Ministry Matters: Blogs

You Are What You Eat

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:38:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

In 2002, two young girls and their parents filed a federal class-action law suit against the McDonalds Corporation. It was the claim of the plaintiffs that eating a consistent diet of Happy Meals, Big Macs, fries and shakes had led to their morbid obesity, and McDonalds was responsible for this condition.

Inspired by these events, independent film-maker Morgan Spurlock produced, starred in, and released a curious piece of American documentary entitled Super Size Me in 2004. The premise was simple: Over a thirty day period, Spurlock conducted an unscientific experiment in which he ate nothing but McDonalds’ food – three meals a day, every day – to see how this would affect his body.

When the experiment began, Spurlock was in better than average physical shape. At the end of the McDonalds month, however, things had changed dramatically. Eating upwards of 5000 calories a day, Spurlock gained twenty-five pounds. His cholesterol level climbed past the 230 mark. His liver suffered, holding on to vast quantities of fat. His blood pressure ballooned to 150/110. He experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and heart palpitations. His mother, friends, and physicians begged him to stop, but he kept going, eating in thirty days the fast food equivalent of what some nutritionists say the ordinary person should eat in eight years. It took Spurlock more than year to recover completely.

Your body is an amazing thing. Truly, it is fearfully and wonderfully made. Consider that your skin has more than a half-million sense receptors scattered all over it. You have 60,000 miles of arteries, veins, and capillaries. Your heart will spontaneously beat 2.5 billion times over your lifetime. Your brain has 100 billion neurons, and you can have more ideas in your noggin, than the number of all the known atoms in the universe. Your head has 100,000 hairs (well, most of your heads have that many hairs). And the body is so good at healing itself, you completely regenerate over the course of seven years.

But the only way that happens, and the only way you keep all that machinery running properly, is by putting the right kind of stuff into it. You need protein, carbohydrates, good fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals, and lots of water. You need good nutrition for the body to be healthy – to get from the body all you can get out of it. And while I personally love a McDonalds fix from time to time, I don’t think we need a class action law suit to inform us that if all you eat is fat, greasy, food, you will end up being a fat, greasy, dude; no matter how many toys are in the little happy box.

Spiritually, life is no different. What goes into your mind and heart becomes a part of who you are. If you put in good, healthy stuff, you’ll be good and healthy. If you put in less than that, your spiritual and emotional well-being will show the dysfunction of such a diet. Your spiritual health will break down from poor spiritual nutrition. What your mother and your fifth grade health teacher told you is right on: “You are what you eat” – even when it comes to issues of the spirit.

To quote the prophet Jeremiah, once in a conversation with God he said: “When your words showed up, I ate them – I swallowed them whole.” This seems to be exactly what God wants – for us to ingest, as it were, good, healthy, spiritual food. Then his Message becomes a part of who we are, absorbed into our cellular structure, assimilated into our beings, and getting into our bloodstream.

There is a lot of spiritual junk food out there. The menu is full, and it looks and tastes great, but it’s not very good for you. If it is all you eat, it won’t take long until you are spiritually obese and woefully unconditioned for the rigors of living in this world. Only in “eating right” – taking God’s Message into our hearts and lives – can we hope to be transformed and grow spiritually.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, pastor, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Good Leaders are Good Followers

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:15:00 GMT

By Steve Goodier

A young woman was filling out an application for college when she came across the question: Are you a leader? She thought she had better be brutally honest, so she answered, "No." She was convinced when she sent the application in that she'd never hear from them because of that answer.

But she received a letter back from the school that read: "We have reviewed numerous applications and, to date, there will be some 1,452 new leaders attending school next year. We have decided to accept your application because we felt it was imperative that they have at least one follower."

Should all of us be leaders all of the time? Isn’t there a time to follow as well as lead?

One man likes to tell about the day he purchased a novelty sign and hung it on his office door. The sign read: "I'm the boss." The next day he came to work he noticed that the office comedian affixed a sticky note to his door that read, "Your wife called. She wants her sign back."

He may be the boss at work, but home is different altogether. In marriage and family as well as most social relationships, sometimes we lead and sometimes we follow the lead of another. If the so-called boss happens to be an effective leader at work, he has probably learned that getting his own way all of the time does not produce good results. As it turns out, the best leaders are also excellent followers. Why?

1. Good leaders share leadership. They know when to follow and when to lead.

2. Good leaders build their skills on following role models for the behaviors they want to learn. What they admire in another, they copy.

3. Good leaders exhibit humility. They remain open to suggestion. When they need it, they ask for help and follow good advice.

In other words, good leaders are also good followers. They know when to follow in the footsteps of others and when to leave tracks of their own.

You may be the boss, but you will be a leader when you also learn how to follow.

Knowing Who You Are in Christ

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:51:00 GMT

By Shane Raynor

I’ve come to the conclusion that many of the issues and problems we face as Christians are preventable (or at least more easily solved) if we understand who we are as believers. Sometimes we forget that we’re both physical and spiritual beings. As far as everyday life goes, we have a childhood and adolescence to try to figure out who we are—granted, some of us are forced to grow up more quickly than others and, in some cases we spend a lifetime trying to answer basic identity questions—but by and large, we know it's all part of the typical human experience. But with spirituality, we like to make it more complicated.

In the real world, the people who seem to be most fulfilled are the ones who have a comfortable sense of their identity. They know who they are as individuals, and they also understand how they connect with their community.

The spiritual part of us is similar, but based on my observation, there’s a whole lot less understanding in the church about how being a Christian radically changes who we are as individuals. In recent years, we’ve been hearing the buzzword “community” a lot. In our churches, we encourage people to join small groups (almost to the point of being annoying), we tout the benefits of community, and we lament our society’s alleged preoccupation with individualism.

But it’s my conviction that we can’t connect properly to a community if we don’t have a solid grasp of who we are as individuals.

When I was a kid, my time playing alone in the backyard was just as valuable to my emotional development, if not more so, than my time with other kids. It’s when my creativity flourished, and even today, as much as I love hanging out with other people, I reach a point where I need time alone to process everything. I do my best writing when no one else is around, yet, if I get writer’s block, one good spiritual conversation with a friend opens up the floodgate of ideas. (I’m about 60%/40% Extrovert to Introvert on the Myers-Briggs scale.)

As Christians, we’re in some kind of relationship with at least three different groups. Other believers, nonchristians, and what I refer to as the heavenly or spiritual realm—God, Satan, angels, demons, etc. The very fact that we have faith in Jesus affects how we relate to all these beings.

We make the decision to follow Christ as individuals, and we become part of a community of believers. But we’re still individuals—we don’t join some collective blob. The church isn’t the Borg.

I’ve put together a four week Bible study called Who You Are in Christ. It’s part of the Converge Bible Studies series that I’m editing for Abingdon Press. In the course of the study, I explore how Christians relate to the spiritual realm, other believers, and the rest of the world. I also take a look at how self-image affects our faith.

In the next several weeks, I’ll be writing more here on these topics, and we’ll be discussing them during Converge podcasts too.

Grab your Bible and a copy of Who You Are in Christ and let's dig into Scripture.

Buy Who You Are in Christ at Ministry Matters, Cokesbury, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, iTunes, and Google Play.

Do You Lead or Control People?

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

In my years leading in business and churches, I have known many people who claim to be leaders, but they are actually nothing more than controllers of people. There is a huge difference in leading and controlling.

In fact, the differences are almost exact opposites:

Here are some characteristics of environments that lead people:

Creativity is encouraged and mistakes are seen as part of the process.
People are developed more than programs.
Healthy relationships and teams are part of the DNA.
Delegation thrives and people are empowered.
Everyone has value on a team.
People follow willingly, because they feel respected and valued.
Leadership development is part of the DNA.

Here are some characteristics of controlling people:

Personal growth is stifled.
Creativity and independent thought is discouraged.
Followers are kept as a distance from leaders.
Leaders insist on their way and are never wrong.
People are taken for granted.
Positions and policies rule more than relationships.
People are employees more than team members.

Apparently, to some leaders, it appears easier to simply make people do what the leader wants them to do. By force. I’ve had bosses like that. Making people carry out your agenda simplifies things…it seems. But, that’s not really leadership.

Leadership is more of an art than that. Leading people effectively means helping people with different skills, talents and interests, even ideas and temperaments in a way that makes them feel valued and yet accomplishes the established vision and goals.

That’s not easy. That’s not even always fun. But, it certainly is truer of leadership. The fact is you can’t truly lead people and control people. The two don’t work well together.

Have you ever worked for a controller?

Be honest with yourself, are you leading people, or do you claim to be a leader, but you are really a controlling people?

Telling the Story

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:37:00 GMT

By Mike Poteet

Does the Good Book make for good television? Millions of Americans seemed to think so (as many as 4 in 10, in fact) when History Channel aired its five-week miniseries, The Bible, in March. The first episode drew 13.1 million viewers, more than watched American Idol that week. More than 10 million watched each subsequent episode, beating AMC’s popular The Walking Dead. Viewers for the Easter night finale rose to 11.7 million.

In ten hours The Bible presents many of Scripture’s most dramatic narratives. Several—such as Noah’s Ark, the Exodus, and David and Goliath—are Sunday school standards. Others—the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, or John’s visions in the Book of Revelation—may be less familiar, even to long-time churchgoers. The series’ final four hours depict Jesus’ life, culminating in his suffering, death, and resurrection, and the early years of the church.

Why Did People Watch?

Few media observers expected The Bible to be a ratings hit. What accounts for its success? High production values helped. The Bible’s husband-and-wife executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey knew that today’s audiences expect visual excellence. One of Downey’s teenaged children told her, “Whatever you do, don’t make the special effects lame.” The Bible also brings modern script sensibilities to bear on its characters. Downey says, “We tell these stories from a human point of view, showing people from the past who were struggling with some of the same things that we struggle through.”

An onscreen disclaimer at each episode’s outset acknowledges that The Bible takes creative license with its source material while seeking “to stay true to the spirit of the book.” Some critics question whether the series achieves that goal; British newspaper The Guardian reports some Bible scholars have criticized the miniseries’ “‘whitewashed’ [that is, primarily Caucasian] cast . . . marginalized role of women, and . . . aversion to unpleasant details.” But not all unpleasant details are avoided; the series vividly depicts several biblical stories of violence and warfare. But the producers argue their main focus is presenting, in Downey’s words, “the story of love and the redemptive power of God.” In addition they want the miniseries to motivate people to revisit the Bible or read it for the first time. “We know that our Bible is a book that changes lives,” says Downey.

Do You Love to Tell the Story?

Whatever one thinks of The Bible, Burnett and Downey’s passion for the project and the exceptional attention it has drawn offers all Christians an opportunity to reflect on how we go about telling Scripture’s story of God’s love and power. We believe that it is, as an old movie title has it, “the greatest story ever told,” and yet we do not always go to great lengths to tell it, or to tell it as well as we can.

The youth with whom you minister may have watched The Bible, or know people who did. They may or may not spot how it differs from Scripture, or appreciate whether such differences matter; but, depending upon their experience, they may wonder, “Why can’t the Bible be this interesting at church?”

