David Bahn – Reflections

Light from the Word and through the lens

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In 1968 Jerry Snell opened a door in the hallway outside our first hour chemistry class. He invited me into what I discovered was a darkroom. Soon I was on the school newspaper and annual staff as a photographer. Later I learned that Jerry was a Lutheran who was planning to become a pastor. A few years later I was not only a Lutheran, but I was heading off to seminary to become a Lutheran pastor, too. Jerry followed a year later and served as a pastor in Missouri until his untimely heart attack and death. I thank God for Jerry and enjoy photography still today – not to mention rejoicing in having served as a Lutheran pastor in congregations in Utah, Colorado, Arkansas and Texas. I’ve retired now and serve part time as a Congregational Support Specialist for the Texas District of the LCMS. I also provide coaching and leadership training through various PLI cohorts and with individual congregations and organizations. David Bahn is a follower of Jesus Christ, husband to Diane, father and grandfather. He is an avid amateur photographer. His photo website is “Flowers by God Photos by David” He also publishes a devotional blog DavidBahn-Reflections.com. He and Diane live in Cypress Texas and enjoy visiting their grandchildren who live in the United States and Germany. He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in 1979, and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1991. Diane, his wife, is now retired from PLI (PLIleadership.org). They have offered presentations on Marriage and Ministry Partnership, Leadership, Changing Your Congregation’s Culture, and Missional Living. They look are working with PLI International training pastors and wives of the ELVD Diocese of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania. David’s personal mission statement is “Leading people to realize Jesus’ calling and plans for their lives.”

Agenda

What’s on your to-do list today? This week? This summer? What guides you in putting that agenda together?

Building Plans
This is one of many pages of plans for the new worship center at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas.

Matthew 12:38-42

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39But he answered them, ”An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

When an agenda becomes an end in itself, it soon becomes lifeless and burdensome. Check the items off the list. Do the next thing. Boring and tedious!

Too often we operate on unwritten and unexamined agendas that are set by an internal moral and spiritual compass. That was the case of the scribes and Pharisees. Their agenda was to protect their power, control the religious life of the people, and ultimately to take Jesus down. They were not seeking to hear from God, discern his calling, and live humbly before him. Their agenda required that they get rid of Jesus, or at least discredit him before the people.

An agenda is more than a list of things to do at a meeting, or activities for the day. It betrays a larger goal. For the Christian the proper agenda is to look for God’s kingdom, to see him break through into our world, and discover how it is that we are to repent and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:14-15) A more specific calling is found in the Old Testament prophet:

Micah 6:8

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

If this calling defines your agenda today, what would be different? How would it shape your business dealings? Your interaction with your family and friends? Your relationship with God himself?

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