Courtship

Sunday afternoon is naptime around here. Since we do two Sunday services, and I either teach or lead music too. So we crash from 1-3:30. Last Sunday, I had just gotten up when I got a call from a person in Texas. He said he was from a small church outside Austin, and they had received my resume. Without missing a beat he said that their committee had decided to focus on one person at a time and I was that person. Then he said, "Are you interesting in becoming our pastor?"

...............................................

He must have sensed something because he asked, "If you had to answer today would you say yes or no?"

I said, "Well, given I don't know where you are, who you are, or what you are about, so absent an audible voice from God, no."

We were off the phone in a minute. I felt bad about it then, but what is a church thinking making me their number one candidate without ever making contact with me? I don't know where they got my resume, or how old that resume is. I'm not interested in going anywhere, but if I was, I'd sure like to know something about where God sends me before I go.

Crazy.

How Not To Deal With Church Conflict

In Colorado, the newcomers are taking over. All the people who were there before them want to do, is keep things the way they have always been. What should a leader do?

Deploy the Rodenator. HT: Scot McKnight

Okay, so the story is about prairie dogs and ranchers. You get my point.

In church wars, people frequently employ IED's against each other, and against the Body of Christ when they do. Many of these could have been prevented if leaders had been more proactive in defusing conflict before it gains momentum.

When we were transitioning to a more modern expression in worship, one lady (not one of the spiritual giants of our age, bless her heart) stormed out of practice breathing fire and accusations against the worship leader. One of our deacons was the recipient. But she chose her place poorly, for she did it right outside my door. In my first years here, I would have hesitated, but no longer. I told her that her speech betrayed a lack of love for the worship leader, her church, and Christ and she needed to go back and ask for his forgiveness.

Well, after that, she proceeded to say some other things that caused her to be in need of asking mine. I then asked the deacon if he heard correctly, and he said he did. Then I informed her that we would be bringing her before the church in a week for discipline unless she apologized to all involved.

She's been gone three years now, and we are better for it. It's like ranchers and wolves. When NPR did a story on it a while back, one rancher said, "I love wolves. They are one of God's creations and are truly amazing. Yes, I love wolves - but not near sheep."

As much fun as the rodentator would be, biblical discipline works better, and your people will appreciate it.

Grace - It Just Doesn't Add Up

1 "God's kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work.
3 "Later, about nine o'clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. 4 He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. 5 They went.
"He did the same thing at noon, and again at three o'clock. 6 At five o'clock he went back and found still others standing around. He said, 'Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?'
7 "They said, 'Because no one hired us.'
"He told them to go to work in his vineyard.
8 "When the day's work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, 'Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.'
9 "Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. 10 When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. 11 Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, 12 'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.'
13 "He replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we? 14 So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. 15 Can't I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?'
16 "Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."

Matt 20:1-16 (MSG)

It's happened again.

Someone has sat down and tried to calculate how God's grace and sinful people, who will never stop sinning, add up to salvation. This has been going on for a long, long time now. Those in the "know" ever so often look over Jesus' shoulder and decide that He doesn't know a thing about accounting.

Sure could see how you'd get that idea. After all, didn't Jesus make a big fuss about that irresponsible shepherd who left 99 perfectly good and cared for sheep to go look for that one runaway? That makes no sense at all - cut your losses, write it off. New Lambs will be here come spring.

Then there was that woman who came and dumped the perfume worth a year's wages all over Jesus. What was the point in that? Just a little dab would have done the job, and then we could have waited to see if He needed it tomorrow. Got to be smart about those things.

Oh yeah, and what about that time in the temple when Jesus was watching people give their offerings. The Pharisee came forward, stated his intention to bless God and proceeded to bless him real good with a wad of cash. You could hear those coins jingle across Jerusalem, I'd bet. Then a widow-woman quietly walks up, drops two coins in - didn't even go "clink", and Jesus says she gave more?

How does that work? Jesus sounds like a guy you could swap nickles for dimes with all day long, like a little kid who doesn't know what anything is worth, and figures bigger coins are worth more.

