Pastor's Perspective - White Panel Vans

I’ve seen a lot of white panel vans in my sixteen years of ministry. They are the discrete modes of transportation funeral homes and coroners use to transport the deceased. Countless times I have been with grieving families in their homes, waiting for the white panel van to show up and take their loved ones away. The personnel change; always professional and empathetic. But one thing is predictable, that white panel van.

Yesterday my wife and I watched the live news coverage of the death of Michael Jackson. Admittedly, I wasn’t a big fan. Michelle saw him in concert on his Victory Tour in 1984. She and another 11-year-old friend rode a bus 4 hours to see him and his brothers perform at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. She still has the concert t-shirt! Although I wasn’t a fan, I can hardly refute his impact on the music world. My earliest recollections of him were as a child watching him on American Bandstand. Later I was intrigued by his reemergence as an artist through his earliest albums and groundbreaking videos. Admittedly, in later years, I found his behavior and appearance eclipsed any great appreciation I had for his music.

Yesterday, with LA news choppers circling overhead, the sheet-shrouded body of Michael Jackson was loaded into a white panel van.

As I watched it, I was reminded of several things. First, how many times I witnessed that personally. But secondly, and most profoundly, was the commonality of death. As I watched the sheriff workers and coroner workers move swiftly, I was reminded that we all die – that death is the great equalizer of mankind. Think about it. Who else had been transported in that same white panel van? My guess is many homeless, ‘John Does’, gang-bangers, and the desperately poor. Yet, here was the ‘King of Pop’, a personality so titanic that third-world children sing his songs, and for a day all other world events were reshuffled to the back of the line (Iran, North Korea, Governor Sanford, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, national healthcare) – sharing the same discrete death accommodations as us ‘ever-day Joes’. Yep, death is the great equalizer.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 tells us that “No one has power over the day of his death.”, and the writer of Hebrews reminds us that, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (9:27).

The story is told of an ambitious young law student who one day had a personal dialogue with God. The Lord asked the young man, “So, what are you going to do with your life?” The student replied, “I’m going to finish at the top of my law class!” The Lord asked, “Then what?” The student continued, “I’m going to set-out my shingle and make a lot of money!” The Lord asked, “Then what?” “Well, I’m going to find the prettiest girl I can and ask her to marry me. Then we’ll start a family!” Predictably the Lord countered, “Then what?” A bit flustered, the student responded, “I’ll retire and enjoy all the fruits of my labor.” “Then what?” After a long ponderous moment the young man looked up and said, “Well, I guess I’ll die.” The Lord, with love in His voice then asked His final question – “Then what?”

Friends, Michael Jackson’s death should force each of us to ask ourselves an honest question as the white panel van in your town waits for its next dispatch – “Then what?”

Pastor's Perspective - This Isn't It

This isn’t it.

Last night as I was dozing-off into my post-Conan slumber, I was reminded of the truth in that statement – ‘This isn’t it’. Somehow its resonation re-centered me and brought me no small infusion of peace.

Like all of you, sometimes my attention and focus gets diverted. The seen and the passing gets too much of me, rather than the unseen and eternal. I look at personal events, like the one I wrote about two blog postings ago, and wonder ‘why’. Similarly, I swim daily in the tank of church leadership, during a challenging time unprecedented in two thousand years of evangelicalism. Next, as a current events junkie, I read the headlines daily. My head has wagged repeatedly recently at the image of a young girl’s dying stare in a violent Tehran street, celebrities transcending justice, governors embarrassing their families and constituents, rogue nuclear dictators, misprioritized misspending by Teflon politicians, crashing and colliding planes, trains & automobiles, television commercials that make me run for the remote, and now, it’s apparently just too late for a certain Jon and a certain Kate! (What about the ‘Eight’ part?)

After serving as a missionary for forty years in Africa, Henry C. Morrison became sick and had to return to America. As his ocean liner docked in New York Harbor there was a great crowd gathered to welcome home another passenger on that same boat. Morrison watched as President Teddy Roosevelt received a grand welcome home party after his African safari. Resentment seized Henry Morrison and he turned to God in anger, "I have come back home after a lifetime of service to Christ and the church and there is no one, not even one person here to welcome me home." Then a still small voice came to Morrison and said, "You're not home yet."

Friends, this isn’t it. You’re not home yet.

