Bard Letsinger

Running with Tradition

It is that time of year again, The Running of the Idiots…er…Bulls, I mean Running of the Bulls, at the festival of San Fermín held every July 6-14 in Pamplona, Spain. Made popular by Hemingway’s writings and featured in many movies like the opening sequence in City Slickers starring Billy Crystal.

Every year 100’s of people are injured running with the bulls and Since 1924 there have been 15 people killed, including one fatality this week. Even so, tens of thousands of people annually flock to Pamplona to partisipate in this traditional event. Now personally I think running with the bulls is nuts… yet I ride a motorcycle and people think 500K of us converging on Sturgis, South Dakota is nuts. On one hand I get it. Life is full of risk and everyone has to decide how much risk they are willing to take. What is acceptable for one person is just too great of a risk for another.

Amazingly in the church, tradition works just the opposite, keeping the church stagnate and preventing it from taking risks. Over the years, the church has forgotten the origin of many of its traditions and just continues with a “that’s what we have always done” attitude. Unfortunately, this attitude has become a road block for reaching people for Christ.

When it comes to the church our theology, the gospel, is set in stone, it never changes. Our methods for communicating the gospel however must constantly be evolving… and that is where Tradition gets in the way. Now those under age 40 tend to think that the problem with “traditional” thinking is with the “older generation”. However, if we are not careful the new methods we introduce into the church today will become the traditions we cling to tomorrow while a new group of young people fight to bring their “exciting new ideas” to the service to reach people of their generation.

To help me keep this in mind I have this lithograph in my office. It is a constant reminder that what might seem great to me today will probably seem incredibly stupid to future generations tomorrow. The last thing I want to do in my later years in ministry is to be running with the idiots…bulls…running with the bulls.

More on this topic and my talks with churches on this subject next week.

Grace and Attitude

A good friend has ask me to do some guest writing for recover4real.com the CelebrateRecovery blog of Crosspoint Church. As I write for them I will also be posting those colums here on my blog as well.

In the past few months I have dealt with three different people going through divorces. One of them caused by their own addiction to alcohol, the others their spouse left them for someone else. Two of these individuals are falling apart, convinced their life is over, and their world has ended.  They say they want help but no matter what you do to try to help they reject it. Their response “You don’t understand what I am going through…no one understands how I feel!!”

The truth however is statistically half the people who have ever been married have gone through what they are going through. They would however rather have a pity party for themselves than focus getting on with the business of recovery and making the best of their future. That is what the love of Christ and His grace is all about… putting the past behind you and moving forward. God’s grace is not something that is earned but something that is freely given to all Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJ). No matter where you have been or what you have done, nothing surprise or shocks God and His grace is available to you, if you will accept it.

If you have an addiction, drugs, alcohol, or are going through some tough times, you are not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people are dealing with the same thing you are. Many of their stories parallel yours. What is the main difference between someone who is recovering from an addiction or setback in life and someone who is not…attitude and taking advantage of God’s grace. Chuck Swindoll has a great quote “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” When everything else seems out of control there is always one thing you have total control of, and that is your attitude.

Two of my friends are falling apart…but the third is putting their life back together. They have chose to examine where their life went wrong, take responsibility for the part they played in messing it up and are now taking steps to adjust their attitude. They are tapping into God’s grace and makeing the necessary changes in an effort to not repeat the same mistakes. If they can do it anyone can do it…if they so choose.

So, what attitude are you going to choose today?  Are you going to access God's grace or keep struggling in your own limited power? Remember the choice is yours, choose wisley.

Get some Link Love...In the Proper Context of Course.

Back in February I received a call from a friend. Their first words to me took me aback. “Is there something you need to tell your wife”?  I racked my brain...  had I done or said anything to offend my wife that I needed to apologize and ask forgiveness for… and how would this person calling me know anything about whatever it was. I felt I was being set up and since nothing was coming to me all I could say was "er...no?"

