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OCTOBER is Pastors’ Appreciation Month.  This is a rather recent innovation, and there are two versions of its origin. According to one version, in 1992 a layperson named Jerry Frear, Jr. came up with the notion that if there is a day for groundhogs, there should be a day for pastors. Other sources specify that in 1994, the organization Focus on the Family began more explicitly naming October as Pastor Appreciation Month.  Whatever version is correct, the greeting card industry has caught on, and you can buy not only a card to give to your pastor, but also a variety of trinkets like mugs and such with Bible verses and nice sayings on them.

While  I was still in active pastoral ministry, the churches that I served, observed Pastors Appreciation in various ways, and some not at all.  Personally, it did nothing for me.  Over the decades of ministry, I experienced many forms of “appreciation” from the routine “nice sermon” compliment at the door to other gestures.  I always told my congregations, that the best and biggest compliment that you can pay me, is to believe in the Saviour whom I preached and follow His teaching.

When I eat in a restaurant I don’t pay any attention to what goes on at other tables.  Usually, I am with other people, and their company is more interesting than other people’s conversations.  But sometimes one observes and hears things that you can’t help but overhear.  Recently, I dined alone in a restaurant that was not very busy. Seated not far from me were two elderly couples engaged in a noisy conversation.  I don’t know if they were hard of hearing, but they spoke more loudly than necessary. One of the ladies had a fog-horn kind of voice that you could hear through half the restaurant.   I couldn’t help hearing some things that I wish I hadn’t heard.

From the conversation, it was obvious that these were church people.  They were running down their minister and discussing all kinds of things about their church that nobody would be interested in. Suddenly out of nowhere a waiter appeared at their table.  I don’t know how much she overheard before the table was silent.  When she left, the conversation resumed at decreased volume.  I tried my best to ignore them.

I can only hope that they didn’t leave a gospel tract instead of a tip.  They were poor ambassadors for any religion. They say you shouldn’t take children to a restaurant until they know how to behave in public.  But what do you do with adults who don’t know how to behave in public?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SO FAR THIS YEAR has been the year of deaths for high profile religious leaders. First Pope Francis died the day after Easter, just one day after making his final public appearance. Then on Fathers Day, Jimmy Swaggart was rushed to the hospital after a cardiac issue and died on July 1. And then John McArthur, megachurch pastor and bible teacher died on July 14, two days after an announcement had been made in his church that he was in hospital and not expected to live.

Full disclosure: I am not Roman Catholic, neither was I a fan of the other two pastors.  But this post is not about theological differences, it is about the media frenzy both within and outside the Christian church concerning these deaths.

First of all the Pope. The death of any pope automatically triggers world-wide attention. The pope is not only the leader of the 1.4 billion members of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, he is also a major player on the world stage.  He has the ear of major political leaders world-wide. His funeral, and indeed the funeral of any pope draws world wide attention and attendance by world leaders and celebrities.  That is understandable.

What is not understandable, to me at least,  is the proliferation of gossip –  both in official media and social media – particularly YouTube – which is one of  the greatest platforms for misinformation in the world.  First there were rumours during his illness that the pope will resign like his predecessor did, and speculation about who was really running the Catholic Church during his incapacity. During the lengthy hospitalization earlier this year there were rumours of his death well in advance of the actual date.  And even while he was still alive – there were murmurings of who the next pope would be and who were the front runners.  Officially of course,  there is no campaigning and no wheeling and dealing among the cardinals concerning the election of  a pope. The pope is supposedly selected by the Holy Spirit guiding the cardinals during their conclave.   Cynics are of a different view.  Very interesting to me is the fact that after the election of the new pontiff we are hearing “reports” of what allegedly went on in the conclave.  Where are these reports coming from, given that the cardinals took a solemn oath of secrecy?

