“The Hip-Hop of Preaching”

About 2 weeks ago, I heard Kirk Byron Jones preach at the American Baptist Convention. I had never heard of him, but I figured he must have some skills, as he was one of only 2 or 3 people chosen to preach to the entire convention. He pretty much lived up to the hype. He was funny; he was dead serious; he made us think about the biblical text in ways we hadn’t before; he made us face some of our frailties; he gave me a shot in the arm of courage; and he was finished in well under a half an hour.

I was so impressed, I went to meet him at a book signing later that evening and felt moved to buy his book, “The Jazz of Preaching: How to preach with great freedom and joy.”

I got from the book that the most dangerous thing that can happen to a person who preaches the gospel is to become “a reverend.” What that means is, we can not afford to lose our personal lives to our professional roles. Sure, I’m a clergyman, a pastor, an expositor of the kerygma. But does that mean I can’t still play basketball, make love, tweet on Twitter, dance, or go to the movies? When people who know me as “a reverend” witness me talk about or do any of these things, there is often some surprise. But if I didn’t live fully in this world of ours, I’d have no way to relate to people, and nothing worthwhile to say to them, either.

For Jones, jazz is the inspirational force that takes him inside himself. He notes the way the musicians aren’t afraid to improvise, the way the blues is so painfully honest, the way artists can sit and dream up “the right note” instead of forcing it, and I agree.

Only thing is, I’m not a jazz guy. I’m just not. I would never badmouth Ella, Coltrane, Miles, Dizzy, or Louis. The creative genius is undeniable. My wife and I played Todd Ledbetter  for 10 hours straight while she gave birth. Jazz has its place. I can appreciate it, it’s just not my favorite type of music.

I was raised to love hip-hop. The same way the author of “The Jazz of Preaching” finds confidence and comfort in jazz–that’s how I feel about rap. Yes, some of the language is inappropriate, but Miles Davis and John Coltrane weren’t choir boys, either, so big deal.

Rap teaches me bravado, not to be afraid to say what I feel. They use every ounce of their vocabulary. The greats are clearly inspired and inspiring. Rappers have style. The best rappers set high goals for themselves and work hard to achieve them. The beats alone are often mesmerizing and transcendent. This author (Kirk Byron Jones) is making a case for jazz, but I think many types of secular music can get your creative juices flowing. And pastors should never be too “reverend” to listen and learn.

I Can’t Wait to Get Old

“Don’t get old.”

That’s what all the old timers say, isn’t it? “Don’t get old.” If you get old, you’ll lose your memory, you’ll suffer from arthritis. The world will move too fast for you. Don’t get old, they warn, and they should know.

While I’m not looking forward too (or even anticipating) suffering most of the ailments that come with aging, I must say, getting old ain’t what it used to be.

My father still works 50-60 hours a week in a career he loves, even though he is several years beyond the standard retirement age of 65. He’s a doctor. Delivering babies and performing surgery requires some physical strength and dexterity, but it’s not like he’s digging ditches–this is largely mental work, and he’s holding up pretty well. If anything, he’s just getting wiser and gaining more experience as the years go on. Eventually, he won’t feel like waking up in the middle of the night or working 6-7 days a week, but he will almost certainly be in his 70s by then. For now, he’s offering more expertise and demanding higher fees than at any point in his career, and still has his wits about him to enjoy it.

 Paul Martin was the Interim Pastor at Zion Hill Baptist Church right before they called me to be their next regular pastor. He had 40+ years in ministry and education behind him. A septuagenarian, it seemed like serving as interim was his way of doing this congregation a favor before he marched off into the sunset of retirement with his beautiful wife. Then, about the same time the church elected me, he was selected to serve as president of the American Baptist Seminary of the West at Berkeley. In many ways, running a seminary is a step up from pastoring a church–this opportunity is the capstone of his career. Not bad for an old guy.

Or consider Walter Massey, who was president of Morehouse College while I was there. Before serving at Morehouse, he was president of the National Science Foundation, Provost of the entire University of California school system, and a noted physicist. He retired from Morehouse, I thought, because he was getting old. He got his bachelor’s degree in 1958–you do the math. Yet, when the economy tanked and all kinds of heads began to roll in the financial sector, who do they choose to be the next Chairman of the Board at Bank of America? Walter Massey. We all know Morehouse is the cat’s meow, but this is B of frickin’ A! In his 70s, no less.

