If you and I fall into the same blogging category then you will know how I feel when I say I have a chronic case of blogging constipation.  I have great blog ideas sometimes but I never have enough time to type them out or I am never around a computer when I have them.  And when I finally get enough time around a computer I feel very uninspired except occasionally I will have somthing burning on my heart, or I will write a 'debbie-downer'  or an 'i am sucha a horrible blogger' post like this one is turning out to be.  However, this post still has room for redemption.  The real reason I am writing is to have some self-disclosure.  There has been alot of meaningful things happen in my life recently that I wish I could summarize and publish on here, but there was one in particular that I hope to publish something on soon, namely, Catalyst Conference.  But one of the things that happens when you go to a conference like that with tons of great speakers and leaders is that you get some great wisdom for leading churches.  However, what I seem to do with all that good info is twist it around and make myself puffed up with it.  I believe it is something about being human that makes people want to set themselves above others.  It is something I have to constantly have to keep myself in check about.  I can so easily see it in other Christians when they poopoo churches for doing new and innovative things, but which new and innovative churches can fall into doing as well if their cynicism about traditional churches isn't transformed to brokeness.  

I preached a message recently on anger and in preparing for it I realized something new.  I have, like many others, realized that some anger can be leveraged for good.  Jesus became angry multiple times in the Bible in the presence of injustice.  And while there is that anger that more naturally directs us toward sinning, I believe that this 'righteous' anger directs us toward sin, yet in subtle, more acceptable ways.   While Jesus became angry, he never held onto his anger.  His anger changed from merely loathing the situation to grieving over it.  His heart changed from that initial neutral state of anger to a spiritual grieving over the brokeness of his people (Mark 3).  If we simply get angry at the ineffectiveness or irrelevance of traditional churches we will soon end up as cynical, grumpy, progressive Christians.   We must constantly be praying for a broken heart over the people who don't know Christ as well as His church that so often collectively takes his name in vain.

Posted In: church life

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There are times when I feel so overwhelmed that by the time I sit down to pray I don't know where to start.  And I have this feeling that to God I must sound like a spiritual toilet being flushed - I don't have to explain the imagery on that one.  But really - sometimes I start thinking of all the things that I need God's help in and realize there really isn't enough hours in the day to pray for all of them.  So I end up mentioning as many of them to God as I can and crying, "Lord Help Me!"  I kinda feel unspiritual when I do that - I mean, we are supposed to have really intelligent and meaningful prayers with God right?  Well, maybe sometimes, but when did we get the idea that God gives a crap about the wittiness or craftiness of our prayers?  I know my God is big enough to handle all the stuff in my life without me having to have good English in my prayers.  At the end of the day he is looking for trust, not overblown prose - thank God.  

 

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  

-Matt 6:7-8

Posted In: spirituality life

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I can't believe Pax is almost 5 months old now.  It is incredible to watch him interact with people and see his whole body squirm when he smiles.  It won't be long until he is walking.  He hasn't really got the crawling thing yet - he scoots around a lot with his head on the ground, but he can pull himself up and stand.  It seems like he was born yesterday and time has flown by.  I am sitting here watching the Democratic National Convention (note: I am not a democrat or republican) and listening to Joe Biden's acceptance speech.  I don't know much about Biden, but his son introduced him and testified of his father's selfless love for his family - how he turned down the senate because his sons were in the hospital, how he made the 4 hour round trip to Washington and back to Delaware every day so he could be a father to his children.  

I want to be the type of father that doesn't pursue the position of influence to do good, but rather pursues to be present and use the influence inherent in fatherhood to show my love for Morgan and Pax.  So far the pursuit of that has had many detours, but every mile makes the destination clearer and more urgent.