Now let’s turn our view to the Protestant side of the divide. From the time of Jimmy Swaggarts’s hospitalization on June 15 until his death on July 1 there were almost daily “updates” on YouTube and elsewhere even when there really were no new developments. Swaggart was in a coma for 16 days, a coma out of which he never woke up.  But according to an obviously fake report on Facebook, he allegedly had a “special message from his death bed” for his wife, and his son indeed the church.  Swaggart’s son Donny Swaggart however said publicly that his father did not regain consciousness.  I tend to believe him more than the fake news on Facebook.

Throughout the more than 2 weeks of Swaggart clinging to life in his coma, there were almost daily prayer services and numerous postings on social media by people who were “praying for a miracle”, and at the same time praising the ministry of whom someone called “the Protestant Pope” – a title he certainly did not deserve, since only a small part of Protestant Christianity recognized him as a spiritual leader.  His former denomination the (Pentecostal) Assemblies of God had defrocked him when he refused to submit to the discipline that they had imposed after his first moral transgression. While many of his followers downplayed that scandal, the world had not forgotten.  Whenever the secular press mentioned Swaggart, they raised the fact that Swaggart had been caught – red handed as it were – not once but twice in the company of a prostitute.

The fuss about John MacArthur’s  passing was not as over the top as that of Swaggart, but it also began long before he died. MacArthur had been in declining health for some time and had a number of visits to the hospital and absences from the pulpit which caused speculation on subjects like “who will replace him” and some even asked “can he be replaced?”. Of course he can. And so can the pope and Jimmy Swaggart.

Now for some perspective on these three deaths.  All three were old men, aged 88, 90, and 86 respectively.  Their deaths were not unexpected. Of course every death is tragic to family members like a wife, children and relatives and friends. But it is the normal progress of all humans.  We grow older, our health deteriorates, and finally we die.  It happens every day all over the world.  Although we know that it will happen, we find it to be sad when it does occur.  The more famous you are, the more widely known your death will be. But To inflate these expected natural deaths  to a “world tragedy” is not only bizarre, it minimizes and degrades those deaths that truly are tragic – the deaths of martyrs, victims of violent crime, senseless war,  the genocide of the holocaust, or disasters like the sinking of the Titantic or the 9/11 crime. The deaths of those and some other events move me much more.

FATHERS DAY was last weekend.  So I hope all the Dads and Grand Dads were duly recognized and feted by their offspring. My father passed away 10 years ago, so I paid a visit to his grave on Sunday afternoon.  I know that he is not there, but as someone told me years ago, sometimes it is meaningful to have a place to go in order to remember.

Since I do not have biological children, I was not included in the customary father’s day celebrations. However I did receive father’s day greetings from people who regard me as a father (which makes me feel old, yet honored). Like the Apostle Paul of the Bible, I have spiritual children. You see, there are three  men in the New Testament, that Paul refers to as “sons” : Timothy (1 Timothy 1:2; 1:18; 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:2; 2:1;) , Titus (Titus 1:4), and Onesimus (Philemon 1:10).

There could be several reasons why Paul singled out these men.  In the case of Timothy, many believe that Paul personally led him to Christ, or at least that he became a Christian under Paul’s ministry.  In that respect, I can look back on a number of people who came to faith during my ministry of more than 45 years. Some of those have a special place in my memory, and there are probably some that I am not even aware of.  But in Timothy’s case, I believe that there is more to it than that.  Otherwise, why would Paul refer to him as a son no less than five times, including with the affectionate words, my true son in the faith (1 Tim 1:2)  and my dear son (2 Tim 1:2) ? Probably because Paul had poured a great deal of his life into the life of young Timothy, and was mentoring him as a young pastor.  The letters to Timothy are full of advice of how to conduct himself in his difficult situation. And when Paul was imprisoned, it was Timothy’s company and assistance that he longed for:  Do your best to get here before winter (2 Tim 4:21) .

