The Big Diehl

I once heard a story about a pastor of a little back-woods church who preached a message about how EVIL all war was. (This is not a political story – so stop thinking that way). The pastor went on and on condemning military soldiers for being involved with war and killing others, etc. etc. In his congregation was a United States Army Captain, who was visiting and just finished leading a battle. The congregation expected the Captain to stand up and “correct” the pastor. In fact, the pastor expected the captain to stand up and correct him. But the captain never did. He remained sitting quietly in the church. Never objected.

After the service, the pastor greeted the Captain and asked, “I know how strongly you disagreed with what I preached today. I’m wondering why you didn’t stand up and say something?” The captain replied, “Because six years ago, when my wife was dying of cancer in the middle of the night, you came over and stayed bedside all night long.”

…

I just experienced a similar situation that proved the lesson from this story. How I wish I could share it with you! (I would be betraying confidence).

I have always believed it, and acted on it. But now I’ve seen it.

Some people will never trust or respect us until they know how much we care.

They’re never going to know how much we care until we show them. And prove it.

That takes time.

There’s a song written by Bruce Hornsby (who does a better version of it) and made famous by Tupac. Hornsby calls it “the way it is” and Tupac called it “Changes.” The song is all about racial tension claiming in the chorus, “That’s just the way it is. Some things are never gonna change.”

Yea. Obama ruined this song.

I just wanted to touch base with everyone about the past few days of my life. I’ve been in Indianapolis (still am) for a worship convention. It has been fantastic.

Just imagine, if you get several hundred worship leaders in a room and want to lead them in worship — you can expect the worship leaders are TOP NOTCH (although they wouldn’t need to be – I mean the worship leaders should be okay with a vocalist and a kazoo… if you’re too big to be led you’re too small to lead). They have a few worship leaders here that I’ve never heard of – Joel Auge (from Canada) and Mia Fieldes (from Hillsong). There was also the guys at Lakeview Church in Indy (Eric Cooper and Nathan LaGrange), and Ross Parsley and Jared Anderson from New Life Church in Colorado Springs. All of their ministries were top notch. Mia Fildes blew my socks off; her voice is spectacular. If you’re in my worship team you can expect to see some chord charts with her name at the top.

This is a worship conference by Integrity Media. Integrity is unique because they have.. integrity. They’re the only Chrisitan music supplier that’s not owned by a secular company. I’ve been told by several people that they aren’t out to “sell me stuff,” they want to “resource me.” That’s exactly how I’ve seen it as well. Another thing that sets them apart is that they don’t generate new worship “artists.” They aren’t a label that looks for the greatest band … they’re a label that searches for churches that have got “it” going on, and then network with them. I just love Integrity. (Attention Integrity Staff: if you send me free stuff, I’d be happy to write more blogs about how great you are… HA!!)

I’ve been greatly challenged at this conference. When I came down here I was more-or-less “vision-less.” I searched and prayed, but I couldn’t see where the worship in my church was going anymore. I seemed to have ran out of this leadership fuel about 2 weeks ago. But like I said, I’ve been greatly challenged.

I’ve been thinking about a lot of different things regarding worship at New Hope. Some of them weird and diverse. I’ve got so much to think and pray about.

Okay so once in awhile I’m allowed a good rant, aren’t I? This is my ranting blog… discussing things I’m really sick of.

I’m sick of people assuming I’m Republican simply because I’m a Christian. Granted, I tend to agree more with the Republican platform but being a Christian is not the reason.

I’m sick of people assuming I hate Liberals simply because I’m a Christian. No joke – I went up to a family at a restaurant a few weeks ago because the entire family looked really familiar, I thought I graduated high school with one of the children. They asked me where I worked and when I identified myself as a Pastor the father laughed and said, “What? Do we look like a left winged Liberals?” That’s just ridiculous.

I’m sick of the reality of what Bill Maher is referring to in his movie “Religolus” … “Religious people don’t know about Religion. … None of them could even name the Ten Commandments.” I’m quite disappointed that there weren’t people to legitimately answer Bill’s questions; its quite obvious that he still has no clue what Christianity is actually about. But evidently neither do most Christians.

When I was little I wanted to be a superhero. I even filled a backpack with all the superhero essentials: rope (to swing from building to building), squirt guns, a mask, and a belt with cool crap on it. I wanted to be Batman, specifically. My best friend wanted to be Superman. Another one of my friends wanted to be Spiderman. Together – we would save the world. I doubt I’m the only one who wanted to be a superhero! Truth be told – most of us (especially the guys) wanted to be a superhero as well.