Then I was reading that story up above from Matthew, where Jesus compares God's way of doing things - His Kingdom - to a landowner who hired people throughout the day to pick grapes. Tough work -that. 100 degree weather, backbreaking work. But he paid everyone too much - a denarius was a Roman soldier's day's wages, not some migrant's fair pay. And to compound it all, he paid them all the same. Jesus was applauding a man who had just upset the whole migrant worker market for the season. It's crazy.

It just doesn't add up.

That's the point. "Grace is not about finishing last or first. It is about not counting at all." Philip Yancey

If God was still keeping score, doling out salvation on the installment plan - seeing how well we do and rewarding us accordingly - well we would be lost. But He's not.

19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 2 Cor 5:19 (NLT)

So what part of "no longer counting" did I miss?

23 For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. 24 Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25 For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. 26 And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. Romans 3:23-28 (NLT)

And as sure as I am of "all have sinned, all fall short", I am equally sure and thankful that "our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith."

Does it add up? No.

That's good, because we didn't have an integer in the hunt.

We have nothing with which to pay our debt to God.

So God did it for us through Christ.

Grace - not just amazing - it's scandalous.

Praise be to God!

Aren't We?

Leviticus may seem like an odd Bible book to use in evangelism. But not in West Africa, where in April 2005 the first ten chapters were read to the Lobi—a people of subsistence farmers, animistic mask-makers, and poison-arrow warriors in Burkina Faso—in their own language.Many in the listening crowd were struck by the similarities between the sacrifices mentioned in Leviticus and those of the Lobi religion. This infuriated the son of a Lobi priest, who forbade the reading to continue, because it is taboo to speak of Lobi religious practices in public. But another listener shouted, "Well, it means that we, too, are descendants of this High Priest. Aren't we?"

The Whole Word for the Whole World - Christianity Today Magazine

An amazing article about the growth in translations of the OT.

George MacDonald, a translator in Papua New Guinea, said he would always remember the day his Dadibi friends dedicated their complete Bible in 2001. Living in a remote location and considered inferior by trade partners, the Dadibi had long looked down upon themselves. Yet they became one of the few groups worldwide to receive both an Old and New Testament in their own language.

"This indicates that God has certainly not forgotten them, but instead has looked with favor on them," said MacDonald.

Thousands turned out for the dedication ceremony—some walking for up to two days to get there. The national translators held the Dadibi Bibles up for the crowd to see. Thunderous applause arose, and one man let out a high-pitched yell reminiscent of the victory shout used by returning Dadibi warriors in days of old.

"...some walking for up to two days to get there."

I am humbled by this.

technorati tags:bible, translations

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Freaks

"Accept that your life is abnormal. Nothing about life as a ministry leader—from its emotional toll to relational demands and constant interruptions—is normal. Accepting that you are a freak with a freakish life will help you not to freak out.” Mark Driscoll

I feel better already.

Another quote: Freaks

"Accept that your life is abnormal. Nothing about life as a ministry leader—from its emotional toll to relational demands and constant interruptions—is normal. Accepting that you are a freak with a freakish life will help you not to freak out.” Mark Driscoll

I feel better already. LOL

I'm Just Waking Up To The Fact That...

We need churches for old people whose friends and relatives are dead or dying and who can’t quite figure out how things are changing around them.
We need churches for dysfunctional people who are doing well just to show up for life every day. We need churches for prodigal Christians who are afraid they’ve blown it with God.
We need churches for secular people who never give God much thought at all.

So where does your church fit?

The Wall

I was back home in Macon GA Monday afternoon. I arrived too late and way too out of shape to take part in the annual Labor Day Road race. Many years past, I ran it every year. Sometimes I ran the 10K and sometimes the 5K but I always ran it.

The first year I signed up for the 10K. I had never run over 4 miles in my life, but figured all I needed to do was slow a little bit and I was good to go. Funny thing happened. I forgot that at the 5 mile mark there was a hill - hills really. The run that had begun earlier slowed to a trot, and then to a walk. I had hit the wall.

Today I hit it again.

The last few weeks as my father declined rapidly combined with this week's trip and funeral left me with nothing to give today. Zip. I knew I was in trouble when I was trying to get ready for Sunday's text - the resurrection passage from Mark's gospel, and I couldn't get into it. Just flat. Emotionally spent. Intellectually dead.

Happens that I still have to preach Sunday. Somewhere I have to find my reserves.