The aging Apostle Peter identified the recipients of his first amazing epistle “aliens and strangers in the world.” As modern-day Christ followers, we can and must embrace those same titles and truths, and set our hearts and minds on eternal horizons – untouched by worldly vandalism.

Are you hanging on too tightly?
Have you put too much of your wellbeing in a president and economy?
Is this old world, with all it’s many upside down players and pieces, stealing your joy and robbing your hope?

Let me remind you friends - this isn’t it.

Better is coming, and it’ll all be worth it!

Pastor's Perspective - More Dads Needed

I’m grateful that I had a Dad.

Some might be saying, “Dufus, we all had a dad.” Of which my response is, “No we didn’t. We all had a father, but we all didn’t have dads. There’s a vast difference. And, it’s ‘Pastor Dufus’ to you!”

A father is someone who paid a minimal genetic cover charge to receive that title. Or, is someone who paid the cover, demands respect, and yet continues to pay the minimum when it comes to leading his family. Fathers are well-acquainted with terms like busyness, absence, disconnection and indifference. Sadly and tragically, the father population is rising and is at an all-time high, catalyzing most of the glaring breakdowns we see all around us. Although the economy and government are easy scapegoats for all that’s wrong, the biggest and truest culprit is the absentee Dad. More ominous than the swine flu is the pandemic of too many fathers and too few of what God intended – men being men.

In contrast, a dad is something very special and unique. He is God’s blueprint creation for the human family and society. As a matter of fact, when His creature called ‘Dad’ is actively embracing, endorsed and executing his divine role within his family and town, wives have authentic wellbeing, kids feel secure physically and in identity, neighborhoods are strong, communities flourish, society is undergirded and the world becomes a better place to live.

My Dad came to this country when he was just a teenager. During his childhood and early teen years he lived in war-torn Germany. He remembers spending long days and nights with his mother and young sisters in crowded bunkers and shelters while his father fought. He would soothe his sisters to sleep with his harmonica playing while bombs fell overhead. After the war, my grandfather moved his young family to the country of the winning side – no small humble task – especially for a thick accented former enemy with the first name ‘Adolf’! By way of ship and Canada, my Dad started life in a brand-new land with a brand-new language. His advanced age but lack of formal education landed him in the class with the youngest students. He was a bit of a sideshow, a humiliated blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenager who rolled his ‘r’s’ scrunched into a miniscule grammar school desk. To make it in the new country and to help his family, he left school and worked hard relentless hours with his hands as an apprentice wood fixture maker – the same occupation in which he would retire fifty years later.

With many societal strikes against him, Klaus Adolf Kiefer, immigrant, made it his objective to be a great dad and family man. Independent of high literacy, high salaries, and even higher social benchmarks, Dad was magnificent in his simplicity. He loved his wife, loved his three kids, was a stellar neighbor, laughed openly and frequently, served his church, paid his taxes, maintained beautiful yet modest homes, helped coach his kids sports teams, spanked when necessary, hugged us, kissed us and told us he loved us every day, enjoyed a “cold one” and a bratwurst when he could, called all dogs “flea hounds” but really liked them, led wonderful family vacations, yelled at the TV screen on Sundays when his beloved Buccaneers ran bad plays (Yes, he yelled a lot!), had a contagious wry “every guy” sense of humor, hunted and fished, ignored food labels, earned promotions regularly, smooched Mom in front of us, loved ‘old skool’ country & western music (the twangy nasally kind), read only the sports page, loved any movie with a good car chase, never fretted a ‘beer belly’, was dependable as tomorrow morning, taught us the true cost of a dollar and what a full day’s work should look like, celebrated our smallest achievements with big proud unashamed tears, and most memorably for me, would work eleven hot hours on a table saw then come home and throw backyard pass routes to his boys, with his bushy moustache still white with sawdust.

Yep, I’m grateful that I had a Dad.

Lord, help me to be one.

The world needs a whole lot more of them.

Pastor's Perspective - Family Update

Michelle and I want thank you and our church eldership for giving us this personal time away to heal, after an unanticipated episode in our lives.