Recently it occurred to me that I am a superhero — I’m a Christian. Consider this:

Superheros help people — Christians are Christ’s ambassadors, and so therefore help people. Superheros save the day — Christians are working with the Guy who did. Superheros have superpowers to do amazing things — Christians have supernatural powers to heal (amongst other things), when they’re walking with Christ and lined up with the will of Christ. I mean to think about all the things that a Christian is supposed to do — all the responsibility God has placed in the hands of His Church — its incredible, and very similar to being a superhero! I AM IRONMAN!

Now don’t wet yourself – Jesus is the only one who really saves. I’m not trying to diminish His role – but I’m trying to help all of us remember how important OUR role is! God has given US the responsibility of being His ambassadors.

So many people (even most Christians) think that Christianity is boring. It’s about being a nice, clean, good (and boring) person. That’s ridiculous.

I remember just under 10 years ago I was at church camp. Pastor Matt Keller was giving an altar call for those that wanted to open their lives up completely to Christ and would say to God, “However You want to use me, I’m available.” I remember when Pastor Matt followed that up and said, “Be careful responding to this altar call – if you open your life up to be used by God, HE WILL USE IT!” I remember how seriously I devoted my entire being to Christ that night.

From that moment on weird crap started happening to me. I often feel like I’m living in a well scripted action movie. Its as if God is directing a movie called, “Adam Diehl — the Superhero.” I’m not swinging from building to building knocking out muggers, but the opportunities God has orchestrated into my life is absolutely amazing. I couldn’t have a more action packed life if I were Indiana Jones.

Many men spend their lives looking for action and adventure. You will never find more action and adventure than in the life that is completely devoted to Christ.

I was just thinking about the Worship of America. Not Worship IN America . . . but the Worship OF America. You know, the nonsense about how all our founding fathers were sold-out Christians (5 minutes of intellectual research will show you that although they were all extremely religious and believed in the supreme being, few of them would acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior and the only way to heaven). It shocks me to find a hymn lyrics in my hymnal such as, “My country … sweet land of liberty … of thee I sing!” and “I like the sound of America, the best sounding word I know.” What? That’s a worship song? I believe we SHOULD pray for our troops — but because they are doing a difficult thing and need prayer, not because they are in the God-Army fighting terrorism.

Now a lot of people get way over sensitive about this and they won’t vote in elections claiming, “My King is in heaven, and he’s coming back.” That’s just ridiculous. My King is in heaven, and he’s coming back . . . but he also told us to respect our government and work within its structures . . . in other words – VOTE. I am a proud American – but my first priority is my faith in Jesus, not in my country. It’s not evil that they are connected – Christianity and government SHOULD be connected; Christians should have their lives SO effected by being in love with Jesus that their Christianity effects EVERYTHING (anything less turns Christianity into a religion). But being an American doesn’t make you a Christian. Jesus does.

How did Christianity and Americanism get so connected? That’s what confused me for the longest time. So I started thinking about the foundations of both: America was founded because there was a group of people that were in bondage to a repressive government. The patriots fought against this repressive government to declare their freedom. Christianity was founded because mankind was in bondage to a sinful nature and destined to hell. God fought against this sinful nature and defeated it; bridging the gap OVER sin and declaring all of humanity’s freedom (should they accept it).

I’ve heard it said Christians have an easier time forgiving people than non-Christians do. I think that’s true because Christians have BEEN forgiven. Christians know what lousy sacks of crap they were, and that Jesus forgave them and redeemed them anyway… so its easier for a Christian to show forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve it because they’ve experienced it themselves.

Maybe America’s foundation in FREEDOM got mixed in with Christianity because of its similar theme. Hmm.

Hop on iTunes and get the song “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by “The Buddy Rich Band.”

If you ever need to get your blood flowing sometime … pop that in. Make it a “Buddy Rich Day.” That’s what I did today. And crank it. Brass and saxophones always sound best when they’re loud.

This is how I feel:

In case you can’t tell, that’s the bottom of an empty barrel! Man, have I been drained lately. I’ve got to make some serious adjustments to my schedule, starting with a big massive hunk of time exclusively set aside for praying and connecting with God (not my normal time, but like a “recovery” time!). In the past 24 hours I’ve had two friends call and ask if I could get together with them, and I’ve had to tell them both, “I’m sorry, I’m not available. I’m going to be praying on that day.” Which is totally the truth!

