However, I would welcome the opportunity to have a conversation with Elise, as I believe her story could give me greater insight into the love that our Heavenly Father has for his children.

Elise O'Kane had served as a United Airlines flight attendant for more than twenty years. She worked the morning run from Boston to LA on United Flight 175 three times a week for years with a crew she considered her closest friends.

In August 2001, when scheduling September flights, Elise accidentally inverted two code numbers and wound up with wrong schedule - the first time she had made this mistake in twenty years. She managed to trade flights with other attendants for all her September trips -- except one… Flight 175 on September 11, 2001.

Because of her United Airlines seniority, she knew that she could still secure the flight the night before. So, on Sept. 10, she logged into the United Airlines computer system and tried to request UA 175. The system froze. By the time it finally processed her request, it was one minute past the airline's deadline for such changes.

Elise was not happy. She drove to work on Sept. 11, 2001 steamed. She would have to fly to Denver with a crew of complete strangers instead of flying to LA with her close friends.

The shuttle bus was pulling out of the employee parking lot at Logan International Airport when Elise noticed a young man frantically running towards the bus. She asked the bus driver to wait, allowing the young man to catch the shuttle. Robert Flanagan, a 33-year-old flight attendant threw himself into the seat beside Elise. He explained how excited he was to be on a flight he had bid on for months but had been unable to secure…Flight 175 to LA. He went on to tell Elise how thrilled he was to sit on a California beach. "I'm just so excited," he said. "This is a great trip."

"I can't believe you got it," Elise replied. "I tried to trade into that last night."
Seeing his passion, her anger melted as she told herself, "Just humble yourself and let him enjoy the trip."

When she went to check in for her flight, she was told that her seniority would still allow her bump Flanagan and take her usual flight. But she didn't want to break the young man's heart.

It was the last time Elise O’Kane was ever to see Flanagan or her crew again. Her Denver-bound plane left Boston Logan between AA Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and UA Flight 175, her usual flight, which struck the South Tower.

"Why me -- out of all those wonderful people?" she asked. "What have I done? I'm not a saint or angel." "God has a plan for you," she heard over and over. "You were meant to be here."

There were many who, after 9/11, experienced survivor’s guilt. Robert Herzog served as an executive at Marsh & McLennan on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. He was five minutes late for work because of an excessively long line at the post office – a long line that saved his life. Greer Epstein, an executive director at Morgan Stanley, who rarely left her office on the 67th floor, took a cigarette break just minutes before UA 175 crashed into the South Tower killing everyone on the her floor. On the night of September 10th, Daniel Belardinelli backed out of a trip to Yosemite National Park. His scheduled flight, United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

But for Elise O’Kane, it was different. Someone literally took her place.

This past month, America looked back on 9/11. The day has become our national benchmark. It's the point from which modern America is measured, the day life changed in our nation. The day the darkness appeared too great to see our way. On 9/11 we witnessed the most awful evil in humanity revealing the greatest good in humanity. In the midst of countless stories we found hope. We were reminded that evil never has the final word.

A lot has changed since 9/11: TSA airport searches are routine, Homeland Security entered our vocabulary and red, orange and yellow were no longer just colors but were also threat levels. My son checked mail every day at Wheaton College in the Todd Beamer Student Center

However, it is important to remember that there are a number of things that have not changed since 9/11. God’s sovereign love and care remain constant. The Rock has not moved, shifted, realigned or changed.

President Obama, speaking at the memorial service on September 11, 2011, could not have given a better speech. He chose to read, without comment, Psalm 46.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

What hasn’t changed since 9/11? God hasn’t changed since 9/11.

Elise O’Kane and I have something significant in common. Someone saved our lives by taking our place. Jesus Christ lived the life I should have lived and died the death I should have died. Our hope comes from the Cross - history’s Ground Zero. The Cross of Jesus Christ is where God gave up his son in an unjust attack. The Cross of Jesus Christ is where heaven’s greatest good came out of earth’s worst tragedy.

