I’m spending the week in Florida visiting family and relaxing a bit. The first day of the trip Jennifer and I started reading a novel together, the main character was a surfer… so I decided to carry the theme throughout our trip. Today we rented a long board from the “Surf Station” and hit the waves. All three of the kids got up within the first few attempts. Izzy was wearing “swimmies” as he rode the wave into shore.
Here are a few more excerpts from the Church Planter material I have been working on…
“If I had a dollar for ever time someone has advised me not to “sacrifice my family on the altar of ministry” I could travel to Home Depot and buy all the materials necessary to build my own brazen altar complete with a glistening bronze overlay and duel ash pans (See 1 Sam. 1). Perhaps I am given this advice so regularly because my family is often seen involved with me in the work of the ministry. I can imagine what must be going through the minds of my self-appointed advisers when they see my four year old son pushing cases full of equipment in an out of the school where we meet each weekend or when my six year old daughter is seen walking door to door with me as I visit homes in my community.
If you are a pastor who is also a husband and a father you will feel a constant tension between the work of the ministry and your duties as the leader of your home. Let me offer this simple suggestion; instead trying to avoid sacrificing your family on the alter of ministry, Sacrifice the dream of a quintessential American family on the altar of ministry. As a pastor you should do all that you can to involve your wife and children in the joys and pains of serving the body of Christ.
Isn’t it ironic that we celebrate Hanna and Abraham for their willingness to lay their offspring down on the alter yet advise our ministers to do the opposite? Think about it… Hanna carried Samuel to the temple with the rest of her offerings as soon as he was weaned, “she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh.” We exalt her faith and figuratively join her in our commitment to give our children to the Lord. Yet in our own homes we strive for a balance between ministry and family. Then there is Abraham; what a great example right? This guy actually carried his boy up to a mountain to kill him with a knife because God told him to (Gen 22). How many times have we celebrated Abraham’s faith from the pulpit but neglected his example in our living room.
Just as a real shepherd might take his child out to tend sheep with him, when possible, I take mine to tend sheep with me. I want them to learn what I do and I want to spend time with them, because of this, it only makes since to bring them with me. Sure, it’s not very professional, but then again, professionalism is not the goal of a pastor or a dad. There have been times when my children have done more to minister in hospital rooms and on the front porches than I was able to. This doesn’t mean that everything we do as a family is centered on the work of ministry but it does mean that much of what we do is aimed at serving our local congregation. It also means that there are fewer hours in the day for the activities that do not benefit the church. Please, don’t feel sorry for my children or my wife. They are not slaves begging for more time on the baseball field or at the local park. Trust me, my children are well acquainted with the inside of a Chuck-E-Cheese. But they are also acquainted with the fact that even in Chuck-E-Cheese we are ministers of the gospel.”
Trying to catch up here a bit on the happenings of my life. Pillar Church is going through some really exciting times right now.
On this day in 1996 – in the Burger King parking lot in Palatka, Florida, I very nervously asked Jennifer Goodwin if she would consider going out on a date with me. She said yes and now 14 years,9 houses, 4 kids, and 37,500 diapers later we are still loving every second of it. Happy Valentines day Jenny. You want to read more about her awesomeness check THIS out.
I’m riding a bus between DC and NYC right now (wi-fi on a bus? Wow!) with my 5-year-old daughter Ruthe. Ruthe and I are going to spend the day today in NYC before flying out to Reykjavik tonight to visit our good friends the Garmans. This is a sweet trip for me because this time three years ago my family and I were on month three of a four-month church planting project in Reykjavik. It’s a great city and we loved our time there. Our family and our church have had a tremendous desire to see the gospel spread there since we learned spiritual condition of the country. Our work there has gone well and we are hoping that having the Garman’s there full time will give the project some real traction. While Ruthe and I travel Jennifer and our boys is in the sunshine state visiting her solder brother who recently returned safely from the war in Iraq.
