speak.
I would encourage you to get along to this years conference, or if like me, you fail the basic entry requirement…get your wife or significant other to go!
The line between speaking the truth…and speaking in love. What a difficult line this is. Being loving, speaking the truth.
The average Christian does not want to offend anyone, but God uses us to refine each other…and we let each other down when we do not tell the truth.
Perhaps one of the most unloving thing we can do is either….not tell the truth…or perhaps worse than that…speak to truth about someone when they are not in the room!! What I mean is that Jesus’ process of speaking the truth in love, as found in Matthew 18…is pretty clear, and fantastic as it gives the best practical solution to how to speak the truth in love.
Well…..Clem and I had a great time after the game kicking the footy around.
We also enjoyed the hot chocolate and screaming at umpire 17…….who obviously decided to pay kicks only when he felt like it…which was not often when it was clearly a blatant free to Freo….
But the Dockers looked flat. Even during the first half, when we were in the game.
The Saints looked like a team desperate to get into the finals.
If Nick could kick straight, to go with his exceptional marks (truly exceptional)…the Saints might do something….