-Why Christianity Needs Simon Cowell-

So last night Season 8 of American Idol premiered.  Even if you don't watch the show there is a 96.78% chance that you have a general understanding of how it works.  People get up and sing in front of some judges who critique their performance.  Sometimes they have positive feedback and other times they tear the contestant a new one.  In either case, the feedback they give is generally honest with different degrees of "bluntness" from each judge. But the judge that always gets the reaction is Simon Cowell.

Watching Simon give feedback to people for the first 3 or 4 weeks of each season is the whole reason I enjoy the show.  Is that wrong?  Every freaking year there is a veritable parade of tone-deaf people who are absolutely convinced that their vocal chords have been endowed with the voices of the angels.  Simon sees it as his personal mission to bring them back down to earth.  What strikes me is that just about all of these utterly hideous singers have people in their lives telling them that they are supremely talented.  Who are these people?  Why would you let your friend or kid or sibling embarrass him or herself on public television?  Some people think Simon is cruel for being so blunt with them.  I think it's their friends and family who are cruel for NOT being so blunt with them.  Isn't it better to know what we can and, especially, cannot do?

I think the same rules apply to someones area of involvement in a church.  I think the church would run better, more efficiently, and ultimately closer to God's design for it if 2 things happened.  (1) Christian quit being so stinking hypersensitive and (2) we Christians got ourselves a Simon Cowell.  One of my former pastors was absolutely right when he told me, "It's easier to get a person into a ministry than it is getting them out."  The fact that it's so true is what is so sad to me.  If you can't sing, you shouldn't be singing on the worship team.  If you have leather eardrums you shouldn't be doing sound.  If you have no patience and are annoyed with kids you should stay out of children's ministry.  If you can't remember lines get off the drama team.  But pastors and other church leaders can't say that to people because they'll freak out.

I think as a whole, Christians have become too self-involved with their service to their church. Too many people think that simply handing out a program or setting up chairs or even cleaning up after an event is beneath them.  People try to find a way to get stage time too much.  But what if that isn't what God called you to do?  What if that's what you're not made for?  There are lots of people in my church that LOVE to sing but that couldn't find a key in an empty room with a metal detector.  I hear them every week.  But just because you enjoy something doesn't mean it's what you're MADE to do.  Peter enjoyed fishing but he sucked at it and Jesus told him as much.  I think we need more of that.  I think we should be able to tell someone that they're just not operating in their God-given skill-set and that they need to try something else.  This will only be better for the church as a whole.  The problem is, just like those contestants on American Idol, too many Christians are convinced that they are supposed to be doing what they're doing and will actually leave the church if you tell them otherwise.  This is so sad.

That's the attitude that hamstrings church leaders.  they want to build a better, more effective church in order to make a larger eternal impact but the people in the church are so self-absorbed in doing what they want to do that they don't get it.  they don't see the bigger picture because their tunnel vision is pointed directly at themselves rather than the church as a whole.  The vast majority of these people undoubtedly love God and want to serve Him with all they have.  Their intentions are good, but nearsighted.  We need to be able to accept guidance from our spiritual leaders.  We need to trust that they are trying to build the best most effective ministries for the whole church.  If that means that we, as individuals, need to sacrifice some pride then that's the way is should be.  Jesus made a lot of sacrifices as did many of the first Christians.  They understood that they couldn't be so nearsighted and self-involved because there was something much bigger than them at stake.  In the book of Acts, it was an honor to be chosen to serve widows.  I think if our attitudes were the same, there would be beautiful and wondrous  results. But until then, I think Christianity needs Simon Cowell.

-Who Are You Really?-

Not too long ago I was having lunch with a friend, (another Pastor), and he was telling about a speaker he had recently went to see. As he recanted his experience of seeing and listening to this man, you could tell how deeply the experience affected him. It was obviously a defining moment in his life and he was adamant about not walking away from the experience unchanged. I have much admiration for this attitude of his and have really let his response to that experience speak into my life as well.

When the speaker was finished and the event was drawing to a close, my friend approached him to speak with him. As he told me about his conversation with the man something he said struck me. He said he told the man, "Whatever it is that you have, I want it." I have heard that statement before over and over again actually and usually not in the same way that my friend meant it. I know what my friend meant when he said it and I admire his tenacity in going our and trying to become who he was made to be. But usually when I hear the statement, "Whatever it is you have, I want it," it means something else.

In the Pentecostal environments I have been in, this statement usually has something to do with obtaining some gift or power instilled by the Holy Spirit. There have been several "movements of the Spirit" over the past 15 years or so and that is when I hear this statement most. The problem with this statement is that it is the very definition of envy, which the Bible tells us is a sin. This puts me in an awkward place when I hear the statement.

For me, the idea of wanting what someone else has is an issue of discontent with what you do have. Even when it comes to Spiritual gifts, which are good things, it creates an attitude of discontent. When we want the gifts and abilities that God has given someone else, what we are saying is that we are not happy with the gifts and abilities that He has given us. We are saying that we would rather have what God wants for others than what God designed for us. This can be such a destructive way to view things.

In almost every ministry position I've held, paid or unpaid, I have made this error. I have tried to be someone else. Someone I wasn't created to be. I modeled my speaking style after someone else, my speaking content after someone else, my administrative strategy after someone else, my mentoring style after someone else, and in doing so I left no trace of myself in any of it. This only works for so long. The person I really was invariably began to come out, often to the detriment of the persona I was trying to create. One day I decided to stop trying to be a carbon copy of my mentors and only recently have I really begun to get a sense of who I am in ministry. This process is ongoing still today as I try to glean lessons and wisdom from what my mentors have taught me rather than try to become my mentors themselves.

To give you an example of what I mean I need to tell you about one of my mentors. His name is Billy and he is a natural born mentor. He invests himself fully into people and sometimes even gets hurt because of it. He feels deeply for people and because of this he bears their burdens with them. It also makes him a bit of crier but we won't get into all of that. Because Billy is so gifted at connecting with and raising up others, I tried to model myself after him when I was attempting to mentor others. The problem with this is that, even though Billy and I have some similarities, we are very different people. So my trying to become him was actually destructive to my goal of mentoring others. What I am now learning to do is take the things I learned from him and altar them to fit my personality and skill-set rather then altar my personality and skill-set to fit the lessons. Lessons from him like, "Be intentional about bringing them into your world," or "Ask them the tough questions," are easily transferable into any context and I missed the point years ago when he taught me these things.

I am finally in a place where I am not only content with who God is making me into but excited about it. Billy is one of many mentors whose lessons are paying off huge dividends currently because I have learned the hard lesson of being who I am. Being who God created me to be. So next time you find yourself wishing you were more like someone else or wishing you had something they have, please, learn from my mistakes rather than repeating them, and altar the lesson to fit your personality rather than trying to altar your personality to fit the lesson. Because who you really are will always come pouring out and usually at very inconvenient times.