Tod Bolsinger

Mayors and Pray-ers

This morning, I was privileged to speak at the Kiwannis Club's Annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast in San Clemente.  Here is a manuscript of my remarks...

Mr. Mayor, City Council, members of Kiwannis, fellow San Clementeans, thank you for the privilege of being your keynote speaker this morning.

Allow me a pastoral shout-out to my friends from San Clemente Presbyterian Church.  That Community of faith has certainly taught me what it means to be good friends, neighbors and civic leaders.  They really are a Community for the community.

Will you also let me acknowledge the presence of my good friend, my cycling buddy, a member of my church, a veteran of three tours of duty in Iraq and the commanding officer of the 2 Battalion/ 5th Marines, preparing to leave next month for yet another tour of duty abroad, Lt. Col. Todd Eckloff.

While I am extending thanks, I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight the pastors’ fellowship in this town that is so remarkably generous, gracious and hospitable.  They know, far more than the Kiwanians or Council Members that I am the least worthy candidate to be giving this address this morning.  Because of my schedule and duties, I am almost never able to participate in their gatherings and planning sessions, yet I am always, always welcomed with open arms and full support whenever I am able to join with them.  Can I also just mention the tremendous leadership and service that is consistently offered to all of us from Pastor Ron Sukut.  Ron was the very first pastor in this town to welcome me to San Clemente Presbyterian almost 11 years ago, he was hands-on involved around the clock partnering with our church’s relief efforts during the wildfires last fall, and he continues to communicate, pray, serve and bless humbly and generously. Ron, you truly are the pastor of this town.

It is also a privilege to join with you in thanking God for the blessings of living in this town.  And indeed, like most of you I am sure, I consider it one of God’s greatest joys of in my life.

Last week I had the privilege of hosting and spending time with the wife of the Bishop of Durham of the Church of England.  She spent nearly a week here in San Clemente and Dana Point and just loved it.  When we were driving down the coast to go pick up the Bishop at the airport, she looked out the window at the sun glistening on the ocean and this women who has traveled the world, lived all over the world, lunched with the Queen and hosted dignitaries said to me, “If anybody lived here, I would guess they would never leave.”  To which I replied, “If they can help it, mostly they don’t.”

When a pastor moves to a new church, the religious term is that we are “called” by God to the new position and new place.  But when I first moved here eleven years ago, I was reluctant to talk about God “calling” me San Clemente.  For most pastors a “call” implies at least some sense of being willing to be  inconvenienced or possibly "suffer and sacrifice" for the Lord.  Depending on your perspective, you may be "called" to Fresno, or Fargo, or Fairbanks, but you aren’t “called” to San Clemente, you GET to go to San Clemente and when you do you consider yourself either very blessed or very lucky indeed.

This morning, I hope to express my gratitude for the privilege of living and serving here, by hopefully serving you through some thoughtful remarks.

So…

A priest, a rabbi, a parrot, a blonde and a seeing-eye dog all walk into a bar, and the bar tender says, “Is this some kind of a joke?”

Well, in a similar way following that opening, the question I want to pose may seem like one: What do politicians and pastors have in common?

Or to put it more accurately, What do people of faith and public officials share?

Or once more, What do Mayors have to do with Pray-ers? (And by that, I mean the people doing the praying and not the praying itself.)

This morning, I would like to venture a public answer to that question.

"Faith Yes, Church Maybe"

An article on the CT online site for Leadership Journal reports the findings after "more than 1,000 self-identified Christians 18 years of age and older were surveyed on their religious beliefs and practices."
The study reveals the wide diversity of self-identity amongst Christians brokenly down into 5 pretty evenly distributed groups which they labeled as "5 Kinds of Christians" (which seemed to me like a nice play on and slight critique of McClaren's idea of "A New Kind of Christian").   

While I would like to, in future posts, offer some responses and reflections about the diversity of Christians in our culture,  I will start with offering up CT's own synopsis of "three critical issues" that emerged:

• The local church is no longer considered the only outlet for spiritual growth.
• Churches must develop relational- and community-oriented outreach.
• Lay people have to be better equipped to be God's ambassadors.

There is no surprise in here for me.  Indeed, I see this as an opportunity for the church.  Even more, I just finished teaching a course for Fuller Theological Seminary called Contemporary Challenges and Evangelism and these issues emerged from our discussions with NON-Christians, too.

In the final segment of the class I posed this question to the future ministers seeking their Master's degrees to be better equipped to lead in churches:  How should we  respond to a world that says: "God is interesting, but the church is  irrelevant"? 

According to the study, the answer of at least 3/5ths of Christians today, is "But, of course. That is the way we Christians feel, too." 

So, what do we make of that? 

But before I offer up my own thoughts, I figured I would let this sit here to see what it stimulates in your own mind.

Diversity...Bad news, surprising news. Good News?

Bill Rice, an elder in my church sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal online that detailed a study by Harvard's Robert Putnam (of Bowling Alone fame) on the effects of diversity on community.  The result?  Arggh!  After interviewing 30,000 people in over 40 communities around the country they concluded that diversity leads to the decline of community.  The more diverse, the less community.  Not exactly what a lot of us who want both community and diversity were hoping for. Here is an interview with the Wall Street Journal article editor.