Wondering

From Church Marketing Sucks:

I think church advertising is a waste of time...

The most powerful apologetic for Christianity is a local church body living the way it should.

See, even churches who try to advertise to unbelievers instead of to church people usually still fail. I speak even for my own church. Our thinking generally seems to run like this: "We must advertise so that people will perceive us in a favorable light and thereby be drawn to our Sunday morning services, where they will meet God."

This is nonsense.

We spend most of our time trying to "clever" people into the kingdom with advertising, when in reality they will more likely be drawn in a powerful way by the love we have for one another, the open confession of our sins and the compassion we show to those in need. This is what will awaken the desire in unchurched people to become part of the Christian community.

But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what GOD is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously-
take God seriously. Micah 6:8

The journey began 86 years ago on a sharecropper's farm near Sanford Florida. The midwife delivered a boy to Wiley and Belle Wilson, and Wiley Junior was welcomed into this world, as the only boy.

Growing up as the family moved with the crops to be harvested was a hard life. They frequently lived in tents, or in houses in such disrepair my father would say "you could lie there in bed and see the stars." Eventually they all migrated to Macon, GA where they got jobs in Mr. Willingham's Cotton Mill. It was hard, dirty, hot work, and Wiley hated it. So he got a job driving a produce truck back and forth from Central Florida to Macon. But then his mother got sick, and his family had troubles, so he enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Hard work, discipline, and more hard work followed. It was the first time he had been away, and instead of the rolling hills of Macon, he was way back in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. They planted trees, built bridges and cut roads. He found out about snow. He grew into a man.

World War 2 began, and like millions of other young men, he left home for an uncertain future. But not before marrying a young girl named Lodie. Their families knew each other from the mill village - literally on the wrong side of the tracks. They said their goodbyes knowing that theirs might be a short-lived bond. It lasted almost 50 years.

After breaking his ankle in preparation for a parachute jump over Normandy, he was reassigned as a cook. That was fun while it lasted, but the Army needed machine gunners worse than it needed cooks, and so Wiley was shipped to the Pacific theater. The native Southern boy knew heat and humidity, but not like this.

New Guinea, Saipan, Mindanao, Okinawa. He came ashore on islands where the fighting was so fierce he said you could walk across the beach and never touch the sand, as the bodies of GIs covered it. He fought in the jungles where death came without warning from a sniper's bullet. He manned a machine gun against human wave attacks by the enemy that were so fierce bodies stacked up like cord wood in front of his machine gun, and the barrel got so hot they had to pour water and whatever other liquids they could find on them to keep them from melting. The war ended, he and Lodie came home. The scar on his forehead was a hurt that had healed. The scars inside took longer.

It wasn't easy to make the adjustment. The world seemed different somehow. The two weren't the same people who left the mill village. They (as he put it "wound up") divorced. Then after a while, they got back together and remarried. They got jobs in civil service that they wound up staying at for over 30 years. Life was getting better. He built an indoor bathroom on the shotgun house on Roff Avenue.

Then they were blessed with the news that Lodie was pregnant with twins. Through nine months their hope built to a crescendo. Then the music stopped. You'd have to have known my father to know just how much it hurt him when they died a few days after their birth. And you'd have to have known him and my mother to know how much courage they had to try again.

I was born, then came my brother three years later. We were blessed with a father who loved to watch cartoons with us on Saturday morning, who loved toys and gadgets even more than we did, who took pure delight in not just buying things for us, but being with us. Whether it was playing baseball, fishing, shooting rabbits, or teaching us how to work on lawnmowers and lose tools, he was our daddy. We were his boys. When he disciplined us, I always felt it really did hurt him more than it hurt me.

We did all the stupid things boys do as they grow into manhood, and he endured them all. Broken windows, scrapes and bruises, and later fender benders got us a blessing out after a "you OK?" I got straightened out about marriage; I got straightened out about kids. Never was delivered with anger,always given in love. He only went two weeks into the sixth grade in school, and yet wound up teaching both of us lessons that still guide us today.

He watched as our boys came along, one then the other. There weren't two people loved more on the planet. It was like I ceased to exist except as a vehicle to connect him to Adam and then Sean. Now it was their turn to sit beside him and laugh at Bugs Bunny. It was their time to explore the toys at Toys R Us (sure beat the Hobby Shop). The grandchildren that followed from my brother and his wife never took anything away from anyone - his heart just expanded to hold them all closely.