As most of you might know by now, Michelle required emergency surgery and hospitalization last week to stop and repair severe internal bleeding caused by a 10 week ectopic pregnancy. You might also know that we have dealt with infertility throughout our 15 years of marriage. Therefore, you can only imagine how surprising and saddening this was and has been for us. We would never choose to rewind the clock on our lives; fully confident that God has supernaturally hand-delivered each one of our precious children to us - a plan that was HIS and was pre-destined from the beginning of time. But we are still hurting and grieving this unexpected loss in our lives. Naturally we are also so VERY grateful to God for preserving her life. Her surgeon said we came dangerously close to a very different outcome – which is also another issue that we are attempting to process and work through. Such sadness comes from finally experiencing a doctor telling us words we always longed to hear – “You’re pregnant” - only to lose that precious life. Our confidence and joy is that our baby is safe in the care of Jesus, and that one day we will meet and enjoy our child together.

Thank you for your many prayers, calls and acts of kindness. You have proven once again that “family” is not just a word at FCC, but our treasured reality.

Thank you also to our dear Elders for covering my many duties and for giving me this time to care for Michelle during her recovery and to be that parental presence my children need after a scary and tumultuous time.

My plan is to return to the pulpit on Sunday, June 14th and continue the ‘Overcoming’ series. I believe I’m even better qualified now to share that topic with you. I love you all.

In the Fight,

Steve

Pastor's Perspective - Altar-ed Minds

Do you have an altar-ed mind?

Recently I have taken a beautiful leisurely excursion down the winding river that is the unforgettable book of Genesis. The leisurely part has been my slow and intentional desire to enjoy the text like a great linen napkin meal – one appreciated bite at a time, complimented and seasoned with enjoyable dialogue. In other words, I’m thoroughly enjoying and appreciating being in the moment, and the rich privilege of having the book’s sovereign Underwriter explaining it to me.

Admittedly, as any reader of the Bible’s first book would agree, although Genesis can be read slowly, it’s hardly a tube-friendly slow-moving river. From creation to the curse to the covenant, it’s a true white knuckle ride – honest and un-sanitized for our jaw-dropping pleasure, as God establishes a people – His people.

Of particular interest to me has been the topic of altars, and the motivation behind building them. As you know, an altar was a platform or elevated place in which a sacrifice was offered to God. The first documented one was built by Noah after the Flood. The next several ones were built by the great patriarch Abraham, after he either heard God’s clear direction for his life, or, in celebratory response to a promise the Lord faithfully kept. Later his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob would build altars for similar reasons. Later by God’s divine direction to Moses, altars would become a permanent fixture within the tabernacle and the temples. As a necessary instrument of the Old Testament sacrificial system, altars would serve as amazingly insightful foreshadowing of the One who would ultimately be the accepted propitiation for the sinful mutiny of mankind – Jesus the Christ.

As mentioned, in Genesis specifically, these physical altars served in beautiful ways. First and foremost, they were expressions of worship and sincere gratitude to the Lord for His loving kindness. But secondly, they were reminders for His people. How brilliant and how elementary! His covenant people deliberately surrounded themselves with memorials – object lessons to share with generations to follow.

As Americans, and more specifically, as American Christians, we do at best a minimal job in this area. The ancient Jews were masterful! We could and should learn from them in this area. Not only did they erect physical reminders of divine touch-points, they celebrated everything, and loved doing it. They knew something we oftentimes forget, that doing life God’s way is highly pleasurable and party-worthy. From annual festivals to benchmark celebrations of maturity within each family, people were reminded and affirmed in beautiful, meaningful and life-guiding ways.

So, I’m challenging you to identify in your life altar places and altar people. In other words, where were you when you heard the message of God’s amazing grace? That’s an altar place! Who lovingly led you to Jesus? That’s an altar person! Friends, I believe that like ancient altars, stopping and remembering these places, encounters, moments and people will fuel the fire of your worship and consume you even more as a living sacrifice. Reminder: We’re not worshiping places or people! God has spoken very clearly on the topic of idolatry. Instead, we’re stopping, remembering, and identifying the fingerprints of God.

I’ll go first. My first altar place was Weeki Wachee Christian Camp (FL), where I gave my heart to Christ in 1977 at the age of 14. Another altar place was Michelle’s and my first house together as newlyweds in Tampa where I know the Lord called me into full-time ministry one day in spring 1994. I view First Christian Church (Suisun) as my most recent altar place; a place God divinely brought me and my family, three thousand miles from family and familiar. Altar people include former ministers and mentors, dearly loyal family and friends, and my wonderful wife .

Do you have an altar-ed mind?

I challenge you to get one!

