Greg Adkins

The Others (part three)

(This is the third in a series of posts I am calling "The Others".   You can read part one here and then part two here.  I strongly encourage your feedback and comments on this series for reasons that will become more clear soon.)

Part three.

I was almost sure that Shawn's bumper sticker had something to do with the TV Show "Lost".   I didn't want to ask about it at risk of sounding like a nerd... I enjoy Lost but I don't want to be one of those guys who talks about it all the time with my own well thought out theories on time travel and which character is supposed to represent Jesus and so on.   (I'm not saying I don't have theories... I just don't want to talk about them all the time.)

I really can't even remember how it came up now that I think about it but I guess I asked Shawn about the sticker.  The sticker was simply one word in white text on a black background.  "Others", it said.    Shawn told me it had been given to him by a rather eccentric man in his church.  He believed the word "Others" was the most powerful word a church could use... he wanted everyone to have that bumper sticker.   He had them printed up on his own and gave Shawn one.   I don't remember why I didn't press the conversation further but I was jet-lagged from my flight to Seattle and getting ready for a concert in a few hours and the conversation drifted elsewhere and didn't return.

A few hours later, now listening to the preacher at Shawn's church, having just led worship 3500 miles from home, I was reminded of the sticker once again.    These were the words the pastor spoke and if this isn't word for word, it's pretty close... it's burned in my memory:  "You want to be happy in your life?   We all want that don't we?   You know what the secret  is don't you?   Well if you don't know it, I'll tell you.   It's the others.    When you live your life for the others, you'll find happiness you didn't even know was there.   You'll find meaning and fulfillment.   It really is one of the secrets of life."

Sometimes the simplest, most obvious things hit you the hardest.    I'm not sure what it is about this simple statement that triggered something in me but almost immediately I zoned out from his sermon (sorry John if you're reading this!) and I thought back over my life.   I remembered mission trips from my youth group days and I thought about how even now nearly 20 years later I can remember almost every detail of some of those trips.   I remembered chopping onions in a Washington DC soup kitchen with Daniel Wilkins... I remembered singing silly songs to elementary school kids in Queens with Casey Galbraith and Mendi Smith... I remembered picking up a crying woman on the side of the road in Hershey, Pennsylvania with Mark Nelson and Dave Curry.   More recently,  I remembered singing Christmas carols in the county jail with my friends from West Towne Christian Church... I remembered serving dinner at Volunteers of America with my youth group kids at Lighthouse Christian...  I remembered how it felt to completely pour yourself out to the point of exhaustion for the others.   Those are the times in my life I've felt closest to Jesus, almost without exception.    

Then I thought about my spiritual journey over the more recent years.   I thought back to that night watching Invisible Children...I thought of all my frustrations not knowing how to really shake myself out of my overly comfortable life... I thought of the legacy I was already leaving for my family...    I looked back.    In the existential rear-view mirror of my life, I looked for the others...  I looked long and hard.... and for the most part all I saw was my own two eyes staring back at me.

"Wait a second Greg.... you're a pastor.... you work at a church for crying out loud... what do you mean you don't do anything for others?    You lead the church in worship every week... that's something, right?   You're being too hard on yourself man... lighten up.  Aren't you adopting a kid for crying out loud?  That's more than a lot of people can say... you're being ridiculous!"

Anyone who would say that... all I can say is, I wish it was only you I had to answer to on this!    Sure I've been a pastor for a good long while now and sure, in the day to day of that, do lots of things for people.   I won't deny that, but I know what I see when I look in the mirror and that is someone who is more selfish than not.... who lives for himself first most of the time.... who for every day I do something for somebody else there are 2 or 3 where I try to coast by doing as little as possible for anybody... who would rather join your facebook group to help starving children than join your hand to go help you feed actual starving children.   Oh how I wish I only had you who don't really know me that well to answer to!

But the reality is, I answer to a God who quite obviously, from even a simple reading of scripture, cares deeply about social justice issues in this world.   Jesus says it over and over and over again... feed the poor... visit the prisoner... rescue the orphans.... visit the widows.... love one another... if someone is hungry, give him food.... if someone is naked, give them clothes... if someone is beaten down, pick them up.   When you do these things for one another, you do them for me... when you don't do them for each other, you don't do them for me.... or in the words of Keith Green "Jesus came to your door... you left him out on the street."   Jesus says these things over and over again.    It is impossible to miss.  Jesus' words don't just suggest action on our part... they demand it.

(to be continued...)

