Assemblies of God

All posts tagged Assemblies of God

Holy Transparent

Posted by Jim Thornber on August 12, 2019
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at the Little Portion Hermitage. This is an excerpt from my book called Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes.

dirty harryBlaise Pascal said, “We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.” Or, as that wise 20th century philosopher Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) said in the movie Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

A key component in being transparent with who you are involves acknowledging what you are not. Admitting your strengths as well as your weaknesses will allow you to be true to yourself, live the life God created you to live, and enable you to say no to those things that are not your calling.

I acknowledge that I am not an apostle, prophet, evangelist, worship leader, business entrepreneur, engineer, chef or bank president; I’m a teacher of Scripture. I also know I thrive teaching the 18-30 year old group, so I can easily say “No” to any request to teach children’s church. At the same time, there are people in the church who love to work with children but would be scared spitless if asked to teach the Tabernacle of Moses to a group of twenty-somethings for twelve weeks, an assignment I would relish with only one regret — we couldn’t stretch it to twenty-four.

Furthermore, I understand that God has given me a certain amount of musical ability, and I’ve played piano on numerous worship teams. However, I also know there are many men and women who are better musicians than I am. Although I enjoy playing piano, I know teaching Scripture and equipping people to be better ministers, not leading worship, is my primary avenue for ministry. The problem for many of us, especially church leaders, begins when we forget Pascal said, “None of us are everything.”

Continue Reading

Clothesline Theology

Posted by Jim Thornber on July 5, 2019
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The following is an excerpt from my book Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes, which is available now.  The book recounts my thoughts during the four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity. 

A few years ago, my wife and I visited a church to determine if I wanted to become their new pastor. We drove to the church early on that warm, October morning, full of hope and expectation. When we walked into the small fellowship hall, it was obvious we were the visiting pastors, for new, younger faces were easy to spot in this small, elderly congregation. As we passed through the fellowship hall on our way to the sanctuary, one lady gave us a short glance, quickly scanned Barbara up and down, and walked by us without saying a word. Little did we know we had just committed a cardinal sin in this small church: we were not appropriately attired.

We didn’t mean to be under dressed; it just happened. Yes, we were fully covered, but not in their eyes. You see, my wife made the horrible mistake of wearing a pretty black dress that did not fully cover her knees. That didn’t bother me — I kinda like her knees. But it obviously bothered this woman. A lot. Furthermore, I chose to wear a suit and a silk pullover shirt but no tie. Strike two. The odds were stacked against us and we hadn’t even introduced ourselves. It was going to be a long day.

When I look back on it, I see that Barbara and I had a different definition of holiness than the saints of this small congregation. Without knowing our hearts, some pre-judged us as Christians based on nothing more than what we were wearing.

Continue Reading

A Community of Two

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 24, 2017
Posted in: Christian Spirituality. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at the Little Portion Hermitage. This is an excerpt from   my book, Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes: Removing Religion to Find Relationship.

Barb and JimAfter I left the Little Portion, many people have asked me why I went there in the first place. Shortly after leaving, my typical answer was, “God wanted to make me a holy man in His sight.” This is true, but that is also God’s agenda in every person’s life.

After Barbara and I started dating and I began seriously thinking about marrying her, I started to see another reason for my time at the community—God wanted to work on certain areas of my life so they would not be a burden to my future wife. The Lord wanted to rid me of as much of my selfishness as possible, because if He was going to entrust me with His daughter, I needed to be in the right spiritual shape in order to treat her as God intended. My time at the Little Portion helped me do that, and it was a girlfriend from high school who showed me that I’d changed.

One time I returned to California on vacation and visited some college friends in San Jose. While I was there, I called my high school girlfriend because I was in the area and I’d never met her husband. We had remained friends since high school and I was looking forward to seeing her. Since this was the first time she saw me in my brown monastic habit, her opening line after a hug and a kiss was, “Well, you’re not hard to spot in a crowd!” As she got ready to leave, she told me she could see a change in me. “I no longer feel like an object in your eyes,” she said.

