Its Football Time in TENNESSEE!!!!

That's the way the announcer starts the football game at the UT game. Yep, i went again. I went with a group of people and managed to get a ticket to this game f0r 8.50. Yea, that was a steal. NO, its not because they are bad...it was homecoming. They played a no-name team. Louisana-Lafayette. The Rajun Cajuns had it handed to them. 59-7. It was great. I was in the endzone again. It was fun. I've never heard Rocky Top so much and seen so much orange but it was great. Church this morning was ok. I went to a different church at the invite of a friend. It was nice, but not my cup of tea. Then tonight, i played bass for WLBC. it was fun. I had an interview with a chuch and it went well. Say a prayer.

I recently read a blog that really hit home with me. The gist was, a well known christian communicator ran into a pastor that he'd known from years ago and asked him how his church was. The pastors response was simple, "I don't know...they fired me 2 years ago. " This pastor had been told to cater to certain people b/c they had money and were all family. So he did and it took his toll on him. He had began to neglect his family. This pastors family then had struggles of their own and his wife had left him because of the years of neglect. Below is a small bit...

You can imagine the lump in my throat as I stood there and listened to this grown man choke back tears over the family he lost. He was broken; a ghost of the leader, pastor, and shepherd I had met 10 years earlier. Then the saddest words to ever leave his lips landed on my ears.
“So what did my church do when all of this happened? The people I had served and pastored called a business meeting and they fired me. No discussion. They said they could not have a divorced pastor with rebellious kids leading their congregation. They gave me 2 months salary and wished me luck.”
No grace. No counseling. No support. Maybe they felt he was unable to lead them any further. Fine. But not even a reception with cupcakes and juice to say thanks for 13 years? This is way too common. I see it more than most anyone else because my calling carries me so many places, and when I hear these stories, I cry out to God to protect pastors, and the churches they serve, from shooting the wounded. Of course not every church is like this and not every pastor suffers such a fate, but this man did. And he is not the only one. God help him, his wife, and his kids. And God help the Body of Christ to offer mercy and compassion to our own wounded who lay on the side of the road, in a ditch, waiting on anyone, even a Samaritan, to come to their aid.


Hm...the last part...God help the BODY of Christ to offer mercy and compassion to our OWN wounded who lay on the side of the road, in a ditch, waiting on ANYONE, to come to their aid. This was posted on a blog a few weeks ago. I heard tonight on a radio show a similar story. Its all too common.

***I want to once again thank each one of you for reading this blog. I want to encourage you to post comments. I'm not perfect, and i don't have it all together. That's the great thing about Christianity. We aren't perfect, we know the one who is. We're merely on a journey...we're at different stages in our journey but, the journey none-the-less.