I will never forget the first time that one of my spiritual “sons” wished me a “Happy Father’s Day”. I asked him if this was some sort of joke. Then he told me why I was a father figure in his life.  I won’t embarrass him by naming him here, but if he reads this he will know whom I mean.  I had walked with this young man through one of life’s difficulties, had led him to personal faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, had baptized him, and helped him in the first steps of his Christian faith, and counselled him through important decisions.  Moreover we became good friends.  Whenever we met, whether in church or elsewhere, he never shook my hand – he always insisted on hugging me no matter who was there. And yes, the feeling was and is mutual.

Now it seems I have a few more “sons” all over the world, and so the greetings came this past weekend. I have to say, that I discovered the practice of mentoring rather late in the second half of my ministry.  I wish I had learned it sooner.

SOME TIME AGO while eating in a restaurant, I saw the following entertaining scene unfold.  An electronically powered robot began to navigate its way through the restaurant. After dodging everything in its path, the robot turned into the aisle where we were seated, and stopped at the table opposite us and an electronic voice invited the guests to remove the food order from the tray at the front of the machine. After they had done so, the robot retreated the same way it had come.

I am old enough to remember a time when such a scene would have been part of science fiction. Now it is a perfectly normal occurrence thanks to something called artificial intelligence or  simply AI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as the ability of a machine or computer to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving and decision-making. Or to put it otherwise, AI simulates or mimics human intelligence. Most of us encounter AI almost daily: Siri, Alexa or Google Translator, ChatGPT are just some examples.

Is AI a good thing or is it bad?  That of course depends on who you ask. Some believe it is the way of the future, and they praise the convenience that it brings including cars that can drive themselves. A friend told me how that saved his life as he got very ill while driving home from the cottage. Others point to the fraud and the scams that AI created emails, videos and texts have created.  Personally, I believe that AI, like any other form of technology, is inherently neither good or bad – it depends on how humans use it. It can be used for good, as in the medical diagnostic  field, or it can be used for evil purposes.

Recently I have come across AI in some negative ways. Firstly, as many of you know I teach at a college about 5 months of the year.  Before I mark essays or term papers,  I always upload the students’ work to an online plagiarism detector.  Within minutes I receive a report that tells me what percentage of the paper is of human origin, and what was created by AI, and how much of the paper was copied from other uncited sources.  In the latter case, the report also shows me exactly what parts were copied and from what sources. How is this detected?  AI is used to recognize AI, and to cross reference sources that should have been acknowledged. In this example, students have discovered that AI can produce an essay on almost any subject. The student is spared the hard work of research and creativity.

The next example disturbs me even more.  The Bible software that I use, recently advertised a Sermon Writing App.  One needs to simply input a few details like the subject, how long you want the sermon to be, how many points and illustrations you want, and what kind of audience it should be geared to and “the App” will do the rest. No need to labour over research and exegesis and creative writing – the very things that I teach!  I was tempted to try it out and see if it works, but  I decided not to.  I would rather not know.

Then there is the way that AI is used in unethical ways on social media.  I recently saw a video on YouTube that proclaimed that Elon Musk had purchased CNN and how he was in the process of buying up American networks one by one to “clean them up”.  I was surprised that I hadn’t heard about that from any other source, so I did some research.  Sure enough, nobody else was reporting this, and CNN denied the story.  Then while Pope Francis was in the hospital, there was a story that he had died – weeks before his actual demise. I would caution anyone: before passing on news about anything on social media, do some homework and check it out!`

This leads me to some things that AI CANNOT do: it lacks creativity and originality. While AI can generate material and ideas based on patterns, it lacks the ability to come up with novel concepts that require imagination and intuition. AI has a limited understanding or common sense. It lacks the ability to make moral or ethical decisions, as it depends on biases that depend on programmed data.

Another drawback is that AI has been shown to be addictive if people depend on it too much. It is easier to rely on it rather than to be creative, innovative, and skillful. Like everything else in life, use with moderation!