To be sure, John Stott is one of the most influential evangelical figures of the last century. Declining the invitation to become Anglican Bishop, Stott chose to pour his life into young evangelical leaders becoming affectionately known as Uncle John. Stott wrote more than fifty books including his classics Basic Christianity, The Cross of Christ and Christian Mission in the Modern World. Stott was a master at emphasizing both the need for the ministry of the Word and the ministry of deed.

In 1982 I was the youth pastor at the College Church in Wheaton Illinois. One benefit of serving at the College Church was evangelical giants regularly passing through the pulpit. It was not unusual to have JI Packer, James Boice, RC Sproul, Ralph Winter and John Stott preach in the same calendar year.

One weekend John Stott was the guest preacher. He taught with a clarity I have heard very few times in my life. On Monday morning, Stott had a speaking engagement at Trinity Seminary – about 2½ hours from Wheaton in Chicago rush hour traffic. Kent Hughes, then the senior pastor of College Church invited me to tag along and join him, Stott, Larry Fullerton (College Church assoc. pastor) and Jerry Root (a beloved Wheaton College professor) on the trip to Trinity. I gladly agreed.

I will never forget those hours in the car with Stott. Kent, Larry and Jerry were pumping him with questions about everything from theology to church growth. Stott’s answers were both articulate and elegant (he spoke with a crisp British accent). I sat in the back seat taking notes on 4x6 cards – wanting to capture every pearl which fell from Stott’s lips.

As we neared Trinity, Kent Hughes turned to me and said, “Well Jimmy, you haven’t said a word this entire trip. Is there a question you would like to ask Dr. Stott?”

Here it was. My big chance. My one question to personally ask the pope! After a brief hesitation, I said, “Dr. Stott, do you ever feel like just giving up on the Christian life? Do you ever want to just chuck the whole thing and find something else to give your life to?”

Shock and awe would best describe the faces of the pastors in the car. Clearly unspoken was, “Are you out of your mind? How could you ask such a question!”

John Stott’s answer literally changed my life. I have never forgotten the exact words he spoke to me that day. His response…

“Yes Jimmy, I often feel like giving up on the Christian life. But when I feel this way, I always do the same thing. One, I catch up on my sleep. I find that when I catch up on my sleep, those feels almost always dissipate. Two, I will do something fun to get away from the daily routine. After I rest and relax, I am ready to enter into another busy period of ministry.”

How’s that for a deep theological answer! Get your sleep and have fun! Is that great or what?? Those words have burned in my heart for thirty years.

John Stott has entered into his heavenly reward. I am guessing that he is worshipping and having a whole lotta fun!

Thanks John for a life well lived.

And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

 

Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Gate of Yeshanah. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

Nehemiah is leading the Israelites in the enormous task of rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem. By the grace of God, they will accomplish this monumental task in a mere 52 days. A brilliant manager, Nehemiah breaks down an enormous task into forty-one smaller projects (sections of the wall), assigning teams to each project. The section of the wall from the Fish Gate to the Old City Gate was to be repaired by Tekoite team. Nehemiah 3:5 tells us that while several members of the Tekoite team worked to repair the wall, the ranking Tekoite leaders refused to work.

Were they offended that they had been asked to perform such a menial task? Perhaps. Yet, it is worth noting that Nehemiah 3:1 tells us that the High Priest, the spiritual leader of Jerusalem, willingly worked repairing the Sheep Gate.

The principle of the passage is simply this - there will always be those who refuse to carry a share of the load. Antagonists are nothing new.

What is the attraction of verse 6? It is simply that Nehemiah did not allow his agenda to be dictated by the antagonists. We don’t see Nehemiah convening a special committee to explore solutions to the ‘Tekoite leaders’ problem’.

Verse 6 does not read, And so Nehemiah went to the leaders and said, ‘Please, please tell me what I have done to offend you’. By saying nothing, Nehemiah essentially says (my interpretation), The Lord has a plan for Jerusalem and I will not allow that plan to be derailed by lazy, too-good-to-work aristocrats. I will not focus on those who are unwilling to serve. I won’t lose sleep, get bitter or waste any of my time trying to corral them. I will not be deterred by antagonists.