The church should remember, as ancient Israel and the early Christians knew, that telling God’s story, with all its drama and real, human characters, can be a compelling way to spark and sustain faith. It must also affirm that the Bible is much more than an entertaining story: It is a story through which God changes lives. The living Christ meets us in and through its God-inspired words, equipping us “to do everything that is good” (2 Timothy 3:17), not only as individuals but as a community of faith. God calls us to know the story so that we can tell it in ways the Spirit can use to show others where they belong in the story, too.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

A Saint Goes Marching In

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:11:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Years ago my oldest son asked me a question: “What is a saint?” When you’re driving along with a numb mind at day’s end, as I was, that’s not the type of question you are prepared to answer. So I splattered out, “A saint is someone who does what God wants them to do.” My son answered, “If that’s a saint, then why did New Orleans choose that as their football mascot?” I didn’t have an answer for that question either.

What is a saint? Well, we often think of saints as being holy or remarkable people who did something extraordinary for God. We think of people we know personally who have influenced us: A grandmother, parent, or mentor whom we easily refer to as saints. Or we think of some poor lady with a worthless husband and an impossible life. She never loses her patience or resolve, so behind her back we talk about how great her reward in heaven will be, and we call her a saint.

Thomas Merton, a saintly person in his own right, said: “A saint is not someone who is good. It is someone who has experienced the goodness of God.” Going with Merton’s thought, saints are those have come to know deep, abiding grace. Saints understand that their failures and shortcomings do not disqualify them from receiving God’s love. Saints have learned that their grotesque, self-inflicted wounds, rather than alienating God, bring the divine to bear in their lives in unique and powerful ways.

Extraordinary. Influential. Determined. Fallible and damaged. If these are the characteristics of sainthood, then a true saint left the world in recent days: The writer, priest, preacher, alcoholic, divorcée, and all-round self-proclaimed “ragamuffin” known as Brennan Manning.

As a young man Brennan entered the seminary and was ordained to the Franciscan priesthood. He would go on to become a theologian, a campus minister, a spiritual director, the author of nearly two dozen books (his “Ragamuffin Gospel” should be required religious reading), and a practitioner in the way of Jesus, living among the poor as a mason’s assistant, a dishwasher, a voluntary prisoner, and a shrimper.

Of course, if Manning’s story and life ended there, there would be little doubt about his sainthood. Teaching theology, working among the pitiable and overlooked, self-imprisonment (though innocent) in order to minister to convicts, living among the rough and tumble fisherman of the Gulf Coast – who could be more like Jesus?

But Manning’s ministry and life disintegrated into horrific alcoholism. He was homeless and busted, living on a quart of vodka a day, when he finally entered treatment. It took him months to get sober, but he did, only to relapse. When sober again he began writing in earnest, left the priesthood, married Rosalyn, and moved to New Orleans (he was an avid Saints fan), where his marriage would end in divorce, and again he would land in rehab.

Manning says that the greatest regret of his life is not his relapses into alcoholism. His greatest regret is “The time I’ve wasted in shame, guilt, remorse, and self-condemnation…I’m not speaking about the appropriate guilt one ought to feel after committing a sin. I’m talking about wallowing in guilt, almost indulging in it, which is basically a kind of idolatry where I am the center of my focus and concern.”

He went on to say, “I can waste no more time being shocked or horrified that I have failed. There’s nothing else I can do now but help sinners journey from self-hatred to God’s love, and to help people see that if God ceased to love, God would cease to be God.”

This blessed, bumbling drunk; this muddled mix of failure and faithfulness; this holy, blue-eyed and blue-jean-wearing champion of grace did exactly that for untold thousands – he helped them find the love of God in spite of personal shame. And while I only knew him through his words, he did the same for me. So from one ragamuffin to another, “Thank you, Brennan. A saint truly is marching in.”

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, pastor, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Two Wild Turkeys and Trust

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:35:00 GMT

By Kasey Hitt

At a recent silent retreat I sat with eyes transfixed on two wild turkeys. A female was grazing along the edge of the wood without a care or glance in my direction while the male kept a careful eye on both of us. He was protecting the space from me and for her by puffing up and fanning out his feathers every few seconds, showing me his front side then his back side, a little sound now and then to go along with the theatrics. I was as still as could be so he might understand that I was not there to hurt them only to take in their beauty while they went about their ordinary business.

He never let up which caused me to laugh wondering if his show was vanity or protection. To which a question inwardly answered, “Is there a difference?” My laughter then turned to compassion as I mused at how instinctual it is to defend ourselves and those we love. It's hard work never letting down our guard, being on high alert, staying busy, keeping up appearances, whatever we do to protect ourselves. Defensiveness in this broken world is a good thing...until it is not. Until we are invited to trust.

It is no small thing to trust, is it? No small thing to believe that someone does not want to cause you harm but indeed wants to take in your handsome beauty. It is no small thing to come to a silent retreat and receive God's delight and care. Leaving behind the external defenses we are often met with the internal ones. Yet God keeps on gazing, laughing perhaps, definitely feeling compassion.

The turkey never did trust me to the point of resting its feathers for a while. Though he did come closer, even within 4 yards of me in which he turned, puffed, fanned, then flapped his wings in my direction and I quickly realized that I did not trust him which was enough to send me on my way. After all, it's still a broken world. Wonder if he laughed inside then later felt compassion.

Break Free

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:27:00 GMT

By Deborah Lewis

Here’s what I want for Mother’s Day: I want the church to break out of its bondage. I want us to stop our incremental “improvement” about how we speak and act in worship on Mother’s Day and claim a real holy-day instead.

Jessica Miller Kelley’s article earlier this week included some helpful and sensitive advice for making it through this Sunday’s worship without stepping on some of the biggest landmines. I appreciate her inclusion of the wide spectrum of mothering and her sincere effort to include mothers who may come to church on Sunday expecting the “traditional” celebration, while not excluding women who are dreading the day. But in her effort to include all sorts of women with all sorts of reproductive experiences, she effectively simplifies women’s experience. (And, though I’m sure it wasn’t her choice to use the photo, the accompanying picture of a mother and her baby didn’t help expand the topic.)

I finished her article thinking, It’s not all about (in)fertility. Mother’s Day is not only uncomfortable because some of us are unsettled or unhappy about our circumstances, whatever they may be. Mother’s Day is uncomfortable—especially in church—because it reduces womanhood to motherhood. Yes, it can be difficult to be a woman who has not borne children or one who has miscarried or one who cannot have children. But it is not all about (in)fertility issues. It is not all about having or longing for children.

At the most basic level, this is still a painful day because our culture and our church are still having the same conversation we were having 50 years ago: Can women “have it all”? When and how does a woman decide to be a mother? How should she prioritize or find balance between work and family life? And we are still not asking these questions about men. Notice that we don’t fret when Father’s Day is coming up. Notice that we don’t make serious, expectation-filled mention of men when we talk about women having it all. The onus is still on women to make the accommodations, to make it all work—or to stop working or to settle for being a “sub-par” mother.

The focus of our conversation on children or lack thereof simplifies and pokes at something potentially painful, and reduces the conversation back to our biological role. The focus on Mother’s Day in church is then like a spotlight aimed right on each of us women, all eyes on us, waiting for a performance we are not interested in giving on this narrow stage of expectation. The lines are prescribed and rehearsed and there isn’t really room for new plotlines. These are complicated issues and merely trying to avoid offending people, or worse, trying to name and include every reproductive experience possible, are both inadequate.

So I want the church to break free and to stop worrying over how to “do” Mother’s Day right in worship. I want a new conversation and a renewed focus.

I want us to remember our baptismal calling, that we are a family formed by God’s call. I want us to remember what we vow when one of our young ones is baptized, that all of us together as the body of Christ have responsibility for raising children in the faith. Sure, mothers of all sorts would continue to be lifted up as disciples who take on a special measure of this calling. But so would teachers, Sunday school teachers, police officers, fathers, social workers, artists—all men and women. Wouldn’t that be an interesting, theologically sound, give-us-a-reason-to-be-in-church way to observe this day and make it holy?

Why VBS Is Important for Your Church

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

By Betsy Hall

VBS has been around for years however many churches have changed where, when, and how it is offered. Maybe VBS is in your job description or you’ve been asked to direct it, regardless of how you've gotten involved—VBS is still one of the best outreach ministries for your church! Still not convinced? Here are some reasons why VBS is still important and relevant today.

7 reasons why VBS is important to the life of your church and mine:

Reach families for Jesus Christ-obviously you’ll have children’s activities, offer youth and adult studies too! Make sure your church leadership sees VBS as an outreach program not just for kids. Plan to have Bibles available for people to pick up and take home.
Invite new families-who don't have a church home to visit during VBS. Plan some activities during VBS so families meet each other like a cookout, or an ice cream party. Any activity where families can come and meet new people.
Use untapped spiritual gifts-if you’ve encouraged people to take a spiritual gifts inventory some may need places to serve. Make sure to communicate where different gifts are needed during VBS and the time commitment involved.
Find future teachers-volunteers might have so much fun with the age level they teach, they may volunteer to continue with their group after VBS.
Short term service-VBS is an opportunity for busy volunteers to serve. Make sure you have easy ways for people to come help, even if they don’t have a lot time. People want to be involved, schedule times when people can come help organize supplies and get crafts ready. They might not be able to come for a work day, but they might have 3 hours after worship.
Spiritual growth-after VBS most of your volunteers will be physically tired but spiritually refreshed. Plan devotions and prayer time during planning sessions, but also consider starting a small group Bible study to begin after VBS so new friendships can continue to grow.
Your reason here-you’ve no doubt thought of a reason that is particular to your setting. If your leadership would hear it better coming from another source, tell them we said it. Then after VBS is a huge success show them this article and this reason.

Plan for success

Pray, then pray more!

Practice good stewardship, create a budget for purchases and a realistic list of volunteers needed to implement the program.

VBS can be spiritually rich without being financially draining! Tap into volunteers who are creative financially and artistically. When you get caught up in perfection, remember it’s all about the kids!

Plan a schedule that works for your setting, and be flexible. Be realistic about what your church can do this year. Use your Director’s Manual to plan the where, the when, and the how—including deciding whether you'll offer an 8-hour VBS or traditional 5 days!

Your church still has time to plan VBS, it could be your best outreach event this year!

A Mother's Day Prayer

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:17:00 GMT

By Magrey deVega

God of Provision and Unconditional Love,

On this day when we acknowledge the importance of motherhood among us, we first give thanks that you are a loving parent to us all. From your being all life was born, and in your bosom all creation is nurtured. You have formed us in your image as your children, and gathered us together as a brood under your wing. You have united us as kindred members of one human family, and we are grateful to be your offspring together. We celebrate your divine love, reflected in human expressions of motherhood.

We give you thanks for the mothers among us, and ask that you strengthen them in their daily tasks. Grant them wisdom in the lessons they teach, patience in the discipline they foster, and persistence in their promotion of decency and compassion, both by word and example. May they be given the honor and thanks they deserve but often do not receive.

We thank you for all motherly figures: grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives, step-mothers, foster mothers, guardians, babysitters, teachers, health care providers, neighbors, friends, loved ones, and many others, who practice self-sacrifice and embody compassion to all who are privileged to be in their influence. Grant them vigor to carry on their work, and the satisfaction that the holy privilege of their task affords.

We acknowledge to you, O God, that even amid our grateful celebration, many of us come with restless spirits, reluctant to name the difficulties of this day.

For some, this day brings the sorrowful awareness of their own inability to conceive biological children. Draw your tender spirit near their feelings of self-betrayal, impotence, and grief, and remind them that those who struggle with infertility have always shared a special place in your heart. We pray for those who have suffered miscarriages, those fatigued by fertility treatments, and those struggling through the process of adoption. May they remember that in your power and through your church, they can still leave a lasting legacy beyond themselves.

