Spencer Smith

Top Ten Lost Technologies of the Church

2009-04-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

New Blog Post: Top Ten Lost Technologies of the Church at my new blog address: AreWeYetAlive.com

New Post

2009-03-27T08:58:00.001-07:00

New Blog Post at my new blog: AreWeYetAlive.com

New Blog

2009-03-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

My blog has moved. You can now find it at Are We Yet Alive

New Blog

2009-03-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

My Blog has moved! You can now find my blogging at AreWeYetAlive.com

pre-tax, post-tax, and young adult generosity

2009-03-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

A recent discussion among some at Asbury has been "how should we define the expectation of tithing?" So, here is my attempt at defining what is the expectation on giving.

The word "tithe" is often thrown around as the standard for Christian giving. Asbury uses this word to describe the expectation of Christian giving as our 6th objective in our MVO. But just what is the tithe?

I don't want to spend much time on the biblical root of the word. I think most of us understand that the word is rooted in a biblical idea (search "tithe" on biblegateway.com) Basically, the biblical notion is that the people of Israel are required to give ten percent of their "income" to the LORD through the temple/tabernacle. In the Bible, this was not money in the way we think of money. Rather, it is the harvest of some commodity.

Through conversation with some lay people in our church, we learned that our stated objective on the tithe is not clear enough. Asbury states in objective #6: "Every member bringing the tithe (one-tenth) in loving obedience to God's gracious provision." Apparently, this is not clear enough.

The question that then came up: one-tenth of what? What box on my w-2 should I be looking at when determining what I should be giving ? Is this a pre-tax tithe or is this a post-tax tithe? And what about other "gifts" like professional services that I might offer the church?

I understand the question, but as I listen to this I can't help but think that these are simply the wrong questions. If our members are asking these questions then we have done a poor job of communicating the why of obedience to God. I think of Jesus' way of teaching. Jesus never communicated specificity of laws, he communicated spirit of laws. For instance, what does it mean to commit adultery? Is it only when I have sex with another woman? What about oral-sex? What about internet porn? Jesus' response doesn't give us a check list so we know when we have crossed the line; he takes us to the heart of the matter: adultery is when you lust in your heart.

On top of that specificity argument, there is another issue going on in the tithe discussion. There is the tithe in the Old Testament (10%) but in the New Testament this doesn't seem to be communicated quite the same way. In college, one of my New Testament professors (who looked just like Tom Skerrit from Top Gun: )

taught that the tithe wasn't even a NT concept. I'm not going to go that far. But one thing I am willing to say that if the law taught us to give 10%, then grace teaches us and empowers us to give much, much more. Here is where I will speak with specificity. If the law taught us to give 10%, then that is a good place to start. But more than that, the questions I would ask is how does money inhibit how you serve God? How does money make you afraid of the future? How do you serve others with your money?

If we are concerned with communicating pre-tax or post-tax tithes then we're totally missing it. Lets not sell our calling short. If you are not giving, then you need to be giving and 10% is a good place to start. But possibly, God is calling you to give more than that. We all need to be looking to give as much as we possibly can, not just get to 10% and call it good. The truth of the matter is, God is probably calling most of us to give well beyond 10%, but we are so in love with our money and us clergy are so afraid to say this that the church continues to live in bondage and the church continues to be underfunded.

On a final note, I think a lot about young adults and their financial giving. For some reason, it is very difficult to motivate young adults to give. Maybe they are bogged down with debt. Maybe they are unwilling to give to institutions. My thought though comes back to the call of discipleship. When we narrowly defining giving as 10% and then plead with people just to get to 10% we are selling short our call to live an alternative life in the world. The church has a radically different value system than the world's and yet most of the time we play by their rules. Young adults need the challenge of gospel living, not a prescriptive check list that they can say "Yes, I have arrived because I give 10% to my local church." I believe young adults are hungry for a radical challenge of discipleship. I think young adults are weary of sermons that simply gloss over the issue of why. We are weary of giving to an institution that just wants our money but is not calling us to come and give our lives for the sake of a calling that is beyond us. We want to be captured by a greater vision, a cosmic vision. Surely, the church is a place where that can take place.

Young Adults and Health Insurance

2009-03-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday's Tulsa World reported this story: Young Adults And Health Insurance . Basically, young adults (here defined by ages 18-32) are one of the largest groups of people not currently enrolled in any sort of health insurance. As the government becomes more and more concerned about the uninsured, one way some states are attempting to solve the problem is by extending the time children can be enrolled on their parent's health insurance all the way to 29 or 30 years old.

I don't understand why this plan would need to be in effect. I don't understand, and yet I do. There is an ever increasing lengthening of adolescence in our culture. A generation ago, adulthood began somewhere between 18-22. Two generations ago it was definitely 18. Three generations ago, functional adulthood may have begun even earlier that 18 for some people. But with my generation, adulthood is not beginning now until 30, 35, and maybe even 40, remember the movie Stepbrothers?"

I am continually amazed by the number of people who move back in with their parents after college or are dependent on their bills (or some of their bills) being paid for by their parents after college. I understand that there is also an "invincibility" thought out there for young adults not on health care, but why are some of us still dependent on their parents for their cell phones? I also understand that there are special cases where people need help from their parents (like grad-school students), but this dependency is much deeper than those who are currently in grad school.

I wonder what the spiritual implications are to this longevity of adolescence?

I see one major implication: My generation (I was born in 1981) has a messed up view of responsibility. Our is a generation yearning for social responsibilty and social justice, and yet I see so little personal responsibility.

For instance, many of us seem to live with the understanding that our financial situation should be on par with what we had while still being dependent on our parents. We forget that many of our parents had to struggle to achieve financial success (And there is a whole other conversation of whether Boomers really have financial success with their rampant materialism and lack of savings). We have a sense that we are entitled to have new technology, big tvs, nice houses, expensive cars (even if they are green), etc. So, there are many of us who cannot afford health insurance (hence the reason I'm writing this). There are also many of us who cannot afford to give to charity. I wonder though if these same people have iPhones, drive cars under 5 years old, have 40 inch + tvs. For Christians, this materialism is a grave signpost of irresponsibility. I see a generation that desperately wants to make a difference in the world, but is shying away from really engaging the social morals that the Boomers hold dear.

It seems that, for many, materialism is the god we serve while hoping not to lose our soul in the process. Eventually, this is going to catch up with us. As Christians, we need to repent of this materialism and learn through budgeting, giving, and responsible spending to use money to serve God, not serve money actively and God passively.

I see this lack of responsibility at the churuch a lot. We need people to step into leadership and service yet for some reason we are still dependent on the Boomers to lead. This last Sunday, we had a prayer vigil sign up to pray for the students on mission this next week. The response from those may age was pitiful. Why? We all know that people will get prayed for, but we are waiting for someone else to do it. Why?

I know I've been overly harsh here, but I'm very concerned over what I see developing. At the same time, though, I see great hope. I see a generation that is concerned with the earth, concerned with social justice, concerned with urban revitalization, and many who are giving up careers to work with the poor both here and abroad. This last paragraph should have been expanded, but this is already a long post.

The UMC and Easter hope

2009-03-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

Because of some conversations I've been having lately and because of a story out of Wichita of a young United Methodist Church leaving the denomination I have been wondering what the viability is of our denomination and what will it take for us to achieve viability once again.

I feel that I am often living in the tension of two worlds. One is the institutional life I experience as a young pastor in the United Methodist Church. I have dreams and hopes for the church that she would reach out again and be a vital witness to my generation. I feel that her best days are behind and I wonder how long it will be until either schism or a lack of pastoral leadership finally dries up the wells of the UMC. This leaves me feeling defeated and despairing.

But there is another side. A hopeful side. A side that is influenced by Easter.

I get that churches come and go, and that this is also true of denominations. But I also have this inner hope that is part of the core of my life. A hope that when I see death, I also have to see life.

I see that Jesus deeply loves his church, his bride. This is true for the church universal, and also for the church specific (both local and denominational). There has never been a time when the church got it right, but in the midst of our failure Jesus has always renewed us. We as a denomination have bought into a lot of lies, we've missed it. But as people leave our denomination and we lost voice and influence with my generation, what about Easter? If there is one thing resurrection teaches us it is hope and pray for God to move still yet.

Songs of Resurrection

2009-02-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

Spent quite a bit of time preparing for our Easter morning worship service today. I noticed something very strange while we were planning this and I really don't have a clue as to why this is true. It is very difficult to find worship music that is centered on the resurrection. Almost every song we found was more about Good Friday than Easter Sunday. Why is that? Why are most of these songs centered on the cross and not the empty grave?

My only thought is that for some reason it must be easier for us to conceptualize Jesus on the cross, than it is for us to conceptualize Jesus raising from the dead. Maybe this is because of the world of visuals. Artwork abounds with the cross (like this giant one featured at the top of this post), but what kind of artwork is there of the empty grave? I don't know anyone who wears a symbol of the resurrection around a chain on their neck. To illustrate this lack of illustration presented below are the first two images that come up when I Google Image the word "Easter."

I wonder what the implications are to this lack of resurrection thought? I've notice (and have nothing empirical to back this up), that a lot of Christians struggle with the idea of resurrection. Even the earliest Christians struggled with that idea, remember Thomas? If not, Ben Linus has a speech in LOST about Thomas. There are a good number of Christians who demonstrate a lack of foundational thought on the resurrection in three ways that I've noticed:

1. Bodily Resurrection? A lot of Christians seem to think that when we are raised from the dead we will be spirits living in some netherworld with God. The body has no part of this future life. This thought is sometimes demonstrated in the following phrase: "We are spiritual beings having a physical experience." I'm sorry, but this is just flat heresy. Read Paul's ideas in 1 Cor 15. We will be raised with a bodily resurrection, just like Jesus. Maybe then we shouldn't just focus our spirituality on the inner experiences. Maybe our bodies also have a role in our spirituality. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks and will probably unpack this idea next week sometime.

2. Spiritual warfare. This is an observation that I noticed while a student at ORU. A lot of energy is spent by some to lay out the specifics of the demonic world. Don't get me wrong, we need to intercede to our Father against the powers of darkness. But we have faith in this because of the resurrected Christ. I got the feeling that sometimes in these spiritual warfare conversations that the reality of the resurrection was never really understood. Why spend our time trying to outline the demonic, instead of focusing our energy on the power of the resurrection.

3. Sanctification. My Wesleyan roots come out on this one. Many of us, if not most of us, don't actually expect, nor have we experienced, a transformed life. We keep living in the same cycles of sin and destructive that we have always known. Many of us don't actually believe that we can be free from lust, gluttony, gossip, anger, or pride (to name a few things that seem to enslave us). I heard Don Chaffer recently say (supposedly quoting George Barna, which I don't know if this is actually true but I can't argue with it based on my own observations) that there is no real difference between Christians in America and non-Christians in America except that Christians were less likely to recycle. I think this lack of noticeable difference in our lives is based on a lack of belief that resurrection is the reality of our faith. If the resurrection is the reality of my life, than I will experience newness of life personally. The sin that has enslaved me cannot stand up against the power of the resurrection. The resurrection has set me free, and my our lives can actually demonstrates this freedom.

For many of us, we celebrate Christmas almost to a fault, but have no idea what resurrection is about; most of us have no idea how Easter intersects our lives.

Sim City, NASA Style

2009-02-25T11:18:00.001-08:00

Interesting article about the possibility of life on other planets outside of our solar system.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/02/25/galaxy.planets.kepler/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Two thoughts on this article:
1. This sounds just like the old computer game Sim City, which I loved and have wondered if I could find an on-line version to play. I will claim ignorance here, not being a scientist, but since when did Sim City become a part of the scientific method?

2. I wonder what the implications are to theology if some sort of life was found outside our solar system? The implications would be even greater if this was intelligent life. What would that do to our understanding our place with God? And what would this do to our anthropomorphisms of God?

Steroids, conclusion

2009-02-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

I ran out of time yesterday, so I will complete my thoughts on steroids and sports.

Major League Baseball finds itself at a crossroads on the issue of performance enhancing drugs. On the one hand, they desperately need to reform their drug policy. On the other hand, their sport (like all pro-sports) makes its money based on the performance of its stars. When records are broken, more tickets are sold, more people buy the jerseys, more advertisers pay more money for commercial spots during the broadcast, etc. So, what is baseball to do? Should they reform and risk losing dollars because of the lack of ability of players to naturally perform like they are now. Or, do they let scandal after scandal destroy them and in the end risk losing even more fans and even more money?

I write all that as a pretty obvious metaphor. As a pastor in a mainline church, I'm asking the same question. We are operating with antiquated practices that years ago produced results but now fail miserably. Do we seek methodological reformation, and by doing so risk alienating our present "fan base?" Or do we seek to prop up what has worked before and by doing so risk our future "fan base?" I'm not pretending that the kind of reformation that needs to take place is easy. It is not. It is painful, ugly, and risks destroying us. But on the other hand so does the status quo.

Some mainline clergy have preferred to simply "switch sports." They have decided that baseball is a sinking ship so they will go play football (or better yet, track and field). I'm talking about those who don't see the future of the mainline church and have jumped ship to what may look like a better church, a better denomination or a non-denomination (I may have stretched this metaphor too far by now).

I see the trouble. I see the pain. I see the potential future if we stay the course, but I'm also hopeful. Redemption is the lens in which I see the world. Even though the mainline church may be struggling and may be doomed, I am committed to this because she is still Christ's bride. She is still beautiful. She is still in need of people who love her and hold out the hope for redemption. She is in need of people who will ask the questions and lead her through the needed reformation in order to truly live into the fullness of Christ.

Steroids

2009-02-24T17:09:00.000-08:00

So, I've been thinking about the steroids issue in professional sports the past few days. Usually when I hear someone talk about A-Rod and his using I just refer that person to the sport of Athletics. The IAAF (the international track and field regulatory body) has some of the strictest rules in the sports rules when it comes to performance enhancing drugs:
First offense: two year ban, lifetime Olympic ban
Second offense: you cannot make a profit from the sport.

Granted there are still some faults with the system and some who still cheat and find ways not to get caught (hey, I personally know a few) . A two year ban is a long time in a track runner's career: a long career will be 8 years pro, a very long career will be 12, an unheard of long career will be 16 (intervals of four b/c of Olympic Games). On top of it, track and field has had several high profile athletes suffer the consequence of these rules: Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery). What strikes me about this system is that even a struggling professional sport is still willing to penalize some of its leading athletes just to maintain the purity of the sport.

What's keeping baseball from actually being tough on this issue? They are trying to maintain fan base by keeping up the appearance of purity, but the longer they dance around the issue then the worse the using will become. Its time to just get tough and enact some lifetime bans. Remember Pete Rose, right? He cheated and got kicked out. Why are performance enhancing drugs different?

Excellent Ministry

2009-02-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

this post is really for me to vent b/c I've spent the past two days at a retreat for clergy in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. The topic of the retreat is excellence in ministry, but I've heard very little on how to actually be excellent in a life of ministry. The reason for this is that when clergy hear the word "excellent" attached to their ministry, many seem to bristle up with either fear or frustration. This reaction is probably due to the way excellence has been defined, which is principally through numbers of people coming to worship and financial soundness of the church.

In response to this rigidity in defining excellence, this retreat has focused almost exclusively on simply being true to your self, which will lead to a ministry of excellence. I fail to see the connection. Granted, we have to be authentic to our own calling and our own gifts. And I get that our effectiveness in ministry cannot fully be measured through empirical evidence. But what we have done during these two days is to ignore the fact that we are an evangelical church. I don't mean evangelical in a political sense, but in the sense that whether we are liberal or conservative we are people who proclaim a message of hope found through Jesus Christ. Our mission, as defined by our Book of Discipline, is to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." I hope that we can in some way measure if we are being effective in reaching this mission of our church. I can be true to self, but even more than that I hope that I have born fruit for the Kingdom. Fruit in changed lives, in more people hearing the good news, and in more people experiencing the fullness of life found in Christ.

Incarnational Communications

2009-02-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

I have recently engaged in several conversations regarding the way Asbury practices communication. Generally, we are talking about things like event announcements through traditional media such as a website, magazine, postcards, etc.

On the other hand, there are people in the church who are beginning to question alternative forms of communication, namely social networking. As I've been thinking about this, I've come to realize why the church has been hesitant to adopt these "new" forms of communication. This trouble essentially comes down to the way the church has understood the strategy of communication. The church's communication strategy is as follows:
1. Pulpit- this is where the majority of substantive communication occurs. Things like vision, identity, and purpose are established through the pulpit.
2. Event announcements- this is the real bulk of where we spend our money as a church. We want to let people know how they can get involved in an event or program because we believe that Christian discipleship will occur at this level.

The problem to adapting to new forms of communication is really a struggle to understand the place of the pulpit. The real beauty of something like Twitter, for instance, is not so much that it has the ability to announce events (which it does), but really in the way that it intersects daily life. This intersection with daily life is really about thought process paradigm shifts. So, in some ways Twitter becomes the place where you are going to influence how people think about the world, how people interact with others, and how people even view themselves. For a church to engage in these emerging forms of communication is not a matter of being "relevant," "trendy," or "cool" it is really about interacting with the way people are thinking about and experiencing life.