I’m not use to traveling with children when Jennifer is not with me. I have already broken several of the cardinal house rules. Ruthe’s hair went without being brushed for about 36+ hours (if you have never seen Ruthe’s hair you cannot possibly understand why that is so bad), we left the house for our December trip for “Ice” land with only a pair of church sandals – oops. We had donuts for dinner last night at 9:30pm, then cheese-its for breakfast this morning. Ruthe’s not supposed to drink anything after 7pm but she was downing a Sunkist at 11:00pm. But… she’s still alive and having a grand time.
I plan to post our adventures throughout the week. If you are in town this weekend Pillar Church will be continuing the Man of the House series with Pastor Naethan Hendrix teaching “A Man Guides Patiently” and at Lakeside Pastor Bryan Scott will be continuing our series in Galatians.
In preparation for our upcoming sermons series “Man of the House” I have been thinking about the pastoral nature of the husband’s role in the home… The church almost never teaches on this subject and many varieties of Christian men exist within our churches. I have made a list of 50 christian men I have known from childhood to present (myself included). I dropped each of them into one of four categories that best described them.
No.. I will not put the list of men in this blog… nor will I share the details of my observation… What I will say is that more than 1/2 of the Christian men I know best from childhood until present are not the spiritual leaders of their home that they should be. Here is how my little subjective experiment shook out:
So Christian men…. take a few minutes and place yourself in the category that best describes you.
This Sunday @ Pillar we begin a new series called, Man of the Hosue. I’ll be preaching to men for the next 5 weeks. We are exploring the importance for Christian men to embrace their God given role of spiritual headship in the home. We are asking the men of our church to do five things during the course of the series.
About 3 months ago my life got very crowed. Jennifer learned she was having some pregnancy complications and was placed on bed rest, our church decided to partner with one of our church plants to open a coffee shop, I began an internship with the illustrious Mark Dever… add that to the fact that summer is the busiest time of year for our church and we found ourselves right in the middle the perfect storm of chaos.
This week it feels as if some glimpse of Normalcy has returned… the baby is healthy, the coffee shop is finished, the internship is going fine and church has settled a bit. So… I return, like an ashamed child to the blogosphere… all my normal readers have written me off … I get it… but here I go again. Proving just how dirty Clint is.
I will beging with a pictorial introduction of two new births… Coffee With A Cause and Moses Owen Clifton.
Born: 9.16.09 @ 9:57am weighing in at: 8lb 6oz and measuring 21″ long.
Moses is our fourth child and by far the most difficult to bring into the world. Tuesday evening as Jennifer and I were heading up to bed (around 11:30) she started experiencing complications from Placenta previa. We loaded our sleepy kids into the minivan and headed to the hospital. Jennifer went through a battery of tests over the course of the night then around 8am the doctor came in and said that we would just be waiting around for a while…. we went about our morning, getting the kids together then 20 minutes later. Doctors and nurses rushed in and said to scrub up because we were having the baby now! I got on the phone and called Pastor Bryan and he came to the rescue within 10 minutes. Jennifer was in the OR for more than 2 nerve racking hours. but eventually word was delivered that everything was well.
Jesus, you give life and take it away… thank you for giving it today. You are our source and the one who will provide for every need he will ever have. Thank you for this gift. Amen
My wife and I are expecting our fourth child (Moses) in October. A month ago the pregnancy took an unexpected turn and things have been a bit volotle for the past several weeks. Both Jennifer and Moses are doing fine but after two stints in the hospital and a “bed rest” order from the doctor my schedule has been dramatically adjusted. Please keep our family in prayer until Moses safely arrives.
During this time I also started an internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in DC. As you know CHBC is stacked with great leadership. Twice a year these guys bring in 6 interns from various parts of the world and load them up with sound ecclesiology and then let them loose. Dr. Dever is allowing me to participate in the internship reading and discussion this semester and the leadership at Pillar has given me extra time to focus on my studies with CHBC. Over the semester I hope to post some of the things I am learning here for you to benefit from also. If you are interested in learning more about the CHBC internship you can check out the CHBC website HERE or see that Owen Strachan includes the internship atop his list of “exceptional pastoral ministry internships” HERE