For some, this day is marked by loneliness and grief, as they spend this first Mother’s Day as a widower, an orphan, or a parent who has lost a child. To those who today live in the wake of the death of a loved one, grant glimpses of the resurrection. Bring to them a steady restoration of their broken hearts, allow them to live into their future with hope, and empower them to carry out the legacy of lessons instilled within them.

For some, this is a day that surfaces ongoing tensions that exist within our personal relationships and family dynamics. We ask for healing from the wounds of our past, a path of forgiveness for wrongs both experienced and committed, and the rebuilding of trust forged in honesty, authenticity, and love.

We give you thanks for the wide spectrum of motherhood represented among us today: new mothers and young mothers whose children are in their most tender years; mothers of grown children who transition into empty nests and a new chapter of self-discovery; mothers and grandmothers of advanced years, whose twilight of life is marked by frailty of body but a potency of spirit. Theirs is a cumulative reminder that though our lives are marked by transition and change, your nurture and affection for all your children remains the same.

Therefore, remind us to live with a child-like faith, curious to every wondrous mystery, attentive to your every instruction, obedient to your every command, and willing to share with every one of your children. We give you thanks, O God, who is a loving Mother and Father to us all, and in whose name we pray,

Amen.

7 False Assumptions Made About Introverts

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:36:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

I am an introvert. Some people can question whether they are or not. I don’t. I’m certified in Myers Briggs, so I know the language well. I’ve studied the concept. It didn’t require much study though for me. I’m in the camp.

It means Sundays I’m more tired when I go home. It means I avoid certain crowds unless I have a clear purpose for being there. It means I run alone…and I’m okay with that. It means I’m probably harder to get to know than some people. I get all that. I own it. It’s me.

I’ve written before about the struggles of introversion in ministry and ways I work to overcome those limitations. What surprises me is how misunderstood introverts are sometimes. There are a lot of false assumptions made when someone is introverted.

Here are 7 false assumptions made of me as an introvert:

I’m shy – That may be your word, but it’s not mine. I prefer purposeful for me. Others may call it something else. I talk when there’s a purpose. I’m not even afraid to do so. Three year olds are shy when they hide behind their daddy. That’s not me.

I need more courage – Why I oughta… (You’ll get that if you are a Moe Howard…Three Stooges fan.) Seriously, I “ain’t chicken” when I choose not to speak. I’m just being comfortable.

I’ve got nothing to say – Actually I have lots to say. Did you notice I blog almost every day? Do you see how often I update Twitter and Facebook? I have bunches to say. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t express it, but many times how I choose to communicate will be different than how others choose to communicate.

I’m dumb – Yea, in a lot of ways I am. But, in some ways I’m smarter than the guy who never quits talking. You know the one. I am less likely to say the thing I wish I hadn’t said, because I didn’t think before I talked. It happens, but not as often as it might for some.

I am arrogant or don’t like you – Honestly, I love everyone. Or at least that’s my Biblical command and personal goal. Whether or not I talk to you will not be a good determination of whether or not I like you. It might even mean I respect you enough to listen more than speak. Maybe.

I need you to talk for me – Ummm….actually I’d rather you not. Now that said, I sometimes let my wife talk for me. She’s good at it too. But, if I have an opinion I think needs sharing, I’ll speak for myself. Or regret later than I didn’t. But, either way, please don’t try to be my voice.

I need to change, mature, grow as a person or leader – There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m just quieter than some. Actually, there are lots of things wrong with me. Introversion isn’t one of them.

Those are some of the false assumptions that have been made of this introvert.

Introverts, what misunderstandings have been made about you?

Tending Our Spiritual Gardens

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:46:00 GMT

By Andrea Murdock

Spring is in the air! Finally, after what felt like an extended winter in much of the country, temperatures are warming up, ground is thawing, and trees are budding. This means that it is time to get out your gardening gloves. Tending a garden requires a lot of planning and even more follow-though. But the rewards you will reap are almost always worth it.

Consider three of the main types of gardens: the vegetable garden, the fl ower garden, and the rock garden. Each of these gardens represents a different way to use the ground for good. Vegetable gardens require strong soil, and their purpose is to produce food for physical nourishment. Flower gardens use a more delicate soil, and the plants in a flower garden usually require more tending than the sturdier vegetable plants. The flowers and other plants in these gardens work together to create a place of beauty as well as to enhance the existing beauty of the world around them. Rock gardens don’t need a particular type of soil. They are a planned space meant to de-clutter the landscape and to offer walking paths and places to rest. Their purpose is to invoke relaxation and clarity of mind.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Gardening means different things to different people. For some, it’s a way of life. Growing and harvesting not only puts food on the table but also provides income and participation in the global economy. For others, gardening is a hobby.

These gardeners may believe strongly in local, organic produce. Or maybe they find no greater joy than sitting outside among blooming plants after a long day inside a busy office. Still others prefer the rock garden, a quiet place to rest and reflect, usually in the midst of a busy city. These different approaches to gardens and gardening mirror the different approaches that Christians take to tending their spirits and growing in relationship with God. Some feel closest to God when working hard, getting their hands dirty in service to God and others. Other Christians connect with God through the beauty of the natural world God created or the beauty they see in others. And still others grow in their relationship with God through quiet time spent in prayer and solitude.

Tending the Soul

We encounter examples of planting, gardening, and tending the earth throughout Scripture. Growing and harvesting crops was a fact of life in the agrarian cultures during Bible times. Jesus used gardening and farming as points of reference in his parables to explain the kingdom of God. But even today we can learn from these agricultural metaphors. Our spirits still depend on a deeprooted faith, the nurturing power of love, and the ability to produce fruit. In John 15:5 Jesus says: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.”

Youth need to understand the importance of tending their soul and nurturing their relationship with God. It’s also important for them to realize that there is no one correct way to do this. A young person who isn’t capable of spending an hour in silent prayer may feel extremely close to God while getting his or her hands dirty in service to others. And while one young person might fi nd God in the midst of loud praise music, another might experience God through a peaceful walk in the park. Much as there are different types of gardens, spiritual growth and nurture is different for different Christians—but all need to be tended.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

The Gift of Presence

Wed, 01 May 2013 19:37:00 GMT

By Joe E. Pennel, Jr.

...as a pastor for over forty years I have stood beside those who suffer. I have seen people suffer as a result of illness, broken relationships, moral failure, the loss of a loved one, and the loss of income. These experiences have caused me to reflect on the meaning of suffering in both theoretical and practical ways.

Suffering is a universal theme that joins people at every point on earth. In a strange and mystical way, it makes us aware of our transcendence and destines us to go beyond ourselves. It happens, as we know, at different moments on the path of life. It takes place in various and different ways. It assumes different dimensions. It evokes either compassion or despair. It consoles or it intimidates. It is tangible with an intangible meaning. It leads to either joy or despair. Yet one thing is certain:Suffering is inseparable from the life of humanity.

Ministering to those who are suffering does not mean that we understand all there is to know about suffering or have all the "answers," because suffering is, at best, an intangible mystery. It simply means that we are present to those who suffer so that they might not suffer alone.

We offer those who are suffering a sacred gift when we agree to be present to their pain. Being with them in meaningful ways can provide a source of safety and comfort. It also is a gift to us because it is in such moments that we experience the holy.

Robert Browning Hamilton's poem "Along the Road" tells of walking a mile with Pleasure and learning nothing despite her constant chatter. In contrast, when he walks with silent Sorrow, he learns many things. As we assist those who are suffering, we also learn something of great value for the living of these days.

excerpt from: The Gift of Presence: A Guide to Helping Those Who Suffer by Joe E. Pennel, Jr. Copyright ©2009 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission. Order information below. Click to read excerpts from the other books in this series: The Gift of Compassion by Becca Stevens and The Gift of Encouragement by Marjorie J. Thompson.

The Power of a Playlist

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

By Kimberly MacNeill

Remember the days when you heard a song on the radio that you loved and so you went to the store and bought that compact disc? (Yes - the days when CD’s were your only option for owning music?) And you would put that CD in the player and go straight to the track of the song you loved and you would listen to it over and over again. At some point, maybe you would listen to the whole lineup of songs and find another one you liked. Usually there were more than a few that you didn’t care for, but you were stuck with them, so you tolerated listening to them. After all, you paid for them.

iTunes changed all that. Now you only buy a song you love. You never, ever have to even listen to a song you don’t like. You make a playlist of your favorites. And when your favorites change, you change the playlist. It’s easy. And if you don’t want to buy any songs at all, you can tune into iHeartRadio and design your own station. No need to tolerate songs you don’t like when you can have absolute satisfaction with your favorites.

My Favorites Versus Your Favorites

Though these are technological advances that are enjoyed by many, it is worth noting how this has impacted corporate worship gatherings in the church. The “worship war” as it has been called, used to be generally “traditional” versus “contemporary”. But now it is plural: “wars.” It is “my favorites” versus “your favorites” and there aren’t just two camps in the war; every worshipper has their own camp. If the worship band plays your favorite song, worship is really good that day. If they don’t, worship was not as good as usual. If they play your favorite, you easily engage. If they play someone else’s favorite, “I just couldn’t get into it, today” you say. This lack of tolerance has impacted the participation and appreciation of corporate worship. People, worship leaders included, have lost the fact that God is the sole focus of the music set and time spent together; people have forgotten the purpose of gathering in his name, to give Him glory. We know the saying “It’s not about us,” but sometimes we still act like it is.

Our Playlist

People need to be led back to what it means to worship as one body. And if part of worship is going to be singing together, then we need to get everyone on the same page. It is hard to go against the culture of “personalization” that has been described here, but there is a possible solution. Why can’t a church have its own playlist? These are OUR favorite songs. These are the songs WE sing. TOGETHER, WE sing these to worship OUR God. Practically speaking, here is how you do it: as the worship leader you already have a pool of songs that you choose from when planning music sets over a period of six weeks or so. Take that pool and call it a playlist and publicize it as such to the church. Print it in the program. Post it on the web. Get it out there so that people can download it. If people start listening to those songs over and over in their car, eventually they may sing them in the shower. And once they can belt it at the top of their lungs while they are alone, they might just start singing with the congregation because now they know the song and it is important because this song is OUR SONG to God.

Making It Happen

This can work. However, the challenge has always been that the worship leader is so busy the playlist becomes an extra step that they just can’t get to. Someone has to own it. There is probably someone you know who loves to worship through music and would give anything to be part of the worship team—except they have no musical ability. But they would love to come see you once a month for 15 minutes, get the list, adjust it from last month if needed, and work the communication channels of the church to get it in the program and on the web.

A Church Playlist might just be the tool you’re looking for. It will increase ownership and “oneness” among the people when they worship together. It will increase participation among a culture of non-singers in which we live (see “Why Aren’t People Singing?”). And imagine what it will say to guests who come to visit the church gathering: it will be tangibly evident that these people love God. What an opportunity!

“Sing a new song to the Lord!….proclaim the good news that he saves…Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.” -Psalm 96

Righteous Judgment

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:24:00 GMT

By Melissa Slocum

Last month two young men in Steubenville, Ohio, were convicted of raping a sixteen-year-old girl during a night of partying late last summer. The case gained national attention in part because of the role that social media played in incriminating the perpetrators and leading to further arrests. Teens who were at the party and who witnessed the sexual assault used phones to take pictures, record videos, and tweet an account of the night’s events.