If this is true, Twitter in some ways is a new pulpit; Facebook is a new "hospital bed" (the place pastoral care happens). Twitter, in some ways, is the place where you shape vision, identity, and purpose. Essentially, this is a matter of being incarnational. I am going to speak the Good News in the ways that actually intersect life, the ways people experience their daily life. Twitter is a way for the church to proclaim Gospel, but only if we too can begin to have a paradigm shift ourselves.

GBCS

2009-02-16T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'll throw out a disclaimer from the get-go: I am no fan of the General Boards in the United Methodist Church. That said, I can't believe the action of the General Board of Church and Society in the past few weeks.

Here is a quick polity lesson in the United Methodist Church. The UMC is ruled by the "Book of Discipline." The BOD outlines all decisions at every level of the UMC from a local church all the way to the national/international levels. The BOD is only altered every four years by a legislative body called the General Conference. The GC is made of both lay and clergy delegates from every Annual Conference. Methodists describe themselves as "connectional." Local churches connect with other local churches and form an Annual Conference. The Annual Conference then does work at a higher level than an individual local church can do. Nationally, Annual Conferences connect with other Annual Conferences and form General Boards. The General Boards only have authority to enact what the General Conference has said, and the GC only exists for 10 days every four years.

That said, the General Board of Church and Society is one such General Board that is represents the Annual Conferences, which represent the local churches. The GBCS has come out with a big endorsement of the new stimulus plan b/c they think the stimulus plan will help the poor.

Three questions:

1. Have they actually read the stimulus plan and then given enough time to debate the actual impact these policies will have on the poor? I can't imagine they have. The thing is something like 1100 pages long! No, instead the GBCS is more concerned with courting the new President.

2. Why are we hitching are cart to a governmental plan? Do we think that the transformation we seek in society is going to come from an federal economic plan? Really?

3. Why are they speaking w/o the authority of the General Conference? They are making statements that are simply not true for a great many United Methodists. This is not to say that I am opposed to the plan, but I am not going to attach the hope found in the Good News to a plan the federal government is proposing. I even voted for this President, and I can tell you that the GBCS is not speaking for me.

This issue of the GBCS hoping for systemic change through federal legislation is just a poorly conceived idea, but it is the backbone of this General Board. But why would Christians be looking for the government as a means for the spread of God's kingdom? The GBCS is essentially the same as the Christian Coalition at this point, just different ideologies. Why do these Christian groups place their hope in the government for systemic change? For instance, if we ban gay marriage are we really making more disciples of Jesus? If we endorse the stimulus plan are we really making more disciples of Jesus?

The only reason I can possibly fathom why these groups put their hope in government is that they don't trust that the Holy Spirit can actually transform people and bring about real change in society. The only evidence I see in history of real Christian transformation is when the church is not concerned chiefly with the state but is invested in people, especially the poor. Lets get rid of these Constantinian ideas and trust in the fact that Christ overcame death, he overcame Caesar (government) and he is the only way our world will be transformed.

The Underfunded Church

2009-02-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Tom Harrison preached an outstanding sermon on how the church is under performing because she is underfunded.
Here is the link: http://www.asburytulsa.org/sermons/archives.html

I lead a study last night on the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, "You cannot serve both God and money." The word serve is the Greek root of liturgy: you cannot serve/worship both God and money. Thinking through my life and asking some tough questions about my spending habits I am left wondering how in my life I am either serving and worshiping God or serving and worshiping money. I tithe and try to make generosity a daily rule in my life (unless it comes to food- I hate sharing food! I would just assume buy you a whole sandwich than give you a bite from mine).

For the first time in my adult life I feel that I am starting to make positive changes in my finances that transcend my tithe. It used to be that because I tithed I assumed I was not worshiping and serving money. But now, Abby and I are working our way out of debt enough that we have seen how our lives have been spent in service of money instead of having money serve us and ultimately serve God.

I've been experiencing this change through a budget process. Now, I've always had a budget but I've rarely kept to a budget. It was just too restricting. In the past year or so, we've actually been keeping to our budget which means that at times we don't have money to eat out again or buy new clothes or go out of town. In this way, it is restricting. However, we've also paid off enough debt that we have more money to give and to save and invest in things that honor God. I don't make a lot of money, but I'm seeing that even with the small amount of money I make I can actually make a pretty big impact financially for the kingdom. Its just a matter of me learning to live responsibly in all of my life. The key to me living according to a budget is simple: contentment. Am I content with what God has given me? Am I content both when I am in plenty and when I am in want? For me, the evidence of contentment is if I'm living below my means.

If I can continue to grow in contentment and continue to make my money serve me then I get excited about thinking about what I can fund for the kingdom. The church does not have to be underfunded, I can make a difference with my salary as it is now. I can make a difference that changes lives, brings justice, and spread the kingdom of God.

The Office- thoughts on why it sucks!

2009-02-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

To begin, I've been a huge fan of The Office. I've seen them all, most of the webisodes, and even most of the deleted scenes. I own the first three seasons of the show and love those seasons. However, I have been majorly disappointed in the show in the past two years and can pinpoint one event that was the beginning of the end: casino night when Jim kissed Pam.

I remember that night clearly. I know that most people loved it because of the tension building all season, but when it happened I looked over at my friends sitting on the couch and announced the obvious, "this isn't funny. The Office is supposed to be funny. This just isn't funny!" What I was announcing at the time was the beginning of the end, but I did not have the insight to predict this problem.

Here's the genius of the show: office life is absurd! I work in a church office and I can still say that office life is absurd. You spend hours and hours around these people and yet barely know them. You get glimpses into their lives by what they put up on their walls or the kind of clothes they wear or the conversations that you might have with them, but for the most part you have office type relationships: awkward conversations at the copier, questions on expense reports, exchanged emails void of personality, and the occasional conversation about the weekend.

The first two seasons of The Office highlighted this absurdity with genius. Michael Scott was the one character who didn't seem to get that office friends are not really your friends. They are who you work with and then you don't spend your free time with them. Now, church office work is different, but serving on a large church staff there is some serious truth to that. I will never spend time with some of the staff at Asbury, and that is fine. I will pass them in the halls and say hello and try to think of something else to saw while we both realize that we don't really know anything about each other except for what we do.

Jim kissed Pam. We saw more of just a glimpse into their personal lives at that point, which is all an office mate might get. We saw into the depths of their feelings. We saw a part of them that they hadn't shown anyone else. We saw beyond their shallow office self, and saw what they really desired and hoped for- things you would never really see in your officemates.

Now the show didn't unravel all at once. Season 3 was still pretty good, but it was getting increasingly personal. The saving grace in season 3 was the downsizing and the mixing of new officemates that we didn't yet know and getting a glimpse into their lives. Season 4 and 5 have all been all about personal relationships, not office relationships. Where has the absurdity of office life gone?

Jenna Fischer in an interview on NPR said that when she auditioned for the show she showed no personality. Her audition was a "job interview" in character for a receptionist job. She gave one word answers and appeared very disintersted. Hence, Pam. Work Pam is exactly like this. She hates her job, is engaged but you get the feeling that he is a loser, and is bored in life. All of this you get pieced together through work Pam. I have no idea what real Pam is like. However, now there is no work Pam. She is gone. And I haven't laughed at her character since work Pam disappered.

If you watch season one of The Office it is just like the Brittish version. Maybe season 6 needs to be just like season 4 of the Brittish version as well: cancelled.

The Virtue of Secrecy

2009-01-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

I've been spending time in the Sermon on the Mount for the past few weeks, partly because I'm teaching on this in a small group and a Sunday morning community, and partly because I've been challenged personally by this Sermon.

I'm now in chapter 6, which opens with a discussion on "acts of righteousness." Other ways of saying this might be helpful: spiritual disciplines, or the Wesleyan vocabulary of means of grace. There are three "acts of righteousness" specifically mentioned: giving (specifically to the poor), prayer, and fasting. These acts are clearly separated from the next session on money and the Kingdom because these three acts carry a common construction formula: "when you...do not be like the hypocrites who..." and then "your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."

The hypocrites are the antithesis of the disciples behavior in this prayer. The disciples are told specifically three times to not be like them. I'm ok with this statement, after all who wants to be a hypocrite, right? The problem is that when I think of a hypocrite I usually think of someone who says one thing but actually does another. An example would be someone who says to give, but then actually does not give; or someone who says to pray, but then actually does not pray; or someone who says to fast, but actually does not fast. In this sense, I can get behind why we are not supposed to be like the hypocrites. This is the classic argument of why some don't get involved in the church.

An interesting twist on the hypocrites though is that this is not their role. They are not the people who say one thing and then do the opposite. The hypocrites here are people who actually do the action they say they are doing, they just say it a bit too much. This is where I start to get confused. What is hypocritical about saying you give as long as you actually give? So here is what that tells me, the virtue in these "acts of righteousness," lets use giving for instance, is not giving, but the secrecy in giving. Jesus is not so interested in the fact that someone gave. In fact, he seems to say that if you go around boasting, then you shouldn't have even given. That is crazy to me because I would think naturally that the virtue is the giving. As long as someone gave, then we are good. Afterall the poor still received their food. I hear this from time to time when people say to me "I guess I could give to the church, but its not like I make very much. Asbury has people who make 7 or 8 figures, what is my tithe in relation to that?" If you are asking that question then you are radically missing the point, at least according to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is not interested in the effectiveness of the gift; Jesus is interested in faithfulness. The effect gift is the hypocrites, who give a lot, and then tell of their great generosity. The faithful gift is the gift that is probably not nearly as much but done in a way that doesn't point back to the giver. Jesus would rather have less money if it was secret.

I don't think this is to say that the virtue here is secrecy, but rather the motivation behind the act is everything. And this is in totally keeping with chapter 5, adultery is lust in the heart (motivation), murder is what happens in the heart (motivation). Chapter 5 concluded with these words, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." In other words, be like God in our heart, which will show up in the way that you practice your acts of righteousness/spiritual disciplines/means of grace.

Witness

2009-01-27T19:10:00.000-08:00

I've recently been in conversation with some people regarding a lecture series at the University of Oklahoma celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin's "Origin of the Species." This person, like many people, are upset by their line of speakers the University is bringing in to discuss Darwin's contributions to science and the world. The main headache is the speaker Richard Dawkins. In no way do I agree with Dawkins. His message is extremely dangerous.

For years, I've argued that theology and evolutionary science can easily co-exist as long as each sees its own proper place. Evolutionary science is not asking the why or the who question; theology is not asking the how question. However, Dawkins preaches a gospel of evolutionary biology and that is troubling because he is going well beyond the bounds of this discipline that is supposing a theory and not only giving evolution "fact" claims, he is making truth claims through evolution. Very dangerous.

What is the proper response to something like this? As part of a large, fairly influential church in Oklahoma is it our place to stand up and say something? Should we protest this event? How do we express our disagreement with this event generally, and Dawkins specifically?

I struggle with this for one major reason. What is the outcome of us engaging the University in this event? I've been told that we must be sure to have a public voice and influence as a church, because it is when we begin to lose respect in the public forum, we begin to lose our influence over culture and thus lose our ability to evangelize. I guess I can see that point, except that I don't know that I've ever seen the church with any influence in the public sector. I've seen the church think she has influence in the public forum, but not really. I've seen the Council of Bishops (UMC) send letters to congressional leaders and the President on certain issues in hopes of social justice in the world. I've seen people in the religious right elect their candidates in hope of passing moral reform. I've seen Christians fight tooth and nail to get creationism in textbooks, restrict abortions, and keep gays out everything. Why do we do this kind of stuff? What is it that we are hoping to attain? If people are more moral will that bring them closer to Jesus? If we ban gay marriage, will our ability to bring people to a personal experience with Jesus go away? If the University of Oklahoma allows Dawkins to present, will people just turn their back on Christ? I understand that it could happen, but if people are abandoning their faith so easily then we have a bigger problem on our hands. We haven't taught the Scripture faithfully, we haven't allowed people to come face to face with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is not guiding their lives. Personally, I don't care to make the world a little more moral through activism, or to prop up a modernistic worldview that is minimally biblical in hopes that it will increase evangelistic activity. I'm interested in proclaiming Christ, and Christ alone. We've thought that if the world would only believe a little bit more of the Christian message, then that will bring them closer to Jesus. We've sold biblical ideas over a relationship with Christ.

So lets pretend we lose our ability to influence the cultural life of America. Why is that synonymous with losing our ability to bring people to Christ? It wasn't until Constantine that the church had any public voice, and it looks like she was at her best without the public voice. She was true to what she believed. She didn't water down her message to fit in and "make sense" to everyone. She preached a crucified Lord who rose from the grave. She did this without influence, without voice, without power, and from that position she changed the culture of the Empire. But she did it through the salvation of people who began to live in this ecclesia that rejected the theology of Empire in order to follow the Suffering Savior.

To me, as long as we continue this Constantinian myth of a Christian state and try to move our message from the lives of individuals into the public sphere, then we will continue to lose voice, power, influence, and effectiveness. Let's return to the peculiarity of our message. The message that is so strange and peculiar that it causes us to rethink the values we've been taught, the values of power and polotics. Lets stop trying to make the world a little more moral and instead work and pray to bring people to know Jesus.

Creationism and Inspiration

2009-01-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

I had a conversation this week about creationism being taught in public schools. I smugly said in the course of the conversation, "I would be upset, like confront the superintendent upset, if my child came home with a science textbook that mentioned creationism." Now I was clearly going for a shock factor - "But, you're a pastor!"- kind of shock factor. I was flaunting my liberal enlightenment, and afterward I was immediately regretful of the statement, not because I didn't believe that- because I would be upset- but because really this person was not debating what Christians should think in terms of evolution vs. creation, but really an understanding of revelation and the inspiration of the Bible.

I hate it when people say things like, "I believe in evolution;" or conversely, "I don't believe in evolution...I believe in the Bible." I hate that statement because there is a major confusion that both evolutionists and creationists have tried to get us all to buy into. That is, that evolution is something to believe in. That kind of language reeks of faith/theology/philosophy, of which evolution in its true form is not. To say "I believe in evolution" in the way it is usually said is to automatically compare it to language of faith, as in "I believe in Jesus." Here is where the problem arises, to say that you believe in evolution is to assert that you think it is a reality that will order how you think about the world. Evolution becomes your matrix for how you understand the world, and at that point evolution is no longer science, it is theology. It is asking the who and they why question, which is not part of the scientific method. Now, for sure, many have made evolution out to be a systematic theology, which is frightening, and I would be very upset if my child came home with a text book asserting evolution as anything but scientific theory. Because once it becomes more than scientific theory, we find ourselves engrossed in materialism, which leads no where good.

Conversely, when Christians say that they don't believe in evolution they believe in God, they are automatically giving evolution a voice evolution as a scientific theory should never have. A scientific theory is not meant to answer questions of meaning and existence. A scientific theory is simply a way of understanding how things may have happened. If evolution is understood as a scientific theory and not as an object of faith, then this battle between faith and science should be substantially less violent. However, both sides like to position evolution as a faith system because then it polarizes the other side and all of a sudden you have a controversy and you can recruit people to your side of the argument.

When Christians give evolution the standing of a faith system they are also dramatically reducing what it means to have an inspired Scripture. Some Christians use the word "inerrant" to describe what it means for the Bible to be inspired. Generally, what they mean is that the Bible is true (as in factual) in anything it says. This gives rise to the ridiculous idea that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs are mythical. They then look for "scientific" evidence to back up their irrational claims. It is interesting that at this point science is not the great evil it is when scientists claim evolution as a dominant theory. But, if only they can find a shred of something that looks like scientific backing for their claims, such as a dinosaur footprint next to a human footprint then they are all of a sudden justified in their faith. By the way, the footprint argument is a true argument based in the "Creation Science Museum" in Glen Rose, Texas.

Once you have appealed to science to back up your claim in the way the earth was created, what have you reduced the Bible to? A reference book! The Bible at this point is about fact, not truth. The Bible is about how, not who and why. The brilliant N.T. Wright says,
"The Bible isn't there simply to be an accurate reference point for people who want to look things up and be sure they've got them right. It is there to equip God's people to carry forward his purposes of new covenant and new creation. It is there to enable people to work for justice, to sustain their spirituality as they do so, to create and enhance relationships at every level, and to produce that new creation which will have about it something of the beauty of God himself. The Bible isn't like an accurate description of how a car is made. It's more like the mechanic who helps you fix it, the garage attendant who refuels it, and the guide who helps you fix it, the guide who tells you how to get where you're going. And where you're going is to make God's new creation happen in the world, not simply to find your own way unscathed through the old creation."