Okay guys, admit it. When you were  eighteen years old, you have trouble looking at girls in any other manner. Paul may have told Timothy to treat every woman as a sister, but that wasn’t our first choice!

Continue Reading

What Martial Arts Taught Me About Prayer

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 22, 2016
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at the Little Portion Hermitage. This is an excerpt from my book Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes: Removing Religion to Find Relationship.

Every Friday evening, the community gathered in the chapel at the Little Portion for a half hour of silent prayer and meditation. At the appointed time, we would enter the candle-lit chapel, find a place to sit, and silently talk with God. Occasionally, you would hear the sound of slow, heavy breathing in the chapel – that unmistakable indication that one of the saints is taking a short siesta. But for the most part, everyone was engaged in some type of silent prayer.

It was during these times—when I desired nothing more than to bask in the presence of God and simply be with the One who loved me to death—that unsavory images from my past or arguments I’ve had with people would come screaming into my head. Here I am trying to meditate upon God, and an image of girl I once dated (and shouldn’t have) explodes upon my imagination. Now, instead of hoping to catch a glimpse of God’s glory, I have Victoria’s Secret dancing in my head. What’s a monk to do?

The Battle of Prayer

Oswald Chambers said, “The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God’s character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.” Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was my previous study of martial arts that helped me overcome my wandering thoughts while in prayer.

Continue Reading

The Mind of Christ

Posted by Jim Thornber on September 21, 2014
Posted in: Christian Spirituality. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” – Phil. 2:5

Philippians 2.5-7How often have you tried to talk your kid into eating something that they were convinced they wouldn’t like, even though they have never tasted it? You humor them, cajole them, make a game of it and finally threaten violence or grounding to get them to try it. So they put a microscopic amount of this foreign food on the end of their fork, screw their eyes shut and with a motion slower than grass growing in January, they bring the fork to their mouth and just barely touch the end of their tongue, at which point they drop the fork, grasp their throat as if they’ve been poisoned and proceed to drink an entire glass of milk to wash the offending flavor from their mouth.

You have just witnessed the fact that it is easier to change someone’s behavior than it is to change their mind. You got them to taste it, but you couldn’t make them like it. Besides, since they already told you they wouldn’t like it, they weren’t about to lose face and admit they were wrong. Do any of you have kids who would rather go to bed hungry than admit you were right and the food you forced down their throat while pinning them to the floor with your knee was actually pretty good?

As Christians we are often like kids who avoid certain foods. We want to pick and choose what areas of Christianity we want to consume. We want a say over what we’ll obey, what we’ll do with what we know, how we will represent Christ and what areas of Christ’s mind and life we will make our own. And when Jesus tells us we must eat humility or obedience (Phil 2:8), we object in a way that resembles our children trying a new food: slowly, with apprehension, already convinced we won’t like it and God is trying to ruin our lives.

There is a tremendous difference between knowing the mind of Christ and wanting the mind of Christ. We often hear people ask, “What would Jesus do?” That is a great question. Let’s think about it. Well, in this situation or in that instance, I remember Jesus forgiving or stooping to serve those who opposed Him or didn’t understand Him. That is what Jesus would do.

So we think about that for a while, come to the conclusion that is it hard to do and then, hoping for a different answer we ask, “Okay, what else might He do?” Continue Reading

Our Common Jesus

Posted by Jim Thornber on July 27, 2014
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister AND a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity. This is an excerpt from my book  Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes: Removing Religion to Find Relationship , which  recounts some of the the lessons I learned as a minister/monk.

During my four years at the Little Portion monastery in Eureka Springs, AR, I was usually the only non-Catholic at the community.  Because of this, I was often the “go to” person when non-Catholic guests arrived. Since the community is located about ten miles from Eureka Springs, AR (a vibrant tourist destination that is the home of the Great Passion Play), and 60 miles southwest of Branson, MO, we would often have visitors who were either fans of John Michael, or curious about our community, or both. If these visitors happened to be non-Catholics, then the call usually went out, “Find Brother Jim.” Besides John Michael, I was the only one at the community who was bi-lingual; I spoke both Protestant and Catholic.