How many problems would be solved in the church today if pastors did not allow antagonists to set the church agenda? Remember, no amount of time anyone spends volunteering at the church, no amount of money anyone gives to the church and no amount of influence anyone carries in the community earns them the right to be an antagonist in the church.

For many of us, anger may be a customary daily occurrence. Others may have to dig deep into the personal archives to recall a point of extreme anger.

A surprise to many, Jesus experienced intense anger. And, not surprisingly, when he did, there was always a reason for his anger.

John 11:17 reads, “On his arrival [in Bethany], Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.”

It is incredibly significant that Jesus arrives on the fourth day. According to Jewish thinking, the soul of the deceased hung around the body for three days. Jesus purposely waited until the fourth day to show up. In other words, the situation was utterly hopeless by the time Jesus arrived.

At PastorServe we routinely deal with situations which may appear hopeless. Yet, our great comfort and confidence comes from knowing that Jesus specializes in dealing with hopeless situations. We serve pastors and ministry leaders with great hope knowing that our God is the God of all hope!

John 11:33 reads, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

Verse 38 contains the same Greek verb which is translated by the New International Version as “Jesus, once more deeply moved came to the tomb.”

While I commonly shy away from stating that the NIV has poorly translated a word (the NIV is highly reliable) I do believe that the translators have missed the essence of the passage. The verb in question ‘embrimaomai’ is literally translated, ‘to snort like a horse or bellow with anger’. It carries the idea of a primordial rage.

The Message by Eugene Peterson nails the meaning of the word in question when they translate verses 33 and 38 as follows:

When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him.”

Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb.

What was Jesus anger at or about? First and foremost, he was not mad at the people who were weeping.

Jesus is mad at death. There is righteous anger and outrage at monstrosity of death in God’s world. Even though he knows that the resurrection of Lazarus is only minutes away, he is angry because he sees death from the inside – the devastation and the brokenness it inflicts upon people – and there is anger.

Jesus’ anger communicates that death is not God’s original plan. In I Cor 15, Paul tells us that death is not a friend but is in fact the last enemy.

What makes you burn inside with righteous anger? What causes a deep anger to well up within your soul? What makes you burn with anger when you realize that something is not as god originally intended it to be?

As believers, we should be angry at suffering, at poverty, at disease, at social injustice, racism, at divorce, at the sexualization of America.

And, as believers, we should also be angry when pastors are unfairly attacked. We should be angry when a pastor is in need of help in his personal life and a church abandons him in the hour of his greatest need. We should be angry when grace is extended to a church body but a church body cannot extend grace to a pastor. We should be angry when the weaknesses of a pastor are magnified and his strengths are minimized.

I pray that I will be in alignment with the things which create anger within the heart of God.

May we never, NEVER shrink back from the calling of the Lord Jesus, even when that means displaying a righteous anger.

How many times in life have you cried out to God in the midst of a painful experience?

Where were you when my loved one died? Where were you when my marriage dissolved? Where were you when my husband cheated on me? Where were you when my parents divorced? Where were you when my child rejected the values we worked so hard to instill in them?

I regularly hear this question from discouraged pastors. God, where were you when my elders abandoned me? Where were you when the church giving dried up and staff were let go as a result? Where were you when people in the church attacked my character?

At PastorServe, we freely admit that we don’t have answers for those questions. But, we do know this. It is not wrong to tell Jesus how we feel. We are his children and we need to remember that the Lord is our creator. But, that does not mean that we are not allowed to express both our questions and our pain to the Lord.

In John 11, shortly after the death of Lazarus, Jesus is met by Martha and then Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. Both sisters convey the same question – Lord, where were you?

In verse 21 Martha expresses the heart of every believer after facing disappointment when she says, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. There is an accusatory tone in her voice. In essence she is saying, “Jesus, where were you? If you would only have followed the script I wrote for you…” Mary will make the exact same statement to Jesus in verse 32.

Amazingly, his response to the two sisters is startlingly dissimilar.