Theolgical Perspective

2008-12-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

My theology according to http://quizfarm.com/run.php/QuizRunner

You Scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

93%

Neo orthodox

79%

Emergent/Postmodern

68%

Roman Catholic

57%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

50%

Classical Liberal

43%

Reformed Evangelical

36%

Modern Liberal

18%

Fundamentalist

11%

The Holy Church

2008-12-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for the past few weeks about the nature of the Church. Usually when I think about the nature of the Church, I am verbalizing historic affirmations such as the Apostle's Creed, "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church," or the Nicene Creed that there is "one, holy, catholic, apostolic church," or the opinion of the Reformers that the church is where the Word of God is proclaimed and the sacraments duly administered. Now, I think I somewhat understand how to articulate these expressions of the nature of the church, but that doesn't really do anything to help me really understand what this thing called the Church is really about.

When I think about my experience with the church it is often negative. I've met too many cranky, selfish, hypocritical people in the church that it is hard to overlook the bad apples. Of course, I've met amazing people, but the bad ones really stand out. I've also seen the church from the inside out. I understand the business of the church and what makes the local church run. The business meetings, the finance reports, the budget concerns. I heard one friend say that after he worked in the church he "saw how the sausage was really made, and it just didn't taste as good after that!"

When I think like this it is easy to start asking the question why. Why am I investing my life in this? Why am I spending my time and energy in a way that is often met with criticism and fear? Why spin my wheels like this?

The answer is because when it comes to the church, I am a hopeless optimist. I've heard someone say that when the church gets it right, it is like nothing that has ever existed. She is beautiful and radiant. She shows love and concern like nothing else. She is inclusive to the point that people who should never have come together now have deep relationship and concern for one another. She is also enduring. When she dies out in one place, she flourishes in another. She is always growing and always going. She is the refuge for both the vile and the saint. And I have tremendous hope for what she can become. The only hope I have for the world comes through her at the local level. And I am absolutely committed to investing my life in service of her, the beautiful bride of our Christ.

Theodicy

2008-11-19T13:01:00.000-08:00

John 11:35 is, to me, one of the most profound statements in the Bible. John tells the story of how Jesus heard of his friend Lazarus who was sick and probably on his death bed. Strangely, he doesn't leave right away, and by the time he gets to Bethany Lazarus is dead. In fact, he's been dead for at least 4 days, because he was buried 4 days ago! If only Jesus had arrived earlier. After all, he is the miracle worker who has been healing people all through Palestine. If only he had left when he heard the news about Lazarus. If only... In our grief how many times have we asked ourself "if only?"

As Jesus arrives, he sees the family and his friends grieving for the loss of their friend Lazarus. He sees the crowds crying out in anguish and emotion as Lazarus lies in the tomb. Since he is a friend of Jesus, I imagine that Lazarus was around Jesus' age. Maybe they had known each other since boy hood. Maybe Lazarus left behind a wife and kids. Maybe his parents were still around and grieving the worse kind of grief, of a parent outliving their child.

Now that Jesus has arrived, you expect everything to be ok- except this time this is death! He is not healing someone. Can he bring someone back to life? As he looks around and sees his friends, maybe even his family, grieving and weeping. Jesus, the miracle worker, the fixer of problems, the One with answers suddenly does the unthinkable. John 11:35 says simply, "Jesus wept." End of sentence. No descriptor. Pointedly and suddenly, Jesus wept. He didn't cry. He didn't tear up. He wept. The one who brought forth all life wept!

Jesus' response to death is not to fix the problem. He doesn't run in and try to cheer everyone up. He is simply there. He is there in pain. He is there in sympathy. He doesn't offer a pithy statement, he weeps. He knows their pain. He knows their grief, and he allows it. He even endorses it. He weeps.

I can't explain pain. Theologically, we call this problem of pain theodicy. I have no idea why it happens. Now, I get that there is sin and because of sin there is death. I get that abstractly, but not personally. When I visit the hospital to see church members and I see cancer. I see children. I see families grieving. I don't get it. Why does it have to be this way? Why is there this problem of theodicy? Where is God?

Jesus wept.

I may not get why there is pain and death and sickness, but I do know that in the hospital room, in the funeral parlor, in the graveyard, in the loneliness of an empty house, Jesus weeps.

Thinking through death

2008-11-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

Here some thoughts from the brilliant mind of Bishop N.T. Wright from his book Surprised by Hope. I'll add some of my own thoughts as well.

"From Plato to Hegel and beyond, some of the greatest philosophers declared that what you think about death, and life beyond it, is the key to thinking seriously about everything else- and indeed, that it provides one of the main reasons for thinking seriously about anything at all."

Paul wrote in 1 Thess, "we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep...we believe that Jesus died and rose again..." (4:13).

This is creedal statement forms the backbone of any Christian confession. At the heart of our life and theology is the simple confession, "Jesus died and rose again!" For Paul, this meant that it shaped his whole understanding of death and grief. And if it shapes our understanding of death, then surely it shapes our understanding of life as well. If our theology is only good when we are healthy and happy, then our theology is worthless. However, if our deepest beliefs are rooted in the valley of the shadow of death than surely this will impact the whole of our life.

religious pluralism

2008-11-18T13:45:00.001-08:00

Here some thoughts from the brilliant mind of Bishop N.T. Wright from his book Surprised by Hope. I'll add some of my own thoughts as well.

on religious pluralism:

"Even a quick glance at the classic views of the major religious traditions gives the lie to the old idea that all religions are basically the same. There is a world of difference between the Muslim who believes that a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli solders goes straight to heaven and a Hindu from whom the rigorous outworking of karma means that one must return in a different body to pursue the next stage of one's destiny. There is a world of difference between the Orthodox Jew who believes that all the righteouss will be raised to new individual bodily life in the resurrection and the Buddhist who hopes after death to disappear like a drop in the ocean, losing one's own identity in the great nameless and formless Beyond."

This is an argument I love to engage. I think one of the greatest arguments against religious pluralism is this argument of the afterlife. Now by religious pluralism I am not talking about need for different religions to tolerate one another nor am I advocating an end to inter-religious dialogue. These are fine ambitions and should be embraced by anyone claiming religious or non-religious affiliations. However, there is a form of religious pluralism that essentially argues that all religious are basically the same with the same goal. This is an ill-informed position, that I call simply ignorant. To say to a Buddhist that his goal of Nirvana is the same as mine, which is a goal of bodily resurrection, is simply ignorant and frankly offensive to both the Buddhist and the Christian. If you are going to have an argument on religious universality, please think this one through.

Coldplay

2008-11-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

I went to see Coldplay last night in Oklahoma City. This was my second Coldplay show, and it did not dissapoint. Viva La Vida has a very different sound than than the previous three, and especially different than X and Y. The X and Y tour was the most engaging two hours of my life. The sound and the media were brilliant. I stood there and watched a beautiful production. Viva La Vida was different, but still amazing.

The album has a more natural sound than X and Y, and consequently used a whole lot less media. Thats not to say the show was boring to look at. Their set started with a black veil that covered the stage as they played "Life in Technicolor." Then the veil fell and the lights came on and the background, which was previously black was the cover art for the album. The first song that really used any media was "Clocks," which still wasn't a whole lot- just some intelligent lights shining lazers back into the crowd and up the back wall of the Ford Center. The strangest media were some giant globes that fell out of the ceiling and then lit up with swirls of different colors and even projections of the band that was being shown on some projectors above.

The highlight was by far "Viva la Vida." The entire band went to a "satellite" stage more in the crowd and slowly that stage went dark and Chris stayed behind to play some piece that sounded almost classical. He brought the energy way down and then you heard Will start on the timpani. The crowd went crazy and the lights came on and everyone was sining, "I hear Jerusalem bells a rining/ Roman calvary choirs a singing." Amazing. Will even rang a big bell during the song as well. This show was definitively more about the music than the X and Y tour, but with this album they should focus on the music because there are some powerful songs on this one.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't mention the opener. Jon Hopkins who was mixing music and creating his sounds while matching it to a cartoon. I couldn't even begin to describe the images of the cartoon we were watching, so here is a post from YouTube.

Viva La Vida

2008-07-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've got a theory on the meaning of the title track on Coldplay's new album. First, here are the lyrics. My commentary will be at the bottom.

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemies eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand

(chorus)
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People could not believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries Wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

First, of all lets look at the album art

The album artwork, which is my least favorite of all the Coldplay albums is clearly a depiction of the French Revolution. If you google image "french revolution" this painting comes up. The French flag is waving over a bloody battlefield. I don't get the exposed breasts, but that is more a commentary on the art then the meaning of the song. So, with this odd album cover about the French Revolution, some of the context for this song is established. If you go through and read some of the verses, you can start to see how this is being told from the perspective of the overthrown King Louis XVI, who "used to rule the world." This powerful man is remembering how it was when he was in charge. He could give a word and see massive changes. I think this sufficiently explains the verses.

The chorus is a bit harder to explain. I think this is remembering another historical instance of great political upheaval. Connecting the "roman cavalry" and the Jerusalem bells can be hard, but it makes me wonder when were there times the bells in Jerusalem would have been ringing. Bells for us are happy sounds, but think about them more as air raid signals. One time the bells would have been ringing was when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. Or there were times when Jerusalem was attacked by Christian "roman" armies in the crusades. These two options carry different significance.

Let's pretend it is the first option. The Jewish people had aligned themselves politically with Rome and enjoyed certain privileges that other ethnic groups did not enjoy- for instance, they did not have to worship the Caesar. Early Christians were shielded from much persecution because they were a Jewish sect. That is, until Jerusalem bells were ringing because of the Roman army. This is also when Christianity really began to spread, explaining the missionary statement.

If this is a valid explanation, why connect it to the French Revolution? At both of these times in history, these people experienced a fall from the heights. The Christians were protected before and then found themselves as martyrs, but continued to grow nonetheless. The French fell from power because their pride, and ended up at the bottom. The Christians fell, but found themselves powerful in a few generations.

This is the theme of this album. The powerful fall and the weak become strong. I believe this fits the rest of the album as well and Chris Martin's social justice emphasis.

Justice, part 2

2008-07-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

Thinking about Justice in the Bible, for my sermon this week.

To begin, Justice is directly (and somewhat obviously) linked to God as judge. This is uncomfortable for most of us. One reason has been explored a little in the previous post. Another reason is that we have had the idea of God as judge stolen from hate-spewing preachers who claim every natural disaster, terrorist attack, and calamity as the hand of God. This is not a full view of the biblical notion of justice. As a result we then discard any notion of God seeking justice and judging the earth.

Let's explore some ways God is judge in the Bible:

Genesis 3 is probably the first instance of justice in the Bible. This is the story we all know of Adam and Eve who ate from the tree and rebelled against the command of God. I can't say I understand much of this story. I don't understand why this is considered sin. I don't know why God ever told them not to eat from the tree. All I know is that it sounds remarkably similar to my own story. I know the way I should be, and yet cannot seem to achieve this kind of life. The result, God speaks judgment on Adam and Eve. The judgment God speaks is essentially mortality. Christian theology, largely due to some words of Paul, and later articulated more clearly in Augustine called this the original sin. Now the guilt of this original sin taints all of us, even babies. One thing I learn from this story is that judgment is linked to the command of God, namely I learn that there are consequences to sin. And these consequences reach far beyond me, even to subsequent generations.

Exodus 14 is the story of the parting of the Red Sea. In this passage, the Egyptians are judged for holding the Hebrews in slavery for generations. The Egyptians experienced the ten plagues and now the "horse and the chariot are cast in the sea." God judges the Egyptians and the result is the salvation of the oppressed, the Hebrews.

Later in the Scripture, God judges the people of Judah by destroying the Temple and then sending them into captivity in a foreign land. How could a good God possibly judge the people in this way? They had been led into great apostasy and were in need of severe correction. The major objection most people will (and probably should) raise is how is God good and loving when he allows (and even ordains) destruction on people?

This leads us to the main judgment in the Scripture. I'm not talking about the final judgment. The final judgment pails in comparison to this judgment. All of humanity stands condemned just as Paul (and later Augustine) taught. We stand condemned by the way we participate in the story of Adam and Eve, how we have all participated in the rebellion. We have seen that God cannot tolerate sin. I believe this is in large part because God has created us for so much more. We are created to live in the very image of God, imago Dei and yet we have settled for so much less. We have settled for a lie and when we confess this lie through our lives as the ultimate truth in our lives, then we stand condemned, condemned by our own confession. Knowing that we cannot remove this condemnation, God judges humanity. But his act of judgment is as unbelievable as you can imagine. He endures our judgment. He takes it upon himself. He assumes our judgment and releases us from judgment if we would only receive this freedom for ourselves. God is just, and in this he shows his great justice and his great mercy. How can there be mercy without judgment?

When we place our faith in this judgment, then we say in theological terms that we have been justified. We have been made right. God's justice makes us right. This is the very heart and character of God's justice. Not judgment for punishment, but judgment to make things right. We have been made right through justice; we have been justified.

This work of justice has not ended with the work of the cross and with our decision(s) to follow and obey in faith. God is continually seeking to spread his justice. This is similar to how our salvation both begins now and will be completed at the end. Justice started with Jesus and will be completed at the end. In the meantime, God is seeking to make things right. He is seeking justice to be on the earth. He is seeking to end poverty. He is seeking to end human trafficking. He is seeking to end the reign of the evil one. He is seeking to bring people out of depression. He is seeking to bring healing to broken homes. He is seeking to tople the systems that keep people down and in systems of pain and trouble and sin. He is seeking for his word to go out and bring healing. For those in the far away places to be brought into relationship. This answers the question how can God be both good and judge. The bigger question is how could a non-judgment God be good? He is seeking justice. He is seeking to make the wrong things right. God is on mission, the mission of God, the missio Dei.

The question now is turned on us. How will you respond? You've been justified, you've been made right in his image. You've been made a new creation. God is on mission, will you join him? Will you realign your life so that your life reflects the mission of God. In your job, how will you join in God's mission to make things right? In your family, how will you join in God's mission to make things right? In your free time? How about this: in your finances? Does your finances look like someone who has been justified and is now being used by God to make things right?

Justice, part 1

2008-07-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Preaching this week on God's justice.

This can be a very difficult subject, but I think is something we need to re-claim as central to our theology. We speak of mercy and grace, and yet abandon justice. I think we are afraid of this subject. This is probably due to a few reasons, but the primary reason, I contend, is that we live in a culture where the chief virtue is individualism. The lasting legacy of the Enlightenment is the individual, and if we are to say that God stands above the individual then we are assaulting some central tenets to modern thought. What if the individual is not the chief being in our world? What if there are larger forces at work than my own pursuit of happiness? What if my actions actually have consequences on others? What if there is a God who sees all of the cosmos and will hold me accountable for the ways I have selfishly lived my life?

How do I reconcile these questions with the individualism that invades our culture?

more from Wright, again.

2008-07-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

“The second feature of many communities both in the postindustrial West and in many of the poorer parts of the world is ugliness. True, some communities manage to sustain levels of art and music, often rooted in folk culture, which brings a richness even to the most poverty-stricken areas. But the shoulder-shrugging functionalism of postwar architecture, coupled with the passivity born of decades of television, has meant that for many people the world appears to offer little but bleak urban landscapes, on the one hand, and tawdry entertainment, on the other. And when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope. They internalize the message of their eyes and ears, the message that whispers that they are not worth very much, that they are in effect less than fully human.

To communities in danger of going that route, the message of new creation, of the beauty of the world that is yet to be- with part of that beauty being precisely the healing of the present anguish- comes as a surprising hope. Part of the role of the church in the past was- and could and should be again- to foster and sustain lives or beauty and aesthetic meaning at every level, from music making in the village pub to drama in the local primary school, from artists’ and photographers’ workshops to still-life painting classes, from symphony concerts to driftwood sculptures. The church, because it is the family that believes in hope for new creation, should be the place in every town and village where new creativity bursts forth for the whole community, pointing to the hope that, like all beauty, always comes as a surprise.”

more from Wright

2008-07-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

From N.T. Wright's Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and The Mission of the Church:

"How can the church announce that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil, corruption, and death itself have been defeated, and that God's new world has begun? Doesn't this seem laughable? Well, it would be if it wasn't happening. But if a church is...actively involved in in seeking justice in the world, both globally and locally, and if it's cheerfully celebrating God's good creation and its rescue from corruption in art and music, and if, in additon, its own internal life gives every sign that new creation is indeed happening, generating a new type of community- then suddenly the announcement makes a lot of sense."

I've been involved in the church my whole life. Most of the time when I read the Scripture and then look at how she is intended to be I see major disconnects. I see disconnects in the way I read Scripture and the realities of life. I see disconnects in the way the church treats the poor, the rich, the outsider, and the each other. It is hard to evangelize friends and family when they just bring up the church, and I really can't refute their frustrations with the way the church acts. However, I have this hope that it doesn't have to be like this. That the church can grow into the image of God. That we can love one another- not perfectly, but we can try. That we can care for those on the outside. That we can be responsible with our money and care for the poor and teach the rich how to be faithful with their status in life. Then when we announce the good news, there is a whole new level of authenticity and power.

