For me picking out toothpaste is absolutely overwhelming.  I know it seems like such as small choice, but hear me out.  As I walk into the grocery store I have one item on my checklist…toothpaste.  I head to the personal care items, find the toothpaste section, and then attempt to find the toothpaste I want to purchase.  The problem is I don’t know which kind to get.  There are so many brands to choose from.  Brands like Colgate, Crest, Ultrabrite, Sensodyne, Rembrandt, Listerine, and even something called Tom’s of Maine, cover the shelves.

Then there are different types of each brand.  Types like regular, whitening, tarter control and some for sensitive teeth.

Some come in regular tubes, some come in fancy pumps.  Some come in small containers, and some come in big.  All of them seem to be “recommended by dentists everywhere”.

When I see all these options I am overwhelmed and I don’t know which choice to make.  I usually end up calling my wife to get her opinion.

This reminds me of a study I was made aware of that took place at Columbia University.  Here is the short of what they did.  In a grocery store they had two displays setup that gave people the opportunity to sample some jelly.  At one display they gave people 24 samples to try out.  At a separate display they limited the samples to 6 types of jelly.  At both displays they gave those who sampled any jelly a $1 coupon towards the purchase of any of the flavors of jelly they would like.  Here is what they found out….

1. It didn’t matter whether there was 24 or 6 types of jelly, the average person who stopped at both displays tried an average of 1.5 types of jelly.

2. Here is the more amazing/counter-intuitive part – Of those who stopped and sampled jelly where there were 6 options, 30% ended up making a purchase.  On the other hand, of those who stopped at the table with 24 different samples, only 3% ended up making a purchase.  The bottom line – Having four times as many options, reduced the amount of sales from 30% to 3%.

I think the jelly samplers were feeling what I feel about purchasing toothpaste.  They got overwhelmed with the options and decided not to make a decision.  (Thankfully for those I do talk to on a daily basis I do call my wife to figure out what type of toothpaste to buy, and just don’t walk out of the store, but I think you get the idea.)

I wonder if the same type of dynamic happens in churches.  We overwhelm people with options, with having to choose between prayer meetings, home care groups, ministry opportunities, missions trips, men’s conferences, women’s events, and on and on, to the point where people just get overwhelmed and walk away from getting involved at all.

Your thoughts?

(If you are interested in reading notes from the study you can find them at http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/whenchoice.html)

Last night was a great night.  Yesterday I was ordained at the Southern New England District Council.  Throughout the evening I took several mental snapshots and made quite a few observations, which I hope to remember for life.

Probably the most vivid snapshot I took was when I was charged to "preach the Word" and handed my ordination Bible.  As I ponder what it means to "preach the Word" I am again drawn back to the book of Nehemiah.

In Nehemiah chapter 8 we see Ezra open God's law and read it to the people, and then in verse 8 there were some who, "read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read."  Part of the preaching here in Nehemiah involved making the scriptures understandable.

I pray that I can do the same.  I hope that I can be someone who always communicates God's Word in a clear way, so that people can understand and so that their lives can be changed.  The result of the clear explanation in Nehemiah was that the people celebrated because they understood (8:12) and the people repented and worshiped God (9:3).  I pray that the result of my teaching and and preaching be the same.

Eleven years.  For eleven years I have been preparing to be ordained.  Four years I spent in college, three of those at Central Bible College.  I had the privilege of studying at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for 3 years additional years.  For the past four years, I have been serving at Calvary Christian Church in Lynnfield, MA, as an associate pastor.  Eleven years of preparation, and it will all pay off next week.  With my ordination service quickly approaching Tuesday, I have been giving much consideration to what it truly means to be ordained.  One place I have ended up in searching for that meaning is back in the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was given a very specific task to accomplish by God, to give leadership over the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  Although Nehemiah was given this responsibility by God, in Nehemiah chapter 2 we see that the King of Persia, who Nehemiah was a servant to, gave him a letter stating that he approved of Nehemiah's mission.  The letter gave Nehemiah safe passage back to Jerusalem, it allowed Nehemiah to utilize the king's resources in rebuilding the wall, and much more.

Now as soon as Nehemiah starts rebuilding the wall there were some who starting ridiculing Nehemiah, saying the walls couldn't be rebuilt and doing everything they could to stop the work from being completed.  These same complainers even make the accusation in Nehemiah chapter 2, "What is this you are doing?…Are you rebelling against the king?"

Now at this point I would probably pull out my letter from the king, and rub the whole letter with the king's signature and royal seal in their face.  But that is not what Nehemiah does.  Nehemiah does something completely different, he does something profound.  Nehemiah doesn't respond by mentioning the king or his letter at all, he simply states, "The God of heaven will give us success."

To me that is amazing response.  Nehemiah's letter from the king was his Ace of Spades, he could have thrown it down at that moment and ended the conversation, but he realized he had someting better than that letter…he had God's backing.

As I think about my ordination, I sort of feel like Nehemiah.  I will be receiving a very imporant "letter" that says that I have all the blessing and support of my denomination, but as great as that is I, like Nehemiah, have something more important…I have God's backing.  No matter where God calls me I know that my great source of strength, protection, help and so much more.  Nehemiah lived his life with this undrstanding.  I hope I can as well.

Tonight we had another amazing time at Home Care Group.  We continued our study of The Ten, a fresh look at the ten commandments.  This evening we were on the third command to not misuse the name of the Lord.  Growing up I always felt like I had this commandment figured out and nailed down, it was simply yelling God’s name when I hit my thumb with a hammer, or threw a wild pitch in baseball.

Tonight we took a closer look and discovered that misusing God’s name happens any time we leverage God’s name to accomplish something he is not really in.  Maybe that is something as small as being involved at the church not to bring glory to God by serving Him, but to draw attention to ourselves or to feel important.  Or perhaps is going out to a Bible study and telling people you are there to learn more about Christ and to deepen your relationship with God, but really your are there to find a date (for the record, looking for a date at church is probably the best place to look….it just shouldn’t be our primary reason for going to a Bible study).  The reality is that most of us probably take the Lord’s name in vain every day, as anytime we do something using our relationship with God as cover, but we are really doing it for a selfish reason, we break this command.

I just finished up Lost and Found by Ed Stetzer the other day.  Great book on what several churches are doing to make a deliberate effort to reach people in their 20’s.  Any church staff that is serious about reaching out to this generation should read this book.  I am stoked that we are taking the time to read through it as a staff at Calvary.