Christian "Baggage"

Our friend Allan in front of New Hope

From a really good article in "Relevant" magazine today.

Marcus Mumford got one thing right—the Church is something you enter at your own risk.

Because you might actually bump into humanity there. You might hit up against something you disagree with. You might have to listen to music you don’t like. You might get asked to share your stuff. You might learn from a tradition far older than you, and realize how small you are standing before such a legacy. You might even be asked to worship something other than yourself.

I agree with every single thought expressed above. Maybe it just hit a nerve but I wanted to jump up and say "AMEN!"  

The article was about how people like the lead singer for "Mumford and Sons" choose not to be identified as Christians because (supposedly) the term has so much " baggage."

We do carry a lot.

Those folks that we "carry" by delivering free meals to each week.

Those who live because we sent money overseas to help them receive clean water due to the wells we have helped dig.

Those who have hope and a future from the support we give as we sponsor orphans and children literally all around the world.

Those who have benefited from our food bank, who we have bought gas for, put up in hotels, or in some other way met them at the point of need.

And each other as we lean on our faith and love for God and for each other. Yep, we do carry baggage, but it's what our Leader told us to do.

 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. Gal 6:2

 So we'll keep on keeping on. If you want to be a part of something gloriously imperfect, come join us at New Hope as we carry our "baggage" and follow Jesus.

We Can Do Better

“Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren’t intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don’t line up with the message. Our poor posture overshadows the most beautiful story and reality the world has ever known.”

Hugh Halter & Matt Smay in The Tangible Kingdom p.41

On Poverty

We are the first generation that really can do something about the kind of “stupid” poverty that sees children dying of hunger in a world of plenty or mothers dying for lack of a 20-cent drug that we take for granted. We have the science, we have the resources, what we don’t seem to have is the will. This is an opportunity to show what America stands for.

Bono in Tom Davis’ Red Letters


I think there's hope rising in churches all over America. We are beginning to realize that we have been selfish and self centered and are rich and increased with goods. I pray that this Christmas season brings new opportunities to carry the Life into a dark world.

Your Kingdom Come, Lord!

Should We Count Those Blessings?

My son Sean and I made a trip over to Destin to meet some folks who were coming over from Panama City to buy his 85 Fiero GT. yes, I suppose selling that car was a blessing for Sean, but that's not where I'm headed.

After (and before the call from the new Fiero owner whose new car was dead beside the road - altenator, bummer :( ) we went over to Best Buy to get my wife a new mic for her PC. She talks to her mother in Macon GA almost every night via video chat. (Technology reaches Middle Georgia, film at eleven.)

We went in, avoided the siren-song of electronic devices and headed up to the checkout. After a slightly embarrassing reminder of my absent minded nature (scanned the debit backwards), we completed the checkout and exited, but not until the clerk said "have a blessed night".

Walking to the car, I commented to Sean, "what was that?" It's pretty rare here on the coast to hear any expressions like that. "I don't know if you should count that one", he replied, "the tattoo on the guy's neck was a wiccan symbol."

My theologically informed and cogent reply?

"Oh."

So gentle reader, do we count that blessing or not?

Christianity in the year 2007 - one among many.

Now back to the previously scheduled reality programs.

When Is Conversion Really Conversion

"I see dead people."

Scary, that.

But the prospect that in our efforts to reach people that we may go too far in accommodating their present state rather than challenging them to repent and embrace the truth of the gospel is scarier by any order of magnitude to me.

Over on awaiting rain is a scary look at just how this can happen.

Thanks Bill.

Wakeup Call

Long night. Called out at 9:30 for a two hour counseling session, get back home and spend some time winding down and read... HT "Sets and Service"

“Why, if we have the timeless truth of the gospel, do we need to concern ourselves with culturally relevant ministry? Because if we don’t, the message of the gospel gets confused with the cultures of old. The unchurched think that Christianity is a retrograde culture rather than a living faith. Our job is to remove the “extra” stumbling blocks of culture without removing the essential stumbling block of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:23). Unfortunately, the stumbling block of the cross has too often been replaced by the stumbling block of the church. Most people aren’t being recruited by other religions; they are being confused by the practice of ours.”

Ed Stetzer, Why is cultural relevance a big deal?

"Most people aren't being recruited by other religions; they are being confused by the practice of ours."

BOOM! Ok, I'm awake.

How we're seen, how do we see?

There are so many people I love, who don't love Jesus. They range from folks I admire from afar who may be standouts in their field of work, to people I bump up against as I go my way, to people I'm close to and know me intimately.

And as I pray, and as I ache for them to know Jesus, I am vaguely conscious that not only are we inhabiting parallel universes - me in the Christ-centered life(with all my flaws and failures in following it) and they in theirs, and not only are we at times talking past each other - but when I look at the church and they look at the church, we see radically different things.

An article today in Relevance examines a recent Barna Group survey of how the church is viewed (particularly by young unchurched Americans, but it also lists other group's reactions).

For me, it makes me want to lead New Hope to be even more outwardly focused and to try to infuse within the DNA of every NewHopian a keen understanding of the role of grace in the life of a follower of Jesus.

The questions the article ends with are valid, and I repost them here.

The church needs to stop being “in your face” and start focusing on service, sacrifice, humility, and grace.

Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Are we cultivating a heart for outsiders?
2. What kind of Jesus are we to outsiders?
3. How can we become know as true Christ followers?

My greatest fear in this life is that I would let my representation of Jesus be so twisted from His example of grace and truth that someone might turn away from a relationship with God because of me.

On Funerals

Time was, I enjoyed writing funeral messages. I could take what I knew of the person's life and weave a story from it that seemed to help the people in grief, and expose others to the light of the gospel.

But today I will be doing the funeral message for the family of a man I did not know, who committed suicide, and who almost certainly was not a believer.

As the pastor of a church in a small town, I knew this day was coming. And I thought I'd be prepared for it. But I've been surprised with just how hard it has been to get a grip on just what God would have me say.

Let me say this up front. I hurt with those who grieve. One of them is a teenager who belongs to our church and is one of the sweetest young Christ-followers I have ever known. She came by our home the day it happened and for over an hour poured her heart out to us. It hurts to see her hurt and to see the shock and hurt in their faces.

But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that what many, many are sharing as Christianity, and what they are trying to rely on in times like these is not Christianity at all. It's cultural religion. Maybe something happened in VBS at age 6, or at a youth revival when they were 13 - in 1965. But nothing of God has crossed their mind in decades, unless His name popped in when a cuss word needed a modifier.

And they look to the pastor at times like this to "Bless this mess."

Uh, no.