They just kept pressing. “There is nothing you need to confess…what’s going on…so your telling me there is nothing your wife needs to know about”. I was at a total loss. 

I was like just get to the point!! “What are you talking about?!?”

Finally they did.  “I read the comments on your blog…(in bold are the words they stressed as they read it back to me) “Thanks for the link….love. It was good connecting with you. Hopefully, we'll make that connection face-to-face before too long. I look forward to it."  "Sounds like an emotional affair to me!!”

It took me a second to realize what they were reading…then I totally cracked up. I felt like I was in updated episode of I Love Lucy? This person is on line and reads my blog however they don’t really know much about the net, the lingo, or how it works. They were referring to a comment to my blog made by another pastor who was thanking me for including a link to his church plant in a recent post. I  had spoken to his pastor through Twitter and on the phone about church planting and we agreed we should get togather face to face next time he was passing through town.  Click here to read the blog and see the comments.

My caller freaked out even more when I told them “That comment is from another pastor.” which made me laugh even more. After I started breathing again I explained everything to them, who made the commentand what they were talking about. I even went to Wikipedia and read them the definition “link love” and pointed them back to the context of the blog at which point the lights came on and it all made since to them.

After talking through it they felt really silly, but in their defense they told me they had recently been in conversations with friends whose spouses had affairs with people they met on-line (defining the context of their thinking) . They also admited they were on medication that the doctor warned them would make their thinking a little “fuzzy”. (

Whether it is the Bible or a blog, this is a great example of how understanding the language/lingo and knowing the context of what you are reading is so important. It is also a great example of why when a doctor tells you that while taking certain medication not to operate heavy machinery or make any major life decision (like accusing a pastor of having an affair), you should listen.

For the next few weeks my wife and I would keep asking each other for little "link love"…and then cracking up. Oh, my life at times is better than any sit-com. Hey…maybe I should write a pilot. I do have permission to share this story as long as I don’t reveal the blog readers identity, unless I sell the story as a the plot of a TV sitcom...at which time I have to share the royalties.  LOL

Out of Work...Before I Even Started, But Still BELIEVE

Today we are unpacking the boxes…AT OUR OLD HOUSE!!! Feels like we are moving in for the second time. Long story short…like I can do such a thing…

Over a month ago we accepted a position as a campus pastor for a church looking to plant a new campus in The Woodlands north of Houston. We lived in The Woodlands for four years and for the past two have been kicking ourselves for leaving in the first place. Needless to say we were excited to be going back. Money was going to be tight, real tight, for awhile and we were going to have to live in an apartment provided for us by one of the church members for at least a year, and that was great. We welcomed the challenge.  What better place to meet new people who were new to the area. Mollie was looking forward to starting another “Moving on After Moving In” newcomers class. The Kids were looking forward to connecting with old friends and hanging out at the pool. I was pumped to start building relationships with “Dan”, the key member of the church plant, and all the people who I was told wanted the new church. I had also been reconnecting with many of my old friends in The Woodlands, many of whom expressed interest in being part of what sounded like a cool new work. I was confident we would have a leadership team put together by the end of the summer and would launch our first service in January 2010.

Two weeks after accepting the position we sold our house without even putting it on the market (in this economy and with the national housing market tell me that was not a total God thing). We scheduled the closing date for the house, called movers, and over this past weekend got the house packed up, and were ready to go.

All was good ….and then we got thrown “a curveball”. A lunch meeting, presented to me as “getting some face time” with the head campus pastor, where I thought we would organize, talk vision and plan our first steps in launching the new church did not go as I envisioned. Instead, out of nowhere,  I was told there was NOT going to be a church plant and that I was NOT going to be joining the staff...sorry.  Nice. Wish they would have told me three days earlier when they scheduled the meeting to stop packing and halt the moving process until we talked. Would have saved me, my family and mother-in-law three long days of packing up the house. Thank goodness we had not signed the contract on the house and we were not forced out with nowhere to go.

