Connections.

It seems true to me that times have changed. There was a time when your credentials told people who you were. A man or woman with a PhD had something to offer us. When it came to church, that was the pastor. Growing up Presbyterian I've had a lot of opportunities to experience this paradigm.

My father wears collegiate robes as a pastor because they communicate something. 100 years ago it was unquestioned: this man has something unique that I need. Information wasn't readily available through the internet, and information was king. So if you wanted an "in" with the powerful, you would go to those who could bestow knowledge. It was an assumption (and remains one, often enough) about God as well: to get closer to God we need to gain more information about Him.

As the culture becomes more distanced from the need for information, we begin to value others differently. Take our church for example: the powerful people are the ones with life experience. The wise among us, who have lived a life that we admire... those are the ones to look to. And, beautifully, the way we get to know who those people are is through connection.

As a church, we have a high view of humanity's innate need for community. Much of what I do as a pastor is connecting. I am connecting with new people, I am connecting deeper with people I seek to disciple. The voice I have to this community comes from my willingness to connect and my willingness to reveal who I am to them.

Here is a truth I am living in: the reason God is able to use me the way He does in this community, is the fact that I have been broken. At age 23 I have experienced severe hurt, burn out, and disillusionment. I have experienced dry times with God where I said, like Elijah, "I have had enough, LORD, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." (1 Kings 19:4)

Although it is never enjoyable to experience the worst that life can throw at you, the hard experiences are the ones in my life where God's hand has been most evident - and I say that in absolute retrospect. The hardest thing I have experienced in this life happened 4 years ago, and I didn't begin to see the redemption and restoration God is working in me until last year. I am (and will be) a good pastor because I hurt and God did something through it.

All this to say, if you looked for my robes you wouldn't find them. And, you wouldn't know that God is making me into someone worth hearing. Connection is the place where people's story gains ground, and where we see God active and powerful - through the redemption he is doing in our good, hard lives.