He was 65 years old when he gave his life to Jesus. It wasn't that he wasn't a good man, because he was. But he had been too busy making a living, building a home, raising his boys to stop and really consider where he was in light of eternity. Growing up, church people hadn't treated his kind of people well. But he never let us stay home when our mother wanted to take us to church. One day a young preacher daddy liked came out to talk. When he left, daddy told us he had become a believer in Jesus and had forgiveness for his sins. He became a faithful attender, and he read his Bible everyday. I know he prayed for all of us.

For almost 53 years now, I have never had a day when I wasn't loved by my father.

Tomorrow I will.

He was a great father, an awesome grandfather and a good man.
What I know about keeping my word - he taught me.
How I know that you are to give a days work for a day's pay - credit to him.
The reason quit isn't in my vocabulary is because my father never quit at anything.
And the way I learned what humility and manhood have in common was watching one of the strongest men I have ever known tenderly admit he had been wrong.

Tom Brokaw coined my daddy's generation the greatest. They defeated the depression, fought a World War and a Cold War and won them both. He would always tell me that his grandchildren would do things he and I could only dream of.

It was never about him. Maybe the most unselfish person I have ever known.

I thank God for giving me a father to be proud of. I thank God for saving his soul. And I thank God that one day maybe I'll be standing there too in heaven, and a big hand will rub the back of my head and ask me "how are you getting along son?"

I'm doing okay, Daddy. But we'll all miss you. Tell Mother we love her for us, will you?

David

When You Sing

On your feet now-applaud GOD!
2 Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
Psalm 100 The Message

When the church meets to worship God - to applaud His glory and celebrate His grace - we sing. Some sing as if by rote, participating in a ritual. Others lean into it, smiling, raising a hand, even closing their eyes as if to close the gap within a private moment with the Almighty.

As I've watched this happen for years now, I'm amazed at how it has nothing to do with age. Octogenarians lift their voices, singing as if God was near. Little ones add to the chorus voices sweet and pure. Surely God must smile to hear His children.

After the worship service ends, sometimes people stop to talk. They speak words of encouragement to each other, or say their goodbyes until next time.

Carmen and Lily want to sing.

They're maybe five feet tall placed end to end, inquisitive, expressive, and irrepressible. I've watched them strain to see the screen during worship and seen them sing. Their voices may not carry two rows, but they reach heaven.

And after the service, they make a bee-line for the stage and the microphones. They just want to sing. This past Sunday, when I joined them at the front, Carmen was downcast. The microphones were off. "Sing Carmen. Sing me a song," I said to her. "No one will hear me", she replied. So I went and turned the power back on, and asked Carmen (who would stay there all day if she could) to sing me one song. Then I sat on the front row and listened. She had a song to sing.

I wonder. Is there a song within you? Something that you just have to sing? Something that people have to hear?

Or something that so moves you to think of God's glory, of His grace, that words are not enough alone? "He who sings, prays twice," St. Augustine said. When you sing praises to God, you can slip into His presence whether you are in a congregation or your car.

Take time to give voice to your heart and praise to our God.

Grace!

David

Laughter In the Walls

After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what is our proud reward and crown? It is you! Yes, you will bring us much joy as we stand together before our Lord Jesus when he comes back again. For you are our pride and joy. 1 Thess. 2:19-20

One of the great joys of my life has been being a friend and pastor to the people of New Hope. Over the last seven years, we've experienced a lot of life together. We've shared times of great joy and great sadness together, and through them learned a lot about our shared love for Jesus, and built a love for one another.

A group of us were exploring Exodus last night, learning about the Tabernacle God designed as a place for him to live. It was to be of the finest materials, constructed by the most skilled craftsmen. Nothing ever before or since has rivaled this. In the midst of thousands of tents that the Jewish people lived in, the Tabernacle stood out. It was different. It was purposefully made to reflect the character of God.