In response to Martha, Jesus speaks to her about the resurrection. When Martha gives a mechanical response, Jesus looks into her eyes and says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

In response to Mary, Jesus weeps.

With Martha he speaks – with Mary he is speechless. With Martha bold and direct – with Mary he is broken and trembling. With Martha, Jesus confronts her mind while with Mary; he enters into the flow of her heart. Jesus He is perfect combination of the ministry of truth and tears.

To be sure, both Martha and Mary need tears and truth. Mary would need truth later. Martha would need tears later. A good counselor knows the right timing.

As a pastor, you face situations with members of your church when they need truth – sometimes very hard truth. And, there are times when you will meet with people who need tears.

For those who hurt today, you need to them that God also weeps. Remember, God entered into our suffering. Jesus is not a stoic - distant - rigid - isolated God. Christ is a sympathetic High Priest who knows our grief. Jesus wept. Jesus has knit his heart with our heart to such a degree that he feels our pain.

Heaven is neither silent nor disinterested. Though our days are shrouded in mystery – our Savior is beautiful.

Yet, few are surprised when told that conflict is often at the root of why pastors are fired.

Many pastors are at a breaking point, feeling that conflict is robbing them of the true purpose for which they entered ministry. (The names in the following examples have been changed.)

Doug was the pastor of an east coast megachurch. He called recently to tell me that he had just been fired by his church for an inability to successfully navigate the waters of conflict.

 

Dave, pastor of a small Southern church, wrote: “I had no idea that I would spend a significant portion of my time enmeshed in conflict. Our church is ill-equipped to deal with the fallout which is the direct result of unresolved conflict. I received no conflict resolution training in seminary. Now, I am not sure I can endure this season of pain.”

 

Steve told me that conflict is clearly tearing apart the west coast church he pastors – yet no one seems to have the skill or the courage to confront the issue. He is close to tears when he describes his fears for his church and for his own family.

Sadly, these aren’t uncommon stories. According to Peacemakers, a ministry partner committed to Biblical conflict resolution, more than 15,000 pastors will be fired this year.

Leadership Journal, in its Spring 2008 edition, cites a Baptist Press report listing the most common reasons why pastors are fired. They include control issues, resistance to change, poor people skills, declining church attendance, leadership style – and staff conflict.

Even though many reasons involve conflict, the vast majority of church cultures remain uncommitted to peacemaking.

Ken Sande, founder and president of Peacemakers, says: “No matter how fruitful a church’s other ministries are, if it does not have a culture of peace, every ministry is weakened to some degree.”

Sande acknowledges that differences are inevitable when people work together, but he adds: “If they have not been taught peacemaking, even minor differences can grow to major proportions . . . Worst of all, they may fail to practice genuine forgiveness and experience the reconciling power of Jesus.”

Peacemakers offers a series of questions that churches should consider. Here are a few examples:

• Does your church have a clear vision or specific plan for making peacemaking an effective ministry of the church?
• Does your church provide leaders and members with practical training in personal conflict resolution?
• Do church members who have unresolved conflicts with other believers seek assistance within the church, especially if the dispute involves employment, business or legal issues?

PastorServe is hosting a Peacemakers conference on October 28th, 2010. The Leadership Opportunity will bring together Peacemaker’s leading teachers in Kansas City to speak to one of the most pressing issues in the church today. I would encourage you to make every effort to attend. Conference information can be found at the PastorServe web site.

You have a star pitcher who is in the final year of a four-year contract. While expecting to re-sign with the team for the following season, he is told that he is the linchpin of your hopes to win the division. As you near the conclusion of the regular season, you begin to up his per game pitch count from 120 pitches to 170 pitches. While many complain that you will ruin the pitcher’s long-term career by destroying his arm, you justify your actions by reminding yourself and anyone who will listen that this is the team’s one opportunity to win the World Series.

Amazingly, you do win the division, the pennant and ultimately the World Series. Your star pitcher is named MVP of both the league championship and World Series. You are lauded as a brilliant manager who, despite the long-standing cost to your players, finally brought a championship to your city.