I can wait to get old. Imagine how many Facebook friends and Twitter followers I’ll have by then! How accomplished I’ll be at the craft of preaching. How much money I’ll have saved up. What dignitaries will be in my Rolodex. This is my 284th blog post in a year and half. How many will there be in 40 years? Job offers that I can’t even fathom now will be falling in my lap. Sure nothing is guaranteed–I could die tomorrow. But presuming a normal life, I’ll be in a good place by 70. And if 70 today is like 60 was 40 years ago, maybe in 40 years 80 will be what 70 is today. I’ll be working until I’m 80!

Again, I’m not talking about physical labor. The 3 men mentioned above all have earned doctorate degrees–so that’s going to have to be part of the equation. But, assuming I get me one of those, I’ll be set to keep working and keep moving up the ladder for more years than any of us expect. Not just so that I can keep making money, though I’ll take it. As long as I can walk, talk, and write, I know I’m supposed to be sharing the Good News, and I will.

Stop Smoking Marijuana

(I don’t think most of my regular readers smoke weed, but I feel compelled to put this out there.)

The other day, I had a very real conversation with a 24 year old who really wants to stop smoking grass. That’s the kind of thing I never would have discussed with a pastor because pastors tend to stand on the moral high ground and look down on you. But since I have been where he was, I was able to motivate him toward doing the right thing without resorting to the Christian rhetoric of condemnation that tends to make people go deaf.

I’ve been a weed head in my life. Now that I’m married with 2 kids, a full time pastorate, and dreams of helping millions of people grow spiritually, I have managed to put it behind me. So I’m not just prattling on about something I don’t know about, or telling him to quit when I haven’t quit myself. I’ve been there, and it wasn’t 20 or 30 years ago.

One reason I was able to speak to what this guy was going through is because we’re in the same generation. We grew up listening to the same hip-hop artists talking about getting high and influencing us to do the same. But the fact is most of those rappers don’t smoke as much as you might think.

Ever heard of Dean Martin? He was a major performing artist in the 20th century. Anyway, people loved him, and part of his charm was the fact that he always had a drink in his hand and often appeared drunk on stage.

People would emulate him. He was always drunk, always the life of the party, always charming the ladies, so countless young men grabbed their Jack Daniel’s and tried to be just like him.

Then, after he died, we come to find out that most of the time, it was just apple juice in his glass. He was being a showman. Sure, he drank. But alcohol didn’t consume his life the way he had us believe it did on stage.

I submit that many rappers are doing the same thing with weed today.

“I-I-I be on it, all night, man, I be on it all day…”-Big Boi

“I’m in the court with marijuana eyes….sorry judge.”-Jim Jones

“…Gnarly, dude, I puff Bob Marley dude, all day like Rastafaris do…”-Jay-Z

Do these guys smoke? Probably. But they’re not 24/7/365 weed smokers, even if their songs make it seem that way. What happens to impressionable youth is that they hear the songs and they think, “I, too, can wake up at 6 in the morning and smoke a blunt before school….for 100 consecutive days….” We shouldn’t let showbiz take us away from reality. Those guys say a lot of things they simply don’t mean.

He's worth 8 figures. He's not pulling the trigger. He's not drinking or smoking either, btw.

One thing my 24 year old friend and I agreed on is that when you smoke weed, you miss a lot of opportunities for advancement. An opportunity for a job or to meet someone important will fall into your lap, but you can’t follow through because you don’t want that person to smell the smoke on you. Your grandmother will call and ask you to do her a favor, but you can’t because your weed dealer said he’d meet you in an hour. You’ve already been waiting 90 minutes, so your life is on hold until you manage to connect with him.

I promise you that if you stop smoking marijuana, the rest of your life will advance the way you want it to go much faster. I understand that it’s a habit. It will be hard to go to the movies or do your laundry or any other activity that you’re used to doing high, but you’ll be better off. You probably like yourself better when you don’t smoke. Nothing wrong with that. You won’t be happy until you fail a drug test or get arrested? Pathetic.

Besides, you know deep down you need to quit, or else you wouldn’t still be reading. There’s a voice in your head telling you to stop. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is week, I know. But ignoring the voice is like walking down a street and seeing a sign that says “turn around,” but you continue for a few miles. When you fall off a cliff, it’s your own fault.