In trying to help that idea stick last night, I asked everyone to think about the ways that our homes reflected our character, whether intentional or not. We all laughed thinking about how the things we accumulated told stories about us. I then explained that since we moved recently, we had to shed an awful lot of things, and Bunny has taken the opportunity to try to reduce our natural tendency to over clutter. Our home is sparsely furnished compared to before, so much so that I sometimes referred to it as a "condo". Then I told them that I was having trouble with the change because (as the chief clutter architect) I cannot find any of my character represented here in the decorations. "You know", I said, laughing, "no pictures of Robert E Lee, no model cars, not even an animatronic bass hanging over the fireplace." Everyone shared some laughter at my expense, and then we moved on.

Well, this morning, when I went out to get the paper, it was on top of the hood of my car, along with.... "Big Mouth Billy Bass", a fine representative of robot fishdom.

These people are nuts! And my neighbors now think I am, because I was laughing my head off in my yard at 6:30 this morning.

But being in the company of people who love so extravagantly, and who can fill the church with laughter as well as pray with tears, is a real honor and joy.

Oh, and Big Mouth Billy Bass can be seen at any time you come to our garage. LOL

Grace!

David

 

Labels

I was reading a website just now that reviews churches. A friend's church was just rated last week, so I was curious to read what was written about it - and him. To say that his church is different is to say that Jerry Falwell might be a wee bit strong on the fundamentals. Their mission is to reach the unchurched just as they are, and to love them through the door to faith and walk with them along the journey. So they are "out there", and seeing literally hundreds come to faith in Christ. Over 70% of those who are members were hopelessly lost before coming to faith there. Here's a quote from the review about my friend.

The (edgy) pastor spoke frankly and, on occasion, used words like "crap" and "dang", which you don't hear out of traditional pastors. Probably the main reason he's reaching people with his messages is because he isn't pretending to be someone he isn't. He doesn't look like a catalog model and he doesn't talk real proper.

"edgy"

Normally I don't like labels, but you know, that's a label that another guy might have welcomed a little earlier on. Guy's name was Paul, and he was writing to his friend in the ministry named Timothy.

Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.

Deep honor and bright glory
to the King of All Time—
One God, Immortal, Invisible,
ever and always. Oh, yes!
I'm passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we're in. 1 Timothy 1:15-19 (The Message)

If there are people out there in the cold, on the edge of trusting Jesus forever, isn't that where the church (all of us who follow Christ together), and her pastors should be? Isn't that where we all should be? Think about what Paul wrote to Timothy again.

Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.... After all, this is a fight we're in.

When you "get" that - when you take that into your heart as a mission from God, with God, and for God, then you don't shrink back from the "edge", you run there.

"Edgy pastor"... wonder if that will fit on my name tag? Dang sure hope so. :)

Grace!

David

Visit with me at my blogs:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Houston, we have a problem

So we do our New Hope Outside the Walls today. Guys go down and stake out a pavilion in the park right next to the bay. Really nice spot, best there.

They put the sign up "New Hope Outside The Walls". So far, so good. At 7:30 AM, another guy shows up. He explains that his family has been planning an outing for a while, and really wanted that spot, would we mind swapping pavilions? No, says our guy.

Now there are no bad places there, we just have the best spot.

9 AM, guy rolls up, walks over, offers a sizeable donation to the church if we'll swap. Says the outing is for his son who is leaving tomorrow for the Navy.

We say no, again.

And people wonder why pastors of traditional or transitioning churches die early.

We should have moved. Refused any money. Offered to help them set up.

ANYTHING EXCEPT WHAT WE DID!!!!

Tonight, we learned that the guy who turned down the request really didn't understand what he was doing and how it impacted our purpose for being there. He wanted the best place for his church and friends.

Well, before we start loving our neighbors as ourselves, we might have to work on just being nice to them.

Oh!

32And they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, "Sit here while I go and pray." 33He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress. 34He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me."

35He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 36"Abba,^{[ g]} Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine."

37Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. "Simon!" he said to Peter. "Are you asleep? Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? 38Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak."

39Then Jesus left them again and prayed, repeating his pleadings. 40Again he returned to them and found them sleeping, for they just couldn't keep their eyes open. And they didn't know what to say.

This week I've been reading and rereading this passage. I've studied it in every context, in the original language, through the hearts of many commentators and preachers. What they've taught me, I understand.

But... oh!

I don't know what to say... either.