The teens guilty of this crime played for the Steubenville High School Big Red football team, a program with a history of championships and a loyal following in the east Ohio town. Some in the community lashed out at the victim, blaming her for damaging the football team and its reputation. Even after the verdict was delivered, two girls were arrested for threatening the victim through social media.

More recently authorities in Torrington, Connecticut, arrested three young men, ages 17 and 18, for the sexual assault of a thirteen-year-old girl. Some classmates of the accused responded by bullying the alleged victim on Facebook and Twitter.

Many young people involved in these incidents—as perpetrators, bystanders, or outside observers—exercised poor judgment, to say the least. Two young men have been judged accordingly by the legal system. Time will tell if additional arrests, charges, or convictions follow.

God’s Judgment

Throughout Scripture we see a God of love, justice, and mercy. But, as early as the opening chapters of Genesis, we see that God is also a God of judgment.

Through Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and David, God made covenants with God’s people, Israel, promising to bless and protect them. But, as a part of these covenants, God expected the people to be faithful and obedient. God never abandoned Israel, but when they weren’t faithful, there were consequences.

As a warning against Israel’s disobedience, Moses said: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy”; but later he reveals, “Because the LORD your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you” (Deuteronomy 4:26a, 31a, NRSV). Later in Israel’s history God spoke through prophets, warning people of the consequences of abandoning God.

In his death and resurrection, Jesus atoned for our sins and delivered us from death. Though we have forgiveness and the promise of eternal life, we do not have license to do whatever we want. God holds us accountable for all we do. While we might be fearful about being judged for our words and actions, we know that we serve a merciful God who invites us to repentance and reconciliation.

Living the Promise

Young people are still learning how to make responsible decisions, and they often learn by trial and error. Too often they find themselves in situations where their judgment is impaired by factors such as peer pressure, alcohol or drugs, or anger. They need to understand that God cares about what they do and say. The writer of Ecclesiastes put it this way, “Rejoice, young person, while you are young! . . . Follow your heart’s inclinations and whatever your eyes see, but know this: God will call you to account for all of these things” (Ecclesiastes 11:9).

The promise of God’s judgment is not meant to scare us, and we should not live in constant fear of doing something wrong. In fact, if we do not take risks in order to glorify and obey God, we will be equally judged. Our responsiblity is to constantly seek and pray for God’s wisdom precisely because we understand the promise of God’s judgment (for good or bad) and God’s call for us to live powerfully in the Holy Spirit.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

Blowing in the Wind

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:25:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Now that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been installed as Pope Francis, I must say that I could not be happier with the papal conclave’s choice. Not that the College of Cardinals would bother to ask my opinion on the matter – I’m not even Catholic – but as a student of religion, one who stumbles along trying to follow Jesus, and a lover of startling, historic moments, I am ecstatic.

All the obvious reasons for my joy come to mind. Pope Francis is the first pope from the Southern hemisphere; the first Bishop of Rome born in Latin America; he is the first Vicar of Christ with a Jesuit background, and the first Successor of Peter to take the name “Francis,” honoring the legacy of Francis of Assisi, the medieval saint who so loved God’s creation and who practiced spiritual and everyday simplicity.

But I am most thrilled for Francis because it means the end of Pope Benedict’s reign over the Catholic Church. It’s not that I had anything personal against old Ben (remember I’m not even Catholic), though his role as “God’s Rottweiler,” the theological enforcer of the Church, made me jittery. My grudge with Benedict goes back to September 1997.

It was the Italian Eucharist Congress, and a frail Pope John Paul II was presiding. The Harlem Gospel Singers had just finished performing for the audience when who should walk out on the stage but no other than Bob Dylan! In pinstripes and a white cowboy hat, he sang three songs that night: “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” appropriate I think; “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall,” (classic Dylan); and a salute to the youth in the crowd and the aging pope, “Forever Young.”

Talk about startling, historic moments! But bad-tempered Benny, then known as Cardinal Ratzinger, was not amused. He had failed in his attempt to cancel Bob Dylan’s appearance before the Holy See. Benedict, a classically trained pianist, loves classical and sacred music. But his love for song does not transfer to other musical genres.

He has said that all rock music is the product of Satan, he cancelled the Advent rock and roll concert series at the Vatican begun by Pope John Paul, and took a negative view of using guitars at mass. In his memoirs he sneered about Bob Dylan’s appearance before Pope John Paul II, saying: “There was reason to be skeptical – I was, and in some ways I still am – over whether it was really right to allow this type of ‘prophet’ to appear.”

So while there may be many reasons to be glad for Pope Francis’ arrival – many of these reasons complex, political, and theological – my reason is fairly simple. You have to be cautious of giving your whole-hearted trust to someone who doesn’t like Bob Dylan.

But Pope John Paul II seemed to have liked Dylan just fine. As Cardinal Ratzinger stood coldly by, he delivered a short homily after the concert that included lyrics from Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” saying: “You’ve asked, ‘How many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man?’ I answer you: One! There is only one road for man and it is Christ, who said, ‘I am the life.’”

Interesting, don’t you think, that the then Pope John Paul spoke of simplicity as the road forward. He spoke as Christ being enough. It has echoes of another Paul, the Apostle Paul, who once said that all his spiritual accomplishments, all his religious fanfare, all his ceremonial ballyhoo, all his pompous credentials, and all his ceremonious posturing were now considered garbage. They were trash. Junk. Rubbish. Literally, it was all manure. The only thing that mattered to his faith was Jesus Christ alone.

I am not terribly optimistic that a single man, no matter how many “firsts” are attached to his new administration, can correct years of encrusted arrogance and corruption or replace the accumulated labyrinths of doctrinal and ceremonial complexity with simplicity. But I have hope. I have hope that change is indeed blowing in the wind.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, pastor, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

VBS: Hard Work, but Worth It!

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:15:00 GMT

By Leanne Ciampa Hadley

I have had a team of people working with me for months getting ready for the twelve hours we will spend with the kids the week of Vacation Bible School.

Stuff has been piling up in offices for weeks. People have been cutting out craft items. Others have cut clay, donated items, and generously given of their time.

I have no idea how many people or how many hours has gone into this year’s VBS but I know many people have worked hard!

I can’t help but wonder if the kids will ever know just how much work goes into everything we do for them. They don’t have a clue that all these people have given hours of time so that they will feel loved and have a good time during VBS.

And I think that is the point of it all. This is pure love. Doing for others without expecting anything in return. Making the week extra special for children because they are extra special. And creating a space where every child is welcomed cared for and where they can experience God.

I hope they never find out how much hard work went into the week. I never want them to, for one-second, wonder if we did it because we “had”to. And I hope that when these little ones smile, laugh and hug us, we know that when we love, love is always returned.

Get ready for Vacation Bible School!

Why Aren't People Singing?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:30:00 GMT

By Kimberly MacNeill

Worship leaders, week after week, pour their heart and soul into leading their congregation in a time of worship through music. They plan and they practice and they pray. A team of musicians shows up prepared and ready to lead people in singing praise to God. But, all to often, at the end of the day, it didn’t turn out as “good” as they hoped. In the evaluation time, it is noticeable once again, that the people just didn’t seem to be singing. It is disappointing. The worship leader wants so much for the people to sing out in passionate praise. “Why aren’t people singing?” they ask. And though some worship leaders are willing to admit that some songs just don’t work, the lion-share of the conversation finds the people at fault: they don’t really care about worship: they aren’t passionate about God. “Well, that’s on them,” says the worship leader. “I’m doing all I can.” No doubt, he or she is doing their best. But, there is something they might not know, and it would help if they did.

There was a time in American culture when people grew up with a foundational appreciation and understanding of music. In elementary school the class sang songs. In a later grade, everyone had a music class that explored all the instruments. In Junior High everyone was in the chorus one mandatory semester. Lots of teens chose to join the high school chorus. Most families did go to church and kids learned church songs; hymnals had the actual music score in it as generally speaking, people could read music! See, not all that long ago, people grew up singing out loud, in public; it was part of life. But when school budgets started getting cut, the Arts Department was the first to go. The music foundation went away. In addition, as Christian music expanded in influence, it took on a more “professional” edge and became more performance oriented. Bottom line: singing was now for the musically gifted. If I ask someone in today’s world, “Do you sing?” they almost instantly say, “only in the shower.” And if someone says they occasionally sing “karaoke” they almost always add, “you know….because I’m drinking and so is the audience!”

So now, here we are. Though we have a culture that loves music and has easy access to it, today’s music is mostly about listening to other people sing. So, the idea that when people come to church once a week and are expected to sing out loud in front of both family and strangers-well-they are looking for ways to get out of that! After all, they have never done that in their life! The good news is that many people think the worship music is good. In fact, for some people, it is the reason they come to church - they love the music. Listening to it ministers to them. But, that doesn’t mean they want to sing it with you.

So, what can the worship leader do?

Realize Not Everyone Loves Singing

First, realize that not everyone loves singing like you do. It would be better to “invite” rather than “expect.” Acknowledge that you know everyone is not a “singer” but that God asks us to worship Him “in spirit and in truth.” Explain that music is part of biblical worship and then educate the congregation to participate as they feel they can. You have probably already told them that it doesn’t matter if they are a “good singer.” But go further. Give them more ideas. They could sing just the chorus or just the parts they know. Encourage them to read the words and take them in, while the people around them sing them out. Invite them to clap when the song calls for it. Applause for God is an act of worship and doesn’t involve carrying a tune!

Choose Easier Songs

Second, choose songs that are easy to sing. Gifted musicians get bored with simple music and sometimes feel they are not giving their best to the Lord if they don’t do “great” music. But, when the purpose is to lead a congregation of mostly non-music people in singing praises together, simple is what works. This doesn't mean doing a child-like song. A simple song is a song that the melody is easily learned and the words easily match the rhythm. After a few times of hearing it, I can sing it because I know what is coming next. If you choose good songs and lead them well, people might even find themselves singing them in the shower at home! Isn’t that what we really want—a lifestyle of praise? And don’t forget, it is a listening culture and they do love the music. So, when it comes time for feature songs or special music, employ all your musical craft and give it all you’ve got from your heart, the way you like to do music. Your passion will translate and the people will love it!

Incorporate Other Elements of Worship

Third, incorporate other elements of worship within the music set. Lead people to read Scripture out loud together. Have a time of guided prayer on the attributes of God. Invite them to turn to the person next to them and say one thing they give thanks to God for today. The possibilities are endless! Look for ways to incorporate non-music elements inside the music set. This way, you can lead a multitude of different personalities, engaging more people in corporate worship to “Give to the Lord the glory his name deserves…" Psalm 29:3

What are your thoughts on why people aren't singing?