You know, its cool how God works things out. One thing that had been pressuring me greatly was a speaking engagement that was scheduled for this month. Deadlines for some outlines and such were coming up just next week and I was starting to feel a lot of pressure. Just a few minutes ago, an organizer for the event called me and apologized but asked if he could move my speaking day back a month to May.

I love serving Jesus. He’s got my back, that’s for sure.

Okay, I need to take this silly April Fools Day opportunity to tell everyone about my favorite website: www.something.com. Check out the website – its amazing. I found this website when I was in the 10th grade bored on a computer and I just typed in “www.something.com” to see what was there. I laughed and laughed. To this day, I laugh hysterically every time I visit the page. I can only imagine the enjoyment the site owner gets . . . seeing how many millions or billions of hits he gets on his nonsense page every day. It just cracks me up.

For the html-ers out there, you also might enjoy to look at the simplicity of the html code.

In the 1980s, my dad heard a list of ministry myths about pastors at a convention of the Fort Wayne Bible College (later bought by Taylor University). Many of these are specifically regarding full-time pastors. I thought they were very interesting, and very applicaple for today as well.

1. Pastors have perfect kids.  People actually think it should be that way!
   
2. Pastors have the answers to everything. Don’t me how to change your oil!
   
3. Pastors are super-Christians. The only difference is a Calling to full-time ministry. Pastors get tempted like everyone else.
   
4. Pastors need less money. Historically this was actually true — Pastors used to get discounts for everything. But that hasn’t been the case for several decades. Pastors have bills to pay like everyone else. 
5. Pastors only work one day a week. I’ve actually heard of a person who frequently would stop in to speak with a pastor and start out by saying, “I figured you didn’t have anything to do so I wanted to stop by and talk to you.”
   
6. I lost it.
7. I can’t find these.
8. Not sure where I wrote 6-10 at…
9. Hmmm…
10. When/if I find 6-10 I’ll post them, too. But I didn’t want to mess up the beautiful numbering system…
11. Pastors know what’s happening. Pastors do not magically know if you’re in the hospital or if you are offended or if your life is going down the tubes and you want someone to pray for you.
12. It’s easy for a pastor to be a Christian. See note on #3.
    
13. It’s easy for a pastor to witness.
14. Pastors have no retirement needs.
15. The pastor and his family are immune to troubles.
16. Pastors always have their head in the clouds. Although many pastors need to be visionaries and look towards the future, so it may seem this way because pastors often talk about what COULD happen.
    
17. Pastors are a third sex. Ha ha. This made me laugh. A pastor is either a male or a female – and you’re going to get all the emotions and characteristics that go with that sex.
    
18. The Pastor’s home belongs to the church. This was the case many years ago but the parsonage idea is quickly vanishing across all denominations.  Parsonages were often bitter experiences because the family could go away for a day and when they return the walls and furniture could be completely changed– whether the pastor liked it or not!
    
19. Pastors don’t need a vacation.
20. Pastors should always be available. A good church should have a MINISTRY TEAM that is always available. If the pastor is on a date with his wife – leave him alone. This is why deacons were originally created.
    
21. Pastors appreciate inside information (aka. GOSSIP).
22. Pastors sleep in every morning. Sometimes a pastor needs to work 2nd and 3rd shift. I’ll never forget getting home at 2 or 3 a.m. from a youth group event and just as I was arriving home, my dad was leaving to go minister to someone in a hospital.
    
23. The pastor’s wife enjoys all facets of the church ministry. My mom (a pastor’s wife) is an exception. But we shouldn’t assume that the pastor’s wife is Called to ministry – she is firstly Called to her husband. (If it makes you feel better, reverse the husband/wife thing to be politically correct). 
24. If you hire the pastor, the pastor’s wife is part of the deal as well. I’ve heard of one church asking a potential pastor, “If we hire you, what will your wife do for us?”
    
25. A pastor is Mr. Fixit. Pastors don’t know how to fix other individuals and all problems in the world. Don’t have an unrealistic expectations — pastors can give you Godly spiritual counsel.
    
26. The pastor’s family appreciate hand-me-downs. Pastors families appreciate it just as much as any other family (its not bad, but its not exactly “Christmas” either).
27. The pastor’s car is the church taxi. “Pastor, I need to get to a doctor’s appointment, can you drive me there?” This actually happens.
28. Pastor’s don’t need study time or devotional time – they already know all spiritual truth.
29. Pastors like to eat. Fellowship is important for a pastor – and food often comes with it… too much.