How do we come to grips with the fact that the only person who ever lived on this planet without offending God, was the only one who could pay the penalty for the rest of us?
How do we - or can we - understand what taking on the sin of the world meant to Jesus - how He instinctively must have been sick in His spirit?
How can we make sense of His beloved disciples actions?

There are times in this life that people you love go through hardship. You'd love to be able to make it right - to come in and fix everything. But you can't. You slide into the grips of depression, feeling powerless and weak. The tendency then for some is just to give up and do nothing, despite their love for the one in need.

Jesus knows that about us. And it doesn't change His love for us one bit. Note what he says to the disciples. "For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak." So what are we to do?

Keep trying to make a difference in our loved one's lives. Keep letting them know of our love. Keep praying for them.

To Peter and the disciples, it must have seemed as if being with Jesus and praying for Him was like doing nothing. But to Jesus, it would have meant a great deal. Sometimes things we think are small, when done with great love, make a huge difference.

Friend, it's okay if you don't know what to say. Jesus understands our weaknesses and the Holy Spirit is ready to use us through them if we will not give up. Remember His power is made perfect (or complete) in our weakness.

Watch and pray.

Grace!

David

--
Visit with me at my blogs:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Sometimes...

He's a prodigal, trying to find home. Raised in a family by parents that knew salvation from sin, he didn't turn away from it himself, even though he had their examples to learn from. Tattooed, pierced, shaved head, but here.

Came up to me and showed me a rock, polished to a gleaming shine - swirl laid upon swirl of color. "It has water in it that's 2.5 million years old" he told me. "Well that's interesting," I said. "better not drink it, it's probably pretty stale." I tool it from him and looked it over, and handed it back with a "that's pretty neat." And he was off to show someone else.

Later he showed someone else. "How do you know that it's that old?", they said. "Carbon dating only goes back so far, so that might not be very old at all."

Someone else stepped up and said "It really is pretty."

"I like rocks", he said.

Tell me why people - Christians in particular - feel the need to point out other people's flaws and faults. What was served by challenging the young man on this? Will that help him find Christ? Will it help him hang around the church long enough to make it his home?

He was reaching out, trying to make connections. But someone needed to be right more than they needed him to find Jesus.

Sometimes...

Say What?

Amazon.com: A Networked Conspiracy: Books: Bill Kinnon

A quote from the book:

The book was partly written as the result of frustration with "modern" church leadership. We've become great at "delivering services" while ignoring the incredible potential that exists in the people to whom we "deliver those services." In the Cluetrain universe we now inhabit, many, if not all people want to be involved. They want to both listen and be heard - they want to engage and be engaged. The one way communication of most "churchianity" just doesn't cut it for them/us - and we not only want to be heard...we will be heard.

This is one of those books about an experience I haven't had yet. Maybe it is our church culture in the South, or the local culture here near the coast in Florida, but we do not have "many, if not all" people at New Hope wanting to be involved. Many of the activities we have now are not attended nearly as well as Sunday morning worship, and that draws 2/3 of the membership on the roll.

Many of the ideas we have had to get people more engaged in work within and without have suffered from a lack of "buy in" from our people. As a leader, I'm trying to get people outside the walls into ministry, but it's a constant struggle.

So forgive me if I don't purchase the book.

technorati tags:church, Kinnon, Books, Missional

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A War of Words

Every day, I get lots of emails. There are devotionals that really lift my thoughts to God. Then there are updates on websites I read frequently. Of course personal emails from friends are part of the mix. And then there's spam.

People I'll never meet share the details of their medical and financial condition. (Is everyone in Nigeria sick?) Others want to have me purchase the latest pharmaceuticals. (I rarely take aspirin, so fat chance.) Still more want me to refinance my home, take a trip, or meet new people. Thank you, but no.

But what about those spam emails you get with what seems like crazy prose or meaningless words put together out of any context? What are those about? Well, they have nothing to do with ethics - just the opposite. Those words are designed to overload your email programs spam filter with so many real words that it just gives up and lets anything through. It's a war of words.

Sometimes they use snippets from a dictionary. Other times they lift from fiction. But the idea is to so clog the spam filter with words that would be considered good - that the bad sneaks by.