Posted In: life baby

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We are getting ready to do some exciting things this Fall through Fairview.  Most likely we will be renting out the old Capitol Theater in downtown Maryville and having a rockin' college and young adult service on Sunday nights.  We are planning on pulling out all the stops and doing the best possible thing we can do for this service. I am pumped and have been losing sleep over it.  We have a long way to go in a short amount of time so please be praying for us.  We are applying for some grants to help us get it off the ground and we still need to come up with a name.  If you have any suggestions leave them in a comment.  Remember - catchy yet refined... I am thinking, "New City".  

Posted In: church life

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• 6% of the population – 40% of world’s resources
• 8% of the world has a car. 92% doesn’t – We are rich
• 1 billion people don’t have clean water
• 800,000,000 people won’t eat today
• Think about how much money is in your wallet or in your car… 1 billion people live on less than $1 day
• To provide water, health and nutrition for all those who need it would cost $20 billion = amount Americans spend on ice cream in one year.
• If the church in America tithed we would be able to feed and educate everyone with 50-70 billion dollars left to advance the gospel.

• Buy things for their usefulness rather than status (cars, house, etc)
• Clothes – most people do not need any more clothes (As for apparel I buy the most lasting and in general the plainest I can.  I buy no furniture but what is necessary and cheap).
• Reject things that tempt you with addiction:  foods, drinks, medicines, media, TV… Refuse to be a slave to anything but God.
• Develop a habit of giving things away
• Resist ‘time-saving’ gadgets and the lure of our advertising culture
• Enjoy things without owning them
• Develop a deeper appreciation for creation
• Develop simple speech
• Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others
• Shun anything that distracts you from seeking God’s Kingdom

Posted In: sermon life

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As I was tucking Morgan into bed tonight I told her the story of David and Goliath.  I made sure that Morgan knew that Goliath was bad and David was little but God was going to protect him and use him.  And as I was wrapping up what I thought was a brilliant job of making an OT story theologically understandable to a three-year old when she looked at me square in the eyes and said, "yeah, but God loves Goliath."

I had no clue what to say after that.  Kids have a better grasp on things than we think sometimes.  Morgan wasn't silent very long though.  She continued to tell me that Goliath and her had a fun day tat the park and he likes sausage!   

Posted In: life

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It is day 10 of our trip and things are beginning to wind down.  The effects of being away from family and not really having any rest are beginning to show.  Today wasn't all that exciting.  We did visit an orphanage for about an hour, but then went and had lunch at a nursing home.  We were expecting to be working more with the poor in the flavellas.  We are hoping tomorrow is more hands on.  It feels like a month since we left.  One thing I have to say is that Brazilian hospitality cannot be beat.  Every restaraunt we go to insists on giving us ungodly amounts of red meat.  And we aren't staying at the Hilton, but when you ask for coffee (or cafe as they say in Portuguese) they literally bring it out on a silver platter.  However, laundry costs an arm and a leg.  To get one shirt washed it costs about $3.  So right now my shorts and underwear are hanging outside our bathroom window drying off after I washed them in the sink. 

It is about 1:00am right now and I am still wide awake because I have had about 4 cups of the strongest coffee in the world.  Brazilian coffee is incredibly intense... and good.  I am an addict now.  The only way I can describe it is as if you added 2 cups of raw coffee grounds to a teaspoon of water and heated it up in the microwave. 

More tomorrow....

Posted In: brazil life

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It is almost here.  It is with a weird mixture of excitement and sadness that Sunday approaches.  I am excited that I will be going to Brazil for 13 days and spending a week with a local pastor in the Rio de Janeiro district of the UMC.  I am sad that I will be leaving my nearly full-term pregnant wife and our little girl.  Sarah has repeatedly committed to severely beating me if Pax comes before I get back, so... Pray that the little guy is patient.  

I am going this Thursday to get some vaccinations.  There are certain things that are sort of fundamental to being a functioning adult citizen that I haven't quite grasped, like keeping up with what immunizations I have.  I am glad it is safe to double up on Tetanus - just in case I have had one in the last decade. Also, there have been some outbreaks of Yellow Fever in Brazil and we have a national shortage of vaccines here in the US.  That translates to lots of mosquito repellent for me.  

