On my plane ride home from Chicago, I decided to read I Kings.
It wasn’t until the end of the book that I felt something stirring within my heart.
The kings of Israel and Judah were going to combine forces to fight Ramothgilead of Aram.
Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, suggested that they inquire the word of the Lord before going to war. So the king of Israel gathered 400 prophets and ask them if Israel should go to war. All the prophets said that God will give victory. But Jehoshaphat asked if there were any other prophets and Israel’s king responded that there is, but that he hates him because the prophet never says anything good about him or anything in his favor. But Jehoshaphat insisted that they bring that prophet, Micaiah, to listen to his words.

So a messenger was sent to Micaiah, and the messenger basically said, “Hey, 400 other prophets were already asked about the war, and they all said that the kings of Israel and Judah will be victorious over Aram. So you should say the same things that the other 400 said.”
And here’s Micaiah’s response: “As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”
I loved that response!
Because, there are those who will not preach what’s in their hearts because it will offend that person who happens to be the biggest monetary contributor of the church.
But the gospel, the message of Jesus, it’s not an easy thing. The Gospels show that many walked away from Jesus’ teaching. And Jesus never chased them down and said, ‘okay for you, you don’t have to do that. In fact, I won’t even preach about these things when I know you’re around.”

I like to speculate that as Micaiah walked towards the palace, that his heart was about to leap out of his chest. I’d like to think that Micaiah was scared and feared for his life.
But as he is getting closer, he starts praying and he remembers that he has nothing to fear for God is with him. He has faith and trusts in God. If this life is to end, he knows that he has an eternity in God’s presence.

And you know, I think Micaiah is my kind of prophet. When the king of Israel asked him what God said about the Lord, Micaiah responds (I like to think very sarcastically) “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”
The king responds by saying, don’t lie to me. Micaiah then speaks the word of God, in the presence of 2 kings and 400 prophets. His words were so offensive that one of the prophets stepped forward and slapped him. Then Micaiah was sentenced to prison with reduced rations of bread and water.

Micaiah must’ve known in his heart that this will not end well, but he refused to say things just to please the king, after all, he serves God, not the king.

May we speak the word that God has placed in our hearts, without fear.
I pray that we will not just be saying things just to keep the people of our church happy (or the powers to be in the UMC happy).
God is with us. Of what shall we be afraid of?

The NFL season is over. (Can’t wait until September).
So I’m slowly getting back into the basketball thing.
As I was watching a couple of NBA games here and there (what the heck is wrong with the Wizards?) I begin to realize similarities in the UMC and the NBA and NFL in how they do business with their players. And also players that reflect the type of pastors we have in our conferences.
It might be a long stretch, but I had a lot of driving to do last week, and therefore, had a lot of time for silly thoughts.

I think there are pastors out there like Anquan Boldin: someone who is unhappy with their current situations and want out. For Anquan, it’s about the money. For clergy, it can be all sorts of reasons. But some clergy may contact their DS (the general manager) and asked for or demand a trade.

I also think there are pastors out there like a Stephon Marbury and right now, Gilbert Arenas: players who are just eating the salary cap without any contribution to the team. In other words: Dead weight. That may sound harsh, but c’mon, we all know some pastors in our conference that aren’t as affective as they once used to be for various reasons. And I’ll just leave it like that. Or even players like Shaq. C’mon. He’s old. He lost his touch. Sure, he’s rejuvenated a bit this year, but it can’t hide the fact that Shaq isn’t quite pulling Shaq’s weight. Even though he is fairly ineffective, his name and his history will still land him a job.

There are also pastors like Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Young talented players who are very good leaders and lead their team like veterans. Although, personally, I feel that there needs to be more young clergy given the chance to lead a well balanced team (church).

I also believe there are clergy like a Kobe Byrant and a Terrell Owens. (No, I’m not that big of a Kobe fan). They’re more worried about their indiviual stats and status than the team itself. For TO, the first few years are great. Charamastic, provides results, gets people to buy in to his ability and talent. But after awhile, the other shoe drops, and we start to see the selfishness, look out for number one or “I love me some me” side of TO. For Kobe, he can’t really trust his other players, so he takes the load on his shoulders. Nevermind he has Pau Gasol or he had Shaq, it’s all about Kobe. 61 points at MSG is impressive. But it was 61 points, THREE assists and ZERO rebounds. Or his 81 point game: 6 rebounds and 2 assists. He has 4 other players on the court with him. Compare that to Lebron James’s last game at MSG: 52 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists. Who would you want leading you?

And of course, they’re clergy like Lebron James. Just a great all-around player and leader. Gets his teammates involved. If he needs to step up, he’ll step up, but will get others involved in the game plan.

Or a Kevin Garnett: a wiley veteran. Been in the game for a while, but still has the intensity and love for the game, and still bring the results, and still bring the best out of others.

There are players like Sam Cassell: journey men, played for many teams. And there are players like Paul Pierce, Kobe Byrant, played with one team their entire career. I guess I could on a different tangent with Kobe, how he demanded a trade from the Lakers, but then had a change of heart because of the promise Lakers showed. It’s like how a pastor feels burned out at one setting, then the pastor has a change of heart, spends more time with God, and sees that God has a lot of plans for her/him with the current setting, and s/he is able to set aside his/her frustrations and no longer see limitations, but possiblities.

I can go on and on. But I will stop here. Care to add any to my list?
I worked out that the DSes and the Cabinet are the GMs, since the GM can decide who to try to bring in and who to ship out.
I couldn’t decide if the Bishop is more of a team owner or the Commish. And the teams, themselves are the local churches.
The coaches, see they could be the pastors too, but I decided they were like the SPRC or the lay leader.

I still don’t understand completely the itinerant system. I guess I don’t understand it completely, because I feel like there are some real big loop holes and the itinerant system isn’t really itinerant.

Anyway, what I want to avoid becoming is someone like a Larry Brown of the NBA. I don’t know for sure, but I think Larry Brown is going to coach his 5th team since 1993.
He doesn’t stay very long at a team. His teams always do well (except for the New York Knicks, maybe).

I don’t want to become restless at one church and then continue to find other churches to go. I don’t want to be one of those pastors who feel like their gifts are only planting churches and rarely sticking around to see how the planted church does. I kind of, sort of, feel that there maybe pastors out there who take advantage of the itinerant system to avoid certain things. But I may be completely off.

I just don’t want to move around so much, because I think that is damaging to the churches and to the pastor her/himself.

Let’s see how long Larry Brown stays in North Carolina. It’s also curious to see if he and MJ will get along.