One day, two couples showed up at the community, one Baptist and the other Mennonite. I was in the library when one of the sisters came in and said, “Brother Jim, some Baptist people are here.” By this time, I had been at the community long enough to know what questions they might ask, and they did not disappoint me.

The two couples were sitting in the dinning commons when I walked in and introduced myself. After a few niceties, one of the men cut to the chase and said, “Aren’t Catholics mostly work-oriented? I mean, don’t they believe that they are saved through works?”

I said, “Have you ever asked a Catholic what they did to ‘get saved’?”

“No,” he said.

“Well, let’s ask one. We’ll ask the first person who comes into the room. How does that sound?”

They thought that was a good idea.

About one minute later, Sister Betsy walked into the dinning commons. Sister Betsy is from Cut Off, Louisiana, which is WAY down in the bayou. (This is not pertinent to the story, but she is the only person I know from there, so I wanted to include it.) I called her over and said,

“Sister Betsy, what did you do to get saved?”

Continue Reading

Service As Worship

Posted by Jim Thornber on June 8, 2014
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at the Little Portion Hermitage. This is an excerpt from my book Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes: Removing Religion to Find Relationship.

We had just entered the chapel for the noontime prayer called the Angelus when John Michael said, “Jim, go ring the Angelus bell.” Great, I thought, another chance to be obedient in a tradition I disagreed with. But John Michael asked me to do it, and when you’ve taken a three-year vow of obedience, it is a little difficult to say “No.”

The Angelus is a short devotion at noon honoring the Incarnation. It involves three repetitions of the Hail Mary and is prayed in conjunction with the ringing of a bell. So, even though I was sure I was that didn’t want to do it, but at the same time not quite sure how to get out of it, I walked out of the chapel and down the little path that led to the bell.

Having arrived at the bell, the full impact of the quandary I was in began to take hold. The Angelus is a prayer followed by one bell, followed by another prayer and another bell, a third prayer and a final bell. Now, since I couldn’t hear the prayer in the chapel, I had to recite the prayer with the community in order to ring the bell at the proper time. After the first ringing of the bell, the prayer goes like this:

“The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.”

BONG!

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary….”

BONG!

“And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us. Hail Mary. . . .”

BONG!

Now, the tricky part was saying the prayer along with the community so that I didn’t ring the bell while they were still reciting the prayer, nor wait too long so that they sat in silence waiting for me to ring the bell before they started the next phrase. Having sat through many an Angelus, I knew this was a tricky thing to do. Continue Reading

Exit The Elephant

Posted by Jim Thornber on January 4, 2014
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David – 2 Sam. 5:6-7

elephantI don’t know if I’ve ever been to a church that didn’t have an elephant or two in the room. Even the church I pastor has a few. They seem to be everywhere, sitting right in the middle of everything, acknowledged by everyone and addressed by no one.  However, elephants don’t make good church members. They take up too much room and will eventually make a mess that might be impossible to clean up.

David had an elephant in the room when he became King – the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Everyone knew they were there, squatting on the hill that Abraham took Isaac to in obedience to God’s command to sacrifice his only son. But David, who wasn’t afraid of Goliath or lions or bears, certainly wasn’t going to let a nasty little elephant stand in the way of God’s desire to establish His name in Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5; 2 Chron. 6:6).

How do you exit and elephant from the room of your church? Or your life? These are the points I used last week to address some of the elephants at Journey Church, and help people address their personal elephants – those things everyone (including yourself!) knows is there but no one wants to talk about. Perhaps they will help you.

You exit an elephant from the room by:

1. Admitting it exists (2 Sam. 5:6). That’s just common sense. You cannot address an issue if you won’t admit it exists. But many people won’t. King Saul didn’t. If you don’t think you have any personal elephants, ask your friends or family. You might be surprised at their answer.