Judgment

2008-07-01T13:01:00.001-07:00

From Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright regarding Jesus as the coming Judge,

The early Christians held on to a belief of Jesus as the judge even those in a liberal/postliberal worldview balk at this idea. For the early Christians the judgment of God was something to be celebrated. N.T. Wright writes, "In a world of systemic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression, the thought that there might come a day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and weak are given their due is the best news there can be. Faced with a world in rebellion, a world full of exploitation and wickedness, a good God must be a God of judgment."

It seems that these words can just as easily apply to our society. Yet, we can't imagine a God of judgment. I see maybe two reasons for this. One is that we have such an individualistic worldview that we have discounted the possibility of God acting in our world. God is not as supreme as the individual is. The other possibility is that those who reject the idea of God as judge are those who themselves will stand in judgment: those who benefit from systemic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression.

Sovereignty

2008-06-30T12:02:00.001-07:00

This week at Asbury we are looking at God's Sovereignty, especially from Psalm 33. We read in the Psalm verses like,

"For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does" (33:4)

"The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples" (33:10)

"No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength" (33:16)

These are just a few verses about God's sovereignty, about how God is active and alive in the world. About how God's words stand true despite anything that stand against his plans and purposes.

The thing about these verses is that I should whole heartedly get behind theses words. I should be stirred by the greatness of our God. The thing is, when I read these words I usually am left asking myself how much I really believe in this kind of concept. I tend to be a hyper-Arminian in terms of God's sovereignty. I tend to see the human involvement in life, and the human choice in the actions of the nations and the individuals. Theses verses are redirecting me to think through this concept a bit. God is working in the world. I've been told my entire life that life is what I make it. Success and failure ultimately depend on me and my ability. This is the American dream- the self-made man who only had pennies to his name then became the wealthy and the powerful. This is a lie according to the Biblical narrative. The truth is that God is active in the world, and for the blessings I experience or the failures I experience I need to look to God. The Psalm declares that no one is saved by the size of his army, the same is true for us in terms of our own "armies." Those things we set up as safeguards against destruction: wealth, education, possessions, etc. I am not saved by these things. Saved here is not the eternal kind of salvation like most evangelicals talk about. Saved in this Psalm is the more temporal salvation. The salvation from destruction. The salvation from misery. The salvation from torment and tyranny. Salvation is the blessings in life. No "army" is going to save me, only the LORD.

Glory

2008-06-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm preaching this weekend on God's glory. The main question that comes out of looking at God's glory is how do I bring glory to God. I've been giving this some thought for several years. In some ways, this question is answered by many that to give God glory I have to achieve something great. After all, greatness= glory. This is true in some ways. God's greatness is demonstrated in his glory. They are definitely linked. The glory of God is the weightiness of God's greatness. It is the magnitude of his being. It is the splendor of his love. It is the demonstration of his holiness. In the OT it is something that literally shows up: Ex 33, Is 6. This is true (in some ways) in the NT as well as in Matt 17.

However, in the NT something strange happens with the concept of glory. John 1:14 says, "The Word (the Son) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." This is remarkable. The glory of God is God in his finest, when he is surrounded by the heavenly chorus shouting "Hosanna in the highest....Holy is the Lord...The earth is full of his glory...Hallelujah..." And yet, John says that he, in eyewitness, language has seen, himself, the glory of God. The OT describes the glory in cloud like fashion. Yet John says, he has seen it! How has he seen it? The Word made his dwelling among us. He saw it in the life of Jesus. In the ordinary. He saw it in the flesh and blood of a person- in Jesus Christ, his friend. He saw the greatness of God expressed in a carpenter, who wandered around the countryside teaching and preaching. He saw the glory of God in the death of Jesus and in the resurrection. Jesus didn't walk around in a halo, but in Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In Jesus, is the true image of God's glory. In Jesus, is the image of what it means to glorify God- to humble yourself, even to the point of death...that God might rise you up. Humility leads to exaltation.

This example of what it means to glorify God is contrary to our thought that for me to glorify God means that I have to be some Superbowl champion. My wealth is not the glory God seeks. My victory is not the glory God seeks. My abilities are not the glory God seeks. Humility in the image of Jesus is the glory God seeks.

It reminds me of the story of Jim Ryun, one of my heroes. Ryun was the first high schooler to run under 4:00 min in the mile. He held the world record at 3:51 and was a three time Olympian. Ryun ran in the '64 Tokyo Games as an 18 year old. Then at age 22 he ran in Mexoco City in '68 and because of a sickness and lack of altitude training he got second. He gave up running and moved to CA, where through some friends at a Bible Study gave his heart to the Lord. He started running again because of his new found faith. He was going to work his way back into the Olympics so he could use his gifts in glory of God. He would run after that elusive gold medal and in his victory glorify God. However, he never really got the chance. In the prelims, he was tripped with an obvious foul by an unknown runner. He fell pretty early in the race, never able to make up the ground. Even though, he was the world record holder, he was not reinstated to the next round (not even the finals!). He walked away completely dejected. He was running now because of his faith. But he failed in bringing glory to God.

But we remember that it was in the humility of Christ that John saw God's glory. It was in the defeat that God came and really changed Ryun's life that he could see his own self-worth in the love of his Savior, not in his ability to accomplish. So, we ask the question what does it mean to glorify God? It means we follow the path of our Savior. Humility before exaltation. I'm going to accept what comes my way because I see a bigger picture than myself. I'm going to base my life on God's work in me, not on my ability to bring God glory. I'm going to choose the life of humility, the life of generosity, the life of the cross. And in this God is supremely glorified.

Get Smart

2008-06-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Saw Get Smart this weekend. I wasn't really wanting to see this movie, but it is Steve Carell so I thought I should give it a chance. The thing is I recently watched Evan Almighty on one of the free movie channels I get with my dish, and I had to redeem that movie from the awful acting and writing. The previews for Get Smart made the movie look pretty funny, and so my expectations were somewhat high, but nothing like they were for Indiana Jones. My friend, Lauren, says that you can tell how good a movie will be by how many trailers you see for it on tv. I've seen a lot for Get Smart. And by watching all these trailers I think I saw all the funny parts. There may have been a few other laughs that slipped in, but not many.

I wasn't hoping for this fresh comedy that I would experience from say Thank You for Smoking, but I was at least expecting to be entertained. I did pay $8.25 for a ticket. I was pretty disappointed though. At one point I had to go to the bathroom just to give myself a break. It wasn't just that I wasn't entertained, I was flat out bored! The jokes were predictable and not delivered with the same sharpness of Steve Carell that I've seen from 40 Year Old Virgin or Bruce Almighty, or even Anchorman. It was rough, and boring.

Captivity

2008-06-17T06:52:00.001-07:00

This is the last and final week of the series from Kings. Kings ends in melancholy. The kingdom is destroyed and the promise of David seems to be forgotten. The Davidic king is sent into exile into a foreign land along with most of the people, and the promise of Abraham also seems to be forgotten. I read the story and I see zero hope in this story.

This is a troubling story. I've heard my whole life that God's plans are perfect and in him there is hope and peace, but when I read a story like this I begin to question those things I've always heard. Even knowing the rest of the story, how the nation lived in a downward spiral of increasing sin and deprivation, I am still left with question after question on why this happened. The really troubling part of this is that I can't be too harsh on the people of Judah or their kings because time after time in this series I've seen my own story. Solomon compromised; I compromise. Rehoboam's pride; Spencer's pride....etc. It makes me wonder about my own captivity and exile. It makes me wonder how I might incur God's judgment. Very troubling.

One thing I've been trying to grow in the last few years is seeing salvation in both temporal and eternal terms. My God saves me, and I believe he saves me now. He saves me from myself now. He saves me from sin now. Eternally this salvation will be complete, but I live into it now. This is a major shift from usual evangelical thinking that limits salvation to eternity only...salvation is only concerned with the soul. I take this from Wesley, salvation begins "at the first dawning of grace until the soul is consummated in glory" (my favorite Wesley quote).

If I believe this about salvation, then I need to also believe this conversely about judgment. Judgment is not only limited to the eternal. Hell is not the only manifestation of judgment. I believe we experience judgment now, which is why the Kings story is so troubling. I don't think this means cities are destroyed. I don't think Katrina or 9/11 was judgment from God. I do though resonate with Paul's understanding in Romans, "the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness...for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him...therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity."
Paul goes on later in Romans to talk about salvation in terms of captivity. We are held in captivity, or slavery, to sin until Christ brings us peace with God and makes us slaves to righteousness. In this light, I wonder what I may be in captivity to. I wonder if there are ways I have incurred God's judgment, the horrible judgment of being separated from him, of having my relationship with God estranged for any reason.

"But who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" - Romans 7:24

Building Committee

2008-06-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

This last week was the first service of the Venue68. Tom came in for a live sermon. He began his sermon giving credit to the building committee and the staff/volunteers who oversaw the completion of the buildings. As Tom was going through the names on the various committees, he asked people to stand to be recognized. Somewhat embarrassing was the fact that only a few of the building members were not in the service of almost a 1,000 people. Reflecting on that a little more though, this is a great testimony to Asbury that so few people were actually in the service. This reflects a community of people (mostly older) who have nothing personal to gain from the completion of the building. They will not benefit from this building. They will not experience the programs, the worship, the community. However, they saw the Kingdom growing through this building. Even though it did not involve them or benefit them they worked hard on building this building for others. This is living in the image of Christ, a selfless love for others and the Kingdom that transcends what you will get out of this.

Charlie Wilson's War

2008-06-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

I watched Charlie Wilson's War this weekend. The more I watch Philip Seymour Hoffman, the more I think he is a genius. In this movie, he plays the best role for him an arrogant, angry, frustrated man trying to create great change in the world. The whole premise of the movie is wrapped up in a parable Hoffman tells to Tom Hanks character, Charlie Wilson. In a village in Japan there is a boy who while walking in the forest is attacked by a tiger. He barely lives and loses use of his legs. All of the towns people lament the tragedy and say the boy's life is over. The village Zen master simply replies, "We'll see." A few years later a war breaks out and all the men are recruited for the army. All the people begin to rejoice at this turn of event. Now the man will not have to go off to war. What a blessing, say all the people. The Zen master replies, "we'll see." The parable continues with tribulations and apparent blessings for a few more turns, each time the response is "we'll see."

This parable plays well into the point of the movie. Just because the effort to arm the Afghanistan's seems to have worked against the Soviets, we'll see on the success. I think this is a good word for Christians and the battles we march into. Sometimes, it seems the victories we experience lead to another challenge, and then without longterm eyes we think that challenge is the total downfall, but we'll see how that turns out. Speaking on legacy this Sunday, we need to remember the long term effect of each of our decisions.

The Frozen Donkey Wheel

2008-06-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

Every season of LOST has ended with spectacular season finales. Season one was my favorite ending, even though it was not the best season. Walt being taken from Michael by the Others and the light in the hatch turning on was superb. TV doesn't get much better than that. Season two with the hatch blowing up and the final scene of Penny's crew in the arctic looking for the signal was also brilliant. Season three was great with Charlie becoming a martyr for the group and telling Desmond that the boat was not from Penny led to great suspense in the off months. However, I didn't think this season finale of LOST, The Frozen Donkey Wheel, led us with as much excitement as the others.

First of all, Ben had to move the Island by moving a frozen donkey wheel. Gob Bluth said it well, "Come on!" Then he simply disappeared in the North African desert where we already saw his story. It doesn't get too much cheasier than that. Of course Locke had to take over the Island, that was not a big surprise. The writers have been hinting at that since season 2, maybe even season 1. So, it was no real surprise that he would be the one in the coffin. The only real question is how did he get all this power over the Oceanic Six? Why are they so scared of him and won't even call him John Locke? This doesn't energize me the same way the previous season finales have.

Legacy

2008-06-02T11:33:00.000-07:00

Sermon this week is on Legacy based on Hezekiah's end of life story found in 2 Kings 20. In short, the story of Hezekiah is that he shows off the royal treasury to an envoy from the "distant land" of Babylon. The prophet Isaiah then confronts him about his decision to show off the treasury by telling that now future generations will be taken captive and serve in the courts of Babylon. It is not certain whether this was in response to what Hezekiah did or because of another variable. But either way, Hezekiah replies in an unfortunately short-sighted response, "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good...will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"

The issue of legacy in Hezekiah's life is disappointing. This is a king who has been faithful and is praised in the Scripture for tearing down the high places and being devoted to the LORD. He is faithful even when the Assyrians come against Judah. This is a man whose legacy should stretch into many generations. Hezekiah's legacy is then two-fold. On one hand, he somehow led to the exile by his foolish decision to show off his wealth. On the other hand, his legacy is shown in his child Manasseh who the Bible describes as sinful. Just one generation removed from Hezekiah the kingdom is again under the rule of sinful leaders.

Legacy is an important issue in the Bible. I think of the Old Testament that speaks of generations teaching future generations how to serve the LORD. Blessings stretch into the future because of a faithful generation; whereas cursing also stretches forward to future generations for sin. Psalm 145 says one generation will speak of the LORD to the next. Abraham's blessing doesn't fall on him, but on future generations. The kings of Judah reign because of David and the promise made to a man generations before their own rule. The words the patriarchs speak over their children determine how that generation will live. Generational issues are major theme in the Bible.

Even in our time, we struggle with understanding generational issues. The boomers don't like the WWII generation and vice versa. Generation X don't share the values of boomers. And then there are millinialists, like myself who see Xers as the silent generation that didn't fix the problems the boomers brought. But at the same time we hardly see the same tendency of individualism and materialism that the boomers taught us.

I find it impossible right now to think of the legacy I, and my generation, will leave because that is far removed from my thought process right now. But when I think about the future, I think about it in very pessimistic ways, which I think is a tendency of those my age. There are many things that look like they might just destroy our way of life: global warming, terrorism/ and war on terror, social security, massive national debt, massive personal debt of our parents, and a value system that we question in terms of individualism and materialism. What kind of legacy have we been left with?

I can't simply leave it with that though. I recognize that for the most part, we've been left a series of problems that is up to us to fix. In terms of the church, it is up to me and those my age, to re-imagine the church for a new generation that has not been exposed to her message of love and grace through Christ. In terms of the world, it is up to us to re-imagine what it is to live responsibly in the world. To live with justice and mercy in mind. To live in the image of Christ. The choice is up to us to step up to the plate and make a difference.

Facebook Church

2008-05-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately about social networking website in terms of ministry, primarily my thoughts are social networking as a primary means of ministry. A few conversations in the last few weeks have prompted some of my thoughts.

First, talking to Todd Craig about college students away, he mentioned how some freshman have a hard time forming new relationships particularly in their second semester of school because their first semester they simply maintained previous relationships through Facebook. I didn't have that temptation, but I did notice that in my freshman year there were some who tended to struggle with isolation and lonliness and if a social networking site was available that would easily have replaced relationships within the new context.

Second, I met with a church member about using social networking to engage people outside of the Tulsa area. LifeChurch, for instance, uses Second Life. This person was pushing me to think of our new ministry, the Venue68, in broader terms of the Tulsa area.

Third, at Annual Conference a teen stood up during our Strategic Plan presentation to share about evangelism. She shared the importance of using Facebook in terms of evangelism, instead of home visitation, which is what most people were used to.

So, here's my confusing. On one hand, I am fully behind using Facebook/MySpace in terms of ministry because it is a way to speak the gospel in the common "vernacular." Missionary efforts always need to take into account speaking according to the local languages. When Europe was being evangelized a common debate between the East and West, among other things, was translating the Mass into the common vernacular for the new converts. The West held, until Vatican II, that Latin was the appropiate language, and that converts would need to learn Latin. Subsequently, people who could not read Latin had no access to the Bible. The Reformers rebelled against this idea, and many people were martyred because they sought to speak the gospel according to the common vernacular. So, as we move into a new era in the world, are we speaking in the common vernacular or forcing people to communicate in antiquated means?

On the other hand, the gospel is incarnational. God did not virtually become flesh. "The Word became flesh and dwelled among us." Furthermore, we remember the gospel through tangible means- we eat the bread and drink the wine, and are covered in actual water. In addition, Christian community, while universal, actually works on a local level with real people living in real ways, with real problems. Can you have Christian community via a social network?

Annual Conference

2008-05-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've been in Annual Conference all this week. This has been referred to by Todd Craig as watching C-SPAN, which is about right. Annual Conference is the annual meeting of the United Methodist pastors and lay leaders in the Oklahoma Conference. It is considered the business meeting of the UM connection, but there is little business to be done, it is rather all reports on the status of various ministries in OK. I've sat through many, many 5-25 minute reports on the status of various things such as campus ministries, camping ministries, United Methodist Women/Men/Youth, committees on race and reconciliation, the Black church, the Hispanic church, the rural church...