The Others (part 2)

(This is the second in a series of posts I am calling "The Others". I strongly encourage your feedback and comments on this series for reasons that will become more clear later on.)

Part two.

Five years ago I asked for a tangible way to help out a social justice organization and was told I should wear a t-shirt and hand out bumper stickers.   I suspect that today if I wanted to get involved in a lot of things I would be told the best way to help would be to tweet about it, join the facebook group, or again, to wear a t-shirt.

But now, here's the ugly truth.

If I had been offered a tangible way to help, I probably wouldn't have done it.   I didn't really want to help.   I didn't really want to get my hands dirty.   I don't have enough hours in my day as it is... by the time I work, spend time with my family, do the things that need doing around the house and maybe have a little time to relax, I just don't have much extra time to give.

I mean hey, don't get me wrong... I think I'm like about 99% of everybody else.   I want these problems to go away.   My heart is moved when I hear about the horrible injustice in the world and I genuinely wish things were different.    I wish the world weren't broken...  I just want someone else to fix it.    I'll wear the t-shirt and write a check... but surely somebody else can do the work.   Sure, a couple of times a year I might be able to spare a Saturday morning for one thing or another... or maybe an afternoon every once in a great while, but in general, I'm just too busy with my own life to get too involved.   I barely have time to do all of the things I need to do for myself and my family as it is... Jessica and I both work full time... Connor has soccer or gymnastics or some kid he barely knows has a birthday party... there are errands to run, things to fix, a house to clean, bills to mail, and groceries to buy.   It'd be nice to spend some time with my wife in there somewhere.   By the time I get done with all of the things I need to get done, I'm TIRED!   Let the young and single people with no kids save the world!

Anybody with me?   Let's be honest.... what I've just described puts me in the company of almost every Average-Joe-Churchgoer in the country.   See if this sounds familiar:

Somebody comes to your church and gets up on stage and tells you about an issue... a plight... a problem.   Maybe that person is going to do something to help in some small way.    What does the church do 99% of the time?    We listen... we applaud... we opens our wallets... we take up a love offering... we say God bless and good luck.... we say come back later with a powerpoint presentation to let us know how it went.   We feel pretty good knowing that in some small way, we're doing the work too.   And in a small way, we are.    And there's nothing wrong with that... that's not what I'm saying.

What I AM saying is that I've reached a point in my life where I don't think this is good enough for me anymore.  I have looked into my own heart and found that to write the check is usually just a copout... a way to stay safe and comfortable... a way to avoid having to actually do much of anything.     This has not been good for my spiritual life these past few years...  I've become far too familiar with a feeling of nagging guilt and restlessness.    There is a constant tension.... in one ear the dreams and plans I have made for myself mixed with the constant clamor of my routine and my to do lists...  and in the other ear the distant echoes of Jesus admonishing us to not forget the poor, widows, and orphans... the words of John Piper saying "don't waste your life"....

And so I've wrestled.... I've gone back and forth... I've had good days and bad days... good years and bad years....  and yet it so often feels like I'm just spinning wheels... fiddling while Rome is burning down... playing sonatas on the deck of the sinking Titanic.

A couple of discussion questions... 

• Am I being too hard on myself? 
• Is working full time and then trying to be a great husband and dad a good enough reason not too be more involved in other things?   After all, only I can be Jessica's husband and Connor's father... no one else on earth can do those jobs.   Or, is that just another lame excuse?   

The Others (part 1)

(This is the first in a series of posts I am calling "The Others".  I strongly encourage your feedback and comments on this series for reasons that will become more clear later on.)

Part one.  

Where to begin.   I guess in a way this all started on a Wednesday night about five years ago.   I was involved with the weekly planning and production of a Wednesday night worship service at a church here in Knoxville.  A group of students from the local Bible college who regularly attended this worship service had recently become very passionate about an organization called Invisible Children.   I didn't know much about it but I had noticed a lot of people wearing their t-shirts recently so when they asked if they could show an Invisible children movie for our Wednesday night service, I reluctantly said yes.   I checked the website and they seemed to be on the up and up and I figured what the heck...  it gave me a week off from planning and they seemed very excited about it.   That's what you call a win/win.

I didn't know much about Invisible Children, but as the movie came on I remember being shocked and moved... something significant stirred inside me.   How can these kinds of things happen in the world?   Why isn't anybody doing anything about this?   I wish I could help.   Somebody needs to do something.

