Book Review: Wild Goose Chase

I’ve never heard of Mark Batterson. He’s the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church an innovative church that has a lot of Washington movers and shakers in its membership. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

In the sequel to that book, Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God, Batterson develops the idea that there is an unpredictability to the movement and actions of God. The title of the book comes from the fact that among Celtic Christians, they often referred to the Holy Spirit as An Geadh-Glas or, the Wild Goose. He says that “Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surrounds Him.”

Batterson explores the barriers that prevent us from accepting God’s unpredictability in six areas, which he calls cages and explores in individual chapters. First, is the cage of responsibilities. He argues that our passions are often submerged beneath our day to day responsibilities. Second is the cage of the routine, being shackled by comfort and predictability. Third is the cage of assumptions (I’m too old, too young, too inexperienced, too set in my ways) where we assume that God cannot use us. The fourth cage is the cage of guilt in which we assume that God cannot use us because of past actions and choices. The fifth cage is the cage of failure, where we believe that we cannot overcome the mistakes of our past. The final cage is the cage of fear, being terrified of taking a step of faith.

I think this focus on the elusive presence of God is exactly right. So much of contemporary Evangelicalism consists in putting God into a particular box that is neat and orderly. But the Spirit blows where it will, and as believers we’d best stop pretending otherwise. As Lucy was told when she first entered Narnia “Aslan isn’t a tame lion!”

I will add that I think the association of the Holy Spirit as a Wild Goose is pretty weak. A wild goose chase is a metaphor for chasing something insubstantial, not the best description of God (a point he acknowledges). But look past the title of the book and you will find encouragement to allow God to move you in directions you might not have otherwise sought. I recommend this book.

I also have one free copy! Since Batterson pastors in D.C. and we are in an election season let’s make this a presidential question. One of my prized possessions is a autobiography of one of our presidents, with his autograph inscribed inside. His 100th birthday would’ve been celebrated this week. Who is he? Post it here and I’ll send you a copy of this book.

Overheard During Obama's Acceptance Speech

(The kids aren't really into politics, but because it is a memorable speech, I encouraged them to stay up and listen to Obama's acceptance speech).

Obama: "the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."

Scooter: "Oooooo?! Did you hear what he said about President Bush?"

Skeeter: "Was that a slam?"

Scooter: "Uhhhh...yeah"

Skeeter: "Well, I hope the President wasn't watching."

The Theological Interview (I)

Following our visit to his church, we contacted Brother Rick about a theological interview. While we had of course, discussed theology throughout the search process, we had not made it the central topic of any one interview with him. Certainly we would not have reached this stage of the process if there had been any theological red flags. We also had some loose ends that we needed to cover. For instance, we needed to lay out Lakeview’s financial situation and let him know the level of our indebtedness. We also felt it necessary to give him an honest appraisal of the staff situation I mentioned a few posts ago. In addition, we had not yet conducted a criminal background check or a credit check. (Which we accomplished by appointing two members of our committee to pull these reports, with his consent.)

So we decided to bring him into our town on a Friday and conduct the extended interview on Saturday. That Friday evening quickly arrived and Jim (as a PSC member and Personnel Chairman) and I had a working dinner with Rick where we went over the finances of the church as well as our personnel concerns. Rick asked numerous questions and also shared with us how he had addressed difficult circumstances with staff and financial challenges in previous places of ministry.

Some on the committee had been greatly concerned about “scaring off” a candidate when we revealed the level of church debt. But others felt that when the right candidate came along, he would be unconcerned. Rick’s reaction was neither one of surprise or concern. He simply accepted it and discussed how it had been addressed in the past. He also shared some wise advice on the personnel matter.

The following day we began at 8:00 am and interrogated interviewed Rick until around 5 that evening, stopping briefly for lunch. We had close to a hundred questions or so (I’ll include them in a separate post). The previous week we divided them up and so we went into the interview with a particular game plan. Because Rick is pretty talkative, particularly when a bit nervous, I tried to keep the session moving along. Of the one hundred questions, we probably asked seventy. The rest of the questions he covered in other answers. It was a long day, but a good day. By the end of the day, no question of the committee remained unasked and we were all exhausted.

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Visiting His Home Church (II)

Rick’s wife Elizabeth continued her question and said “If things go well and we are called to Lakeview…will Rick be thrown to the wolves?” I wasn’t sure what generated this question, beyond something that may have happened in a previous place of ministry. We tried to answer as best we could, essentially pledging that the leadership of the church represented on the committee would support the next pastor of Lakeview. She asked several follow up questions that focused on issues of family general quality of life. Overall she was honest with her concerns about what the new challenges of the ministry might be.