Since “Curveball Monday” we have been unpacking the house…again. First time I have ever moved into the same house twice. Seriously, the house with boxes everywhere looked like it did years ago when we moved in.  We put the house back in order since we know we will have show it for sale sometime in the near future, after God gives us our next assignment. 

One of the things I had to re-hang was a decorative shelf in the guest bathroom. On the shelf is the word…”BELIEVE”. God usually speaks to me in the bathroom…but not quite like this. I started to ask myself “what do I believe?” Well, I believe what happened this week happened for a reason. I believe that God protected me from a no-win situation with no chance of success.  I believe that there is a church or group out there who needs someone like me to come and provide the leadership, creativity and vision to reach their community for Christ, He just has not put us in together…yet. I believe I serve a great God. And I believe that I have grown to hate packing and unpacking more than I thought was possible.

If you are a prayer then please pray for my family. And if you know of a church looking for a creative pastor with traditional theology and non-traditional methodology who is willing to do whatever it takes to reach people, I would love a chance to talk to them.

The Killing of a Town, Helena TX.

One of the great things about riding a motorcycle is…riding the motorcycle!!!  Sometimes it is not enough just to go for a ride so I have started putting together “devo rides” where at one point we stop and do a short devotion that is tied into our ride destination.

Earlier this month my ride group rode to the to the Texas ghost town of Helena, about 70 miles south of San Antonio. Over 120 years ago at Helena’s prim the city had a courthouse, a jail, a church building that housed three different congregations, a Masonic Lodge, drugstore, blacksmith shop, two hotels, a general store, up to 13 saloons, a school (the Helena Academy), a coeducational college and two newspapers. The town had a population of about 300 and was on a major trade route from the coast to San Antonio. Helena's future looked bright.

But Helena was also a lawless western town right out of a Hollywood movie script. How rough was it? Many people just referred to it by the first syllable of its name…”Hell”. It was the birthplace of the “Helena Duel" in which the left hands of two opponents were tied together and each fighter was given a knife with a three-inch blade. After the combatants were spun around a few times, they slashed away at each other until one bled to death from the accumulation of cuts and stabs. Robberies and shootings were common. 

Something had to give, and the beginning of the end for this once a thriving boom town  came the day after Christmas 1884 when Emmett Butler, the son of prominent rancher and Civil War Veteran  Colonel William G. Butler, was shot and killed.

There are many versions of what happened to Emmett that evening in Helena. They range from kissing the wrong girl (ah-la Kevin Cosner in Silverado) to shooting the sheriff. One version was even portrayed on the popular TV show Death Valley Days. All versions of the story end the same. Emmett is shot and killed while fleeing town, then the next day his father, Colonel Butler, rides into town with his brothers and cowhands demanding to know who killed his son. When no one would, or could tell him he supposedly shouted the famous phrase “This town killed my son, now I’m going to kill this town”.  What there is no doubt about is that soon after the killing of his son, Colonel Butler gave the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway free right-of-way through the family ranch to by-pass Helena, and in the late 1800’s being bypassed by the rail road was the kiss of death for a town. Within ten years of Emmitt’s death the county seat and most businesses had left Helena and moved to towns on the new rail line.

Our ride took us to the Helena town site that today consist of the old court house and post office, now museums, and several historical markers. I did a short devotional on generational sin, focusing not only that which led to the death of Helena, but also the generational sin of the Butler family and some of its history which I know well. Colonel Butler’s father was my great, great, great grandfather. My great, great grandfather was Pleasant Burnel Butler who was Colonel William Butler’s younger brother and one of the men who road into Helena to find out who killed Emmitt. Today we still have a tract of land on our ranch that is still owned by the rail road where the orgional line came through.

While we are influenced by our family and it’s history we are not bound by it. Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.” (NAS)

We have the power, through Christ, to break the generational curse; we do not have to repeat the sins of our family. So what generational sins do you need to overcome, and what sin do you need to take to the Cross and ask for forgiveness so that it does not become a stumbling block for your family. Maybe you have grown kids, what have you passed on to them that you need to go to them and ask forgiveness to help them not pass it on to the 3rd and 4th generation.

