Getting What They Deserve

From It's Like Herding Cats - A pastor's life

One of the pieces of information I've picked up in my recent foray into public education is the disturbing realization that some of the same ills that plague the church are also found in the halls of education. For example, I have found that they "we never did it that way before" cult lives within education as well. And it is just as unwelcome and just as harmful to the goal of education as it is in the church.

We were discussing classroom assessments (tests, projects, quizzes, etc.) in class on Saturday. Our teacher, who works with kids in Panama City who are having difficulty learning to read, was telling us about one kid, we'll call him Charles, whose mother is a gang member. Charles doesn't come to school all the time, and has trouble staying motivated. So the teacher and Charles have worked out a system for assisting Charles. If he comes to school and stays engaged, he gets a coke. Sounds simple.

Well, the only coke machine is in the teacher's lounge and when Charles went there last Friday, a teacher shooed him out despite his insistence that his teacher told him to go there. When confronted, the teacher said "we never let children into the lounge." Didn't matter that Charles' attendance had tripled. Didn't matter that another teacher sent him. WE NEVER DID THAT BEFORE!

Later in the same class, the teacher was sharing how she handled homework with a group of kids like hers. She uses homework to see what the kids are learning - to help her help them. The district wants her to count homework in their grades. But because the kids don't come every day, and don't do their homework sometimes even when they come, the resulting zeros would doom any chance they have of passing the class. So the teacher simply uses what they do to see how to adjust her teaching, and then uses the tests to determine their grade.

A woman in my class who is a long time substitute teacher (and who I'm glad my kids never had) was irate with that idea. "But you are breaking the RULES. If the kids can't be troubled to do the homework, what are you teaching them?"

Our teacher said, "We had a test over the chapter Friday, and everyone made a "B" or better and Charles made a 92. It was cokes for everybody."

Then she said, "You have to decide whether you really want this kids to learn, or you would rather them fail as long as they did it YOUR WAY."

It got real quiet.

And I wondered... How many Christians would rather see someone go to hell rather than experience the love of God through Christ Jesus in Salvation simply because "We never did it that way before"?

How many of us secretly root for people who are far from God and caught in sin - to stay there, because by doing so they confirm what we believe about them?

I am sick of it. Sick of people who are graceless zombies. Sick of folks who take some perverse pleasure in pointing out other people's failures. Sick of it.

If you can't love your brother who you can see, how will you love the Father who you can't see?

Listen, if we all -you, me - got what we DESERVE - we'd be toast.

If you can't embrace grace - then at least get out of the way.

It's Time To Change the Sign

Got out and changed the church's sign yesterday. Riffed off the currently running movie "Eat Pray Love" with the sign saying just that - "Eat Pray Love" and adding "We do that here." :) Well hey, we're Baptists, so you knew we had the first one covered. The "Pray" part, we should cover too. One of the times we meet is called "prayer meeting", and we do pray there. And I can testify to the truth of the last word. We do LOVE at New Hope. We're not perfect at it. Not close. But of all the churches I have been a part of over the years, New Hope reaches out farther than most. But we've got to reach farther.

That sign above is what many people see when they look toward the "Church." It says that whatever direction you might think of heading in - is wrong. Just STOP, and we'll tell you where to go. For many people on the inside of the church, people who love, who give, who serve their fellow man, this will come as somewhat of a shock. They couldn't imagine how anyone could feel that way. And yet, in conversations over the years with people who walk away or drop out, the picture above is a good match with what they expect will happen at church.

Frankly, I'm sick of it. It's time to draw a line and replace that picture with one like this -

Not - "Welcome if you are just like us."
Not - "Welcome if you voted like we did."
Not - "Welcome if you share our views."
Not - "Welcome if you have your life together."
Not - "Welcome if you've stopped doing bad stuff."

Not welcome with preconditions - just welcome, great to meet you and to have a chance to get to know you. Would you like to walk with us along the journey?

Funny, I was just reading this morning about the very first church's sign. "They will know you are my disciples by your love..."  Now there's a sign. Let's see how far we can get toward that one.

Sunday Recap August 15, 2010

Had a great day. The Bible Study classes seemed to be filled with people wanting to know more about how to follow Jesus. The Kidmo kids sure were busy during the week getting their take home papers done, because the Kidmo store got lit up when they redeemed their Bible bucks. I passed out the questions for this coming Sunday's ice cream social game  - "New Hope Jeopardy" in envelopes marked "TOP SECRET." Hopefully we'll get some really interesting answers and by playing the game we'll all come away knowing more about each other.

Worship - one of the best I can remember in a long time. Beginning (and ending) it with "Today Is the Day" sure didn't hurt. That is a great anthem of worship and had people enthusiastically singing and clapping - IN A BAPTIST CHURCH!!!!  Who knew? :)  We added "Arise", "Our God Saves", and offered the invitation with "Softly and Tenderly." Then we sent everyone out with "Today Is the Day" again. Just so uplifting. Great job by the praise team today even if we were missing two key folks.



The sermon continued our look at Paul's letter to Colossae and tackled the problem of legalism. I'm going to write a separate post about the sermon, but I think that the Word got through some barriers in people's hearts Sunday. Wish it had been recorded, gonna work on fixing the problems with that this week.

Sunday Recap on Thursday :)

I guess the creator of that graphic didn't have a problem loving Democrats. Well, add that to the list along with BP executives, Wall Street Bankers and whoever else you've decided is out of the reach of God's love.

Wow - how time flies. It's been a busy week and I completely forgot about the recap.

We sent our mission trip team out this weekend and that combined with the opening of a short vacation for the kids meant we expected to feel the summer's effect - but we had a great group of people who really seemed to want to worship and learn more about God.

Our worship set:
He Reigns
Mighty To Save
Blessed Be Your Name



At the root of the reason I became a Christian was the idea of "grace." So the sermon basically put forth the idea of what grace should bring forth in the recipient. I think brother Bono gets it.

“You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the Universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that ‘As you reap, so will you sow’ stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff. . . . I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”


So am I brother. 


Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

Steve Brown: Three Free Sins

Steve Brown Etc. » Blog Archive » Three Free Sins!

Do you know why most Christians don't get any better or why you don't get any better? It's because you're doing it wrong, dummy! You are obsessed with sin and your faith has become another "system of laws" whereby you feel guilty and try and try and try to do better. It doesn't work, never has worked, and never will work. Only really shallow people keep doing the same thing over and over again with the same result, thinking that the next time the result will be different.

So stop it.

You're just making a mess out of it. People get better by obsessing on Jesus and his love…not by obsessing on their own sin and disobedience. That's what the cross is about, to wit, a covering for sin. So that's not the issue anymore. Not only that, the imputation of Christ's righteousness to our account is a gift beyond measure assuring that God's anger will never be directed at us again.