Wesley called annual conference a means of grace, that is a way we encounter God's grace in our lives. He called this experience "holy conferencing." I can't imagine that our current practice is similar to Wesley's holy conferencing experiences. I don't feel refreshed by the annual conference experience, instead I tend to be put in a foul mood. Yet, there are many pastors and lay leaders who tend to love this experience.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

2008-05-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the latest Indiana Jones movie. This is the first movie I had seen in an opening weekend in a long time. I was so excited I even bought popcorn and a coke, two things I never do! The Indiana Jones trilogy has been one of my favorite movies of all time. I love the adventure, the humor, and the characters in all of the Indiana Jones (even the Temple of Doom). However, I walked out of this movie saying to Abby, "my childhood has been ruined!"

This movie had elements of the old movies, but none of the fun. I did laugh out loud a few times, and I did enjoy seeing the car chases- classic Indie movies, but the rest of the movie was a waste of time. Aliens!! Come on!

The woman was the same character from the Last Crusade. Harrison Ford struggled delivering lines, and he walked and looked like an old man. And in the end, Indiana gets married?!? I guess Indiana Jones is all grown up now, he is now Henry Jones and not Indiana Jones.

On top of it all, this movie was outrageous in the stunts- even for an Indiana Jones. Falling off the three waterfalls, running the duck off the cliff hitting the tree and then going into the river, barely escaping the ants... Come on! The old movies didn't go that far! On top of it, it was more believable because Harrison wasn't so stinkin' old.

Honesty

2008-05-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

This week's sermon is on honesty. Looking at the story of Joash, the child king of Judah, who was a good king because he was raised by the priest Jehoiada. Tom made the sermon about honesty, and I had a hard time seeing honesty in the text. Instead, I saw mentoring.

So, I was thinking about honesty in the Bible. On one hand, I can take honesty to be a moralistic message on truth telling. Indeed, truth telling is important, but the truth is everyone lies at some point. If my wife looks bad, I tell her she looks good. If someone preaches a bad sermon, I tell them it was good. It is just natural to tell these little white lies. Is that sinful? Or is brutal honesty sinful? How do you speak the truth in love, as the Bible would say?

Then if I explore the Scripture about honesty I see some different ideas. In the prayer journal, there were two troubling stories. One was from the story of Joseph in Gen 42. This is the story of his reunion with his brothers. In this story, he frames Benjamin as lies about his identity. What do I learn about honesty from him here?

Then there is the very troubling passage from Luke 16. This is the parable of the shrewd manager who lies about how much people owe him, and Jesus commends him because Christians should be shrewd. Does this mean Christians should be dis-honest?

Then there is the prophetic and wisdom literature ideas on honesty, which is having balanced scales and treating people fairly.

I think the prophetic and wisdom lit. seems to hit the idea in the center. Honesty is essentially connected to living honesty. Does our confession, Jesus is Lord match our lives? Are we honest with this confession? Or rather is our life honest?

Yet another side of this is the the idea of truth vs. lie. Jesus is said to be the one who is truth in John 14:6 and furthermore truth is said to set us free once we know it. I think this happens on two levels. First, on a real practical level, living in ignorance is never free. Instead to live in ignorance is to enslave you to whatever idea it is. Maybe you don't know abestos is destructive, just because you don't know that doesn't make it not true. The same is true for our salvation. Just because you don't know the truth of Christ, doesn't make it not true. Just because you don't believe in God, doesn't mean God doesn't exist. So, when we come to the truth and put our trust in the One who is True, then we are set free from the deceptions that enslave us. Or rather, we are set free from the deceiver who enslaves us. We don't have to buy into the lie that our purpose is to serve ourselves and that happiness is the ultimate end in life. Rather, the truth sets us free to live in a new life free of the deception that lead us away from ultimate truth and ultimate meaning.

Moving Day?

2008-05-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

Moving day was supposed to be on Tuesday, but nothing new has been done to the building. Hope to get in my by late next week.

Day With the Bishop

2008-05-23T09:30:00.001-07:00

I spent most of yesterday with a group of new clergy and the Bishop of the Oklahoma Annual Conference, Bob Hayes. I can't say that I enjoyed myself. The thing about this meeting is that I continually struggle with the connectionalism of the United Methodist Church. I'm sure the Bishop and the cabinent saw this as a profitable time, but its not like I am building meaningful relationship. And on top if of all that, I see church ministry very differently than a lot of these people who are maintaining the organization. How do I network with people who have very little in common with me?

And yet at the exact same time, I love the connectionalism of the United Methodist Church. I love that every church will have a qualified pastor, maybe not effective, but qualified nonetheless. I love that if I ever really needed help, or just needed someone to cover for me, there is a DS or another pastor in town to help. I love the fact that I am accountable to someone, and everyone is accountable to each other. I love the fact that I cannot be fired from a church for upsetting people.

Yet, I don't seem to enjoy the connection...which leaves me thinking about what this relationship is really supposed to look like.

Free Grace and The Kite Runner

2008-05-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm preaching this week on Naaman's healing in 2 Kings 5. This is a story of Naaman, a great military leader, who even fights against Israel coming before Elisha in order to be healed. Two points emerge from this story. One is the universality of God's salvation. God is at work in the world, whether we acknowledge it or not. This has great implications for us.

Second, is the free nature of the healing he received. He comes bringing payment for his healing to pay the prophet. Prophets usually accepted payment for their work, such as Balaam. Elisha ends up turning his money away, which leads to next week on Greed. Naaman, because of his own greatness, expects Elisha to respond in greatness as well. I think he is expecting fanfare and fawning over Naaman. Instead, Elisha does not come out of his house and just sends a servant to talk to Naaman. He is told simply to go dip in the Jordan seven times and he will be healed. Strange.

He is upset by this, and I think it is because he expected some sort of magic trick that he would have to pay for and instead found an expression of grace that cost him nothing but some pride. I think the implications here are massive. The Msg offers this translation: "If the Prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn't you have done it? So, why not this simple wash and be clean?

How often do we make this so much harder than they really have to be? Naaman is looking for a way to make his healing justifiable through some hard work or through some payment of some money. Instead, Elisha evens the tables. If it were not so, then only those who could afford to be made well or who had the courage to do some daring task like a warrior would be made clean (or saved). Instead, Elisha makes it accessible to all.

In this he reminds me of Khaled Hosseini's book The Kite Runner. This is a book about the need to make his redemption justifiable. Hossein's main character is Amir. He is narrating the story of his life. He is born into privilege before the Soviet Union takes over Afghanistan. His father is wealthy and has a sevant and his servant has a son, Hasan. Amir and Hasan are best friends, even though they are not on equal terms. Hasan always has to serve Amir, even in their friendship. One day, Hasan and Amir get jumped by a gang in the street and Hasan offers himself in a daring move to distract the gang from grabbing Amir. In that shuffle, Amir is able to get away unnoticed and hide out of view. From his hideout, he sees a detestable act as Hasan is raped by this gang of teenage boys. Amir leaves and doesn't help Hasan at all. He doesn't even see his friend for several days. Then finally he sees him, but his relationship is ruined. Instead of being friends, they're relationship is now relegated to servant-master. Amir feels very guilty because he was too cowardly to help his friend, but his guilt just keeps driving them further and further apart. During all of this time, Hasan remains very faithful to Amir even though Amir keeps treating him worse and worse.

After awhile, the Soviets come into the nation and he and his father have to flee. They leave behind Hasan in Afghanistan because Amir accuses him of stealing so he won't have to go with them to Pakistan and then later to America. That one instance ends up defining both Hasan and Amir. Later in life, Amir is a grown man living in California with his wife and his demons from the past come back and end up driving him back to Afghanistan to make things better. He ends up having to be faced with some "hard and heroic" deeds in order to get rid of his guilt and his shame from the past.

In that story I hear Naaman's story. I hear my story. Now, to be sure God always wants us to be heroic in our pursuit of righteousness, but not to earn Christ's righteousness. I just know that for me, so much of life is lived with the idea that I need to do something heroic in order to find my redemption. I need to at least wash in a better river than I'm told. It can't be that God's grace and healing are free to me and only cost me my pride. Its impossible to believe that God could heal someone even like me simply by his word. Surely, I have to show my faith. Surely, I have to earn my redemption. Surely, I have to earn my healing. How could it be any other way?

Sacrements and Deacons

2008-05-05T19:26:00.001-07:00

I heard today that Deacons in the United Methodist Church have been given sacramental authority by the General Conference. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, the church has needed to respond to a changing understanding of the Deacon. Asbury, for instance, has deacons as associate pastors the same as elders. These deacons are even the leader of the worshiping congregation, but not the sacremental leader. Certain services at Asbury have had to bring in outside elder leadership. That doesn't make any sense. However, Asbury has also hired to additional elders so I think they have solved their problem.

The new understanding is that deacons can serve the sacraments in the absence of the elder with the consent of the Bishop in their appointed setting. Kind of confusing. Makes me wonder when that would ever be the case. Is this intended for agency work, because when else would an elder not be present in the life of the church?

This is a step in the right direction in getting the sacramental power outside of one order, however, I'm not sure it is defined clearly enough by the Discipline. Some people could manipulate that pretty easily and have a bunch of deacons and give them sacramental authority. However, most deacons understand that they have given up that authority to take that order because that order is not intended to lead the church through order or sacrament. It kind of makes me think it is just for agency work.

Renaissance Fair

2008-05-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday, I spent a very strange afternoon at the Muskogee Renaissance Festival. Now, I was very hesitant on going to the fair, but Abby, Jason and Emily all wanted to go so I decided to not be a kill joy and take the trip out there to attend the Renaissance Festival. First of all, I was skeptical on the Renaissance culture in Muskogee, OK. I've driven through this town enough not to expect anything spectacular.

As we were driving into the parking lot, which was a grove of pine trees that surprised me because I was expecting a gravel parking lot, I noticed some of the people getting out of their minivans and pickups were actually dressed as middle ages people. The women were wearing long dresses, the men were in tights and carried swords. I thought it odd the actors would be arriving so late in the day.

Jason offered me a pair of sunglasses for the day. I turned them down because I was wearing a hat and didn't want to wear them. However, after I bought my ticket and saw how people were dressed I had to change my mind and go back and put on some dark sun glasses so I could stare at people because of their ridiculous outfits. I couldn't believe what people were wearing. As soon as we entered there were a bunch of women dressed as wenches or whores (not sure I know the difference). I couldn't believe how much cleavage they were showing. But it wasn't just them because everywhere I looked were women wanting to show off their bust in their wench dress.

We all walked through the "village" with a shocked jaw dropped expression on our face as we didn't talk to each other for a good five minutes. Instead we simply stared at the fake town being manned by the various characters. The thing was, it wasn't just the characters that were dressed up. Apparently, normal (or rather "normal") people were also dressed up in character even though they paid to get into the festival the same as us.

I couldn't believe my eyes all afternoon. I never did get used it. I was shocked by the bad English accents these Okies were trying to pull off. I was shocked by the lack of decency. I was shocked how these people had found themselves. I was left wondering how these people ever got into this. Here is the steps I propose:
1. attend Renaissance festival
2. return to Renaissance festival
3. purchase small piece of costume
4. speak in English accent
5. purchase full costume

I hope I never proceed past step 1.

Heritic

2008-04-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Newbigin's The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. He wrote this on page 40:
"In a pre-Enlightenment society there are only a few heretics in the original sense of the word, that is to say, only a few people who make their own decisions about what to believe. For the vast majority faith is not a matter of personal decision: it is simply the acceptance of what
everybody accepts because it is obviously the case. There is no alternative and no personal
chose. By contrast, in a post-Enlightenment society we are all required to be heretics, we are all required to make a personal choice."

I like this imagery of heresy as describing the authority structure Christians need to appeal to in a post-Enlightenment society. He opens the chapter discussing how an argument based on the authority of the Church or the Bible is not a valid approach because it is making assumptions about other people that simply aren't true, namely that others value the authority of the Church and the Bible.

However, to engage in this culture, we need to develop the idea of heresy. Namely, why is our personal choice to follow the traditions laid out in the Bible or through the Church. I think this is the challenge of the modern church. How will we communicate the validity of the traditions we hold to, when those traditions are no longer a valuable source of authority in our culture.

This has massive implications. Evangelism, for instance, has long been thought of as getting people to assent to some doctrinal statements (i.e. virgin birth) . If people believe, in the sense of affirmation, that certain doctrines are true then we have been successful in the evangelistic activity of the church. This also drives our discipleship. Christian education is concerned about getting people to believe the same thing, instead of getting people to be somewhat heretical in the sense that they need to understand the truth behind the authority for themselves. This a challenging viewpoint, especially in a non-congregational church polity.

Confessions of a Young Elder

2008-04-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

This came from a paper I wrote for my internship. With General Conference in full swing, I think it is appropriate to publish my grievances.

The United Methodist Church is overburdened in institutionalism. A quick look at the Book of Discipline will show the great institutionalism of the church. Many leaders I have come across are more concerned with the institution that they are concerned about the local churches that make up the institution or the actual people of the local churches that make up the institution. A district superintendent, for instance, told me of the process of making appointments. Three questions are asked with each appointment. First, is the appointment made for the good of the annual conference; second, is the appointment made for the good of the local church; third, is the appointment made for the good of the pastor. That is completely wrong. The annual conference question should be the last questions. The annual conference exists for the good of the church, not the church for the good of the annual conference. I wonder how I can spend my life supporting a church with such thinking.

One of the things I like about the United Methodist Church is the fact that we were founded based on the pragmatics of preaching the gospel, as opposed to a doctrinal system like so many other Protestant denominations. Early Methodist polity was simply about the best way to spread the good news. Now, we support a polity that hinders are spreading of the gospel. Why? Because we love our institution more than we love those who are Lord loves. Itinerancy, in our current form, does not help us in reaching new people, it simply helps us keep churches open that should otherwise close because they are not doing anything evangelistically and are not concerned about the gospel. I wonder how I can spend my life supporting a church with such thinking.

On to ordination. The ordination process is supremely concerned with supporting the institution. The reason the ordination process is so cumbersome is because the local church has given up her responsibility of raising up men and women who are called by God to invest their lives in vocational ministry. The local church has instead sent these men and women to seminaries far away from their local church and then asked the Board of Ordained Ministry to then evaluate them when they exit from their graduate theological training. The problem here is the zero investment of relationship. How is this living the gospel where there is no community investment? I was contacted rarely by my home conference, and never to care for me or offer me encouragement. The BOM is simply a way of forgoing the community of the redeemed that we call a church. The BOM is interested in finding men and women who can operate in a bureaucratic institution and then later on support that same institution. I wonder how I can spend my life supporting a church with such thinking.

Now that I have hashed out some of my grievances, I will move on to my anger. Much of my anger stems from a call I feel from God, and a lack of ability to carry that out with real integrity in this system. I see many clergy in the United Methodist Church with no creativity, and no zeal for Christ, and especially no zeal for preaching the life transforming message of salvation. I can’t believe they were always like this. I can’t believe they entered seminary with this cynicism and jaded outlook. Where did it come from? In my eyes and from my perspective, it looks like the church just beat the shit out of some of these pastors. I fear for my future when I see them. Never do I want to be in their shoes. If I stay in the connection long enough, then I imagine that I will feel like they feel.

In addition to the depressed pastors, I don’t see much willingness from conference leaders to engage young clergy, which infuriates me. The United Methodist Church is almost dead! If we would wake up and have a sense of desperation that finally welcomes the idea that we have no idea what we are doing as a denomination then maybe we can start to make some headway. We are not living in the 1960s when the church was a large institution with much sway. We are living in a society with no interest in the church. We are losing scores of young members because there is enough arrogance in the older generation that refuses to listen to the idea that maybe, just maybe, they don’t know what they are doing after all. The younger clergy, like myself, also might not know but we are willing to try. We haven’t been beat up yet, we have some optimism, some hope that Christ did in fact raise from the dead and in that we have hope that this message still has some power and can still transform a heart.

Preaching on defeat

2008-04-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

One of my goals when I preach is to take an idea and think about how my audience would not have heard it preached like that before. Usually, that just means I do my homework and provide some exegesis and that satisfies my creativity and my desire for something fresh. So few pastors take the time to read and study.

So, this week, I'm preaching on Elijah in 1 Kings 19. I love the story of Elijah, but it is somewhat difficult to preach because there is just so much there. Following the prophets of Baal confrontation in chapter 18, Elijah hits the bottom. In the end of chapter 18 we see that he is curled up in a little ball unable to even look to see if the rainclouds are coming. One commentator says that he is in a state of intense prayer. I see him more like Rainman with his knees to his chest rocking back and forth trying shut out the world. Been there, done that. Also reminds me of Don Chafer song, Leave Me Alone on the album Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth. The song lyrics:

Turn out the lights
Close the door
I’ll not be taking visitors anymore

Shut off the power
Take down the sign
And let the machine answer the line

CHORUS
Leave me alone
Not because I’m angry
Just because I need to hear myself breathe
And be alive
And wonder why she’s gone

Since I was a boy
Always her voice
Was ringing in the air around our home

How still the air
Winter is here
But missing is her warm familiar tone

It is a pretty powerful song about the death of his mom.