It was a great ride, with some great guys and I am looking forward to the next one. 

Think You Are Having a Bad Day, Imagine Being Me and Seeing This!!!!

I have the fortune of having a unique name. In fact I believe that I am the only “Bard Letsinger” in the world. Like most people I have Googled myself…oh come on, admit it, you have Googled yourself too, and if not you should… and I am the only “Bard Letsinger” that comes up. So imagine my surreal surprise to see this… and no, is not a Photoshoped picture. 

WAIT A MINUET!!! To quote Lancelot’s page Concord in Monty Pythons Holy Grail “I’m not quite dead sir.” 

My original picture had my motorcycle in the back ground but the potential foreshadowing was a little too eerie so I deleted it. So, anything make you reconsider you life and think about your mortality lately?

Celebrating Earth Day by Flushing my Toilet, Over and Over and Over Again

Personally I don’t hold to this whole global warming thing. Don’t get me wrong, I all for taking care of our environment. I like drinking clean water, clear air is a good thing, no problem with developing new sources of energy. I hunt and fish so maintaining wildlife habitats is a priority.

I do believe we need to come up with creative ideas to “clean up” some areas, however some of the current solutions are….well… just plain stupid. One of the dumbest “environmental friendly” developments…EVER…has to be green toilets. No, no, no, not toilets that are painted green to remind us to be kind to the environment, I am talking about the “low-flow” verity. For years standard toilets used between 3 & 5 gallons per flush. The house I grew up in was built in 1972 and had one of these standard toilets, and boy did it work. You could flush a football down that thing with no problem (I know because me and my brother did). Our toilet was not just the final resting place for a few expired gold fish, but hamsters, gerbils, gunnie pigs and the occasional small dog. Over 35 years in that house and my parents never owned a plunger.

A couple of years ago my wife and I built a new home. I wanted to find and install some old “antique” five gallon per flush toilets, because the “low-flow” ones we had in our previous newer home stunk…literally. However, to our dismay we discovered that due to government regulations we could only install new, low flow toilets with a 1.6 to 2 gallon per flush rate. Translation, my 3 year old goes to the bathroom uses a couple pieces of toilet paper and I am headed to the garage for the plunger. Now I am not a math wizard but let’s see:

Old toilets: Take care of business…heck two or three people can take care of business, flush (5 gallons of water, along with everything else, down the toilet, literally), that’s it, your done…nothing more to see here… move along.

New toilets: take care of business, flush….flush again…flush a third time, go out to garage to get plunger, plunge, plunge, flush, plunge, flush, plunge, flush (at 1.6 gallons per flush that is 9.6 gallons of water plus extra carbon dioxide emission from your heavy breathing from all the plunging and not to mention all the noise pollution from your yelling and cursing out the blasted, tree hugging no good #*%#))# that invented this #(@)! thing).

Now you tell me which is better for the environment the old one flush and done toilets or the flush three times just to get a roach to his final resting place ones. The answer is logical, however logic and things like government regulations or global warming are oxymorons.

Well I must be off to celebrate Earth Day by in one trip to the bathroom flushing away enough water to supply a small town for an entire earth day.

Easter: It Is A Contest and It Is All About The Numbers.

I follow a lot of fellow pastors on Twitter and on Sunday I was pumped. Over and over tweets were celebrating the numbers of people that were coming for Easter services and the number of people who were making decisions for Christ.  Can I get a “Yeah God!!!”…anyone… you the pastor moving from Florida to Canada, thank you, knew I could count on a “Yeah God!!!” from you. Awesome day!!! 

One church I love is NewSpring in SC. They don't just think outside the box, they blew up the box for a sermon illustration years ago. I made a twitter comment (copied to Facebook) about how I thought it was awesome they played AC/DC’s Highway to Hell for their Easter service... and immediately started catching some flak. Some people were well meaning but mostly it came from people at stagnant, dead and dying churches.