We continued our conversation for several hours. Jim, the former alternate who came with me, agreed with the rest of the committee that brother Rick might be the guy. I told the committee later that the effect was very much like those zombie movies. Every person who met him, came back to the group liking him.

We also came to a significant decision. We needed to have another meeting with Rick and the entire committee that would focus on his theological views.

But I was bothered by our answer to Elizabeth’s question. I was afraid that I made it sound like there were no wolves in Lakeview. So after a few days went by, I sent them the following email.

Dear Brother Rick and Elizabeth,

Let me again thank you for your questions. As a committee, one of our goals throughout this process has been for us to provide as much transparency as we know how to give. So I appreciate very much the fact that you both have been equally transparent and open in your dialogue with us. Please don’t hesitate to ask us anything, even the difficult questions.

Elizabeth, you asked a great question about the possibility of Rick being “thrown to the wolves” at Lakeview. After thinking about your question last night and today, I wanted to add a few things to our conversation. As your question recognizes, and as you know from experience, there are many wolves in the world of ministry. Some come from within the church, and some come from without.

Part of the role of the pastor (as I see it anyway) is to protect the congregation from wolves. But a major part of the leadership of the congregation is to protect the pastor from wolves as well. I think that there is a strong core of leadership in the church, centered in the deacons. Several of the strong leaders on this committee are each deacons, and should give you some sense of the quality of the other deacons as well. They will strongly support our new pastor.

In addition, I am excited about the role that Bob [a PSC member] will play as our Personnel Committee chairman. He is going to be in close contact with all of the staff about what the church expects of them in their roles as ministers. If there are any personnel issues that need to be resolved, they will be resolved by the pastor. If he is unable to resolve these issues, then the personnel committee will step up and assist him

Elizabeth, if God sees fit to provide you and Rick with a place of ministry at Lakeview, I am (sadly) certain that you will each encounter wolves over the years. I cannot promise you that our city is wolf free, but I can promise you that as a committee and as leaders in the church, we will support you in fighting those wolves the best of our God-given ability. You won’t be alone. Through God’s strength, you have each defeated your share of wolves at your current church, and I am certain that if God is in this move to Lakeview, you will do the same here.

Taran

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3 Kid Book Reviews

Now for something completely different. I was asked to review three children's books. They are aimed at the toddler years, so its approximately equivalent to my maturity level. But in order to be objective, I figured that I would just read these with Squealer, and then report on his reactions. But he didn't really like any of them, so I'm somewhat at a loss. I think his five year old self is moving beyond toddler interests.

Of the three, God Gave us Heaven is the best. It narrates the wintery world of Little Cub. Little Cub awakens one morning with some important questions on her mind: What is heaven like? How do we get there? Will we eat in heaven? Will we be angels? During a cold day spent wandering their arctic world, Papa gently answers each question, assuring Little Cub that heaven is a wonderful place, "a million times better" than she can imagine. He explains how God has made a way for those who love him to enter their heavenly home forever after their lives on earth are over.

I think the best thing about this book is that it generated a great conversation between Kadie and Squealer when she read it to him. She mentioned that she will see her mom when she gets to heaven and (for the first time), Squealer inquired about his grandmother, whom we lost almost twenty years ago.

In When God Made My Toes, kids are drawn into the wonder of their creation by God. Their masterful artist who fashioned them just right for amazing and delightful adventures, such as roller skating, finger-painting, doing flips, and drinking cocoa. Imaginative rhymes and I did like the connection between the fact that we are a unique part of God's Creation. It nicely brings the idea that the same God who created the natural world, took time and effort to create us as well.

In God Loves Me More Than That, children learn that God loves them deeper than a wishing well, wider than a semi-truck, louder than thunder, and softer than a kitten's sneeze. Each question, presented with charming child-like faith will help young ones grasp the great love of God through comparisons and descriptions they can easily understand. In short, they'll discover that His love is bigger, wider, higher, and deeper than anything they could imagine! This one was our least favorite of the three.

Visiting His Home Church

After David’s resignation, we paused to consider where we were in the process. While we very much liked the candidate (let’s call him Rick) under discussion, we had not yet visited his church. Since I had seen him only once, and the alternate committee member (now a regular member) had not seen him at all, we decided that the two of us would go to visit pastor Rick’s church.