Faith Facing Tragedy

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:57:00 GMT

By J. Michael Lowry

Collectively this has been a hard week. News of the tragic terrorist bombing at the Boston marathon was joined last night by the massive explosion here in West, Texas. While Boston may be distant, we still reach out instinctively with our prayer and our care. The town of West lies in the heart of the Central Texas COnference of The United Methodist Church. This tragedy is close to home and touches our lives much more intimately. Here too we reach out with the love and care of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was on the phone last night with Rev. Don Scott, the District Superintendent of West United Methodist Church. West UMC is pastored by Rev. Jimmy Samson. At the time of writing this blog (Thursday morning, April 18, 2013), Rev. Laraine Waughtal, Disaster Relief Coordinator for the Central Texas Conference, is in West working with Pastor Samson on how we might best respond. Rev. Kyland Dobbins and Dr. Randy Wild from our Conference Mission Support Center are coordinating our response. We are aware of four church members whose homes are demolished and many others who have suffered damage. Four families of West UMC are currently unaccounted for. A number of churches in the Central District of the Conference are open as emergency shelters as needed. Officials from The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR— a part of our connectional worldwide mission to places experiencing disasters and one arm of the General Board of Global Ministries) has already been in touch with the offer of an emergency grant to help in relief efforts.

As is being widely reported, the community of West currently has all the emergency help they need. Officials in West are asking people to stay away until further assessment is done and specific help is requested.

How should we as a people of faith face these and other tragedies?

First, foremost, and always, let us be a people who place our lives and the lives of our loved ones before God in trusting prayer. Remember the promise of God. “Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Second, let us be a people of patience. We give thanks for first responders and other early responders who are immediately engaged. This is a time to commit in faith for the long haul. After the cameras have been turned off and the news reports stilled, we will remain in service and love to the community of West. In the ensuing days, weeks and months, needs will emerge that call for our action.

Third, let us be a people of hope. In the upcoming days we will have an opportunity to live out our faith-based hope through generosity of spirit, time and resources including financial resources. We are calling on the churches of the Central Texas Conference to receive a special offering for disaster relief in West. Checks should be made out to The Central Texas Conference Disaster Response. Please note in the note section “The City of West.” Other ways to offer support are through UMCOR and the American Red Cross. As the full scope of the need unfolds the Central Texas Conference will respond with further specific calls for help as needed. I urge you to watch our conference website for updates as they become available.

Prayer, Patience, and Hope frame faith facing tragedy. Dr. Randy Wild recently reminded us of one of St. Augustine’s prayers:

God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage.

Flood the path with light, we beseech Thee; turn our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road to life, to Thy honor and glory. Amen.

— Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa (354-430 A.D.) As quoted in “All Will be Well: A Gathering of Healing Prayers

May we face these and other tragedies with faith, hope and love. God is with us in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit!

J. Michael (Mike) Lowry is a United Methodist Bishop in the Fort Worth Episcopal Area, the Central Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Equals in the Kitchen

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:06:00 GMT

By Mike Poteet

Four-year-old Gavyn Boscio asked Santa for an Easy-Bake oven last Christmas. He was in good company. Since its 1963 debut, children from three generations have used the Easy-Bake to prepare (with varying degrees of success) small cakes from prepackaged mixes under the heat of tiny, 100-watt incandescent bulbs (at least until 2011, when new energy standards led to design changes).

But when Gavyn’s 13-year-old sister, McKenna Pope, went shopping for an Easy-Bake, she found only pink and purple units, packaged in boxes depicting girls. Discouraged, McKenna decided to speak up. She launched an online petition calling on Hasbro, the Easy-Bake’s manufacturer, “to feature males on the packaging and in promotional materials . . . as well as [to offer] the product in different, non-gender specific colors.” McKenna argued that the current design and marketing “sends a clear message: women cook, men work . . . I want my brother to know that it’s not ‘wrong’ for him to want to be a chef . . . [and] to go against what society believes to be appropriate.” McKenna also cited male professional and celebrity chefs in her petition. Within days, several such chefs, including Manuel Trevino (from Top Chef) and Bobby Flay (of Iron Chef America and other series) were among the 45,000-plus people signing and supporting McKenna’s petition. Ultimately Hasbro unveiled an already-in-development “unisex” black, silver, and blue Easy-Bake that is headed for stores this summer.

Stuck With Stereotypes?

Since both males and females eat and, since most everyone enjoys it, the fact that cooking is arguably still mostly considered “women’s work” says much about the persistence of gender stereotypes. Consider a 2012 YouGov survey in which 42 percent of respondents said “men and women are equally suited to any job”; but when asked what jobs were more suitable for women, “midwife comes out top (44 percent).” Firefighter and army general were the most popular jobs for men (37 percent and 25 percent, respectively). Or, think about the fact that McDonald’s classifies Happy Meals as for boys or girls based on the enclosed toy, even though both girls and boys can enjoy playing with cars or toy animals. Christian companies also have been known to cater to gender stereotypes. Parents can buy a Bible with a sequined pink cover that fits into its own small purse for their daughter, or one bound in denim or army-style camo for their son.

Sanctified, Not Stereotyped

The apostle Paul might be surprised by “boys” Bibles and “girls” Bibles, because he wrote one of Scripture’s most powerful affirmations of women and men’s equality in God’s sight: Among God’s children, there is no “male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28c). We believe what God says about us matters far more than what our culture says. God created both men and women in God’s image; God calls and works through both women and men; and, in Christian baptism, God joins us to the body of Christ, giving us an identity that radically relativizes gender and other distinctions. While Scripture reflects the understanding of gender roles of the cultures in which it was written, its greater emphasis is on the freedom that Jesus brings.

Because we know ourselves to be God’s unique, beloved children, we should strive to view and treat others without any limiting lens of gender stereotypes. The Social Principles of The United Methodist Church declare: “We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. We therefore work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened” (¶ 162). You can help youth to claim and act on the good news that our gender, while an important part of who we are, does not define us. Only Jesus defines us.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

What Wonder

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:45:00 GMT

By Kimberly MacNeill

Scripture: Psalm 136

Today I woke up and it seemed to me that Spring had indeed "sprung" outside my window. This being my first spring in Tennessee, I was really aware of all the changes I was seeing. Where I lived before, the weather and landscape changed only slightly around my house. But, here, in the south, things change a lot—at least to my eye. The shades of green that are coming forth, and the feel of the air.....it is so...fresh! The wonder of the sunlight and clouds as they share the sky is renewing. I am reminded of the wonder and gift of a new season, a new day. Honestly, sometimes I forget.

I was on a recent plane flight when the captain gave a face to face greeting to the passengers. It was a rare occasion to receive a real life, personal greeting from the pilot! He was quite warm, confident and hospitable. At the end of his speech he acknowledged a young boy who was seated in the last row window seat. Apparently the boy had been touring the cockpit earlier and this was his first ride on an airplane. Most of the passengers turned around to see the little boy, but only the tips of his fingers could be seen above the seat as he waved. Everyone buckled in and the plane began to taxi. An excited voice rose above the noise and you could hear him asking his dad, "Are we on the runway yet? Are we on the runway yet?" Then, when it finally came time for take off, the plane started to speed up, and the boy began squealing with wonder and delight, shouting, "Here we go! Here we go!.” As the plane lifted off the ground, the boy burst into gleeful laughter—uncontrollable happiness! Looking around, it was easy to see that everyone had a smile on their face. The boy just could not get over the wonder and delight of flying on an airplane. Certainly most everyone else had flown before and more likely was thinking about the cost and inconvenience of it, as well as the three hours of boredom ahead of them. But, not this boy. He reminded everyone of the privilege and joy it is to fly. The fact that something this size can move through the air and take us places we once only dreamt of was not lost on this boy.

Our Wonderful God gives us the gift of life with so much to enjoy! It can be easy to become too familiar with “wonder-full” experiences; sometimes we tend to see life as only “the same ole’ same ole.’” And yet, God gives us a new day every day. May we never forget the wonder of it!

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for the gift of life. Open my eyes to experience the wonders of this new day!

Nothing is Sacred

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:08:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

The words “holy” and “sacred” are sometimes used interchangeably. I don’t think this should be the case, as there is a huge difference between the two. Sacred comes from the Latin, “sacrum.” You might recognize that “sacrum” is also the name of the bones in your pelvis. The ancient Romans called this part of the human body “sacred.” It is where the reproductive organs are, and, particularly in the female, it is from where life springs.

Thus, as one line of thinking goes, the sacred was recognized as something that had to be protected and secured. That is an excellent picture, actually, of how we employ sacredness. Human beings create sacred rituals that draw lines, build barriers, and protect and secure our space and turf. We feel we have to keep everything that is perceived as a threat on the outside, so as to guard our life and our future.

A quick example: Not long ago I was preparing to speak at a church and had my always handy coffee cup with me. Without any thought, I sat it down on the pulpit while I was reviewing my sermon notes. This church had more than a lectern or podium. It was truly the “sacred desk.”

A person came up to me and said, “I would appreciate it if you removed your cup. This furniture is sacred.” I complied but then added, “Yes, it is ‘sacred,’ but do you know why? Because it has been designated so by a church committee, not by God. God’s holiness is not violated by a Styrofoam cup” (I didn’t mean to be snarky, but I don’t think this person became a fan).

And a second example: During one of my pastorates we moved from a shabby little storefront building to a beautiful, magnificent sanctuary. It was an incredible upgrade with actual pews, a baptistery, a steeple, and other sacred things. In our old location we had been picking up children in our little church van and bringing them to worship. These little people were tornadoes. Turned loose in an empty room, they would find something to destroy. When we moved to our new building, we kept picking up these children, but I knew it would not last.

During our first week of Vacation Bible School in the new building one of the church mothers retrieved me from my office. She was enraged. “I need you to come with me right now!” she said. She took me to a hallway, pointed at the wall, and asked, “What are we going to do about that?”

Two and a half feet above the floor was a swatch of dirt staining the white wall. It ran down the entire length of the hallway stopping at one of the classroom doors. A classroom of these “dirty bus kids” had all run their hands down the wall as they walked to class, that’s all. But I knew then that there would be no place for them in our new space.

The sacred is the ritualistic space, community, and people-dividing behavior of human beings. The holy, however, is something completely different. Something holy is something that is “whole.” The root word is “health.” In other words, holiness is something that cannot be divided. It is something that is complete, unbroken, and intact.

Thus, holiness is not something defined by lines of segregation or by different shades of acceptance. It is defined by openness and welcome. The holy doesn’t alienate, it invites. The holy doesn’t separate, it welcomes. The holy doesn’t divide, it embraces.

Whereas what is sacred is a small restricted space that must be sheltered and guarded, the old Norse word for “holy” means “a large living room,” where people are made to feel very much at home. I pray that God makes us holy: Whole, healthy, welcoming people! But I also pray that he never allow us to become a sacred people, for when we lose our ability to be hospitable, inviting the outsider in, we have lost our unique witness in the world.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, pastor, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me. If you're interested in checking out his books, visit Ronnie's page at Amazon.

Bec Cranford and Church of the Misfits

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:13:00 GMT

By Betsy Hall

Bec Cranford is the Volunteer Coordinator at Gateway Center; you can read about her work with the homeless community here.

During the second part of the interview Bec talked about her call to ministry, which she described in phases: her lightning bolt getting knocked off her bum, a time of disillusionment and discontent, righteous indignation/anger, and then a call “home.”

Bec was raised in a Baptacostalist church; where her parents were in ministry. Not everything was as it seemed though. Bec said, “Mental illness was a stigma in the south—especially in certain evangelical circles—my father never dealt with that, and he was closet alcoholic.”

When she was twenty-one, her parents finally divorced, basically because of her father’s alcoholism. She also found out that he had told the church community that she was a lesbian (she is not). As a result she was treated poorly, and so she just left church. At that point she says:

"I was just done with my dad, the church, and God. It all just looked like a bunch of hypocrisy. They talked about Jesus, and even more about purity codes and holiness. The church seemed bigoted and racist.”