Jesus was teaching His disciples one day when the Pharisees and some Sadducees walked up and asked for a sign from Him that he was real. By this point Jesus had done so many miracles which they had ignored that he told them no. Then He turned to His disciples and said:

6 "Watch out!" Jesus warned them. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Matt 16:6 (NLT)

The disciples didn't understand.

It was a war of words. The yeast is the active ingredient in bread dough. Though there's a lot of other ingredients, and the quantity of those are far greater in volume than the yeast - if the yeast is bad, no matter how much other stuff you put in the mix - the result is bad bread.

At the "yeast" level, they did not believe that God's Word could change anyone. But if they threw out enough words - enough rules - then people would have to do right.

Friends, it's not about rules.

It's about relationship - about whether you are living in relationship with God through His Son. He's sinless - completely Holy. You're not. No amount of words, no amount of forced obedience, no amount of looking good - will change that. Only a heart yielded, a will surrendered, a life offered daily to Him in obedience... matters to Him.

Ask yourself how often you think about Jesus.

Are you losing the war of words?

Make your life a prayer, a running conversation with Him.

Grace!

David

--
Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Just Another Day?

On July 15th, 1920, on the wrong side of the tracks down on Roff Avenue near "Mr Willingham's Textile Mill", a little girl was born to Henry and Bertie Bowden. Her parents were millworkers who had moved from the farm to the city in search of a better life. Each had lost a spouse to death before they met each other, and the family was a blend of Fosters and Bowdens.

The little girl grew to adulthood in that shotgun house, becoming the first of her family to get a high school diploma. During those years, she saw a sister die in a fire, a brother killed when his car stalled on the railroad tracks that ran parallel to the road. When she was 12, her father was hit by a car and died the next day. Hurt came often to Roff Avenue. The family grew tight - they had to. Somehow the widow "Bertie" raised all their kids and another couple of girls besides. Lodie was the big sister now, and she went to school and worked in the mill too. Whatever it took to help, she did.

She met a young man who lived in the same mill village, and just as World War Two began, they married. He was sent away, and in a year or so, she enlisted herself. They saw each other once during the War, in Manila.

After the war, they had both changed. Everything had.

They divorced, and then love found them again, and they remarried.

One day they got the news she was pregnant with twins. Nine months later they got the news the babies wouldn't survive. Delivered, they lived less than a week. But a couple who had seen so much pain and held so much heartache, just wouldn't give up hope. One year later, I was born - the young woman was my Mother - Lodie Marie Bowden Wilson.

She passed away 15 years ago. But today would have been her 86th birthday, and I remember her on it. No other person had more influence on who I became than she. Not one day in the years we shared on this earth did I not awake knowing that my Mother loved me deeply.

When you are the recipient of love, like a Mother's love, most of the time you are blind to it. Days come and go, sacrifices are made for you. Some you might realize but poorly comprehend. Others you miss completely. When your children come along, understanding does too, and then when the giver passes away, the gifts are made visible in the loss of the one who gave them.

I cannot give her anything now. All I can do is give to others as I have been given to. When I was reading Philippians the other day, I came across this. Those of you who read it, do as I have done today and think about your life, and what someone years after you are gone will write about it in review. Will it be God-honoring? Will it be praiseworthy? What will be your legacy? Will you have pointed your family to Jesus? Can you write as Paul does here?

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9 NIV

Remember, we love, because He first loved us.

It's called...

Grace!

David

--
Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Barna's Revolution - Not

Amazon.com: Revolution: Books: George Barna

I've read George Barna's work since "The Frog In the Kettle". Frequently, I've made use of his groundbreaking research into the culture and the church. As a researcher, I'd give him high marks, but as a theologian and a prophet, he flunks.

The book chronicles Barna's look at an emerging force he calls "Revolutionairies". These are people who according to Barna possess an active faith and who choose to operate outside the established church as they fulfill their mission. He claims the church as we know it is on its last legs as these people leave. And he applauds it!

I've done "house church", and I've done solo Christianity. And I'd add I have yet to come across the hordes of people living out their faith and growing in Jesus outside a community of faith. I don't buy Barna's premise, and I was awfully glad I didn't buy this book.

I got it free and it was worth every penny.

technorati tags:pastor, Barna, church, revolution

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