So, I see this story of Elijah and I hear this song playing. Melancholy. Depression. Despair. Defeat. Elijah has been enormously successful in his career, he singlehandedly confronted the prophets of Baal and the powerful King Ahab of the northern kingdom, and yet he is still depressed and still feels the need to run away. I don't really get that. I think he would be on cloud nine soaking up the affirmation of his success. If I read the chapter before (1 Kings 17) I read about how Elijah correctly prophesies a drought (which is an affront to Baal- the Phoenician storm god); how he flees but is fed by ravens; how he gives a woman an unending jar of oil and flour to make bread; and how he raises that woman's son from death. Then he goes on Mt. Carmel for the showdown, and wins. Pretty successful guy.

But then he changes. He has to flee once again and finds himself in a deep depression, and what I would describe as he feels defeated, which could be debated on whether or not he really is defeated. He then goes off into the desert and reenacts the Exodus story: runs into the desert, prays for death (Nm 11:5), is provided food, eats unleavened bread, goes to Mt. Horeb, goes into a cave and has a theophany (Ex 33). Sounds familiar, a little too familiar. It reminds me of how God has always been a savior, especially to those who are down and out.

Then comes the theophany. A mighty wind. An earthquake. A fire. YWHW is not in any of those forces of nature, those signs of judgment. Then comes the "sound of sheer silence." Oxymoron- sound of silence? Almost as if God is present even in absence. That's powerful!

If I think about Elijah's life, I am struck by how this experience came here in his life. Why did this powerful theophany occur here, and not in the "victorious" moments of his life? Not in the "wins." I'm not sure I understand that, except that it seems entirely consistent with Scripture.
God chose Israel. Weak. Little. Insignificant. Slave nation. Unfaithful. Israel. He didn't chose the "winners" in Egypt, he chose the losers in Israel. God came as flesh, Immanuel, in the darkest of times for the Hebrews. Not in times of independence and wealth, but while they were under the control of the most powerful empire ever. On top of that, Christ did not achieve our salvation through means of victory, but through means of defeat. Through destruction. Through death. Through obedience to authorities who had no authority over him. In this way he overcame death and sin. Victory was won through the strangest way. It was won through death and defeat. Victory was won in a way that makes me very uncomfortable.

Major implications to this. How can I align myself with the culture of winning? Our culture is bred to accomplish and overcome. Afterall, survival of the fittest. I must be the fittest in order to survive. I must be great an makes others weak. I must win at the expense of another. Even the way I understand God, better come through my winning, my achievement, my accomplishment to not sin or to glorify him with what I can do. I must be the champion in order to glorify God, or even to approach him. Can God accept me and be pleased with me, when I am defeated? When I am in despair? When I am depressed?

This is exactly what Elijah teaches. God comes to us when we are at the bottom. When we are hungry and not full. When we are weak and not strong. When we are humble and not proud. This is the gospel. This is the gospel that brings freedom and brings new life. That in him, my life is totally changed. The pressure of measuring up and "winning" is gone because in Christ my victory is won and now I don't have to wonder what to do when I am not victorious. Can the grace of God spread even to me?

Blind Spot

2008-04-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

I remembered this story last week during my sermon on Wise Counsel.

After the ice storm, my car was left without a driver side mirror. I waited until after Christmas to get it fixed, and the day before it was scheduled to go in for the repair I was driving on 71st and Harvard and glanced over my shoulder but didn't see anyone so I started to change lanes. A large white Dodge pickup had been driving in my blind spot, which was even bigger because there was no mirror and I slammed my car in the side of his truck. It turned out to be an Asbury member and so I was hoping for some special treatment but I still had to pay my deductible.

OSU Campus Visit

2008-04-16T11:56:00.001-07:00

We went to OSU three weeks ago on a campus visit. Going on this campus visit helped me to understand Asbury in a much better way. Asbury is a church that has invested heavily in student ministry, and it shows. These students have a heart for God, and a heart to serve God through missions. I heard story after story about students choosing to go overseas for the summer or the year after graduation to serve God in missions. I couldn't believe how ingrained it was in the students. My respect level sky-rocketed for the work of the student ministry at Asbury.

Jon Bon Jovi

2008-04-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Last night, Todd and I went on a campus visit to OU and on the way back met up with the Blagg who had free tickets to Jon Bon Jovi. Now, I am not a big Bon Jovi fan, but I can't pass up a free arena concert.

The whole experience was like I was stepping back in time. The guitarist looked like he was straight out of the 80s wearing a top hat and a long coat with tails. Bon Jovi was wearing a vest with nothing on underneath, and the sound was straight from I love the 80's.

I looked around the sea of people to see 16,000 40 year old men and women reliving their glory days as high schoolers. Many were rockin it out with Jon and making out and grooving with people around them. At one point Todd said to me that if I was around in ten years and ever saw him acting like that to quickly point out the ridiculousness of the action.

Liquor License

2008-03-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

We went camping in Devil's Den this past weekend. Since we forgot to bring beer, Abby went into "town" to see if she could come up with some while I was setting up the tent in scattered rain. After over an hour she finally returned from West Fork, Arkansas empty handed. Turns out the beer couldn't be bought because the churches had bought up all the liquor licenses in that town. I don't know if that is even possible, but even the idea raises several points. First and most importantly, this is the classic case of Christ against culture. Normally this is done through political power. However, here it is done through the free market- capitalism at its best.
Furthermore, what a stand to take, churches! Good job on establishing the right standards.

Lent

2008-02-28T08:49:00.001-08:00

From Churchmarketingsucks.com

We're playing telephone today: we got a link from the Cheapertising blog who highlighted the Got Religion blog who covered a story from the Telegraph. It takes a timely look at the season of Lent in the Netherlands, and a current re-branding that's under way. I'll quote:

"Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the 'Christian Ramadan' in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity."

As the season of Lent has become less important for the Dutch over the past years, they feel something must be done. Martin Van der Kull, director of Vastenaktie, a Catholic charity, had this to say:

"The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent."

Defining a Christian event in Muslim terms is a foreign concept, especially here in Protestant America. But thinking deeper, is it really so bad to explain Lent as a "Christian Ramadan?" It seems like at least a good way to communicate what happens during Lent to a non-Christian listener. Either way, it's sure an interesting way to market your church in a Muslim location, and it keeps with our international theme of late.

Prayer and Sex

2008-02-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

from Prayer by Yancy p159

"I think prayer is analogous to sex. Most people would complain about their sex lives; a few do really well. Sex and prayer are intimate and over-glamorized relationships. We all are led to believe that we should be in the stratosphere in sex and in prayer. It sets up a false expectation. And breaks down intimacy.

Why Pray?

2008-02-26T15:41:00.000-08:00

From Prayer by Yancy p56

Years ago, when I was beginning a writing career at Campus Life magazine, I used to discuss these problems with colleague Tim Stafford. He later wrote about them in his book. Knowing the Face of God, and I will simply quote him:

"Silently gazing into a friend's eyes may seem purer, and certainly more romantic, than mere talk. But conversation, not silence, builds relationships. Though I will never minimize the effect of beautiful eyes, I expect to talk to the people I care about- and to hear them talk back. We do not build relationships on a sentence or two spoken every few conversation between real friends is a constant stream.
So, I have a problem with God. I have never had a conversation with God; I have never heard his audible voice. Though I sometimes feel powerful religious emotions, I am cautious in interpreting my impulses and feelings as messages from God. I do not want to take the Lord's name in vain. i do not want to say, "The Lord told me," when in reality I heard a mental recording of my mother's voice. I have spent any number of hours talking to God, and he has not yet answered back in a voice that was undeniably his. "

Tim adds that he continues to pray, making requests of God and offering praise and worship, but questions persist. Why praise God who, unlike friends, does not need a lift? Why inform God of needs that God already knows about? Why thank God, who hardly needs a pat on the back?

"Some people say that we should pray not because God needs it, but because we need it. When we praise him, we remind ourselves of what is fundamentally important. When we thank him, we humbly remember our utter dependence on his care. When we pray for people, we are encouraged to then go out and do something to help them. From this perspective prayer is a self-help exercise.
No doubt prayer does these and other good things for me, but if they are the principle reasons for praying, my "personal relationship" is in trouble. Prayer that is only a useful exercise is not conversation. It is more like writing a diary, which is also good for you, but it is entirely private and one sided."

Married Prayer

2008-02-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

Walter Wangerin Jr. tells of a time early in his marriage when he had committed some wrong against his wife, Thanne. Even though he was studying in seminary in hopes of becoming a pastor, he had always avoided praying aloud with her. It seemed too intimate, too personal an act. This time, with a riptide of guilt sweeping away his shyness, he agreed. They lay for a while side by side in bed, each waiting for the other to start. Walt began with a hymn like, formal prayer in the style he had learned in seminary. After a silence, he heard Thanne's simple, clear voice speaking humbly and conversationally to God about him, her husband. Listening to her, he began to weep. The guilt dissolved and he learned that humbling was no end in itself, but a necessary step to the healing.

Tempation

2008-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

From Prayer by Yancy p30

A few years ago I received a letter from a reader I'll call Mark. He began,
I have suffered froma very serious emotional condition all of my adult life- borderliine
personality disorder- with the attendant depression, extereme anxiety, and debilitationg
physical symptoms. In way of explanation, and not blame, during the first years of my life I
was the subject of ver seriaous sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of my mother. Enough
said on that.

He went on to say that accounts in my books of inspiriting people only made him feel worse about himself.
I suppose my question is: what is the heavenly reward for those of us who are not laboring in God's fields in the inner city? Or who struggle daily with pornography, where a major
breakthrough is a day not on the Internet. Or who at the height of our recovery may have
maybe 10 percent of the moral character of the average unbeliever. Does one have to be a
healthy Christian servant to receive God's grace?

Aliens

2008-02-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

From Prayer by Yancy

For several years I have tried to help a Japanese family, the Yokatas, in their desperate search for justice. In 1977 their thirteen- year old daughter Megumi vanished on her way home from badmitten pracitice. Police dogs tracked her scent to a nearby beach, but the distraught Yokatas had no clues that might explain their daughter's sudden disappearance.

Sixteen years later, long after the Yokatas had resigned themselves to Megumi's death, a North Korean defector made a stunning claim: a Japanese woman named Megumi was living in North Korea at a training institue for intellgenice agients. Scores of Japanese, he said, had been kidnapped and forced teach Korean spies the Japanese language and culture. He provided heartrending details of Megumi's abduction: agents had seized her, wrapped her in a straw mat, and rowed her to a waiting spy ship, where she had spent the night scratching against the hold with bloody fingers crying out for her mother.

For years North Korea dismissed all such reports. But in the face of mouonting pressure, Kim Jong-il himself at long last admitted to the abduction of 13 Japanese, including Megumi. Five returned to Japan, but North Koreans insisteted the other eight had died, including megumi who, they said, in 1993 had used a kimono to hang herself. Much information supplied by North Korea proved false, however, and the Yokatas refused to believe the reports of their daughter's death. All over Japan, prayer groups sprang up to support the abductees. Mrs. Yokata traveled across the globe in her quest for justice, becoming in the process one of the most familiar faces on Japanese media. Eventually she visited the oval office and told her story to President George W. Bush, who took up her cause.

In 2004, 27 years after the abduction, the North Koreans gave Megumi's parents three photos of their daughter. The most poignant taken just after her capture, shows her at age 13 still in her Japanese schoolgirls' uniform, looking unbearably forlorn. "We couldn't help crying when we saw the picture," her mother tearfully told reporters. Two other photos showed her as an adult, a woman in her 30s standing outdoors in a winter coat.

The Yokatas fondled the photos over and over, finding some solace in the fact that the later photos showed their daughter looking healthy and reasonably well cared for. They tried to imagine Megumi's life. Had she met with other abductees and conversed with them to keep from forgetting her mother tongue? What had helped her remember who she was? Had she tried to sneak a message back to them? Attempted an escape? What memories did she retain of her life in Japan, life as their daughter? How many times had Megumi looked toward the island of Japan and scoured newspapers of clues of her former house?

Angry God

2008-02-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

After worship on Thursday, a girl came up to me a serious faith question on her mind. She couldn't have been older than 11. She said, "Hey, Spencer, can I ask you a question."
"Of course."
"I gave up sleeping with my stuffed animals for lent."
"Ok," I said with some surprise and hesitation on what she was going to ask me.
"But this weekend I'm having a sleep over and do you think God it would be ok if I slept with one?" So, now I'm wondering how to respond but I decide to engage this.
"Why would God not want you to sleep with them?"
"Because it will make him angry." Now my heart breaks because I see the conception of God in her mind. It is too similar to how I have seen God in my life.
"Why would God be angry with you?"
"Because it makes me happy to sleep with them."
"Does God not want you to be happy?" I ask, hopefully she will see the clear stupidity of that thought.
"Well, no God wants me to be happy...I think...that's a good question."
I see that she will clearly not come to this conclusion on her own so I go ahead and help her out.
"I think it is ok for you to sleep with your stuffed animals. God loves you and wants you to be happy. Giving something up isn't because God wants us to be miserable. God wants us to be happy and so you should go ahead and do this."

John Wesley

2008-02-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

From a sermon on assurance:

Wesley was the leader of the revival that led to the Methodists. Wesley was born to two godly parents, one was even an Anglican priest. He grew up under the instruction of the church and under the testimony of God’s presence in the world.

He even decided to be a priest himself and went through all his studies and graduated from Oxford. Convinced by guilt, he even went on a mission trip to the wild frontier of America to this new place called Georgia, a slave colony that was surrounded by Native Americans. He thought he could surely convince them of the truth of Jesus Christ that he had heard time and time again in his studies and from his parents.

On the ship on the way over to America, he disciplined himself in order to be productive and acceptable to God. Here is what a typical day looked like as he was going over to America

4:00-5:00 am private prayer

5:00-7:00 am Bible study

7:00-8:00 breakfast

8:00-9:00 public prayer

9:00-12:00 German lesson

12:00-1:00 Met together to give an account of the morning

1:00-2:00 lunch

2:00-4:00 Reading

4:00-5:00 Evening prayer

5:00-6:00 dinner

6:00-7:00 Reading

7:00-8:00 Worship

8:00-9:00 Bible Study

9:00 sleep

During the journey he met a group of travelers from Germany that utterly amazed him. This difference was shown in their moment of crisis. As they were sailing across the Atlantic they were hit by a series of storms that Wesley calls hurricanes. Now, I went on a cruise a few years ago and our ship was huge. And the ship even had stabilizers the counter the weight and shifts of weight and waves, and I still felt ill from the constant rocking of ship, and we had nothing but calm weather. So, I then think what it would have been like to be in a small wooden ship with the creaking of the ship and the constant rolling of the waves, and the water breaking over on to the deck and I can’t imagine how miserable that would have been. How frightening that would have been.

Wesley described it like this, “during their service [that is, the Germans worship service] the sea

broke over, split the main-sail pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, “Were you not afraid?” He answered, “ I thank God, no.” I asked, “But were not your women and children afraid?” He replied, mildly, “No; our women and children are not afraid to die.”

So, John Wesley, the man who would one day lead a great revival found himself utterly afraid of his own death. He had lived his whole life in pursuit of salvation and when it came down to it, he learned that all of his pursuits had been in vain. Wesley couldn’t understand how these Germans could have such confidence in their salvation.

After a few days, the storm finally passed after damaging the ship in several places. Life got back to normal on the ship, but Wesley couldn’t shake the experience of the storm. So, he sought out the pastor of the Germans and had to ask him about this experience. Wesley wrote about it in his journal. He wrote,

I soon found what spirit he was of; and asked his advice with regard to my own conduct. He said, “my brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit, that you are a child of God?” I was surprised, and knew not what to answer. He observed it, and asked, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” I paused, and said, “I know he is the Savior of the world.” “True,” replied he; “but do you know he has saved you?” I answered, “I hope he has died to save me.” He only added, “Do you know yourself?” I said, “I do.” But I fear they were vain words.

This experience with these German Christians continued to haunt him. Had he worked his whole life in vain? All of this discipline, all the hard work, had it led to anything because in the end he couldn’t answer with confidence the question of did he know Jesus Christ.

The ship finally came to port in Georgia, and John went ahead with his planned mission trip. His confidence was shaken though and he wondered how he could preach to others when he himself didn’t even know if he was saved. Little surprise then that his mission trip was a complete failure in his eyes.

He returned to England feeling like a failure and struggling with these questions of faith. He began to seek answers to his questions. He took three strategic steps to find answers. First he sought out those with the confidence he was looking for. Second, he decided to begin to pray for this confidence. Third, he renounced looking for holiness in what he did with his actions.

And a few months later he had this experience that he wrote about,

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Praying with Bill Mason

2008-02-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

Every week the Asbury staff gets together to share some things going on in the church and pray for the prayer requests that had been submitted the week before. I was sitting by myself towards the front, in my usual place, and I noticed that Bill Mason was also sitting in the front, in his normal place. Our normal friends we sat with were not with us. So, I approached Bill to pray with him.