She describes herself then as “liking Jesus but really turned off by church.”

So she left church and got into drugs. One evening she showed signs of overdose, and her vision darkened. She experienced something “really scary, like an absence of love,” and she was fearful. At that point, she cried out, “Jesus, if you’re real, help me!”

She’s not quite sure if what happened next was caused by the drugs or was a psychological state. She saw a crucified Christ figure looking more like “Bob Marley meets Jack Sparrow.” It wasn’t a blonde Jesus who came to save me.” She laughed a bit telling the story, but she was convinced at that moment she “wanted to serve God and bowed to God to serve him.”

Bec didn’t feel welcome in a lot of churches after that. She adds, “I had green hair, tattoos, wore combat boots, and I was angry. ” It was a difficult time for her. She told God, “Whatever you do, don’t make me a Pentecostal. Make me like a Lutheran or something rational.” She also had mystical experiences and glossolalia, which she tried to rationalize away by telling herself, “This is some weird cognitive thing with some Hebrew and Italian mixed in.” These experiences “warmed my heart, so I went back to evangelical churches looking for answers and started my whole call process.”

After attending a Bible college she came back to Atlanta interested in starting a Spanish language worship service. But the leadership of the church said, “We need to teach persons English if they’re going to be American citizens.”

Bec says she was “prideful and angry. I thought I knew it all because I’d gone to college.” She experienced a long season of discontent and had lots of questions for God. Her anger, she explains was “a result of cognitive dissonance from the faith I grew up with, what I learned in school, and the pain I was seeing in the world.”

Bec was seeing populations that evangelicals weren’t reaching out to—“postmoderns and queers.” Once again she found herself saying, “God, you need to find somebody to do something;” then she realized that the passion she was feeling was in fact part of her call. Her ability to see the pain people were experiencing helped her realize that God was in fact calling her, not somebody else. She was being called back home to “love people who thought differently about church, God, and Jesus.”

While attending seminary, Bec began to feel a call to start a church. At that point she began to pray and seek God and explore what God was doing in Atlanta. She met with mainline pastors, connected with emergent village, and read books by Rob Bell and Len Sweet. She announced to her husband, Terry, that she felt God was saying, “Go plant a church.” The target audience was “postmoderns who would describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, queer persons, and those who were hurt or doubting.”

She left seminary early to move home and plant a church. Bec once again talked to the church leadership. She said, “I honestly had a lot of pride, but tried to humble myself and explain that I wanted to contextualize Christ to postmoderns.” She was interested in “helping people explore a variety of doctrines as a basic first step, to be a starting place for new people.” The church leadership sensed her call but in the end her way of doing church was too different for them to embrace. Her home church wasn’t at all affirming of that call. They believed her viewpoints were welcoming to the point of “accepting sin.” Her response was “that maybe it was God’s job to figure all that stuff out and we’re just to love people.” The church stated that with her viewpoints they didn’t even want her working in the nursery. Of course she was terribly hurt and says it was “a time of humility and a dry season.”

She and Terry decided to start a bar ministry discussing hymns and theology after awhile attendance wasn’t growing and they were getting discouraged. She asked, “God, did you call me to do this, or am I just a complete failure?” There were times when she sat up all night in prayer or crying. Then one night she heard clearly, “Get up and go downtown [Atlanta].” She remembers thinking that she and Terry didn’t need to go downtown because there was nothing there. But they drove in anyway; they saw the people; and “we just fell in love with the city.”

Terry was recruited to work with the chronically homeless to help meet basic needs. Next, Bec was hired by Gateway Center. Six months later, they started the Church of the Misfits and committed to meeting weekly. Bec says, “We don’t have a lot of noses or nickels, but it’s good. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” The church is drawing persons from a variety of beliefs; they’ve begun to share their stories more intimately including their brokenness; and they’re exploring Jesus together.

They moved around frequently for church. They were continuing to meet in bars, and then someone in their group admitted to being an addict. At that point it was time to shift gears, so they opened their home to their new church community. The main worship room is furnished with couches and icons. They’ve intentionally created a space that will be safe for all people, and they’ve backed off from the bar ministry for now.

Bec is discerning whether to officially connect with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She has some courses to complete for ordination. Terry was ordained in the Southern Baptist denomination so he’ll be completing the process first.

I was not surprised to find out who her favorite prophet is. “Jeremiah,” she replied. “A lot of people think he was a sap because he lept into a relationship with God. Jeremiah got in God’s face. He complained and he was real. Some people think he was bipolar. He experienced real emotion. He said, this is stupid I don’t even want to do this. Jeremiah calls God a deceiver. He’s so in the face of God that sometimes we think that’s tantamount to being evil or rebellious. But it just shows he had such a deep relationship with God. Jeremiah cared about justice issues, he cared about the people being taken away in exile, and he cared about God; but sometimes Jeremiah had human moments.”

And I thought to myself—human moments—the kind experienced by Bec Cranford, Volunteer Coordinator for Gateway Center and church planter called by God.

Bec says about her relationship with her father and mother now, "We are reconciled. He is doing great, retired, and still singing. He spends most of his time doing yard work. My mom is amazing. She has always been there for me, and has continued to support my call to ministry, even when it was unpopular or unorthodox."

Meet Deborah

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:14:00 GMT

By Shane Raynor

In addition to writing and editing for Ministry Matters, I’m also editing a new series of Bible studies for Abingdon Press called Converge. Converge titles are four week topical studies for groups and individuals with Scripture passages and questions included in the print and electronic editions. Companion resources are available on Ministry Matters, and as each title releases we’re going to spend a few weeks on Ministry Matters and Google+ dealing with that particular book’s Bible passages and topic(s).

Our first release is Women of the Bible by James Harnish, senior pastor of Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. Jim is the author of a number of popular books, including the best selling membership and discipleship program for churches, A Disciple’s Path.

Converge is a topical series, so when Jim and I were discussing ideas for a four week Bible study, I initially wondered if Women of the Bible would be a good fit for Converge since it seemed to be more of a character study. But it turned out to be a great choice, and I’m quite proud of it being our first release. Women of the Bible deals with four remarkable women from Scripture, and the first week jumps right into the action with Deborah.

I don’t know how familiar you are with Deborah, but even if you’ve read her story before, you should check it out again. While I was editing Women of the Bible, I read it a number of times, and each time I went through the text, I picked up something new. It’s pretty impressive to me that right in the middle of a patriarchal society, a female leader emerges and the Bible doesn’t even seem to make a big deal about it.

Remember, it’s the 12th century B.C. we’re talking about. Deborah was a national leader and prophet, and Judges tells us she sat under Deborah’s palm tree and settled disputes for the Israelites. (I’m betting they didn’t name trees after everyone, so this was big.)

I’d really like to know the back story. How did Deborah rise to her position of authority? And what did her husband Lappidoth think about all this? Jim Harnish writes that we don’t know much about Lappidoth except that he married above himself. How supportive was he of his wife? Did he endure teasing from his buddies for being married to such a powerful woman? Remember, several thousand years before Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi broke through the glass ceiling, Deborah led a nation into battle.

I’m blown away by all this, but the author of Judges seems almost indifferent, writing as if this sort of thing occurred regularly. It didn’t. The Bible tends to do that. The things we think should be a big deal don’t always come across as a big deal in Scripture. (The converse of that is true as well.) The Bible was ahead of its time in so many ways, and it still has an astounding number of things to say to contemporary culture.

We’re doing a podcast next week on Ministry Matters and Google+ about Deborah. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, leave them here or send them my way. In the meantime, follow our MM page on Google+, and join the Bible community while you’re there.

7 Common Energy and Time Wasters for Leaders

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:33:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

Wasting time and energy may be one of my biggest pet peeves as a leader. Some days I leave work and feel I never got off the treadmill. It’s physically and mentally draining.

Does that ever happen to you?

I firmly believe if we get rid of common energy wasters we can dramatically improve our performance as leaders. With that in mind, I’ve spent time in my personal development finding ways to eliminate time and energy wasters.

Here are 7 common wastes of energy in leadership:

Focusing attention on the naysayers – I have found that worrying over what the critics are saying, especially the ones I will never make happy, delays progress and takes time from and frustrates the positive people who believe in the vision and are ready to move forward.

Refusing to delegate – When I make every decision, or become too controlling as a leader, I rob myself and the team of valuable energy and talent and I feel overwhelmed more quickly.

Second guessing decisions – I find it is better to work to make better decisions moving forward rather than live in a pity party of bad ones already made.

Trying to have all the ideas – Many leaders feel they have to be the originator of all the creative energy of a team. They waste time brainstorming alone rather than expanding the creative process. Consequently, the best ideas often never surface. Original thoughts, better than ours, are usually in the room or the organization if we will welcome them to the table and it preserves my time for more efficient use.

Living with broken structure – Let’s face reality. Over time, rules take on a life of their own. What was once created to improve structure actually begins to slow progress and waste valuable time. Change the rules…or even drop them… and you often free up valuable space for people to breathe and enjoy their work.

Disorganization – Need I expand? Many leaders feel overwhelmed because they don’t have good organizational skills. Learning how to better handle routine tasks such as processing emails, calendaring, and scheduling work flow each week will drastically improve time efficiency.

Completing tasks not designed for me – This could be any number of things. Even reading a book. For example, perhaps a silly example, but I have discovered that sometimes I read too much. That sounds strange…I know…but really it’s because I read things I didn’t need to read. I start a book and within the first chapter I know it’s not helpful or even enjoyable…my sense of completion wants to finish. but, better is to put it aside and pick up another book. The novel length email…I try to determine first if I’m the one who should respond. Many times I’m not. It could be attending a meeting…or supervising a project. Whatever it is that I am not the best person for the job or it is just a time waster, the sooner I stop it or hand off the task, the more energy I preserve.

What energy wasters have you seen in leadership?

Butler's Winning Values

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:10:00 GMT

By Jessica Miller Kelley

If you follow college basketball, you know that tonight is the final game of the NCAA tournament. Louisville v. Michigan for the whole enchilada. Usually, I am following the games with much excitement. My husband and I have a great time filling out our brackets and cheering both for the teams we love and whatever team whose win would put us ahead of the other in our family pool.

Three weeks or so ago, we were all geared up. Our fridge was stocked with pizza and beer. Our pantry had plenty of chips on the shelf and three tournament brackets taped to the door. My husband Matt's was filled out with the help of insight from Sports Center, regular season stats, and a dash of team loyalty. I use my gut and a little more loyalty (which often beats Matt's carefully-researched picks, nonetheless). Our four-year-old uses an even gutsier gut, which frequently chooses 16-seed teams to beat number ones, and a number of 15-2 upsets. She's among the few Americans to have correctly picked #14 Harvard's win over #3 New Mexico, as well as Florida Gulf Coast's Cinderella run.

But there's one thing all three of our brackets had in common: that coveted center spot, the tournament champion, said Butler. Our hopes were dashed in just the second round this year, but we're not just fair-weather fans.

Long before the Butler Bulldogs made history by being the first team to make it to two consecutive finals of the NCAA basketball tournament without being seeded #1 or #2, our family has bled blue for Butler (and Kentucky and Memphis and anyone playing against Louisville, but that's another story). Matt graduated Indianapolis' Butler University in 2003 and has great memories of cheering with his fraternity brothers in the student section, AKA the Dawg Pound. The Final Four began on Holy Saturday in 2010, so as a pastor, he really couldn't leave town at that point, but gladly drove five hours the morning after Easter to be in Indianapolis for the final game that Monday.