Today is Mothers Day, and while it is not a religious holiday most churches will be observing the occasion in one or more different ways.  In some churches mothers are handed a flower as they enter the church. In others they will be publicly recognized by being asked to stand, or mentioned from the pulpit, or in the pastoral prayer.  Other churches will devote the entire service, including the sermon, to the theme of motherhood. And in still others there is no sermon on this Sunday – the Sunday School presents a program to honour mothers with songs, poems, skits and other ways to single out the youngest, the oldest, the newest mother.

Today I’m going to suggest that while none of the above things is inherently wrong, churches need to re-think the way they do Mother’s Day.  Most churches today, if they are doing anything right, will have a diverse congregation that includes mothers and women who are not mothers.  There will be women who for whatever reason cannot have children and are reminded of that every Mothers Day. There are others who have miscarried, perhaps in the past year. There are other mothers who lost their children of any age by a tragic death.  And of course there are others, both men and women whose mother is deceased, perhaps even in the previous year. Even if it has been a long time since the mother passed away, most of us still miss her. Being reminded that mother “is in heaven” may be true but not necessarily comforting. The point is, she is no longer here, and we miss her.

When I was pastor of a church, I saw all of the things that I described above, and I have done some of them. For example I used to preach Mothers Day sermons about the “Ideal” or the “Godly mother”, using some of the exemplary women from the Bible. One day a mother asked me why we preachers insist on “laying a guilt trip” on mothers every year by “preaching an ideal that we can never achieve.”

It made me think.  And it also made me listen to other feedback from mothers, many of whom told me that it is sad to get all this recognition once a year, and be taken for granted the rest of the year.

I will close with two true stories.  I once sat through a sermon on Mother’s Day where the preacher spoke about Hannah, the mother of Samuel in the Old Testament.  He unnecessarily and unwisely dwelt on the fact that Hannah was barren (infertile) and how that was a sign that God was somehow displeased with her and therefore withheld the blessing of childbirth.

In another church all the mothers who were present were asked to stand and remain standing until a flower was handed to them.  In the congregation was a woman who desperately wanted to be a mother, but had miscarried just a few weeks prior. She began to weep, and ran out of the service and never came back again.  If you are thinking of writing a comment critical of that woman, please don’t.

I’m not suggesting that we do away with Mothers Day, or that it should be ignored in church. But we need to re-think HOW we do it.

CANADA’S Federal Election is just days away.  I made a promise online, that I would not engage in partisan politics online, and I intend to keep that promise. What I have to say is not directly political, though there are some political implications.

What annoys me the most about this election has to do with the involvement of the political polls, that supposedly give us a snapshot of what electors are thinking, and what would allegedly happen “if the election were held today”.  The companies that conduct and publish these polls claim to be using scientific methods to conduct the polls, and some claim to be accurate within 1-2 percentage points.

Particularly annoying are those whose headlines say, ‘SHOCKING NEW RESULTS” or YOU WILL BE SHOCKED WHEN YOU SEE THESE RESULTS.  Actually, the supposed results of polls headlined that way are not shocking at all.  Day after day they show the same results with the same prediction of which party is allegedly leading.

Here is something that should make us think.  A few months ago, in the American  Presidential election, the polls were DEAD WRONG.  All throughout that campaign the pollsters claimed that it was a “very tight race”  or “it’s too close to call – it is a dead heat etc. ad nauseam. Election night – the only poll that matters – proved the pollsters wrong. It wasn’t that close after all, and the winner was not who some polls predicted it would be.

Another thing that should make us think is the number of different polls out there who tell contradicting results?  Which poll is “more accurate”?

My personal conviction is that polls are propaganda  tools designed to manipulate voters. And who controls them? And how do we know that they are treating the data that they supposedly collect honestly?

My advice to all Canadians is to IGNORE THE POLLS, and vote according to your convictions. But by all means, DO VOTE.

I close with a quote from a former Prime Minister of Canada, John G. Diefenbaker a.k.a. “Dief the Chief” : I’ve always been fond of dogs. And dogs are the only animals that know what to do with polls”. 

Those are not my words, they are a direct quotation from the 1957 election. Maybe he was on to something.