Now I have heard before that Bill Mason is a man of prayer who rises early to pray every day. He is the one who grew Asbury from a few families to thousands of members. As we got together the leader that morning, a youth staff person, had shared about a ministry in the youth department that was about healing the hurts of life such as divorce, death, abuse, etc. She challenged us to share with our prayer partners a struggle we were going through as well.

I put that out of my mind because I couldn't really think of any struggles I am facing right now. They all seem rather petty. I feel good about my marriage. I feel balanced in my work, recreation, and exercise. I'm spending more time with God. I've decided to stay on as a pastor at the church. Everything is going well right now.

So, I prayed. I prayed for a woman who was going through an abusive situation. I prayed with gusto. I tried to evoke the emotion and the stirring of my faith. Sometimes I feel that if I pray with the right amount of emotion then I "feel" the faith I need. This brings to mind sitting in a Christ's Church small group at Jay and Jodie's house in Joplin. We were talking about faith and Jay shared that we don't have to conjure up faith in order to pray. For some reason this really resonated with me. I've heard a lot of emotional prayers in my day, and it seems that the emotional prayers are really the effective ones. So, sometimes I am sorry to admit I take the lead by conjuring up the faith needed for God to move.

So, I took this approach yet again trying to show Bill Mason my own level of faith.

Then it was Bill's turn. He simply read the prayer request out loud by saying "Lord, so and so asks for ... won't you help them?" Then he said, "the speaker this morning challenged us to share our issues during this time..." I didn't share mine because I was with Bill Mason. I didn't really know what to say and I didn't want to say anything that was superficial. He went on, "Its hard to think of a hard one, but I do ask that you help me and my wife with our weight. Amen."

The simplicity of this man's prayer floored me. I think of Jesus' words about not going on and on for men to hear.

Lord, have mercy on me for my hypocrisy.

Global Warming?

2008-02-04T19:34:00.000-08:00

I read recently in National Geographic that the American Southwest experienced the wettest century in nearly 1500 years last century. Based upon studying the thickness of tree rings, scientists can tell the amount of water that fell in a given area. Because the land is so dry, trees are able to stick around for over a thousand years after they die. National Geographic worries about the amount of water that will sustain the area with the great population boom. These worries are highlighted by the threat of global warming.

Tulsa experienced a record high for February 4th. Today reached 81 degrees, which of course, meant that I had to be outside instead of working on a computer in an office with no windows. On my way from lunch with several guys from Asbury, someone made a joke about global warming and two of the guys preceded to talk about how they thought global warming is a sham. After all, the scientists have to be guessing, right?

I've heard one of these guys at another time talk about the lack of available data supporting global warming. Why is this? Why are Christians so scared to admit that global warming could be a serious threat. Is it because it is an affront to the sovereignty of God? Is it because American interests and Kingdom interests have become so closely entwined?

Looking for the trail

2008-02-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

After months of inactivity, Abby and I found ourselves enjoying the blessing of warm winter weather. We loaded up our bikes and the dog and headed south towards Okmulgee to find some trails the Oklahoma State Parks website was advertising. To our dissapointment there were no such trails, at least we couldn't find the trailhead. We explored the park, and yet came up empty handed as far as trails go. I think Abby was relieved.

One thing I did discover though. We were sitting by a lake, presumably Okmulgee Lake enjoying the stillness of the day, the lack of traffic noise, and the pristine waters when I realized how I needed such trips. I live my life driving through traffic, sitting through meetings, and working out of a windowless office. I must be outdoors! Getting away for an afternoon, even if it was still inactive was good for my soul.

Anorexia nearly killed my wife’

2008-01-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

From MSNBC on January 26, 2008:

Anorexia nearly killed my wife

By Tom Cramer, as told to Brian Alexander

updated 12:55 p.m. CT, Sun., Jan. 20, 2008

Psychiatric wards are places where they take sharp objects and shoelaces from patients. My wife lived in one for two weeks, when doctors feared she was a danger to herself.

The day Meg was admitted, she was 83 pounds, down from a healthy 109 on her 5'1" frame just five months earlier. Driving home from the aerobics class she taught, she had become nauseated and faint and had chest pains. She went to the ER, where they sent her to the psychiatric ward. When I arrived, I was terrified — and relieved. Maybe, finally, doctors could help her in ways I hadn’t been able to. It was the beginning of Meg’s fight to overcome anorexia, and the start of my own to help the woman I love so much.

Perfect beginnings
After my first date with Meg during my freshmen year of college, I came home and told my roommate, “I could see myself marrying her one day.” He wrote those words in his journal, and five and a half years later, read them aloud to the guests at our wedding. Meg became my best friend, someone who laughed at my goofy jokes, knew a lot about the Steelers and was scary smart. After we had our sons, Mikey and Ryan, she floored me all over again as a mother. Our happiness was clearly visible: People would ask me, “What’s your secret?” and I would say, “When you find the right person, everything else is easy.”

But not everything was easy for Meg. Before we had kids, she worked in child advocacy in Washington, D.C., and loved her career — but when my job transfer forced us to move to North Carolina and then to Pittsburgh, where both our families were, Meg became a stay-at-home mom. Living just miles from our parents, she felt she was under constant scrutiny, pressured to be the perfect wife, mother, daughter and daughter-in-law. I began to understand that beneath my wife’s tough exterior, she was a pleaser.

This desire for perfection extended to Meg’s body. She’d always compared herself to other women, pointing out ones who were thinner. After the birth of our youngest, Ryan, she was determined to lose the last 20 pounds of baby weight. Through dieting and exercise, the pounds came off, and Meg started to wear sexy clothes and exude confidence. When she began teaching and taking daily aerobics classes and cutting out most food, though, even our then five-year-old noticed the difference. “My mom is the queen of salads!” he announced once to a waitress.

I wish I could say that love led me to know what to do. But instead I was cocky. Eating disorders didn’t happen to perfect couples like us. Although I knew she was very thin, I wasn’t able to see that she had a serious disease. I remember bragging to friends that my wife was a hot aerobics instructor.

Wanting to fix things
My arrogance also made me think that I could fix things. As an engineer, I identify an issue and find a solution. “I can handle this,” I told myself. There was, after all, a simple answer: Meg needed to eat more, and I thought I could persuade her to do that. I reasoned that Meg’s job was to get her prescribed calories and readjust her thinking; mine was to take care of the house and kids while she did that. I became superdad: I made dinner for the boys and started cleaning. Every toy was in place, and one dirty sock became a reason to do the laundry.

Since that time, I’ve learned that anorexia does not have an on/off switch. What Meg needed from me was adult interaction and emotional support, not clean clothes. Which is why, under my brilliant strategy, we went from a couple that rarely fought to one that argued all the time about food and the gym.

The more I pushed her to change, the more she pushed back. She tossed the sexy clothes and adopted a uniform of baggy pants and shirts to hide her wasting body from me. We rarely made love. She had so little energy that she’d fall in bed by eight, just after the kids went to sleep. Her allergies flared and her periods stopped. I found myself making excuses for Meg’s gaunt appearance, telling friends and family that she had the flu or another illness.

Our arguments escalated until one night we went out without the kids and I ordered a cheeseburger for her. She refused to touch it. I begged. Finally I said, “If you really love me, you will eat this!” She wouldn’t. I knew she still loved me, but I was devastated. The plate sat there between us, untouched.

To Meg that meal was probably like so many others, with me nagging and her not budging. But to me it marked a milestone. I finally realized that this wasn’t an eating problem. Meg was fighting me as she never had before, and the problem was more than food. The flawless world I’d convinced myself we lived in had spun out of control. We weren’t perfect. And Meg was very, very sick. Two weeks after my failed showdown at the restaurant, I got the call from Meg at the hospital. Doctors said she’d almost had heart failure and that she was in a state of extreme emotional distress.

My own anorexia experience
After Meg was hospitalized and we started weekly group therapy sessions, I went into overdrive to understand what was pushing my wife to shun food. Didn’t Meg see her ribs sticking out or the sad bit of muscle clinging to her butt? Wasn’t she smart enough to know she should just eat more? I wanted to be inside her head, in her skin, to grasp what was doing this to the woman I thought I knew so well.

In these therapy sessions Meg and others talked repeatedly about the feeling of control they got from anorexia. But what did that mean? How could your own mind tell you to starve yourself? How could you feel good about it? When I imagined missing just one meal, let alone most, there was no payoff, nothing that made it worthwhile. I decided that if I was going to truly understand those emotions — and truly help Meg — I needed to feel what she was feeling, so I decided to starve myself.

For more than a week, without telling anyone, I tried to simulate anorexia. In addition to my daily routine of running three miles, I severely limited my calories. I’d have juice and maybe a banana for breakfast and a small salad for dinner. Since Meg and I usually ate separately, she didn’t notice. But I was exhausted and irritable; my head ached constantly. I’d lie in bed at night and think, I am so hungry! How does she do it? How can the voice Meg hears be so powerful?

But by day three, I began hearing the voice too: “Come on, you can do it. Don’t give in. You’re better than that.” When I refused food, I had a sense of victory. The longer I resisted, the more powerful I felt. When Meg was admitted to the hospital, I thought that she had failed and allowed this to happen. Now I understood the seduction of the words in her head, how they could override the most basic human survival instincts. And I saw her as a hero — who had to be incredibly strong in her fight to recover.

I didn’t tell Meg about my experiment for almost a year, but my attitude changed immediately. No longer ashamed because I thought my wife was weak, I got over my need for us to be exalted as perfect. I stopped lying to friends and family that Meg had the flu. As I was more honest, support and encouragement flowed in — our friends didn’t distance themselves or disappear as I’d feared. I became the advocate Meg needed, able to coach others on why they should never mention Meg’s appearance or comment on her food choices. For example, if someone said, “A salad! That won’t be enough!” I would remember times that I’d used those very words, and then I’d explain that pressuring her wouldn’t help and might make things worse. Instead of trying to protect her by denying that there was a problem, I became a speed bump between my wife and the rest of the world.

Ready to get healthy
I had changed, but Meg was still not fully ready. She would make progress, only to face setbacks and lose weight. But then one day in January, after a difficult holiday season, I came home and found the bathroom scale lying in pieces in the driveway. Meg had thrown it out the window.

“What’s going on?” I asked, picking up parts of the scale from the concrete.
“I’m sick of us constantly arguing about this, of everything being about it!” she said. “I must really be sick if this has taken over our lives.”

This was the Meg I had married. She made a decision that day; she was ready to get healthy.

I still have a piece of the scale — it reads 74.5 pounds. It sits in my top drawer, a reminder of all we’ve been through. I’ll never let it go.

After that Meg and I made a deal. I promised that if she would trust me to be her eyes, I would never, ever lie to her about how she looked. Her own brain might deceive her, but she knows that I never will. At times this pledge has meant having to answer every man’s least favorite question: “Do I look fat?” Even though she never does, when a pair of pants or a skirt is not the most flattering, I gently tell her. It’s our agreement to this day and I am humbled by her trust in me.

Meg is back to a healthy size, though she still has setbacks sometimes. While my radar is always up, I told her I would never ask what she weighs, and I don’t. When I do notice a change, I say something like, “I see that you’re struggling and I’m here if you need anything.” We don’t discuss it or turn it into a battle, and she always gets herself back on track.

If you were to meet us today, you’d never know we’d lived through such a problem. We spend a lot of our weekends watching the boys play baseball or hockey. Sometimes I coach as Meg yells encouragement from the stands. Afterward we might all go out for a pizza and, yes, Meg may have a slice, though she still gets a salad, too. I once shouted, “There will be no more salads in this house!” — but now we can laugh about her favorite side order.

We don’t say we’re over anorexia, we say we live with it. Meg can easily spot someone with the disease, and while she’s happy not to be consumed by it any more, she still hears that little voice. Not long ago she told me, “I wonder how some women can keep it up, how they can stay skinny for so long when I couldn’t.”

After she said it, I simply looked at her. Imagine knowing that the person you love more than you ever thought you could love had to fight something so mind-altering. Having faced it myself, even for just a few days, I am left in awe of her bravery. The other day somebody asked me, “You’re crazy about your wife, aren’t you?” All I could say, before I teared up, was, “You have no idea.”

Preaching on forgiveness

2008-01-26T12:28:00.001-08:00

I preached a sermon this last week on forgiveness, and I really wrestled with the issue of bitterness and the command to forgive as we have been forgiven. As I was preaching this, I felt the heaviness of the situation upon me. This sermon was exposing the darkness for what it really was. The stories I heard after the sermon confirmed this. One man told me about how his dad had cheated on him mom and altogether left the family. How can he forgive him?
This issue cripples people and I have to realize the intensly spiritual battle occuring in people's lives. Scripture says our battle is not against flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities. This has some big ramifications. I was preaching to some people who had spiritual oppression occuring in thier lives. They were crippled by feelings of unforgiveness.
My own family is dealing with this right now. How can my parents forgive my sister for being a lesbian? She has made some choices that are tearing my family apart.
Yet we pray, 'forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Back to the autoshop

2008-01-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago an ice storm destroyed Tulsa. Part of that destruction was a mirror knocked off my car. Since that happened I was able to get my damage appraised for much more than it actually was, and then I was able to get my windshield fixed for free. I left my car at the autobody shop to get the mirror and windshield fixed, but for some reason the only thing that got fixed was my windshield. Somehow my mirror was not attached. So, I didn't pay for the repairs until they finished up the work. I had to go out of town the next week, but once I was back in town I set up an appointment to get my mirror fixed for them to finish their work. I was scheduled to go in two days, but as I was driving down the road I couldn't see a car coming up on my driver side, because of the missing mirror, and I ran into them in their lane. Of course, it was an Asbury member.

So, I returned to the shop to get my car appraised and to see if they could fix it when the mirror was supposed to be fixed, and the saddest thing happened. I was somehow remembered at the shop because it had been that soon. They greeted me by name and even made small talk with me like I worked there. Its never a good sign when the autobody shop knows you by name.

Dog Fight

2008-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

When we were living in Dallas we would go to the dog park with our Jack Russell quite a bit. It was a nice way to meet people and let the dog play. The dog park is simply a open area with a fence. As you might guess, dog fights were somewhat common. One day there was a man there with a little lap dog of sorts and some bigger dogs came up to all aggressive like and he stepped in the middle and grabbed his dog out of the escalating tension. As he was doing this, all the other dogs were taking notice of the action and were rushing over. So as he is picking up his dog he is knocked down or he falls. It looks like something from the Discovery Channel when a big animal is taken down by a bunch of small animals. He stepped in the middle of this and in the end it came back to hurt him. Its just like the Proverb that warns us of the danger of stepping into the middle of conflict. Proverbs 26:17 Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

Faith Sharing

2008-01-10T12:27:00.001-08:00

I remember leading a mission trip a few years ago to Mexico. One of the days we were trying to connect a neighborhood to a local church where we were having a VBS. To connect the neighborhood to the church, we would go out with translators and basically just try to talk to whoever we saw. In that neighborhood, there were lots of people without jobs just kind of hanging out in front of their little houses, or shacks. We would try to ask questions about them. I remember one high school student who was really trying to be intentional about sharing his faith, yet he was always awkward. He would ask questions that just made him look like a creep. “How are you today? Do you have children? Are they home? Is your husband home? By this time I was trying to back away because he was embarrassing himself.

2008-01-10T08:43:00.001-08:00

From Sex God by Rob Bell, pg 18

In 1945, a group of British soldiers liberated a German concentration camp called Bergen-Belsen. One of them, Lieutenant Colonerl Mercin Willet Gonin DSO, wrote in his diary about what they encountered:

"I can give no adequate description of the Horror Camp in which my men and myself were to spend the next month of our lives. It was just a barren wilderness, as barren as a chicken run. Corpses lay everywhere, some in huge piles, sometimes they lay singly or in pairs where they had fallen. It took a little time to get used to seeing men, women, and children collapse as you walked by them...One knew that five hundred a day were dying and that five hundred a day were going on dying for weeks before anything we could do would have the slightest effect. It was, however, not east to watch a child chocking to death from diphtheria when you knew a tracheotomy and nursing would save it. One saw women drowning in their own vomit because they were too weak to turn over, men eating worms as they clutched a half loaf of bread purely because they had to eat worms to live and now could scarcely tell the difference. Piles of corpses, naked and obscene, with a woman to weak to stand propping herself against them as she cooked the food we had given her over an open fire; men and women crouching down just anywhere in the open relieving themselves....a dysentery tank in which the remains of a child floated.

It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for these internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the postmortem table and clutched in her hands was a piece of lipstick. At last someone had something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm. At last the could take an interest in their appearance that lipstick started to give them back their humanity."

Prostitute not going to church

2008-01-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

From The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy

A friend of mine works with the down and out in Chicago. A prostitute came to him in wretched straits, homeless, her health failing, unable to buy food for her two year old daughter. Her eyes awash with tears, she confessed that she had been renting out her daughter- two years old!- to men interested in kinky sex, in order to support her own drug habit. My friend could hardly bear hearing the sordid details of her story. He sat in silence not knowing what to say. At last he asked if she had ever thoughts of going to a church for help. "I will never forget the look of pure astonishment that crossed her face," he later told me. "Church!" she cried. "Why would I ever go there? They'd just make me feel even worse that I already do!"