Butler lost 61-59 to Duke that night, but a cartoon that appeared soonafter showed the impact Butler had made. It showed a Duke Blue Devil holding the championship trophy, and the Butler Bulldog (Blue II) holding a much bigger trophy symbolizing "the hearts of America." Everyone loves an underdog, or as they tend to call underdogs who exceed expectations in March Madness, Cinderella teams. And there's something even more loveable about a Cinderella team with the highest graduation rate in the NCAA and a coach so young and cute (in my opinion) that he is sometimes mistaken for a student.

We long-time fans have always known there's something special about Butler, but its last few years on a national stage—and now, a leadership book by Indianapolis pastor Kent Millard and the director of Butler's Center for Faith and Vocation, Judith Cebula—have made the school's winning principles more widely known.

Lead Like Butler: Six Principles for Values-Based Leaders, explores what is known on campus as The Butler Way, a set of values for athletes across Butler's programs emphasizing character above all else.

Millard and Cebula's six chapters explore each of those values: Humility, Passion, Unity, Servanthood, Thankfulness, and Accountability. Together, they form a recipe for a team culture that excels together because each member puts his teammates and the team as a whole above himself. It's a Christlike model that draws out the best in each player as they serve one another.

Stories from Butler basketball, including Coach Stevens and women's basketball coach Beth Couture, as well as mentors Bryan Collier, Tony Hinkle, Tony Dungy, and John Wooden will warm the hearts of Butler fans but also inspire leaders of all kinds to cultivate such a remarkable culture among the athletes, employees, or volunteers they lead. Examples from scripture and business make up half of each chapter, making an even broader case for the values emphasized in the Butler program.

The authors cite well-known sports writer Dick Vitale in saying "If you want to learn how basketball is played in its purest form—the team game—learn all you can about Butler hoops."

Lead Like Butler will certainly contribute to that body of knowledge for basketball coaches and players, but every bit as much so for leaders in any field wanting to improve one's own leadership and intentionally cultivate a winning team.

Recruiting Warm Bodies

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:21:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

When I was in retail, we sometimes hired people at Christmas just to have more employee presence on the sales floor. I was in retail when customer service really meant something, so we wanted the customer to always see someone willing to help them. Admittedly, during especially busy times, we often hired people quickly and placed them on the sales floor with little or no training. The term frequently used was we just needed some “warm bodies” to make a statement to our customers.

As I’ve continued to grow in leadership, I have learned the term “warm body” is relative to context.

Let me explain.

Once King David was old and cold. (1 Kings 1) They brought in a young virgin to lay with him and keep him warm.

I’ll be honest, that passage has confused me at times. Knowing the history of King David, I could read this story and think improper thoughts about the arrangement. Before you let your mind wander, we are told King David “knew her not”. This arrangement was for practicality not sexual relations.

That girl was more than a warm body. That girl had a purpose. And, regardless of what you’re thinking, it apparently wasn’t sexual. It was practical. They didn’t have electric blankets back then, so she kept the aging king warm. She wasn’t just a “warm body”. Her purpose was to keep the king alive and well.

I recently heard a ministry leader say he would settle for a “warm body”. It was said in reference to the children’s ministry, which is one of the hardest areas in most churches for which to recruit. When trying to recruit so many volunteers per room, it can be tempting just to settle for the first warm body who volunteers.

I’ll admit though…his statement bothered me. It made me wonder if we need to reconsider our standards in recruiting volunteers.

Many churches would be willing to settle for a “warm body”, just to say they’ve filled the position. I must be honest, I’ve had similar thoughts about our parking lot ministry and in the hallways after church. I want more greeters. I want more people who are a presence when visitors come to church. So, I’ve even thought, “just give me a warm body”. Whether they smile or not, just fill the position.

Sometimes, because of the demands of ministry, we know we need help, so we are willing to settle for any warm body.

But, think about it. That’s not really what we want, is it?

Perhaps I’m unrealistic…maybe I expect too much from people. I’ve been told that before, but I think we need more than just warm bodies. Even in volunteer positions. In fact, may I push the issue a little further. I think we need warm bodies who are passionate about living out their purpose and willing to fill their positions with vigor.

We don’t just need a warm body in our preschool ministry. We need a warm body who loves preschoolers to the glory of God.

We need a warm body in our parking lot who sees their job as critical to a visitors first experience with a church.

We need warm bodies who will share the love of Christ during the week, at the coffee shop and in the work place, just as well as they warm the sanctuary chair on Sunday mornings.

We need warm bodies who will lead small groups and teach Sunday schools that are committed, enthusiastic and well-prepared each week to disciple people to become growing followers of Jesus Christ.

You get my point. We need warm bodies…but not warm bodies who are simply warm bodies.

Who knows? Perhaps if we raise the bar of expectations we will get people who better meet our expectations.

By the way…I’m thinking of retitling our volunteer ministry. Maybe calling it the “Warm Body Coalition”. Or the “Not Just Warm Bodies Team.”

I don’t know…just thinking.

Actually, I think I just confused myself. But, hopefully you’ve already gotten my point.

What do you think?

I Have Sinned

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:53:00 GMT

By Robert A. Ratcliff

This week I changed my Facebook picture. I did so to support a political cause in which I believe. In what follows I want to explain why what I did was a sin, and why I am led to confess it and ask your forgiveness.

Let me start by saying I haven’t changed my mind. I still believe that the cause I supported is just and fair. Unlike most political causes, I see this one as a simple and straightforward matter of common sense justice. Most importantly, I believe the position I supported best comports with the mind of Christ. So what’s with all this sin talk? Here’s what:

First, I have to recognize that I have a fiercely partisan spirit. Every political cause to which I attach myself is at least as much about my side winning as it is about the right decision being made for our country or society. I am often proud and arrogant about my political opinions, believing that those who hold positions different to mine do so, not out of genuine conviction, but out of bad faith or intellectual inferiority. I have undoubtedly brought that spirit into this week’s debate.

But second, and more important, I want to admit that simply by holding to my position (irrespective of the way I’ve held it), I have fractured the Body of Christ and grieved Christian brothers and sisters. To see why, you have to understand the tragic nature of the human predicament. This universal flaw we call sin so manifests itself in human life that even our attempts at justice wind up causing others harm. This doesn’t mean we have to give up our search for justice, but it does compel us to see that no human justice will ever be perfect (you theological types know that this is no new insight; St. Augustine and Reinhold Niebuhr have already explained it quite well).

In my case, aligning myself with that political position brought grief to other Christians, some of whom are my friends and family. My position violated certain of their deeply held theological convictions, causing them to worry about me. Many of those on my side of the debate would say that the folks on the other side think I’m going to hell for what I believe. But that’s not right, at least not for most of the folks I know. They don’t think that my beliefs endanger my eternal salvation; they think that I’ve fallen into serious error, that I’m compromising the cause of Christ, and potentially harming the consciences of Christians over whom my views might exert influence. The friends with whom I disagree, because they care for me, have been hurt by what I’ve done.

And for that I am truly and genuinely sorry. Would I do things differently? In this case, no. Like I said, I still believe with all my heart in the justice of what I have espoused. But I also know that I am a sinner, and that for every two steps forward I take there’s going to be at least one step back. So if you are a fellow Christian on the other side of this debate, please know that if I have violated your conscience, it is simply because the only alternative was to violate mine.

The Safety Briefing Card and Church Vision Casting

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:21:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

The airline safety briefing card…

Doesn’t mean much to a frequent flier. But to a first time flier…it’s gold.

Church, what can we learn from this? Let me share a recent situation I witnessed that illustrated this principle for me.

I’ve learned my way around an airport over the years of traveling in business, government, and now ministry. So much so that I don’t listen to the directions very well. It gets me in trouble sometimes. i amost missed a flight recenlty because I didn’t hear a gate change. But, mostly, I pretty much know what they’re gonna say…or think I do.

Flight delay, right? I saw it coming.

Safety talk? I could recite it.

I’m like a steward runner up. If ever they can’t perform their duties I’m in.

“Ladies and gentleman, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the safety features of this Boeing Dc9.There’s a safety card in the seat in front of you…”

“Federal regulations require…blah, blah, blah, right?”

If you’ve traveled much…You know the drill.

But recently I was reminded why they do that every time. The same way. Always.

On our plane was one who had never flown before. Ever. He was in his sixties I would guess, but this was his first flight.

And he paid attention to everything. Everything. I watched him read the card. He looked around to “familiarize yourself with the exit signs." He clung to every word of the steward. He was the model passenger.

Why? It was all new to him.

You see, everyone might be accustomed to the routine, but there’s always a chance, like for this guy, where it’s someone’s very first time.

It was also a great reminder for me as a church leader.

That’s the way it is for some who come to church…every Sunday.

Some could script things. Some could preach should I not be able to fulfill my duties. Some would probably actually prefer that.

But there’s always one (hopefully) who has never been here before. Perhaps ever.

Perhaps they’ve never been to any church—ever. They don’t speak our language of church.

As a pastor, I’ve always been concerned about that one.

And as I read the Bible,that seems like a Jesus characteristic too. He encouraged leaving the 99 found to seek and assist the 1 who was lost.

That’s why it’s important that we tell our vision. Tell it clearly. It’s why we must explain things well. Very well. It’s why we must communicate basic information. Every week. Every time.

(Even if it’s boring to the rest of us . . . to someone . . . it’s gold!)

Thanks for the reminder, U.S. Air. And that random guy who was flying for the first time. I hope it was a great experience for you.

Bonus question: What does your church do EVERY WEEK in case a visitor shows up that Sunday?

Grace-Filled

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:02:00 GMT

By Whitney Simpson

Easter is a grace-filled celebration for us but what happens when it's over? I think we Christians can easily be tempted to experience holiday remorse after Easter. We tend to forget that God’s sacrificial love for us doesn’t have to fade. It’s eternal. We’re Easter people all year long and God’s grace has been given to us forever, right?

I don't know about where you live, but I usually prefer the weather to feel like Spring as we celebrate our risen savior and yet it has just been cold where I live. Easter is a little early this year and it is unseasonably cold in much of the country. If I’m being honest, cold weather tempts me to eat more of those famous crème eggs than my body really needs. I’m truly ready for Spring (in more ways than one) and based on conversations with friends lately, I don’t think I’m alone!

The beautiful blossoms on the trees in the parking lot of my church were in full bloom on Sunday and the weather was at the freezing point. The flowers along my parent's yard were bursting with yellow just weeks ago and now they are barely hanging on to life. Easter doesn’t have to fade away like those frozen blooms or the crème eggs. This grace doesn’t disappear like those famous crème eggs vanish from grocery store registers everywhere shortly after Easter. Remember, we know the end of the story already! We received God’s grace at no cost to us, but a great cost to our risen Lord.

This is a huge relief to a woman like me. The only grace I have is the grace given to me by God. I'm the one that got toothpaste on everything except my toothbrush this morning. My everyday life is not grace-filled because of who I am but because of whose I am. I want the grace of God on my life to cover my imperfections, my mistakes and my sins. I strive to seek him constantly in my life because my life is nothing without him and this is all because of Easter.