About a week later I ran into someone wearing one of the aforementioned t-shirts and I told him that I had just seen the film and was wondering what sort of tangible things I could do to help.   He told me that he was actually going to work for Invisible Children to help spread awareness.   That sounded good... I asked what that meant.    He said that they would be going around to college campuses and churches showing the movie, selling DVDs, t-shirts, and organizing events (like global night commutes) and things like that all in the name of raising awareness.   I again asked what I could do to help and he suggested that I do all that I could to raise awareness... tell others about it, check the website and wear a t-shirt... he even gave me a couple of extra DVDs to give away.    "It's all about raising awareness man." he said.   

The frustration I felt in that moment I  am still feeling today.   I remember walking away thinking "I'm already aware... if everybody in the entire country was aware, it wouldn't change a thing... awareness is fine but I want to do something!".    (more on this later.)   And so it has continued.... I am aware of a great number of problems in this world... the situation in Darfur, homelessness, hunger, the need for clean water, environmental problems, the plight of the Dalit in India, and the list goes on.   I have watched short films online about these needs... heard lots of hip, young, and excited guys talk about these things at conferences like Catalyst, I've joined facebook groups, followed twitter feeds, forwarded emails, and talked about these issues and causes amongst pastors and friends.  I'm drinking fair trade shade grown coffee right this very second.    I know about problems around the world and I know about problems around the block.   Awareness for me is not really a problem anymore... I'm aware of far more than I could possibly do anything about.    The issue is not awareness... the issue is action.   

In the years since then, I've blamed my growing frustration on people like the guy who wanted me to spread awareness about Invisible Children.   I wanted a way to act and all he could tell me was to help him hand out t-shirts to upper middle class college kids.... that felt so empty to me.   I even did some research into Invisible Children at the time (looking for answers) and found out that a pretty staggering amount of their budget went to spreading awareness in the US... printing up all that stuff, buying tricked out tour busses to drive around the country spreading more awareness... it was a disheartening number (and I should mention that this was 5 years ago and hopefully that has changed).   The number of dollars spent on spreading the word far exceeded the number of dollars spent actually doing anything about it.

For a long time, it's been pretty easy for me to sit back growing increasingly frustrated at those who would spread the word about the problems in the world but never offer a tangible way to help out (other than write a check that probably went mostly to buy more t-shirts and bumper stickers).   I've become increasingly more cynical about how hip and cool it is to care about a cause these days.   Everywhere I look somebody is supporting Blood Water mission in their CD notes or joining the Save Darfur Facebook group.   T-shirts abound.... based solely on outward appearance and online chatter, we sure do look like we care a lot more than we used to.    Scratch a bit beneath the surface of this though, and I fear that things are just like they always were... very few people doing anything about the problems of this world.    I might be right about that and I might be wrong, but that has been my observation and the response it created in me was for me to become somewhat aloof and cynical.    I'm certainly not proud of that response, but it's the truth and as we all well know, the truth is often ugly.

So here I am now, sitting on an airplane somewhere over middle America and it hits me.   It not only hits me, it hits me hard... and not in the face but right in the gut.    A real sucker punch.   It finally occurs to me that there's a great big gigantic hole right in the middle of my thought process here.   I really don't want to even think about it and I REALLY don't want to blog about it but most of the time the only way to kill the darkness is to turn on all the lights.    This is my attempt at doing that.   

to be continued... 

***Disclaimer (I mean this in no way to be a criticism of Invisible Children.   I know a good bit more about their organization now and believe they are doing good work.   I simply use them to illustrate how I began to think about these things 5 years ago.   I would encourage you to check out their website at www.invisiblechildren.com.)

This is How it is Done.

I found this story by sportswriter Rick Reilly this morning.... you may have already read it as it happened back in November but it is truly amazing.  

If the church could figure out how to make all of our evangelism look like this, we wouldn't need signs or websites or marketing... we wouldn't be able to keep all the people away. 

Read the story right here.

Seven Things About Church

7.  So we opened the service today with a Bon Jovi song which was obviously totally ridiculous.   I'll have to admit, I never really liked Bon Jovi and spent a fair amount of time in adolescence ridiculing girls who were in love with him.   I never thought I would end up wearing a mullet wig singing "Livin' on a Prayer" in church but hey, I've ended up doing a lot of things I never imagined I would do so what else is new.    It was fun to play an 80s style double keyboard rig.   Rock on.

6.  I'm leaving this week along with 9 others from Powell to go to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.   Last year was my first time going and I went with very low expectations and had a really great time.   Great speakers, great worship, and lots of free t-shirts = a good 2 days in my book.   More than anything, I'm looking forward to getting to spend a lot of quality time getting to know the folks on our worship team better. 

