Rick Nier says Woo: August 30, 2012

I like great questions. Questions that require thought. Questions that have no answers until Heaven. Questions that make me shake my head, sometimes with laughter.

I like questions.

Last week I gave a shout out to a good question. Here's another one. It comes from a pastor friend of mine, Stevan Sheets. I think his question here is one of the reasons why pastors don't ask for volunteers in front of everyone. If you ask the congregation for people who want to sing, be prepared for everyone who has only heard themselves in the shower. And let's face it, everyone sounds great in the shower.

So when Stevan asks if the thought always counts, I think it's a great question.

Woo!

Comments

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl...

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...

Indescribable

Holy cow! I only thought I was amazed by our universe. But after reading Indescribable by Louie Giglio and Matt Redman, now I am seriously overwhelmed by space. From the size of stars to the immense gaps in space between objects, I am in way over my head. But why create stretches of the universe that will never be seen? Why be content for distant galaxies to go completely unnoticed for thousands and thousands of years? It is a mark of extravagance in the heart of our Creator God. God is not like us. Of course, when you start talking about how big everything is, you have to discuss how small we are. Maybe, just maybe, we’re not that big after all. But it’s not for lack of trying, is it? In the early days, people tried to build a tower that would reach the heavens. Talk about self-confidence. And, in every generation since, we have worked to elevate our names and build things as if we could really garner fame that lasts. I absolutely love that idea. Th...

Rick Nier...Woo!

Search This Blog