A Modern-Day Parable for America 2016

Once upon a time there was a group of builders who had the desire to construct the perfect room. They laid the foundation with expertise, built the walls with precision, and constructed the ceiling down to the last minute detail.

In order to support this vast ceiling, the builders installed four pillars- strong, case-hardened steel pillars. They placed them strategically in the room to ensure that the building would stand the test of time; ensuring the blessing of stability and order for generations to come.

The builders named the first pillar FAMILY.

The builders named the second pillar CHURCH.

The builders named the third pillar EDUCATION.

The builders named the fourth pillar LAW.

Under the strength of these four pillars, the building stood firm as other buildings fell around them. The building weathered earthquakes, storms, trials and tribulations, and the people inside grew and grew. They grew prosperous and productive, and greatly increased in number for many generations.

One day, many years later, a group who had grown up in the building and had enjoyed its protection and strength noticed the first pillar. They decided that this pillar was unnecessary to their lives- after all, it had been put there by previous generations. The previous generations were wrong, they concluded, and therefore what they left behind must be wrong as well.

They rallied their friends and gave speeches about the evil nature of the pillar. They got leaders to criticize it, calling it unnecessary. The politicians capitalized on the angst and said, "It's time for change. This pillar is a relic from a society long since vanished. It is the symbol of the mistakes of our forefathers. They were not enlightened like we are. We know better. It's time for this pillar to come down!" And the crowd cheered.

There were those in the crowd that sensed something was wrong. When they objected, they were jeered and shouted down. They were called bigots. They were mocked and ridiculed as unintelligent bumpkins.

The crowd surrounded the first pillar with sledgehammers and began to knock it down. Because of the strength of the pillar, it took them a long, long time, but eventually they prevailed and the pillar came crashing down. The vast ceiling above them shuddered and shook, but due to the presence of the other three pillars, the ceiling stayed up.

Those in the crowd who had knocked down the pillar cheered. "See," they said, "This pillar was not necessary to our survival. We are better off now without it!" Because there was no immediate consequence, they were encouraged by their success, so they moved on. Meanwhile, the pillar called FAMILY was carted away and thrown into the garbage heap.

Soon after, the crowd noticed the second pillar called CHURCH. "Aha!" they cried. "Another relic left behind by our non-enlightened forefathers. It's time for it to come down as well!" And they began attacking that pillar with their sledgehammers.

Others around them, following their lead, noticed the third and fourth pillars. "Let's knock them down as well!" they shouted. "Our bigoted ignorant forefathers who set them here placed them here to oppress us! It's time for them to go. This is a new era, a new society, and we have no need for the ancient things that characterized previous generations!" And they attacked the pillars CHURCH, EDUCATION, and LAW with religious zeal.

There were those in the building who looked up. As the crowd hit and hammered at the pillars, they saw the vast ceiling shaking and shuddering. They called the crowd to stop. They pointed up to the ceiling and said, "Don't you realize what these pillars are here for? They are here with a purpose! They are providing the very stability and protection that you are living under! If you remove these pillars, you will destroy our very society!"

"Shut up!" the crowd shouted to them. "We have no need for your ancient, bigoted, ignorant ways. These pillars have caused more problems than anything else in our history! They have been the means of oppression and discrimination that the ancients used to keep people down. No more! We got rid of FAMILY and nothing happened. We will now get rid of CHURCH, EDUCATION, and LAW too! We will finally be free!"

They hammered on and on. Finally, the pillars gave way. The entire building came crashing down, destroying the once-prosperous, once-strong society.

It was not conquered from without. It committed suicide from within.

And this, my friends, is what is happening in America today. The pillars of FAMILY, CHURCH, EDUCATION, and LAW are under attack as never before in our history.

FAMILY: We have 41% of our children being born outside of wedlock. We have those trying to redefine the family as God set it up- husband, wife, and children.

CHURCH: We have churches compromising with the world, so that sermons sound more like the front page of the New York Times rather than from the Word of God. We have people sleeping in on Sunday mornings, not prioritizing worship, not prioritizing being part of the body of Christ.

EDUCATION: We have forces trying shove politically-correct agendas on our children rather than a true education. We have a lack of respect for teachers so bad that teachers spend more time disciplining than teaching.