5.   Speaking of the team, I really can't say enough about the great group of people I get to work with.   People come up to me fairly regularly and tell me they enjoy the worship and the music each week and I usually tell them that it's easy to look good when you're surrounded by great musicians and singers all the time.   They come to rehearsals prepared (something I put a pretty high value on as a leader) and they have great attitudes.   As a worship leader who has been doing this for awhile, those are things I don't take for granted because I've seen the flip side. 

4.  Powell Church Live Volume 1 has been a nice success... we've had a lot of people download it off of the website and we sold completely out of CDs this morning at church.   We'll be making another batch this week.   Jesse and I are currently working really hard on the mixes for Powell Church Live Volume 2 and our hope is to have it ready by the end of October... it's going to be pushing it but I think we'll be close.   

3.  We've hired a new staff person at church... his name is Tim Jones (for all of my old FCC friends, no, his brother is not dating a pygmy and no, he's not afraid to go to sleep at night because he might wake up to be a junebug so don't ask) and he is going to be our new small groups pastor.   I'm so excited about this for many reasons... primarily because small groups is something that we, like most churches, do an okay job at but not an excellent job and we're hoping to change that.   We say it's important to us so hopefully by adding a staff person we're putting our money where our mouth is.   Aside from that, in the week I've worked with Tim, I have officially determined that he is a cool dude.   He also shares a deep love for Sonseed so that makes him pretty awesome in my book. 

2.  For all you Richard Davis fans out there in Powell Church land, you'll want to be there this coming Sunday.  Richard will be leading and the band will be pulling out some old favorites... I think there might even be some Doobie brothers going down.   

1.  I know a lot of folks from Powell read this blog... you never tell me who you are but I know you're out there because I see the statistics that tell me people who click on powellchurch.com often click over here to read what I'm up to.   I don't get to say it from the stage so I'll say it here... thanks for letting me serve you.   I don't take the job I've been given to do lightly or for granted and I really am appreciative for the opportunity.   My door is always open and if you know any other Bon Jovi songs with an underlying spiritual current, I'm all ears.   

Flying into the 21st century...

The past couple of years have been a really enjoyable journey for me as I have learned more and more about how to implement technology effectively in worship settings.   

Let me stop for a second... because I know there are many of you who say "but you don't need technology to worship.   Why can't we just worship in our living room with a guitar or just the sound of our voices??? Who needs all that stuff?"    I hear ya... I get ya... and also, I know there are those of you who would maybe say "Wait man... that sounds very attractional and I thought the church was supposed to be missional... well, at least I think I heard Rob Bell say that once" and to you sir or madam, I say that I also hear what you're saying.   

I hear you, and then I respond by saying that there are many ways of doing things.   This simple, missional approach will reach people that the complex, attractional approach will not and vice versa.  Hopefully both approaches will stir people to worship and move them into a deeper relationship with the Lord and if that's the end result of both, then hopefully we can just agree that there's more than one road to travel.  

All that to say... I love what I get to do and I have no inner theological turmoil over whether a church should have fancy lights or big video screens.  I realize that is so very non-emergent but hey, the blog isn't called that anymore so I can think what I want to.  

OKAY...DANG!   I was going to post something totally different than this but kind of got on a roll... I think I'll just let this post stand on its own and say what I really wanted to say in a separate post.   

To Greet or Not to Greet

Sarah sent me an interesting link this morning where a worship leader asked his readers what annoys them in a worship service. In the comments a few people talked about how much they hate the "turn and greet a stranger" time. That's not the first time I've heard that sentiment... I've heard a lot of people say that they feel like the greeting time is basically pointless.

And so dear readers, I turn to you... what are your thoughts on the "greet one another" time during a church service. Does it serve any meaningful purpose? Does it make you uncomfortable? Would you rather we just not do it? I'm curious to see if anyone actually defends it. I'm not 100% sure where I stand on it but really, I can't come up with any really strong reasons to keep it... it doesn't serve any meaningful purpose that I can see but that's why I'm posting this... to give someone the chance to open my eyes.

Comment away! I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Do I Look Like I Care?

So here is something I've been wrestling with lately... I'm not even sure how to articulate it but I'll give it a shot. 