Big Nasty

2008-01-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Went hunting in Texas this last weekend. I have grown up hunting among the scarce deer population of southern Missouri my entire life. Deer hunting in Missouri included a few things: cold temperatures, camping (in the cold), beer, sitting in a racketing tree stand for a few hours without seeing a thing before finally getting down to go look for the deer, and then finally heading back to camp cold, tired, and depressed because you hadn't seen anything.

However, hunting in Texas is a very different experience. First, I climbed in my stand and sat in my warm deer blind, which is very different than a tree stand. A tree stand is made of random pieces of lumber nailed to a tree that will somehow support human weight. These stands are very cold and very scary. A deer blind on the other hand is positioned in the open next to a deer feeder, which almost guarantees at least seeing a deer. The deer blind has four walls that stop the wind and windows that can open and close to get a shot. You can balance your gun and just wait for the deer to come. If you get down to walk around it is because you missed and scared all the deer away thus nullifying the guarantee of the deer blind. In addition, you sit on an office chair and not cold hard lumber.

This morning the feeder did not go off, but the deer still came. I had to wait about an hour or so before I spotted two does. I watched them about a hundred yards off to the east grazing by a big cedar tree. They would move in and out of the cedars but stayed pretty far off. I looked at them for about twenty minutes through my scope thinking about whether or not I actually wanted to take the shot. I didn't want to settle for a doe, but I was not seeing anything else. I waited too long and the two does finally disappeared for good into the cedars.

I waited another long 20 minutes before a small buck appeared by the feeder looking for food. He walked into the pin surrounding the feeder and grazed in the grass and the corn. I watched him for a while as well. I could see that he wasn't legal because there was not a 12 inch span between his antlers, but I did want a buck and here was a little four or six pointer. I had my safety off, but I still didn't take the shot. He walked off to the west, and as soon as he was out of view behind a cedar, the big nasty showed up.

I had seen this deer before. I had even taken a shot at him, but missed because I was too excited about getting a big deer. He had at least ten points, and walked very slowly across the field. I could feel my pulse quicken and my breath get much shallower. He suddenly stopped and I said to myself that I was not going to let this one pass. I slowly pulled the trigger, learning from my last shot that if I was excited I could yank it too hard and pull the gun off target. The rifle sounded the shot and the deer dropped without a fight. It was the best shot I have ever taken. It only left a small hole in the shoulder, but did not ruin any meat. It was the biggest deer of my life, and the best shot. I have it all to owe to patience in not taking the two little does.

Athletic,? well kind of

2008-01-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

I don't much to write about today, it was just another Wednesday. It was Wednesday, except that I got to play over two hours of basketball for work. Sometimes, ministry is a great profession because I get to do stuff like this.

The college students are still home, and so Todd and I put off work for a few hours to play some ball. It had been a long, long time since I played basketball. I remember one time running to the Dedman Center at SMU and then shooting baskets for a little while before running home. But it has been a long time since I actually played a game.

I learned that which I had forgotten, but had learned many, many times. I am not a good basketball player. I still hold myself to be somewhat athletic, after all I did compete on scholarship for a Division I cross country and track team. But when it comes to basketball I am all limbs. I can't seem to run fast in short spurts. I have no lateral quickness. I can't jump. I can hardly shoot. My hand-eye coordination is lacking. In the end, I only play on the one thing I have more than most people- grit.

That one crucial element has been my friend through much of my athletic endeavorer's. In track, I ran the 800m. Some people describe this event as mid-distance. What they are really meaning to say is it is not a distance run (so 800m runners don't have excessive endurance); nor is it a sprint (so 800m runners don't have excessive speed). What are they left with then? Strength? Hardly. 800m runners depend almost exclusively on heart. The race is short and intense. It is really a series of tough decisions. When I was racing, I was always a little afraid of the 800 because of the fact that I would have to make some really hard decision. But the 800 strategy was simply that at 300m I would have to decide where I would settle in the pack. At 400m I would have to decide to not fall back for the next 200m, which really means maintain a pace that seems impossible for anther lap. At 600m I would have to decide to get up on my toes and go! At 750m, I would have to decide to push past the numbness all over my body and the lactic acid that had by this time crept into my mouth. Even my gums hurt at the end of my race!

But the good thing coming out of this that has helped me most of the times is learning that I can make that tough decision when it comes to it. Whether that is going into a hospital room, standing up to preach a sermon, or even playing basketball with college guys.

Kenyans burned to death in church

2008-01-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

From BBC on Jan 1, 2008:

Thirty Kenyans including many children have been burned to death in a church, after seeking refuge from the mounting violence over last week's elections.

A mob attacked and set fire to the church in the western town of Eldoret where hundreds of people were hiding, say police and eyewitness reports.

Dozens more are reported to have been taken to hospital with severe burns.

It comes as EU election monitors said the presidential poll "fell short of international standards".

In an interim report, chief EU monitor Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said the tallying process "lacked credibility".

Mr Lambsdorff said an independent inquiry was needed to resolve the dispute over the election and called on the Electoral Commission of Kenya to co-operate fully.

The observers say an audit of all the voting returns is vital, and called for results from every polling station to be published in newspapers and on the internet.

Four Kenyan election commissioners have also expressed unease at the result, but the government denied any irregularities.

Fresh killings

About 400 people were said to be taking refuge in the Kenya Assemblies of God church when the attack took place at about 1000 (0700 GMT).

A pastor from the church, Jackson Nyanga told the BBC that many of the people were beaten before the building was set on fire.

"After torching the church, children died - around 25 in number - four elderly people. And our men and our people who tried to confront them were injured," he said.

Most of the victims were members of the same Kikuyu ethnic group as the newly re-elected President Mwai Kibaki.

Eldoret, in the Rift Valley, has witnessed some of the worst violence since Sunday's controversial poll and has a history of inter-ethnic tension.

Correspondents say that over the past few days hundreds of Kikuyus in the Eldoret area have been taking shelter in churches and around the town's police station.

Eldoret resident Bernard Magamu told the BBC News website that many houses and businesses have been torched, and that roads in and around the town have been closed.

"People are still fearful. It's hard. People are really scared," said Mr Magamu, adding that local hospitals were struggling to cope with the high number of casualties.

The Kenyan Red Cross said that at least 70,000 people have been displaced in the Rift Valley area as a result of the unrest, describing it as "a national disaster".

At least 160 people were killed across Kenya after the election result was announced on Sunday, according to the Red Cross, though the numbers are expected to rise after continued violence on Monday.

Mr Kibaki's challenger, Raila Odinga, backed by the Luo community, said that if fresh killings were taken into account, the total would likely be about 250 or "slightly more".

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has again urged Kenya's political leaders to talk, and said: "The violence must be brought to an end."

Doubts expressed

EU observers said the country's election was flawed.

"They were marred by a lack of transparency in the processing and tallying of presidential results, which raises concerns about the accuracy of the final results," the EU team said in a statement.

According to the EU, in at least two constituencies - Molo and Kieni - the results that were announced did not reflect the number of votes cast.

EU observers say they heard the voting figures being announced in Molo itself, but when the same results were announced again in Nairobi, the number of votes for Mr Kibaki was significantly higher - by 25,000.

Four of the 22 Kenyan election commissioners have also expressed doubts about the veracity of the figures giving President Kibaki victory by 200,000 votes.

But Finance Minister Amos Kimunya denied his party, the ruling PNU, or the government had been involved in rigging the poll.

He told the BBC: "I have no evidence that they were rigged. Anyone who has any information that they were rigged in one constituency or the other, or overall, let them subject it through the legal process."

Mr Kibaki was declared the winner on Sunday after a controversial three-day counting process.

His challenger, Mr Odinga, said he was robbed of victory by alleged fraud.

Lars and The Real Girl

2007-12-23T15:51:00.001-08:00

We went to see Lars and the Real Girl on Friday night. This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.

The premise of the movie: a lonely small town 27 year old man, named Lars, orders a sex doll from a website he got from a "friend" of his at work. I couldn't tell what kind of work he did, but some sort of office work in a small town in Wisconsin. The German Lutheran roots were throughout the movie. Lars, like I said, is very lonely. He lives in the garage outide the house he is half owner of, with his brother. His brother, Gus, lives in the house with his pregnant wife, and constantly seeks out a relationship with Lars who lives and acts like a hermit. As the movie progresses, we learn that he has been burned by his father, who must have acted in the same way after Lars' mother died giving birth to Lars. His older brother, who is quite a bit older, left home and left Lars during some tough times in his life. So, now we find Lars living in this small town all alone, even though is surrounded by everyone.

Lars is also very religious. He attends church every Sunday at the local Lutheran church, which comes off in a very good light.

But back to the sex doll he orders. He orders this sex doll that arrives at his home in a crate one day. He got a call from his sister-in-law that a delivery had arrived, and he then rushed home taking some time off work to come find his "delivery."

The next scene opens with him approaching the kitchen door of his brothers house asking if his friend could come to diner and then stay inside because she is quite religious. Gus and his wife are then introduced to Bianca, the sex doll, aka his girlfriend.

After seeking help from the local doctor and psychologist, the family is told to allow the delusion to continue because you could not convince Lars that she is not a real person. Here is where the movie gets really good. The brother and his wife are forced with the question of how to do this without the town mocking Lars, and subsequently his brother Gus. But after soul-searching and a few attempts to dissuade Lars they finally resign to treat Bianca like a real girl.

Since, Lars is a part of the local Lutheran church, they call the pastor and some church leaders to come and help. They eventually come to a decision that Bianca is welcome to come to church with Lars and the will accept her as one of her own.

Bianca becomes a hit as this small community rallies around her. She becomes a volunteer at the hospital, she is elected to the school board, and helps many of the ladies at the beauty salon. Lars at first is overjoyed by this outpouring of love towards Bianca but then he becomes jealous because he now has no time to spend with her. Lars, the quiet sweet small town boy, then turns angry and has a fight with Bianca, but all you hear is the one sided dialogue.
"Why do I have to check my calendar to schedule a time with my girlfriend?"
What do you mean I'm being selfish?
I know you're helping a lot of people, but I would like to see you too!
That's unfair!
Why are you treating me like this?
What, you don't talk like this to anyone else!

As Lars is still struggling with his fight with his girlfriend he gets into a fight with his sister-in-law. In this fight he is venting at how everyone is spending time with Bianca and how he has no time for her. He blames his sister-in-law for this as well. She responds in a moving speech telling him that the reason the town, and herself, has responding so great to Bianca is because the town loves Lars, and is showing Lars their love for him.

What an example of community! Of Christian community. The community knows that Lars has some serious issues, but still rallies around him. No one treats him poorly, even though you expect several times. The church, hid co-workers, his family all will do no matter what it takes to make Lars feel loved, even as Lars tries again and again to pull away.

"Love never fails."- St. Paul

God Bless America

2007-12-17T20:25:00.000-08:00

"God bless America," the leader proudly said in the microphone.
I looked at my wife. "Did I just hear 'God bless America?"
She looked back confused, "I think so."
The confusion wasn't a lack of patriotism or of shock, but rather a recognition of that nationalistic spirit rearing its head again. That wouldn't be so bad in some contexts: fourth of July fireworks at the lake and a twelve pack, a baseball game in the seventh inning stretch that has become common after 9/11, or even some civic event honoring members of the local VFW. This one was a little confusing because of the time and place.
Tulsa has recently been hit by an ice storm, let me rephrase. Tulsa has recently been crippled by an ice storm. 250,000 homes were without electricity in a city with a population of 1,000,000. Figuring an average of two people in a home, which I think is conservative, would mean half of Tulsa residents were without electricity. And it was for days. We were out for 8 days. But we are also in our mid twenties and healthy without children. For those with young children, the sick, or the elderly this power outage means serious danger.
Our church, Asbury, has been acting as a Red Cross shelter for the past four days. We have been averaging about 500 people in the building at night. This particular Thursday, we were preparing for our normal worship service on Thursday night, but our schedule was all off because of the storm and those who were seeking shelter int the church. To provide a little much needed entertainment was the Tulsa Praise Band, yes I know an altogether creative name. The Tulsa Praise Band was a pseudo-big band that was set to play Christmas music, and apparently patriotic music. I should have expected that considering the context of Tulsa, Oklahoma the true center of the Bible belt.
I had moved to Tulsa initially because of college, Oral Roberts University. ORU was the backbone at one time of the building of South Tulsa, now South Tulsa could survive on its own it still owed much to ORU. Tulsa is one of the only places where you could walk into an Applebee's or Chile's and see a televangelist on the restraunt tv. My alma matter is also the school that has recently made headlines because the then president, Richard Roberts, was accused, but not yet proven, to have coerced students and faculty into supporting Republican candidates in local and state elections. This is the backbone of South Tulsa, and yet I was surprised when I heard God Bless America start playing!
I guess it wasn't too bad to hear that song playing. I am just a little uncomfortable with Christians identifying themselves according to two kingdoms: Christ and America. But after all this is Tulsa.
I am also a little uncomfortable when I see the woman in the back of the room stand up and cover her heart with her left hand and raise her right hand high in the air. Besides the obvious worshipesque pose already assumed by this woman I then also saw her close her eyes and mouth some unheard words which made her look more and more like she was worshiping. But just who was she worshiping?
I guess I shouldn't too surprised though, this is South Tulsa.

Cross Country Skier

2007-12-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

The garage door opened that Sunday morning to reveal a trace of ice laying on the frozen ground. The cold air required a little longer for our car to get warmed up, but soon we were pulling out of our driveway to head to church. The church was several miles away and would take us at least twenty minutes in this weather. Tulsa had seen a storm come through town that would later that night cripple the city. Because of the ice bringing tree limbs down all over town, almost every home in the million person city would be without power.
But now we were off to church and driving down Riverside Drive looking for the interstate. I noticed a few brave souls exercising on the river trail that ran for miles along the Arkansas River. All of these runners wore long tights, long sleeve shirts, gloves, and hats. Their breath could clearly be seen in the crisp mid-morning air as they slowly worked their way down the trail.
As I approached the interstate, the trail took a sharp turn to come much closer to the street. As the curve of the trail almost met the road, I looked ahead to the few people exercising to see a man in the grass. The man was methodically using what appeared to be two hiking poles to make his way down Riverside. I have seen these kind of poles used before while hiking in British Columbia, and of course skiing in Colorado. The poles are obviously related to ski poles. They just give the hiker a better sense of balance and endurance. However, I have never seen anyone with two poles in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to this being Tulsa, this is the part of town that is obviously formed out of the flood plane of the Arkanasas, which at one point was a mighty river. Now, due to urban development, The Arkansas is little more that a vast valley of sand dunes and a few trickles of water. After a heavy rain, the Arkansas again reclaims her former glory and water fills the vast expanse of the river bottom. But never have I seen or even though that someone might need hiking poles in this part of Tulsa.
As I looked closer I thought I saw his legs not moving up and down as a walker would do, but instead more in a fluid motion of front to back with a slight up and down. I saw that his heel would raise slightly and then rest again while his body followed on that fluid plane. As my car came speeding by I finally saw what had eluded me- cross country skis!
This man had seen a small amount of ice fall and thought it was good cross country weather, and now he was trekking along in the tall grass working out his cross country skis. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Only two things would make someone think that a trace amount of ice would lend itself to cross country skiing. Either this man was from up north like Minnesota's and desperately missed the cold weather and the snow, so he decided it was time to climb up into the attic to drag out the old skis. Or this man was from Texas and had never experienced cold weather and somehow thought this was cross country weather. Since I have never lived in Minnesota to witness their reaction to weather, I will have to side with the Texas theory. I have lived in North Texas and have personally seen five million people stay home at the treat of wintry weather.

Long Powerless Night

2007-12-12T14:08:00.001-08:00

My friends were over for dinner the night the storm hit. We were sitting around the computer while my wife was showing some recent work she had done for a magazine at the church. While everyone looked at her work on the screen, the lights blinked once and the monitor appeared to loose power. We looked around at each other and then darkness. We were in the back of the house away from the windows looking at each other in the complete darkness.
"what happened?" I asked. I had no idea how we lost power.
"the ice is too heavy for the lines. I bet some limbs knocked the lines out," my friend Todd told me.
I had grown up in an area of the country that often freezes and gets a couple of good snow storms a year, and yet I could never remember power going out because of ice. Tornadoes are a somewhat regular problem in the spring months, and power often goes out because of lightening and wind. But ice?
Our friends stayed for another hour or so and we talked by firelight and candlelight the rest of the night.
After they left and we went to bed in our cold house with quilts and blankets piled high on us. All night long as we lay in bed we heard crashes as ice and tree limbs hit against the house and the deck.
Our night followed the following pattern: out in the cold darkness, the ice would shutter and fall. The dog would wake up violently and bark. My wife would put her body as close she could to mine. We would fall back asleep.