Understand that there’s more to smoking weed than just getting high. Marijuana, or any addiction, has a spirit behind it. It’s not just about getting high: it’s about the smell of the green in the bag, it’s about the nervous feeling and hoping you don’t get caught; it’s the act of rolling it up; it’s the way your voice sounds when you’re talking  with a puff of smoke in your chest; it’s the way food tastes when you have the munchies–there’s an entire spirit behind it, and that spirit can inhabit people. It will probably always exist, but it doesn’t have to always live inside of you. It wasn’t a part of you when you were 4 years old, you let it in later, and you can kick it out.

To quit smoking weed: Get rid of everything related to it. It’s one thing to say, “I won’t smoke anymore.” You’ve said that, and it hasn’t worked. It’s something else entirely to throw out your prized bong and erase your dealer’s number from your phone. Then, tell some people that you have quit and ask them to hold you accountable. If you can’t be honest with them, don’t do it. But when you’re really ready, God will give you the strength to take the necessary steps. And your life will be better as a result. Of course that may be hard for you to see now, your vision being clouded and all, but I still love you.

Basketball Prophecy

Today is June 29, 2009. Seth says:

“The Cleveland Cavaliers will win the 2010 NBA championship, and then Shaq will retire.”

I’m not saying this because LeBron and Shaq are two of my favorite players. I’m saying it because it’s true. I’ve been dead on correct with sports predictions before, but I’ve never put it out there this publicly this far in advance. 

Watch it….

Setting High Goals

I think it was Les Brown who said “shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll be among the stars.”

 Sometimes, we feel scared to aim high in life. It’s better to have low expectations, we figure, because that way, win or lose, we’ll never be disappointed.

Not getting the things you hoped for can be discouraging, and it happens to everyone. I’m still not completely over not being elected homecoming king during my senior year in high school. But life goes on.

If anything, I’ve learned from defeats that I need to put more effort in to achieving future goals, not less. More faith. More planning. More passion. More quiet time where I sit alone and visualize myself already having achieved the final result. That’s a major key, by the way.

Most of us are lazy. In some ways, it’s easier to just stagger through our days and weeks rather than put an audacious plan together and go for it. But things that are worth accomplishing are usually harder, and rightfully so. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers just won the championship. In some ways, it’s easier to be an L.A. Clipper than a L.A. Laker. The Clippers played fewer games, suffered fewer injuries, and still all got paid pretty well. But walking down the streets of L.A. today, which would you rather be?

Set high goals, and be willing to work for them. Even if it doesn’t work out, you will learn more, meet more people, and gain more experience from trying than you would from not, and that will all make the next success that much more attainable.

The Danger of Comfort

I’ve only been here for 2 weeks, but I can safely say that being Senior Pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in L.A. is by far the best job I’ve ever had. Sure, the pews were mostly empty when I got here and the building needs hundreds of thousands of dollars of repairs. So what? The people are really kind, plus I have my own office with a TV, couch, and bathroom! In addition, there’s an indoor basketball court on the premises. How many people have a spiritual leader who can dunk?

Comfort can be a dangerous thing if you let yourself get too caught up in it. This building, though very nice, was not created for me. Rather, I believe I was created for it. To leave it better than I found it. But even more important than the building are the people who occupy it. And just as important as them are all the hundreds and thousands of souls who will join the Zion Hill family under my watch. People who are looking for a greater understanding of the Bible, people looking to grow spiritually and find meaning for their lives, people who need to be healed, people who need a parking lot where one has never existed….

So, I’m grateful for the way members around here tend to do exactly what I say. I’m grateful that they can afford to pay me enough to feed, clothe, and shelter me and my babies. And I’m grateful for the way the candy dish and office supplies on my desk seem to magically replenish themselves. It’s all really cushy. But most of all, I’m grateful for the work. At the end of the day, I could do the work without any of those comforts.

Joke of the Day June 10th 2009

A married couple rushed to the hospital because the woman was in labor the doctor asked the couple, “I have invented a new machine that you might want to try, it takes some of the labor pains away from the mother and gives it to the father.” So the married couple decided that they would try this. So the doctor hooked the machine up and put it on 10% of pain switched from the mother to the father and the husband said “I feel okay turn it up a lot more” so the doctor turned it up to 50% and the husband said “why don’t you just put it all on me cause I’m not feeling a thing” but the doctor warned them “this much could kill you if your not prepared”, and the husband replied “I am ready “so the doctor turned the machine up to 100% but the husband didn’t fell a thing so they went home happy with a pain free labor, but when they got home the mailman was dead on the front porch!