2. Ignoring its taunts (2 Sam. 5:7). Elephants can be loud and noisy. They walk on padded feet, but when they start to make noise, the trumpeting is not something you want to listen to all day. The Jebusites told David even the blind and lame could keep him out of Jerusalem. Elephants will taunt you with an element of truth mixed with a lot of lies. Your elephant is probably right in the middle of your territory. It looks impregnable. It mocks you. It says you will never overcome it. It says you are so weak that two people, one blind and one lame, could defend it from your efforts to overcome it. Ignore it. Remember that Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Continue Reading

The Trouble With Holiness

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 10, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister AND a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity in Eureka Springs, AR. This is an excerpt from my book about that experience called “Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes: Removing Religion to Find Relationship.”

Thornber-Comfy Clothes CVR-R2I was in Bible College when I first heard the saying, “I’m a Christian and I don’t drink, smoke, or chew, or hang around with those who do.” We often repeated this little ditty tongue-in-cheek, but there was an element of truth to it, also. Although we knew abstinence from those things didn’t make us holy, we also had to sign a form that said we would not partake in those vices while we were students at the college. I suppose they were fine rules as rules go, but like any law, they only dealt with the outward appearance of holiness, and did nothing to address the matters of the heart.

At the core of that saying is the idea that we can obtain instant holiness if we will simply avoid certain habits. Furthermore, it was expected we would not have friends who engaged in such questionable practices. Somehow, we’ve equated the God-ordained gift of instant salvation through faith in the work of Christ with holiness on demand—my church demands certain practices (and abstinences) and I am holy if I follow those rules. My church says don’t _______ (fill in the blank), so I don’t _______ (fill in the blank) and I feel justified. Or, the church says don’t go there, sinners are there and they will ruin your walk with Christ, so we avoid going to certain places.

That last one has always confused me. If the sinners are not coming to church, I always felt we should go to where the sinners are. After I left the Little Portion, I stayed in Berryville and continued going the Assemblies of God church. Needing a place to live, I put in an application for an apartment and used my pastor as a reference. The owner of the apartment called my pastor and asked him about my character, wondering if it was me he saw coming out of a party in town. My pastor assured the man I wouldn’t have been at such a gathering.

I took that as a compliment. Sort of. Why wouldn’t I go to such a party? Isn’t that where the sinners are? Continue Reading

Jesus Feeds 9,000

Posted by Jim Thornber on September 29, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

[I wrote this a few years back when I was between ministry assignments. I thought it might help a few of you who are in a similar situation. Let me know if this encourages you.]

“We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Bring them here to me,” Jesus said. – Matthew 14:13-21; 15:32-38

loaves-and-fishes-328x328Up until recently, I never had a need or an opportunity to apply these verses to my life. However, since I have been an unemployed minister for a while, I am starting to read Scripture differently, because I am starting to doubt my own resources.

As I search, seek, and ask God about my next assignment, I cannot help but wonder about my skills and talents and why so many churches have no interest in employing me. I do not have an answer at this time, but it has driven me to look at Scripture in a different light.

Because my primary spiritual gift is teaching, I have spent years reading the Bible mostly for those things I could teach from the pulpit or in the Sunday school class. However, since those two forums have recently (and, I pray, temporarily) dried up, I have resorted to reading Scripture not so much for how I can apply it to your life, but for how I can apply it to mine! Yes, I should have been doing this all along, but I am a little slow on the uptake. Just like the disciples in these two passages. Perhaps this is why these stories bothered me as I read them this morning. They hit too close to home.

In the first passage, the disciples show their concern for the crowd, but in a selfish way. They know the crowd needs to eat, but the disciples do not want to take responsibility for this task and ask Jesus to send them away. Not missing a beat, Jesus says, “That isn’t necessary – you feed them” (14:16 NLT).

However, the disciples reply by saying they do not have adequate resources. “But we only have five loaves of bread and two fish!” they tell Jesus.

“Bring them here,” Jesus says.

At that point, I stopped reading.

I am feeling a bit like the disciples. I know I have some resources, but they seem so meager and inadequate for the task. It is all too overwhelming for me. People need to be fed and taught and discipled and trained to do the work of ministry, and all I have is a little Bible training and a passion to teach.

“Bring them here,” Jesus tells me.

And I know what will happen when I do. He will take the little I have and bless it and make it adequate for the job He has assigned for me. Feeling better about myself – if not a tad rebuked – I continued reading. Continue Reading