LAW: We have politicians that believe (rightly so) that they are above the law. We have thugs stalking and murdering cops on the street. We have laws applied unevenly to people because of socioeconomic status or education or race.

When these pillars are gone, our society will come crashing down. So, I call all of you to be part of the solution. Be strong in your own family. Keep your marriage strong and your relationship with your children strong. Be involved in your church. Support your local church and be involved in its ministries. Support your local schools. Join the school board. Buy lunch for a cop this week. Thank them for their work.

Do what you can to strengthen these four pillars. Without them, we lose our society- not to a foreign power, but to our own idiocy. 

The statement that created my life's motto

I got a call from a friend about six months ago. He was one of the first guys to go through my Inside/Out Dad class in the Fayette County Detention Center, and we had become friends and continued our friendship after he had been released. He called me and invited me to attend a celebration of his being drug-free for two years. The celebration was to be at a church. That's all I was told.

I told him that I would absolutely be there, so I drove over to Versailles that evening to go to his event. Turns out it wasn't a church service- it was an NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting. I'd never been to one of those before, and honestly, I felt a little uncomfortable. Seemed like everyone knew each other except me, and to be quite honest, I was feeling a little bit out of place.

The program began with a completely packed room. For those of you who have never been to an NA meeting, you'd be surprised who was there. There were men, women, black, white, Latino, Asian, and every other ethnicity; there were raggedy t-shirts and three-piece suits; there were people still coming down off a high and those who had been sober for years.

The speaker for the night was the one who really impacted me. He shared how he was fifteen years sober, and if he could do it everyone else could, yada yada yada. I was expecting that. However, he said something I didn't expect. Something that would stay with me the rest of my life and would help me define my life motto/mission statement.

He said, "You guys know what motivated me to get clean? It wasn't money. It wasn't the fact that I had hit rock bottom. It wasn't jail time, it wasn't watching my friends OD and die, it wasn't getting shot at and chased and all that." He paused a long, silent pause and looked around the room. Then he said, "What motivated me to change was the fact that every single person that I encountered, whether it was family or friends or even the pizza guy, was worse off for encountering me."

He went on to say how he had a negative influence on every single person he met. No one left being better off than they were when they met him. That was what motivated him to change.

I walked away from that meeting reflecting on that statement. What about me? Are people better off having encountered me, or, like this guy, were people worse off? I made up my mind right then and there that my life would be the opposite of what he experienced. My life's goal would be for every single person that encountered me would be better off, whether in big or small ways.

I boiled that thought down to two words: BE INFLUENTIAL.

That is my life's motto. Be influential.

Wherever I go, I want to exert positive influence. Whether it is in the Jessamine County jail, the Fayette County jail, the villages of India and Nepal, the soccer fields, my church, my home, my family, the grocery store, a restaurant I happen to be eating in; wherever it is, I want to be a positive influence. I want people to be better off because I showed up. I want waiters to have a better day because I was their customer. I want prisoners to have a little more hope and encouragement because I came and visited. I want the people of my church to have a closer walk with God and a deeper understanding of their faith because I am their pastor. I want my children to have a better chance at success in life and to have more character because I was their father. I want my wife to have a better life, to have been loved more, than she would have if I wasn't her husband.

In other words, I want every environment I am in to be better off because of my positive influence.

Be influential.

Too many people have amazing things to offer in life- to their friends, to their families, to their communities, to their churches- yet never do. They are not influential. They, instead, are influenced. Instead of being the influencers, they are simply influenced. Who knows what our families, our communities, our teams, our churches, our places of business would be like if people stepped up and decided to be positive influences wherever they are?

Be influential.

How about you? Are people better off after having met you? Worked with you? Served you? Done business with you? Or are you like the former addict- a black hole of negativity that sucks the life and joy out of every person you meet? Are people better off having you in their lives?

At the end of my life, I simply want to be able to say that I was influential, that people were better off with me than without me, that this world is a better place because I was here, that I was able to influence my environment by positive interaction. I ask you to do the same.

Be influential. This world needs you.

The Middle Finger

If I wrote a book about my biggest insight into ministry, I would call it "The Middle Finger."

No, I'm not talking about flipping people off. I'm talking about how ministry is done in the church.