I don't spend a ton of time reading facebook, myspace, and blogs, but I do spend a few minutes every day reading through my list of regulars.   Almost everyone now has at least a few of the following:

A "Make Poverty History" banner
Invisible Children in the Top 8
Facebook causes such as Blood Water Mission or Darfur
A picture of them in an invisible children t-shirt
An invite to attend an awareness raising event

Here's my problem... as my friend Bill might phrase it, is awareness the new activism?   It seems to me that a whole lot of people feel like if they can trick out their social networking pages to make it look like they really care about this stuff, maybe, just maybe... that will be good enough.

Now I'm not taking any kind of moral high ground here because I'll openly admit to being selfish and full of excuses.   I could do more.   Lots more.   God help me get up off the couch.   God help me stop lying to myself with "I'm too tired... I'm too busy... The bills won't get paid if we give to this or that."   That's me and I've got to work on it.   That said, I am still bothered by this new form of "activism" that I see blossoming across the internet.   

I'd like to propose a challenge or a thought.   If you're going to put a "make poverty history" banner up, do something to help make poverty history.  If you're going to blog about going green, change something in your life.   If you saw "Invisible Children" and were moved by it (I've seen it and I was moved by it), find out how you can support something financially and then do it (I'll admit, I haven't done this either so yes, call me plankeye).

I'd love to hear your thoughts.   Am I getting old, cranky, and cynical or has anyone else been feeling this too.   Don't get me wrong... I think awareness is essential and the more people know about these causes, the better.   I just think that for too many of us, we think that if we do just a tiny bit to spread awareness, it's the same as actually doing something.   I just don't think it's the same thing.   

I may have gone green, but I ain't no hippie

So today was earth day and I can honestly say that this is the first time in my life I actually gave that fact a second thought. Jessica has been on a real "green" kick for the past few months. I'll admit... I was one of those people who thought it was just for dirty hippies and tree huggers. But... listening to some really excellent preaching on creation care and how God views the creation and how we have been entrusted to care for it has changed my ways. I exaggerate a bit... I wasn't anti-green really, I just wasn't proactive about it in any way... but now, mainly thanks to Jessica, we've begun to change some things.

So, today for earth day, I decided to do a few things. First of all, instead of driving to lunch I rode my bike. About a 2.5 mile trip down Emory road... would have been great except I was misinformed on how far the sidewalk went. Trying to navigate the curves down by the train tracks on a bicycle wasn't the smartest move I've ever made... I about got run down by a Pepsi truck. Still, it was nice to be out in nature and it was an absolutely beautiful day.

After that, I drove down to the Halls recycling center where they were giving away big recycling bins. I put one of them in the church's copy room for paper recycling. Our church does not do any recycling to my knowledge and we go through a LOT of paper. 500 bulletins every Sunday and I'm certain that almost all of them end up in the trash. If we could just recycle our paper it would be a great start.

I'd like to hear some other ideas of how a rather large church that really doesn't do ANYTHING can start to take steps towards going green. I believe that Christians need to get our heads out of the sand and start leading the charge on environmental issues. Heck, if I can do it, anybody can. Seriously... I'd love to hear any suggestions on what we could do at Powell. It's one thing to change what I do at home but I think we could make a much larger impact by changing what we do at church.

So am I a hippie now? Let's see... did I bathe today? Check. Do I still hate Widespread Panic? Check. Am I still not the owner of a hacky sack? Check. Have I played a djembe in the past 24 hours? Nope. Are there any illegal substances in my car? Not unless you can smoke a 6 month old Wendy's chicken nugget.

Looks like I'm in the clear. I guess you can care about the environment and not be a giant hippie. Who knew?

Men With Hair Need Not Apply

My friend Jason just sent me this screen capture from Granger Community Church's worship services with the email heading "Four Bald Guys???" Apparently Granger has started an all-bald worship team which I think is awesome. Maybe I'll grow me a sweet goatee and start an "all-goatee" team here at Powell. That would rule.

Services I watch

Each week I try to set aside some time to watch the services from Granger Community Church and also from Newspring Church. Both of these churches are massively huge. I get different things from both of them... Granger often gives me good ideas for visuals (they do a lot with projection and whoever produces their original video content is really good) and Newspring has a really great worship leader named Lee McDerment. I've picked up a few good arrangement ideas and also learned some new songs from watching them. There are things about both of these churches that I don't really care for too but the good thing about watching online is I can just skip around.

Are there any other churches that broadcast full service videos out there? I know a lot of places do just the sermon but I really like seeing the whole thing. It's interesting to me to study how other churches handle their service order, announcements, closing songs, and other things like that. I know 7:22 in Atlanta broadcasts... any others you guys watch?