Pastor's Perspective - Kashi Take Me Away

When and where did it all fall apart? Maybe it was always falling apart, but I was too busy to notice. Maybe it was never all together!

The “it” I’m referring to is my 46-year-old bod. Now before I get down on myself too much, there is some photographic evidence floating around out there that at one time your pastor actually looked pretty good. In one yellowing photo, seen and openly mocked recently by my community group, I am sitting with my dad. Allow the theater of the mind to enrapture you now. Your spiritual leader with a small waist, tan muscular soccer legs, a curlet (curly mullet), a sparse greasy little Ralph Macchio moustache, and a brontosaurus quietly grazing the background. Ah, those were the days. Then the ice age, or maybe the ice cream age!

Reminds me of the husband who asked his wife what she liked best about him. “Is it my firm, trim, athletic, body?” She replied, “Dear, it’s your sense of humor”!

Or how about the husband who was trying to squeeze himself into an old pair of blue jeans? Wondering if his weight gain was noticeable to anybody else, he asked his wife, “Honey, do these jeans make me look like the side of the house?” “No dear, not at all,” she replied, “Our house isn’t blue.”

Recently I went to my doctor with severe knee pains. He told me that my left knee had the beginning stages of arthritis, and I had re aggravated an old injury in my right. When I asked for a second opinion he told me I was ugly too!

So, recently I jumped on the good health love train. Twice a day I (choke) gulp down a (deplorable) delicious bowl of Kashi cereal with raisins and dried cranberries. Likewise, I’m drinking enough water to put out the Santa Barbara fires, taking vitamins, keeping a food journal, and have subbed-out Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups for organic granola bars. Mmm. How do I feel? Deprived and bitter! Thanks for asking.

Seriously, after just three weeks I already feel better. I look the same, but I know I’m putting better fuel in my tank. Maybe I finally realized some stuff. First, I’ll never throw the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl, pitch a no-hitter at Fenway, win Mr. California, be a mic-spinning mascara’d rock star, or win the Boston Marathon. But, I can have something better – God’s good gift of high-octane energy for my active family and congregation. Second, I learned that it’s never too late. Reminds me of an album I dig! Third, my body came to me with a heavenly expectation of stewardship.

I’ve got an idea! Let’s outlive our enemies and really hack em’ off.

So let’s raise a glass of grapefruit juice and toast to shrinking love handles, splendid Splenda, and the perfect push-up!

Although, I must admit; at times, I do miss that darn brontosaurus.

Pastor's Perspective - INFUSION2

Next Saturday morning (Saturday, May 25th) we at First Christian have been given a golden opportunity – to selflessly serve our community - with no strings attached!

After a very successful INFUSION event back in September to commemorate our 30th year in the community, our FCC faithful have been asking for another high-impact follow-up event to help others – and thus INFUSION2 was born.

In recent weeks I have been thoroughly enjoying meeting and forging relationships with local city leaders. During our connections together I have expressed our strong desire as a community of faith to meet the needs of ‘real people’ just like ourselves. Their response has been overwhelmingly positive and receptive!

Our plan is to meet at 8:00A.M. for a big delicious breakfast. After getting ‘carbed-up’ we’ll dispatch by teams into the community to do a variety of things – including serving the elderly and disabled, trash pick-up and weed abatement at parks and bike trails, yard work at foreclosed and abandoned homes (to bless neighbors), and a variety of other opportunities. We’ll reconvene at noon back at the church building for a great lunch and to share praise reports!

To ensure that INFUSION2 is a big success, all of our FCC loyal are needed. We still need more team leaders, team workers, childcare workers and food preparation workers to sign-up at the church Welcome Center this Sunday. This will guarantee that we’re properly covered out in the field and back at the church building. Likewise, we are looking for the help of those who have own pick-up trucks and trailers.

We are focusing exclusively on the city of Suisun. Therefore, if you are aware of needs in that community, please contact the church office. Our ‘To Do’ list is still an exciting work in progress!

As a side note, this is a great way to invite and introduce your family and neighbors to our ministry at First Christian, and to show them that the passion and mission of our people lies outside our brick walls.

I’m looking so forward to sharing Christ’s love with you at INFUSION2 – not with megaphones and guilt, but instead with shovels, garbage bags and smiles.

In the Fight,

Steve Kiefer
www.1stchristianchurch.org