See, I realized about three years ago that there are three times of people, basically, in this world (viewed from a Christian perspective). Hold up three fingers- most people will use their forefinger, their middle finger, and their ring finger. Your forefinger represents the hardcore lost. These are people that are outside of a relationship with Jesus. No pretense of a relationship with Jesus. No attendance or desire for attendance in a church.

On the other side is your ring finger. These are your hardcore committed. These are the people who are in relationship with Jesus, people who are being led by the Holy Spirit of God, and who are producing fruit for the Kingdom.

Then, in the middle, you have the middle finger. The lukewarm.

What I found, about three years ago, is that most of what I had been taught was "ministry" was to the middle finger- the lukewarm. What I was told was ministry was basically trying to get lukewarm people to be a little less lukewarm. It was trying to get people who show up once a month to show up twice a month. People who cuss to stop cussing. People who don't care to care a little bit more. People who give a little to give a little more. That's basically what I came to a realization of.

I realized that very little was being done to reach the forefinger- the hardcore lost, and very little was being done to disciple the ring finger- the hardcore committed. Therefore, we had a church, and many churches, that neglect the lost AND the committed and spend all of their time and energy on the one category that Jesus said He would vomit out of His mouth.

If you examine the life of Jesus, He split His time between the forefinger- the prostitutes, tax collectors, the sick, the lepers, and the outcast- and the ring finger- His twelve disciples. Very rarely do we see Him spending any time with the middle finger. As a matter of fact, if Jesus ever sensed that there were middle finger folks in His crowds, He intentionally said things to turn them away. In John 6, at the height of His popularity and when He was drawing the biggest crowds, He told them in order to follow Him they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood (referring to communion). All the middle finger people deserted Him and all that was left was His disciples.

If you are a pastor reading this, do you spend your time as Jesus did? Is half your time devoted to reaching the hardcore lost and the other half devoted to discipling the hardcore committed? If I had to guess, the answer would be no. Don't worry. You're not alone. I want to challenge you to change around your schedule- radically if necessary- to imitate the time management of Jesus.

See, Jesus knew something about the middle finger folks that many pastors don't. He knew that they were lukewarm by choice. There wouldn't be much return for His investment of time and energy in those folks. So, He spent His time where there WERE results- in the hardcore lost and the hardcore committed. So many ministers are burnt out and wondering if they are making any difference at all. If I had to guess, I would wager that burnt-out ministers are the ones spending all their time and efforts into trying to get lukewarm people to be a little less lukewarm, all the while neglecting the lost and the committed.

Pastors, start doing ministry in prison. Start discipling your leaders. Tell the middle finger folks in your church that you love them, but you won't be investing one more minute of your time there. Invite them over to the hardcore committed category. Spend all your time in those two categories like Jesus did.

If you are not a pastor, what category are you in? I invite you, if you are not a Christian, to become one. Move into a relationship with Jesus. However, I challenge you to skip over the middle finger and go straight to the ring finger- become a disciple. If you are a middle finger person, your future doesn't look very bright. Jesus reserved His harshest words for this category, and you would be wise to move from the middle finger to the ring finger.

For you pastors out there who are thinking of quitting, throwing in the towel, chucking it all, I ask you to take a look at your schedule and see who you are really spending your time with. I'll tell you this- since I started investing in the forefinger and the ring finger it most definitely hasn't been easy, but it most definitely has been awesome. I love my prison ministry, I love my time working in the drug rehab house, I love my time with the hardcore lost. They are awesome. I also love my time with the guys I'm discipling. It is energizing and fulfilling. That's how most of my ministry time is spent.

Or, you can keep arguing with the middle finger folks over the color of the carpet, the paint on the walls, and the volume of the music, which is what middle finger folks do. You can keep reading anonymous letters criticizing your ministry, which is what middle finger folks send. You can spend a great deal of time chasing people begging them to get back in church, which is something Jesus never did. You can spend your time organizing craft bazaars, committee meetings, and planning sessions (some of which are necessary, but most aren't) and at the end of the day never make a disciple.

Your time is short. Spend it where the returns are. Reach the lost and disciple the committed. You haven't been called to do anything else. Unfortunately, many ministers are doing everything EXCEPT reaching the lost and discipling the committed. Love the middle finger folks, but don't invest much time and energy there. Jesus didn't. Neither should you.