We told brother Rick the Sunday we would be arriving and got there a few minutes before the worship service. As per our custom, my partner went in first while I remained in the car. After a few minutes I went in and sat in another part of the sanctuary. When Rick arrived at the church a few years ago, there were three people present his first Sunday. Attendance had risen to in the fifties, although the Sunday we arrived there were in the forties. We were confused at first because the state WMU president was present and gave a report, followed by a NAMB resort missionary who gave a report on their work at an area lake.

An odd moment occurred after brother Rick began preaching because the WMU president stood up and said loudly (and I might add, somewhat proudly) “Brother Rick, I forgot to mention during my report that the WMU raised $2 million for Lottie Moon this last Christmas!!!” If Rick was aggravated at being interrupted, he didn’t let it show. He simply paused a moment and then said “Well I have no idea who this Lottie Moon lady is, but she certainly is rolling in the dough.”

Following the service, my partner and I hurriedly departed and quickly went out into my car to leave. As we stated pulling out of the parking lot, I kid you not, the WMU president came streaking out of the church, racing toward us holding aloft two bags full of WMU swag that she wanted everyone in the service to receive. I briefly considered flooring it, but didn’t want to create a larger scene. So I slowed down and rolled down my window as the older (and surprisingly spry) state WMU president breathlessly gave us our bags of samples.


We then drove down to the Presbyterian church and waited for pastor Rick to call us. He did several minutes later and I asked him where we could take he and his family out to eat. After consulting with his family, he said “Y’know, we could really use some McDonald’s right about now.” (When I turned in the meal receipts later to our Finance Chairman, I made sure he understood that Mickey D’s was the candidate’s idea.)

After getting the meal, we took it back to their parsonage and had a conversation that ran another 5 hours or so. It was a good conversation and only served to reinforce the strong feelings that the committee and the candidate were developing for one another.


Late in the evening, after we had talked a great deal, Rick’s wonderful wife started off a question with the following statement. “I may get my husband in trouble, but there’s a question that I just have to ask…” She then paused for a moment as she put the right words together.

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Resignation Aftermath

When I shared the news of David’s resignation to the committee, there was some anger. Mostly the anger was directed at the individual who was involved in the conflict with David’s wife. But there was also some frustration at the Personnel Committee. As I stated in my last post, the committee system at Lakeview had lain dormant for so long, that I don’t think that they were responsible for mishandling this situation.

Most of the Pastor Search Committee had no idea that this conflict had been ongoing. They were surprised and felt that we should monitor the situation. One result of this event is that it gave us as a committee an opportunity to discuss and understand that we had some personnel issues that needed to be addressed in the church. Shortly after these events came out our Personnel Committee chairman resigned (for unrelated reasons) and a member of the Search Committee was appointed chair of the Personnel Committee and began to deal effectively with these concerns. He gave periodic updates to the PSC and helped to address the concerns of the rest of the committee.

Letting the church know was a more difficult matter. I sought advice from various people to figure out how to best communicate that David had resigned. One advisor suggested that I simply not say anything and that people would only find out later. But I wanted to try to model communication to the church and felt that simply not telling them would be disingenuous. Some on the committee felt that we should announce it to the church during the next PSC report, four weeks away. My concern with this approach was the inordinate the length of time until our next report to the church. Honestly, one of the hardest thing for me to imagine was that people were praying for the entire committee by name every week and I felt that they should know what was going on. Plus I thought that Sunday morning was a pretty big stage and I wasn’t sure that it was the best setting for this announcement.

So we decided to announce the resignation during a business meeting. Since very few people outside the PSC and the Personnel Committee knew of the staff conflict, I was general about why David resigned. I simply said that he had resigned for personal concerns and he asked that I not disclose the reason. I assured the congregation that I wished David had not resigned and that he was not resigning because of any moral issue. I then asked if there were any questions.

Fortunately, there were none.

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David's Resignation

David’s wife had served for a period of time as the children’s minister at Lakeview Baptist. During that time she suffered the bumps and bruises that often accompany any ministry endeavor. But she also had a pretty high level conflict with one of our church secretaries. Feelings were hurt, and things were said on both sides that were unfortunate. On numerous occasions they clashed.

Finally, and as a direct result of these conflicts, David’s wife quit the church staff. David, understandably, thought that his wife had been tremendously wronged in this process. Contributing to his case was the fact that this secretary had also been involved in conflicts with previous staff members as well.

