I Could Use Your Help...

Friends, I need your input and help.

I am getting into some deep work that God has been working on in me for some time now. It is in regards to my calling and how I am called to live out as a pastor the unique way God has called me to do ministry.
A big part of it is in my writing and publishing. I am so excited to get my book on Breath Prayer done for you all! Your support of my Breath Prayers has been amazing!

It is also in my presence on-line and how I can be an encourager for everyone on their journey of faith. So, as I am working on my writing, I am also working on how I handle video production. You all have really been supportive in what I've been trying to do and especially in my 60 Second Sermons! Thank you! Those won't go away!

But there is more work I am trying to do on YouTube. I want to be addressing the things on your heart - where you are looking for God's guidance. But don't worry, what happens there, resonates here in my writing! THIS is my home page! Many of my blogs, are going to be part of what happens next on YouTube.

If you are looking to me for some of that guidance, then what is it? If you go looking for my input - what subject are you looking for me to tackle? What are you dealing with that it seems no pastor is talking about? When it comes to your spiritual journey, what could I help you with best?

Here is my BIG ASK? Would you go over to my YouTube channel and subscribe and find a video you like and comment? And if that spurs something more - then let me know that too!

I want to be the BEST JEDI PASTOR I can be - There is no time for trying - it is time to do!
Here is the link to my YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmuUqgV9rAc_n4mia7zoOw

Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God....THIS is the WAY!

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Stop Hiding Behind Your Bible Study - Go Do What Jesus Said

Photo from Pexels

I am so glad I am out of the classroom. My learning style didn’t fit well there but you know, I made it all the way to graduate school and beyond. And yet...I wonder how things might be different if I had gone a different route?

Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame, is a big supporter of trades education. There is such a great need for many of those jobs now because of the focus on college degrees and white collar careers. But these aren’t always the best careers for everyone! I can’t help but think this has been one of the most damaging things to the Church and spiritual growth in people’s lives too - that somehow - only the rightly educated can be clergy and pastor and care for people.

I cry “bull.”

“Knowing Is Not Enough; We Must Apply. Wishing Is Not Enough; We Must Do,” wrote author Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (It sounds a bit like Yoda, I think).

Knowing isn’t enough for the spiritual journey if application isn’t part of that journey. Wishing you were like Francis Chan or Timothy Keller isn’t going to cut it - we must do. I grew up with an old southern phrase: “God ain’t go grandchildren.” Your faith - my faith - must be our personal faith, though it isn’t private. What we have got to do is live it out.
Jesus doesn’t need a whole bunch more Bible studies - Jesus needs more folks inclined to do what is simply put forth in the Scriptures we have. It is well and good for clergy to know the original languages and the nuances of exegesis BUT what is really needed is for each and every one of us to spend some time talking to God. God isn’t looking for us to vote for the right candidates but to give voice to Kingdom of God and the Good News of the Gospel, namely there is a place for ALL people at the Table.

Jesus was interested in people becoming more than experts in the Bible, his interest was in you and me following what He said...

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NRSV, emphasis added).

You may need lessons in Hebrew and Greek to study the Bible in the original languages but you don’t need a graduate degree to talk with God or buy a value meal and give it to a hungry person.

Now go do good, do no harm and stay in love with God.

Posted by Jedi Pastor Ken

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How to Practice Stillness and Centering Prayer | Methods of Methodism

Methods of Methodism is a four-week series starting with How to Practice Stillness and Centering Prayer. Pastor Ken Hagler joins up with Pastor Lisa Talbott to talk about the history, meaning and practices of Stillness and Centering Prayer. We'll unpack some of the mystery and misunderstanding, but more than that, Ken and Lisa will talk about the Scriptural basis and history and how these spiritual practices fit into our lives.

When we start talking about spiritual practices and disciplines, I have found there is sooooo much misunderstanding or misinformation. As we tackle the subjects of Stillness and Centering Prayer, Lisa and I tackle some of these points. Christianity is an ancient faith (not sure how much more I can emphasize this) and our Scriptures and traditions go back centuries! Pop-Christianity has a tendency to only look at the current century or maybe go back two or three centuries. We aren't talking of the heresy of Quietism or Eastern meditations - Stillness is a call to be in the presence of God - to be at peace, as the Psalmist writes to us:

He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields[a] with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:9-10

Take to watch or listen and stay tunes for the our next episode!

Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God!

Jedi Pastor Ken

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A Prayer for Today

Hey God,

Today is a new day you have made,

so today, we rejoice in it!

Today is a day of new beginnings,

so today, we start anew.

Today is before us with opportunities galore,

so today, may our vision see what you see.

Yesterday is behind and tomorrow is not here.

Today, is what we have been given.

We are Easter people and resurrection is our truth!

In this day, make the message of our lives be hope to the world!

Where we have sinned against another,

show us, so we might make amends.

Where we have sinned against you, God,

show us, so we might turn from our ways.

God, you moved into the neighborhood when you came in human form.

You know the mess we’ve made of things, and still you came.

You are still here.

Today, is a new day you have made,

so today, we rejoice you are with us!

You are Emmanuel!

AMEN.

Posted by Jedi Pastor Ken

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When the Valley of Suck Won't Let Go We Need Faith, Hope, and Love All the More!

So you know what it is to be in the valley of suck now, at least a little. This whole past year sucked and it is still sucking, isn't it? No doubt! Nobody wants to hear someone say, "We're in this together," because, truth is, well, we aren't. It is different for ALL of US even if there are some similarities.

This past week, for whatever reason, the valley of suck (the nasty, dark side of grief), grabbed ahold of my Achilles tendon and tore it. I mean, come on, it has been so long now since Heather's death, right? Well, guess what? It doesn't matter and it never will.