So what is the purpose of this trip?  Essentially it is this:  The Brazilian conference of the United Methodist Church is the fastest growing UM conference in the world.  Our mission is to go down there and see what they are doing right.  The bishop there, Paulo Lockman, is part of the reason the conference has experienced so much growth.  After a spiritual conversion Bishop Lockman began preaching and winning many people to Christ.  Since becoming bishop he has established an evangelism school that local pastors are required to attend periodically.  We will be attending a few days of this school and then dispersing to stay in the home of a local pastor and accompany him in his ministry.   

Stay tuned for photos and updates from the field.  

Posted In: missions life

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For someone with a philosophy background and a love for apologetics when two Mormon missionaries show up at your door it is almost like getting a package in the mail on your birthday.  Last Friday was the first time this had happened to me since seminary so I was excited to invited them in and offer them some coffee (ha - just kidding about the coffee). We had a great discussion.  All three of us shared our testimonies.  I tried hard not to debate with them.  I did bring up to them the illogical idea that God was once like we are and that he himself had a 'heavenly father'.  If this were the case then the genealogy of gods would extend infinitely into the past with their never being a beginning.  I have written a paper on this here.  This made them pause and wander for a bit, but it did not hold them back for too long because the litmus test for truth for them seems to be a warm-fuzzy feeling you get when you ask God if the book of Mormon is true or not.  They held this up as the ultimate answer.  

I didn't know where to go from there.  I tried telling them that a subjective feeling is not a great indicator of truth, but to no avail.  I have compassion for them.  In a sense I wander if what they are doing was similar to what Christians did before there was good evidence for the validity of their faith.  I don't believe the Mormon faith will ever be proved valid by science or history (that would involve finding an ancient Jewish temple in North America), but their faith is sincere and hopeful that it one day will be.  I guess part of my sympathy comes from the fact that Christianity has stood the test of time and has the backing of history and reason now, and they are left to wrestle with the reality of their faith.  And seeing the painfully-true colors of something you have rested your whole life in bleed through the paint that your family and your faith community have painted over it is gut-wrenching, and I am guessing that most of us if faced with it would probably turn a blind eye.  

I am saddened that, like what happens in many churches today, these two young men have been sold on the idea that faith should be blind.  God is not a God of confusion.  He hasn't created reason, and science, and nature one way and asked us to believe in something contradictory to them all.  That is the beauty of Christianity - as time goes on the core of the Christian faith witnessed in different areas of life.  It is like seeing the true colors of something good and beautiful and holy shining through the superficial spirituality that many have painted over the church.  When we see it, it makes us want to tear away the fake paint.  And as our culture takes the form of post-Christendom we still see that a genuine faith lived out by lovers of Jesus looks more true and more beautiful day after day after day and the darkness will not overcome it.  

Posted In: theology life

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Do you ever have those music days where something just clicks and you find some great music and you just can't get enough of it.  Every once in a while I am graced by hearing some new (to me) great bands.  Tonight at The Change we started talking about Phil Keaggy and I mentioned that I always heard he was supposed to be a great guitarist, but I never heard anything of his that I really liked.  That is when someone pointed me towards Glass Harp, the band Keaggy started in.  Contrasted to his chorus-pedal-ridden contemporary recordings this stuff was hard core 70's rock and Keaggy has some great solos in there.  

I also happened upon a newer band on MySpace called All the Day Holiday – great stuff.  They have a great mixture of instrumental and vocal in each song.  A lot of their music reminds me of Explosions in the Sky – that is the band that did the soundtrack for Friday Night Lights (the movie). 

So, overall not a bad day for music appreciation.  I guess if I want anything more than serendipitous glimpses at good music I will have to stop listening to so much talk radio 

Posted In: life

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