And if you listen all the way to the end of the interview, you'll find a most unexpected surprise.

  Do you know the one place where diversity seems to thrive within community?  You'll never guess.  And I'll bet that a lot of Harvard folks are shaking their heads about it.

"See How They Love..."

In a recent editorial about the growing challenge to publicly state a conviction about biblical sexual ethics without being considered "intolerant", Christianity Today offers this historical tidbit to consider in terms of strategy.

Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) complained that Christians were impious—they rejected Roman gods—but worse than that, they undercut reliance on the empire. They "not only feed their own poor, but ours also," he wrote. "See their love feasts and their tables spread for the indigent. Such practice is common among them and causes a contempt for our gods."

Julian complained that Christians were demonstrating something better than what the empire had to offer. Facing mockery and lies, early Christians didn't back down from the beliefs and practices that set them apart from their neighbors.

Christians feed the poor for the same reason they reject sex outside heterosexual marriage. Following biblical teachings, we love our neighbors and don't want to see them enslaved to poverty or broken sexuality. It's that love and compassion that sent Jesus to the Cross.

Happy 4th of July

My apologies to all of you for the unexpected month off of blogging.  Lots of excuses, mostly "the dog ate my homework" kind.  But I'll be back at it again.

Since today is the 4th of July, I'll refrain from posting anything of substance except to say that once again I am grateful to live in this "land of the free."

And to my pals at Camp Pendleton and other places that are serving to keep it free, like Todd, Jon, Ralph, Brad, Stew, Agur, Aaron, Jeff and the rest...Thanks especially.   

"We interrupt this program..."

I'll return for the final posts on American Idol on America after Holy Week.  In the meantime, in the words of Catholic Bishop Tod D. Brown (the other Tod with one "d" ;-) ):

As people travel through this week I would hope that they will be able to drink deeply of the mysteries of our faith and prepare for the great feast of Easter.

To listen to my Palm Sunday sermon, "A Question of Faith", click here.

The Randy Jackson Mantra

Another installment in my series of observations from American Idol.

A young, charismatic, talented singer belts out a song from the top of the charts.  A great moment, right?  More often than not, no. 

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest turns to the judges and starts with the record producer and former Journey bass player, Randy Jackson.  Jackson: “Song choice, song choice, song choice, dawg.  I mean it was all right, but I just don’t think that song is you, man.” 

Very often the difference between a great entertainment moment and a forgettable one is determined long before the singer takes the stage.  A male vocalist with great falsettos and tenor ranges picks a song that would have made Barry White drool.  A talented teenager steps up the microphone and belts out an easy listening tune that would make her momma proud but leaves the teeny boppers in the audience yawning.  A woman with a sweet personality and attractive looks decides to sing an angry song made famous by the Dixie Chicks. 

In every case, the judges just shake their heads.  Over and over again, the judges would say, “You know that song wasn’t good for you, for (x, y, z) reasons” and the contestant would shrug and say, “But I love that song and I just wanted to sing it…”

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins says that the key to a company (or a person) finding their “core purpose” (what he calls their “hedgehog concept”) is by determining the intersection of three things: 

• What pays the bills?
• What are you passionate about?
• What do you have the potential to be the best at?

For most of these singers trying to figure out how to make a career of singing (“pay the bills”) the stumbling block is not their passion (“I just love that song.”  “I really wanted to sing that song.”  “I just wanted to have fun out there”), it’s that they don’t know what kind of song they have the potential to sing better than other people. 

It was good advice for Polonius to give his son (in Hamlet, of course) and it is good advice for us "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."  But unfortunately most of us think of that saying as meaning, “To what you wish were true of your self be true…”

Perhaps we need to go even further back in the pantheon of literature to the Greeks at Delphi where the inscription, “Know thyself” is carved. 

What becomes apparent, especially in a talent contest where every person is so talented, has been well coached and has a tremendous amount of experience, is that most of the performers really have no idea what “fits” them. 

If nothing else, American Idol should make each of us ask, “What song was I made to sing?” And then, sing THAT song with all the passion and joy we can muster. 

“What usually happens when you sing?”

The second part in a series on observations on our culture drawn from the show American Idol.

One of the most interesting moments in the early “audition” episodes of American Idol is when one of the contestants has been so bad, that the judges are actually left speechless.  They would critique or offer comment, or even just simply dismiss the off-key warbler, but they just sit there incredulously wondering what this person must be thinking to go through the trouble of standing in line for hours, singing for different producers and now, being put on the air for the express purpose of looking ridiculous. 

Now, according to past participants, American Idol tells all contestants that only the very best AND the very worst will be put on television.  And so, as the singer finishes an ear piercing a cappella rendition of a favorite song, it dawns on the judges that this singer…actually thinks he is really good.