After years of ineffectiveness, the Personnel Committee had begun the process of addressing this situation, but not in a way that David approved. Essentially, David demanded that the secretary be terminated from her position immediately or they would leave. The Personnel Committee was taking a careful approach to the situation and was not moving as quickly as David would’ve liked. In addition, as he told me, his wife could no longer worship with “that woman” at Lakeview. As a result of these factors, David told me that they were gone. They haven’t been back since, although our families still socialize together. David told me later that one reason he stepped down from the committee is because he would’ve voted against the new pastor simply because this issue had not yet been dealt with (to his satisfaction). Since we were committed to a unanimous recommendation to the church, David would’ve effectively sabotaged the search process. So when David shared with me that God told him to resign from the committee, I didn’t disagree.

David's resignation presented two challenges to our committee. First, we had to assess what David’s departure meant to us as a committee. He was active in our discussions and brought successful business acumen into our conversations. Second, we had to address what would be the consequences of his departure when we announced it to the church. How could they trust a committee that couldn't even keep its own membership together?

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"Find the Door!!"

For those of you who are Dallas Cowboys fans and are (like me) far too cheap to subscribe to HBO, well God has smiled upon you and rewarded your faithfulness. The first episode of their Training Camp series Hard Knocks is available for free viewing here. Enjoy!

(Please finish your sermon before viewing.)

A Fine Second Meeting and Shocking News

Following our initial visit with the pastoral candidate, we quickly decided that the rest of the committee needed to meet him. We scheduled a Wednesday night service at a local church and asked him and his family to come. We also planned a post-service meal/discussion time where the rest of the committee could get to know him. When that Wednesday rolled around, the half the committee was excited about seeing him again, particularly those who had not yet met him.

But I wasn't there. I got sick that morning. Very sick. The kind of sick where your prayers change from desiring God's healing to desiring God's quick and fatal intervention. I was so sick I took more leave time that week than my previous six years combined. I was so sick…..but I digress.

The rest of the committee enjoyed the service immensely. There was some concern after his initial sermon that he read his notes too closely during the sermon, but those concerns were alleviated and chalked up to nerves. Following the service, they ate dinner with him and his family for several hours. Then after the candidate and his family left, the committee continued to meet and discuss the evening. All were pleased with how the evening went. As the senior member of the committee put it "He just seems too good to be true."

As committee chairman, I Was very pleased. Things seemed to be progressing nicely. We were several months into the process and for the first time, God had our minds and hearts set on a candidate whose personality seemed like a nice fit with our congregation. It was in the midst of this time of goodwill that I received news that sent shock waves through the entire search process.

I got a call from one of our committee members. David was one of my closest friends at church and our family often vacationed with his. He and his family joined Lakeview about two years before, but he quickly took on responsibilities and handled them extremely well, including getting the entire church to change Sunday School curricula. No small task!!

When I saw his name on my cell phone at work one afternoon, I answered with a casual "Hey David, what's up?" His voice was grave and measured. "Taran, I've decided that I can no longer be a part of the search process, or a part of this church. I'm resigning from the committee immediately and my family and I are never coming back."

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The Healing Choice Blog Review

How do you survive marital infidelity? How does a woman rebuild trust in her husband after he’s confessed some emotional and physical affairs, and lied about others?

Is there a way forward?

The Healing Choice: How to Move Beyond Betrayal by Brenda Stoeker and Susan Allen address these questions and many others. It is a very personal book, divided in half as each of these women tell their stories. They offer the reader a detailed prescription for dealing with these issues. First, realize that God is present even during the darkest days of our lives and second, there is a community of women who have had similar (and even identical) experiences and have survived these problems.

Stoeker and Allen each draw upon their own experiences with these issues and offer step-by-step advice for rediscovering intimacy with God and finding the support you need to move toward genuine spiritual and emotional restoration.

Strengths:

It’s a book written by and for women, particularly women who have experienced tremendous emotional pain. The stories told are told from a woman’s perspective. It makes for an unusual (though not unhelpful) read for a man.

It does provide helpful spiritual advice for women that includes a strong dose of community as well.

Weaknesses:
Most obviously is that men will not feel addressed in the book. (But, we've got enough alternate choices). I’m uncertain that it is much of a weakness, but simply a decision made by the authors to narrow their focus to a particular target market.

Overall, I think the strongest feature of the book is that it let’s hurting women know that they are not alone and offers a prescription of both Christ and community.

I have two copies of the book and one group study guide that goes along with it. Rather than having a contest on this one, I’d rather pass them along to people who need them. If you or someone you know would benefit from this book, I’ll send you a copy. Email me at the address listed above.