Power in Jesus’ Name

“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”–John 14:14

Growing up in church, people would always talk about how “there is power in the name of Jesus.”

That never meant anything to me until one day in 2002 when I was playing HORSE with fellow peace corps volunteer in Haiti. (HORSE is a basketball game where you have to make the same shot your opponent made or else you get a letter. Five letters and you lose.) 

I was at HORS, just about to lose, and he made a shot from about 50 feet away. If you don’t know about basketball, a 50 foot shot is highly improbable. The best pros might hit it once in 10 tries.

Anyway, he made it, and now I had to make it or else I would lose the game. Right as I took my shot I said, “Jesus Christ.” Not out of frustration or anger, I was calmly invoking the name of Jesus in a time of need. Sure enough, I hit the shot. My confidence skyrocketed while my opponent’s plummeted, and I went on to beat him.

Admittedly, this was a small, insignificant victory in the grand scheme of things. But at the time, I really wanted to win, and I also really wanted to believe that there was power in Jesus’ name. Now I’m convinced.

Know that when you call on Jesus, he will answer. Do it with concentration and focus, but more importantly, do it with humility. Yes, the name has all the power of a good luck charm and more, but it’s not about getting what you want all of the time. It’s ultimately about becoming more like Christ and making the world a better place. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. I pray that you receive the desires of your heart today, In Jesus’ name.

Reverend Sethie

Well, after my ordination 2 days ago, I’m officially “Reverend Pickens.” On the one hand, I don’t want to get caught up with the title. I think it’s important that I just remain Seth: accessible, humble, etc.

At the same time, reminding myself that I’m a rev helps me to remember the high standards I need to live up to. The next time you’re about to lose your cool or do something you know you shouldn’t, try telling yourself “I can’t do this, I’m a reverend,” (even if you aren’t) and see what happens. Deep down, you know that you are called to be the best person you can be.

The ordination weekend was great. My father flew in from Detroit to check out my church and witness the ordination. He was impressed with the size of the building and the enthusiasm the congregation had for me. Everyone was all smiles and hugs. He really seemed proud on Sunday. Then, when I dropped him at the airport Monday, he got dead serious, looked me in the eye, and said:

“Don’t screw this up, Sethie.”

That’s a parent for you. Forget the years of school and practical experience I have. Forget the fact that the church started with 150 resumes and narrowed it down to me after almost 3 years of prayerful deliberation. Don’t even consider that idea that God chose me for this position in this time and place and in a sense, I have to be here for a long time. When my Dad looks at The Rev. Seth W. Pickens, Senior Pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California, he still sees the kid who once wore the same pair of underwear for a month straight for no apparent reason and hopes we’re all not in for a similar embarrassment.

At least he keeps me on my toes.

You Are The Light of the World

“One life to live,
It’s so hard to be positive,
When niggas’ shooting at your crib.”

Tupac Shakur

Behold an unfortunate truth: in society, success and happiness are more the exception than the rule.

People feel flashes of inspiration, moments of peace, but then usually get sucked right back into the cypress swamp of pessimism, doom, and gloom. They spend most of their days feeling largely hopeless, then they die. 

Part of my life’s work is about reversing that trend. I do believe that in my lifetime, more and more people will develop a reliance on prayer, a Christ-consciousness, true self-esteem, peace of mind, and fulfillment of their purpose. If you have the slightest interest in my blog, you are on your way, even though it may feel like you are swimming against a strong current of negativity sometimes.

My advice to you is to not give in to all the negativity. Know that some people will smirk when they find out you are repeating positive affirmations to yourself. They will try to argue with you when you tell them you pray. If you decide not to seek revenge, they will tell you you’re weak, and it might get to you a little from time to time. If you dare exert some self-control, they will laugh in your face.

 Yes, it’s a challenge to maintain optimism and remain on the righteous path when 98% of the people you know don’t follow it, but the alternative is to slip back into the very darkness you want to claw out of. Stay strong, because the fact is, all of those petty, cynical people actually need your shining example. They still don’t believe that great things are possible for their lives, but you do, and you have to live like it.

Call or email someone today and give them some encouragement. Yes, they will wonder what the catch is. Yes, they will think it’s weird. It is weird, but only because people don’t encourage one another enough. Sure, it’s unusual, but so are success and happiness. Unusual is not always bad.