And so, instead of making a statement, one of them asks a question, “So, what usually happens when you sing?" Or  "How is your singing usually received?”  And the answer, nearly every time is, “People love it.  Everybody thinks I am great.  All my friends think I am going to be a big star.” 

And one look at their shocked and dismayed faces when the judges reject them makes it clear that they have either been lied to by too many or have been deluding themselves all along.

Now, of course, how much of their lives to this point have been self-delusion or grandiose collusion is hard to figure, but it does lead to my American Idol observation #2:

Most of us need to spend more time observing our impact.   

Many of us rarely, if ever, pay attention to the actual effect that we have on those around us. 
We intend to be encouraging to our children, but they actually experience us as being harsh and critical.
We think we are being sensitive, but our loved ones cower around us.
We believe that we are people of good humor, good graces, winning personalities and our charming conversationalists, but we leave people bored and distracted. 
We think that we are good listeners but we haven’t even noticed that the person across the table hasn’t said anything for the last 20 minutes.

One of my mentors likes to say that while most of us judge ourselves by our intentions   Others judge us by our impact.  And no matter what our intentions may be (how many American Idol contestants have said, “I was just trying to have fun out there.”), we are judged, whether in singing or in any other endeavor,  on the actual impact or effect we have on others. 

More of us need someone in our life to hold up a mirror and show us what we actually look like, help us get beyond what we intend to do and show us instead the actual impact of our lives.

American Idol on America.

Today I want to start a short series on observations from American Idol.  I realize this might seem like a stretch to many of you, but stay with me and lets see where this goes.

First, a confession.  At the risk of losing all four of my regular readers, let me put this on the table. 

I watch American Idol. 

Not every time it’s on (because it seems to be on ALL the time.)  I can’t tell you who the names of all the winners of past seasons and I have never called or texted a vote.  But I do watch it. 

The truth be told, I have looked in at more “reality” T.V. shows than I care to admit.  My sister used to watch The Bachelor and before it got boring, I used to tune in “The Apprentice.”  But currently American Idol is the show that I find both entertaining (some of those cats can sing) and, I also think that it is right up there with “Deal or No Deal” and “The Sopranos” (I now watch a non-“R” rated version on A & E) for revealing interesting glimpses on our culture. 

So, for the next few posts I want to offer some thoughts on America drawn from American Idol.  And since I am a pastor and this is a blog about Christian faith, church life and “missional” ideas, I’ll eventually get around to trying to draw some of the implications for those of us who still think of the American culture as a “mission field”.  So, here goes the first one. 

It’s probably the most obvious and it certainly is part of the whole American Idol shtick.  But the first observation about American from American Idol is:

Deep down we are all really attracted to the brutal truth.   Or to put it another way, Everybody needs more candid feedback not less.  (And not everybody needs to be encouraged to do everything.)
Of course, all one has to do is watch an episode of “House” (my actual favorite current show) to realize just how refreshing it is to hear someone who just bluntly speaks his mind—when he actually has something to say. 

Indeed, the most famous of the three judges, Simon Cowell, is most famous because he is about as subtle as a mugging when he dislikes someone.  He is blunt, brash and often borders on rude.  Some famous Simon lines: 

"That was terrible, I mean just awful."
"Did you really believe you could become the American Idol? Well, then, you're deaf."
"I thought it was horrible, just horrible. I thought it was like some ghastly high-school musical performance."
"It was like some ghastly lunch where after lunch your parents have asked the children to dress up and sing."

Now Simon believes that his blunt assessment of those who show up to audition is not only necessary but actually a caring thing to do: "I met someone the other night who's 28 years old, and he hasn't worked a day since he left college because he's pursuing a dream he'll never, ever realize: He thinks he's a great singer.  Actually, he's crap. But nobody has said to him, 'Why have you been wasting your time for eight years?'

But, here is the thing.  He’s usually right.  Personally, while I find the WAY he says what he says far too ham-handed and insensitive, I rarely if ever disagree with him.  While most of those who are the recipients of his barbed criticisms and rolled eyes become defensive and even hostile, it is very interesting that this season’s 12 finalists name him as their favorite judge hands down because “he is honest” and “he is right.”  (okay, some cynic will say that they were trying to curry favor with him, but let’s take them at face value for a minute anyway.)

And there is another side of Simon that is often overlooked.  When he likes someone, he lavishes on the praise:

"You are a phenomenally good singer. I think at this stage you can afford to believe that you are going to be a big star." --To LaKisha, Feb. 28

“..you have this fantastic talent, great voice, and you don't know how good you are."  -To Melinda, Feb. 28

In a world of so much “spin”, I believe that deep down many of us (not all, mind you and that will be the subject of the next post) are looking for true honest assessments to help us truly understand our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.  And far too many of us fear that we have had far too many well-intended people who told us what we think we wanted to hear than what we really needed to hear. Then when the praise comes, it will really mean something. 

It’s not that I want to have critics like Simon in my life all the time.  But something within me knows that I need at least one or two utterly and completely candid voices in my life to help me get a proper perspective on my self. 

And maybe when we watch Simon tear apart some poor off-key diva, a small part of us wishes we had someone to do the same thing for us.