Sure enough, spring training begins with the teams star weak and performing poorly. As the regular season begins, he is placed on injured reserve. The team physician announces that the pitcher will need major surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff that was undoubtedly caused by overabundance of work the prior fall.

The team, with the smell of success in the air, decides it wants another championship, and it can’t afford the now former star’s salary. Paying his salary while he rehabilitates is more than the team can stomach. They cut him and move on to another young pitcher.

You may ask – how could the management of a team be so heartless. How could they overwork a pitcher taking him to a level of ridiculous pitch counts and then cut him when he is placed on injured reserve?

I asked this same question over the weekend. I met with a group of elders (the management) at a local church. Their pastor (star pitcher) is clearly mentally, emotionally and spiritually exhausted (injured reserved) following a lengthy church conflict, which pitted the church against a corrupt denomination.

Miraculously, the elders changed their minds and recommended a sabbatical to allow for time to heal, rest and rejuvenate. Yet, how many pastors are released while on ‘injured reserve’? How many pastoral ‘injuries’ result from extended hours, a crushing weight of stress combined with unrealistic expectations?

Are you a pastor on ‘injured reserve’? Inform the management.

Are you management? Whatever it takes, get your pastor the rest and recovery he so desperately needs.

The construction of the bridge was detailed in the 1980 Ken Burns documentary Brooklyn Bridge. The documentary tells the story of the bridge foundation which was constructed by creating two enormous caissons (an underwater dome). These underwater domes were lowered into the waters as hoses pumped air into the dome creating an underwater auditorium.

Thousands of Irish immigrants worked on the underwater portion of the bridge construction. Working with shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, steel bar stone breakers, winches and ten ton hydraulic jacks, the bridge began to rise. Each week they would see several feet added to their painstaking task of building the foundation of a bridge while underwater. It was eighteen months and 78 feet of construction before the two bridge towers finally cracked the surface of the water.

These Irish immigrants came to be known as ‘sand grunts’. Their work was dirty, hard, out of sight and under the surface where no one could observe their progress as they build the Brooklyn Bridge.

A great deal of the work of ministry qualifies pastors to be sand grunts. As pastors, we are called to work in areas, which are more often than not, below the surface and unseen. Every so often, the Lord graciously allows our work to ‘break the surface’ and be recognized.

If we as pastors are working for the recognition of others, we will regularly live under the misery of under appreciation and frustration.

Yet, if we find our self worth in Jesus, not in the acclamation of others, we will find that we can glory in working beneath the surface.

Thanks be to God, you are a sand grunt!

Men and women go into ministry because they want to preach, teach, love and serve people. While attending Bible school or seminary, they are taught theology and the classical disciplines. But once they receive the keys to their first church, reality sets in. Before long, they’re spending their time managing people, balancing finances, and dealing with conflicts and issues that commonly weren’t a part of their education. In fact, 90 percent of pastors say their seminary or Bible school training did only a fair-to-poor job of preparing them for ministry.

Tragically, many pastors have lost their joy and enthusiasm for ministry amid the stress and even disillusionment of church leadership. No other profession has such a wide gap between expectations and reality. Four out of five pastors feel unqualified and discouraged in their roles. Four out of five!

Pastor burnout and their growing exodus from ministry are occurring in a culture that’s becoming increasingly secular. Pastors desperately need a safe place to go where they can be ministered to out of a heart bent to service, not condemnation. They need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ applied personally to them.

This is the purpose of the PastorServe blog; to provide a Gospel-centered venue for communication among pastors and ministry leaders.

Since its founding in 1999, the PastorServe team has responded to more than 115,000 requests for assistance from pastors and ministry leaders across America. PastorServe provides resources to pastors, coaches them and works alongside them in times of crisis. We provide friendship, pastoral coaching, pastoral assessment, conflict management, pulpit supply, training in pastoral competencies and a number of additional services. This blog is one more way in which the PastorServe team will serve pastors.

The PastorServe team of contributors bring extensive experience in pastoring, church planting and leadership. We’re excited to meet each one of you and provide this blog for your encouragement.

Blessings in Jesus,

Jimmy Dodd