Now I have no problem with any “model” of church. Music, teaching style, etc. are all a matter of personal preference. What reaches one person pushes away another. Different is not wrong, just different. Every body (of believers)  has to choose their bent and go with their leading and their personality to do what it takes to reach their community for Christ. Traditional music..fine, expository teaching with indept Greek and Hebrew word studies…great, Suit and tie…ok, not my preference but for many it works. I know great, growing, thriving churches using those models, and the ones who are doing those things who are thriving and spiritually healthy don’t have an issue with other churches using contemporary methods, seeker sensitive ideas, modern music, life application teaching and themed series. Healthy churches (and believers for that matter) celebrate all other like minded (theologically speaking) churches successes regardless of their methodological bent.

One of the tweets I posted read “ @NewSpring& @PerryNoble had 100’s, yes 100's!!, of people make decisions of faith and accept Christ today. How many did your church have?” I was asking for a good report, but apparently some took it as an attack. Talk about gas on the fire. Of the responses I received the theme seemed to be “God does not care about numbers”, Church is “not a contest”. OH BUT IT IS...IT IS!!!!

Church Is All About Numbers.

It is about the numbers. Each number represents a person. Each person represents a soul, a soul that will be lost and spend eternity in Hell apart from God…unless…unless someone gets out of their comfort zone and does everything in their power, with all the methods at their disposal, to communicate the Good News of Christ to the lost in their neighborhood, their city, their county and so on. If you say that your church is big enough, if you are not focused on growth, you are ignoring half the Great Commission, literally telling the rest of your community to “go to hell”. It is all about the numbers.

It Is A Contest

It is a contest. Not between churches, but with an enemy that comes “…like a roaring lion, seeking anyone he can to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Our team, the church, verses Satan’s team. So the question you have to ask yourself, “Is my local church pulling its weight on the team, or is it just sitting on the bench griping that it does not like the way others on the team are playing and putting them down whenever they score?”

Perry Noble is right, “When you move to a new community & are trying to find a church--go to the one that all of the "churched" people hate and speak out against, because it is in that place you are most likely to actually meet Jesus and have your life radically transformed by Him!” 

Easter weekend, 2009, was incredible for many churches all across the United States and around the world. However, for many churches it was just another Sunday where all the believers heard a message surrounded by the same people they sit with every Sunday. I hope your church was the former, I hope your numbers blew away your expectations and I hope you ran up the score!!!

What’s Wrong With This Shirt?

Today it was a little chilly (in the 40’s -50’s in Texas in April, still not buying into global warming) so I put on one of my favorite shirts.

When I come out of the bedroom my wife proceeds to tell me that it is time to “retire” this shirt. (Retire aka. throw away/put in the Goodwill box)According to her It is old, worn and outdated. “The pattern and denim collar are so 90’s” according to her.  But I love this shirt; it is comfortable, keeps you warm on cool days but does not get too hot when it warms up in the afternoon. And the colors (red, blue, olive drab) work.

So I want a second, and third and fourth opinion. Is this shirt outdated? Does it still work? Or is my wife right?  Now in her defense she wants everyone to know that she thinks the shirt looks much better in the picture than it does in person.

If you tweet or facebook your view of this, one of my favorite shirts, be sure to also copy it here to the blog.

So let’s hear it. Is my wife right or do I get to keep my shirt? It’s fate is in your hands…or in this case your post.

Good Financial Advice from SNL…Really

I can’t believe I am saying this but Saturday Night Live had the answer to our current economic mess back in 2006. Now you can laugh but if everyone would just follow the advice contained in this mock-umercial (especially the powers that be in Washington DC) our country could recover. And yes, whenever I do a series or message on money I use the following clip.

BTW tune in to my tweets every Saturday night for running commentary on SNL.