But there is another part of it. I am stronger now. I have intent I didn't have before. I don't write about the valley of suck and grief and widowhood, all the time, not because they don't matter but because I do not want those labels to be the defining aspects of my life and work. If you look at my themes in my video creation and various projects, hope and faith have taken a front seat. Right now, as I am writing and working on my book on Breath Prayers and my next project on Chrisitan Spirituality, it is about faith for everyday.

I am leaning into a deep desire to be an encourager. While I have befriended grief, I will not be defined by it and its nasty offspring that is the valley of suck. I so own my first book, "Life Sucks, Seek God," because it needs to be named and the antidote needs to be promoted and preached!

Life does suck!! Seek God!! When 1 Corinthians 13 states, "Faith, hope and love remain but the greatest is love," it doesn't ignore the truth that faith and hope DO indeed remain. We need faith and hope to seek God!!

That faith and hope are counted with love should be noted and not neglected. While the greatest is love, we need faith and we most assuredly need hope! For in these days and times when we are all in this together, we need to keep faith, hope and love together so might be altogether Christians, little Christs, in the fullest sense of the meaning!

Do No Harm, Do Good, Stay in Love with God. This is the Way.

Jedi Pastor Ken

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Do One Thing to Change the World...Add Value

Albert Einstein once said, "Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value." That really resonated with me. It resonated so much, I had to use it in one of my Wisdom with Master Yoda videos on YouTube! Yeah, Yoda pretty much butchers every quote I give to him, but it is fun bringing him to “life” again.

Still, it is important for us to consider, what value are we adding to the world or are we just obsessed with success? I can’t help but view this as a slippery slope in our day and time. I have seen and heard politicians so obsessed over their “successes” they don’t care about whether what they have done has added value. Run down the list of any celebrity, athlete, preacher, banker, doctor, store clerk, and we all need to ask it - are we bringing value?

That can be simple. My son tries to give everyone he meets a compliment. I think that is awesome! He constantly adds value - he lets people know they are noticed! I try to always call people by name and use the name tags in the store. If you know me, you know I usually wear a nametag pretty regularly too. It is said that the most beautiful sound anyone hears is their name.

Those are simple things but there are so many more ways to add value! What is more, the Book of Proverbs (2:7) tells us, "God holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless." It seems if we will pivot one step, and focus on the value we are adding to the world, we will start becoming the good we wish existed. Don’t just try. Do good!

Do No Harm, Do Good, Stay In Love with God!

Jedi Pastor Ken

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How to Be Spiritual and Be a Christian

I cannot help but be perplexed by the amount of material and commentary regarding Christian spirituality being unChristian. It is an oxymoron! How can Christianity NOT be spiritual is what I am confused about more than anything.

There was one passage that stuck with me about the Spirit of God I have never been able to shake. It refers to the promise from Jesus, in part, he would not leave us to our own devices and on our pilgrimage of faith, there would be one sent from God to be present with us, to guide us. Let me share it from two versions, so to be sure we get the gist. Here is the KJV and NRSV of John 16:13:

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (KJV)”

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (NRSV)”

What is consistent here and in all translations is that the Spirit will come, “pnuema” is the Greek transliteration. This isn’t a text where anyone seems to pick a fight and it is clear, the Spirit of Truth is, in Orthodox, classical Christianity, the Holy Spirit.

Paul, in Romans 8:16, declares to us this same Spirit, “...itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (KJV) And so the Greek refers to the “pnuemati” of us - our spirit. This, my friend and reader, is clear throughout the Scriptures of the Church, Christianity is a spiritual religion.

For us in the Wesleyan-Methodist tradition, it is not possible to escape though we seem to have tried to separate ourselves from the content of John Wesley’s heartwarming experience on Aldersgate street.

Wesley wrote in his journal on May 24, 1738:

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading [Martin] Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

That “heartwarming” has long been identified with Paul’s Roman 8:16 passage. From this spiritual event, come many denominations long identified as Charismatic and Pentecostal - “Spirit-filled” churches if you will. Our’s is a VERY SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY and we dare not lose sight of it nor should the Church of Jesus Christ, anywhere lose our connection to our spirituality.

For me, it seems we have failed to understand the richness and depth of our Christian tradition which has led us to this point of flushing out the spiritual for fear, at times, of New Age beliefs. There are real reasons to be concerned for certain but we dare not tar and feather all that we do not care to research or understand. We are a spiritual faith tradition that traces the lineage through 2,000 years of church history and 2,000 more years of Jewish heritage and spirituality. Ours is an ancient faith steeped in more spirituality than the past century.

To walk away from spiritual Christianity is to walk away from the hope of transformation. It is walking away from inspiration. It is walking down a path of humanism once again, elevating humanity to the status of God and builders of Babel.

“What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed-up people could be godly!” wrote the late Mike Yaconelli. This is Christian Spirituality at its heart and root. Not that in our works or practices we can become perfect, but that on the Cross of Jesus, the gift was given so we could be godly by the grace of God, not by someone’s personal to-do list of perfection. Repentance is a vital component to this spiritual journey that began in the cry of the prophets and led to John the Baptist and Jesus, as well.

I can no more be a Christian who is not spiritual and using spiritual practices than I can be a motor vehicle that doesn't have a motor or use gas, diesel, or electric power. To be a Christian is to be on a spiritual journey. It is to be a faith journey. We own up to our need for Jesus. We own up to the mess of our lives, too. And there, in the place called repentance, we turn from the way we’ve been headed with our lives and find the Spirit of Truth, waiting patiently to join us in the mess and ready to journey with us toward a Christ-likeness that can only be fulfilled by being spiritual.