So, I'm glad I'm included in the Easter people and I never want to be tempted to let that feeling fade or miss seeing what the Lord has done for me. I'm heartbroken that we crucified him and yet I'm overwhelmingly thankful and amazed that Jesus rose again. I know I don't deserve it, but I am thankful He allows us to be Easter people. He also allows us the ability to show grace and love and forgiveness and receive eternal life. He allows us to see Him all around us. Each and every one of us gets this chance to experience the grace of God. Our God is a grace-filled God, one that I hope I never miss seeing, like Mary almost did. Thankfully, we are his Easter people. And, a grace-filled Easter sure lasts a lot longer than a crème-filled Easter!

Mary Magdalene left and announced to the disciples, “I’ve seen the Lord.” –John 20:18

reprinted with permission from Abingdon Women

The Death of Death

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:24:00 GMT

By Clay Morgan

Vampires, zombies, ghosts, and undead creatures appeal to us because eternity has been set in our hearts. Our limited minds aren’t able to comprehend infinity, yet humankind has long been obsessed with immortality. We feel that there’s something beyond this existence. A person’s soul, spirit, essence, or whatever we want to call it must live forever.

In all our speculation we’ve created fictional scenarios in which life beyond the grave happens right here on earth. It’s part of what makes creatures of the night so interesting. In some ways, visions of undead hordes aren’t too far from what the Bible predicts. That’s what resurrection is, after all. Dead people will come back to life. If Scripture is accurate, then we are all getting a seriously extreme makeover for eternity—a version of our bodies that can never be destroyed.

Paul said the perishable will become imperishable. Firstcentury believers like the Corinthians were already asking him how such a thing could be possible. “How are the dead raised?” they wondered. “With what kind of body will they come?” It’s like they were saying, “How could this possibly work? What would a corpse look like if it was pulled from the grave? Are you nuts?!” Even New Testament listeners in places like Corinth envisioned grim, zombielike bodies.

Paul responded by pointing out the laws of nature. Flowers and plants are not put in the ground. Seeds are. They look nothing like that which they yield but must first be put in the ground. The death of those seeds leads to new life and beauty. He described how even in our current understanding we know there are heavenly bodies like the sun, moon, and stars that we can see with our earthly bodies. We can understand that a gap exists between these realms, but transformation must occur in order to bridge it.

If we’re honest, most of us have thought about ways we would like to change our body. We dream about bodies that are not only perfect but also immune to sickness—bodies that can never die because death will be dead. Christ’s work on the cross means we don’t even have to fear death. Paul knew it when he asked, “Where, O death, is your victory? / Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). The sting of death is sin, and God nailed it to the cross to make a spectacle of it.

Out of all the crazy stories in this book, Jesus is the only one who raised himself from the dead. Everyone else was just resuscitated. They came back to life for a while but still had to die again. A resurrected person is immortal. Imagine what it will be like to have a physical body and yet never have to fear death. Without death to fear we are truly free to live.

What Are We Doing?

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:42:00 GMT

By Jessica Miller Kelley

Palm Sunday morning, I led my two daughters to the back of the sanctuary so they could be part of the palm-waving processional to kick off Holy Week. On the way, I spotted a visiting family with children and asked if they wanted to join the other kids in the processional. The boy was feeling shy, but the girl, about eight years old, came on back and waited with us for the service to begin.

As the announcements finally got started, the preschoolers used their palms like swords and my toddler's initial enthusiasm waned, this bespectacled third grader looked up at me and asked, "What are we doing?"

"Well, it's Palm Sunday," I told her, "so we're remembering when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. People got excited and waved palm branches along his path, so we're pretending to be those people, welcoming Jesus in."

She listened respectfully, and then said, "But what do we do when we get up there?" gesturing to the front of the sanctuary.

"Oh. Well, we'll put the palms in those white vases there, and then you can go back to your seat."

The Why and the How

This little girl's question (and my possible misinterpretation of it) reminded me that the confusion visitors (and regulars, for that matter) can feel during worship has two dimensions, which might be verbalized in two questions: Why are we doing this? and How do we do it?

There is the philosophical desire to understand the significance of strange actions and the practical concern for what to do to avoid looking foolish.

Communion is an easy example. Why are we eating a little piece of bread with not enough grape juice to wash it down? Why does this help us remember Jesus? And how are we supposed to walk/kneel/pass to get it? (There's nothing like the face of a newcomer who has just eaten the bread they were supposed to dip in a common cup.)

What are we doing? Why? How?

What are we doing when we stand for some scripture readings and not for others?

What are we doing when everybody says certain words that don't seem to be in a book, bulletin, or on a screen?

Some things—particularly the hows—can be a bigger concern for visitors, but even lifelong Christians and long-time church members can forget things or let once-meaningful things become rote and meaningless.

Remind people of the whys and the hows. Be aware of practices or words that are so familiar to long-time members of your church that you may take explanation for granted. Try to view your church with fresh eyes—or better yet, ask someone to visit an point out to you confusing things you might not even notice. Tell people why you're taking up an offering, how you line up for communion, where to find the words to that song or response some people have memorized.

It shouldn't take more than a sentence or two to explain how to participate in an element of worship. ("Read the words in bold." "Take the bread and dip it into the cup." "Approach by the center aisle and return to your seats by the side aisles.") If it does, you might be making it too complicated.

The whys shouldn't require too many extra words either. Obviously, some of the deeper theological "whys" will require a separate conversation, Bible study, or some book/website recommendations for people who really want to know more. But if the spiritual significance of a certain worship element can't be made clear on at least a basic level without interrupting the flow of worship, you may need to rethink its place in your worship experience.

Let Us Break Matzah Together

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:53:00 GMT

By Neal Bowes

Yesterday Christians around the world observed Palm Sunday, the day when we remember Jesus as he approached the end of his earthly ministry, riding triumphantly into Jerusalem amidst the cheers and adulation of the vast crowds. Some who were present may have believed they were cheering their soon-to-be new king, who would enter the city and use the amazing powers they had all witnessed to expel the Roman occupiers who had besieged their country for so many years. Little did they know that he would be crucified within the week.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, when Christians commemorate the events that led up to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. On Thursday of this week, a day we know as Maundy Thursday, we remember the final meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before being arrested, standing trial, and being crucifi ed. During his Last Supper, Jesus picked up the bread, “and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” (Luke 22:19) In keeping with his request, we remember Jesus’ great sacrifice when we participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

A Long-Standing Tradition

Jesus’ final meal with his disciples wasn’t just any ordinary dinner party. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating Passover. By the time these men sat down to eat, the Jewish people and their ancestors had been celebrating the annual Passover Festival for over fourteen hundred years. God ordained the observance as the ancient Israelites were escaping their long captivity in Egypt.

The original Passover occurred after several attempts by God to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Working through Moses, God had brought nine terrible plagues upon Egypt in an effort to convince Pharaoh to release the captives. Pharaoh remained unmoved, but the tenth plague would be decisive. During the night the firstborn in every household throughout the land would die. To be sure that no death would befall an Israelite household, God instructed each family to coat the doorframes of their homes with the blood of a sacrifi ced lamb. As the plague moved through Egypt, it “passed over” the homes of the faithful.

During the Passover meal, a flat, hard bread made without yeast, known today as matzah, is used, because on the morning after the tenth plague, the Jewish people were released and left Egypt in such great haste that there was no time to add yeast to their bread dough and let it rise. As part of the ceremony, which Jewish people still celebrate today, a piece of this unleavened bread is broken. It symbolizes the Passover lamb, which was sacrificed to save the people from death and release them from captivity. It was this piece of bread that Jesus broke when he told his disciples that it would come to symbolize his body. His body would be sacrificed, and his blood would be shed to release the people from the burden of their sins and save them from death—granting them eternal life.

Important to Jesus, Important to Us

Your youth may have Jewish friends. Perhaps they have attended a bar or bat mitzvah (a coming-of-age rite for Jewish young people). Or, they may know families who will celebrate the Passover. It’s important that youth have a basic understanding of this celebration, not only because it may be important to people they know but also because it was important to Jesus. The Passover story helps us better understand and appreciate Jesus’ sacrifice for our freedom. So, chag sameach! (That’s “KHAHG sah-MEHY-ahkh.” It’s Hebrew for “joyous festival.”) Share some matzah with your youth and explore the rich tradition surrounding the Passover festival. As you do, reflect on the connection between the Passover, our ritual of Holy Communion, and Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

Get Humble, Get Holy

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:00:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

This week, the world’s two billion Christians celebrate Holy Week. This week, booked-ended by the festive days of Palm Sunday that honors Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem, and Easter Sunday that celebrates Jesus’ resurrection, contains some of the most significant events on the church calendar.

Among others, there is Great Wednesday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. And depending upon the tradition, Holy Week is celebrated with special Masses, vigils, Tenebraes, participation in the Stations of the Cross, Passion plays, sunrise services, cantatas, and street processions.

Not to be missed in all this activity is the Thursday of Holy Week, referred to as Maundy Thursday. “Maundy,” like so many Christian traditions, comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “commandment.” On Jesus’ last night before his crucifixion, he gathered his disciples and gave them the commandment to love and serve one another. Then he showed them how.

Jesus rolled up his sleeves, threw a towel over his shoulder, and with a basin of water, squatted down to wash the filthy feet of his disciples. Yes, God stooped. The Christ crawled. The Master became the servant. Jesus took the position of a slave and honored those who had not the slightest indication of how holy such an act really was.

Walter Brueggemann describes this scene with his usual insight and flair. He says, “To kneel in the presence of another is to be totally vulnerable, because you are in an excellent posture to have your face or your groin kicked in. Our Lord made himself vulnerable precisely in that way! He knelt, not in humility or in fear, but in strength and confidence, opening himself to others.”

In the midst of this busy week of festivities, I wonder if a few of we Christians might pause to consider vulnerability as a holy exercise. See, Jesus never maintained feelings of superiority over others; he eagerly gave up his rights and privileges. Jesus didn’t defend himself with angry tirades or theological manifestos; he taught – and manifested – vulnerable love.

Jesus’ instruction on Maundy Thursday was not a how-to lecture on proving how “right” his followers were; it was a demonstration course for how to live in the world. Thus, the Christian means and method of confrontation is not condemnation, but naked service.

A follower of Jesus testifies to and celebrates the truth he has come to know, but knows in equal measure that the truth has been washed through and through with a foot wash basin. The power of the disciple of Christ is a power wielded, not by force or fist, but by a holy hand towel.

He who would be like Jesus does not lord over others. He gets down on the ground, down on his face, down in the dust, the mire, and the mud. He makes himself completely and totally exposed. Even if those whom he serves kick him in the face; even if they stone him to death; even if they crucify him on a cross: There is no other way.

So how does this kind of vulnerability break out in our lives? Maybe like this: One day, all at once or like a slow dawn; in a blinding flash or a gradual evolvement; as literal as the world or as mystical as a dream; we will see Jesus kneeling before us. His calloused carpenter’s hands are gently splashing the water in the basin. A clean towel hangs around his neck.

He crouches to wash our dirty feet, knowing who and what we are really made of: Suspicious, angry, petty, fragile, hateful, self-centered, and untrusting. We know he knows these things, but then he smiles a knowing smile, and we understand that he loves us anyway.

By submitting to and serving us, Christ opens our hearts in new, revolutionary ways. And the more open our hearts become – the more we understand how vulnerable our Lord has made himself to us – the greater our capacity to be vulnerable toward others. That’s how God’s love works, and that love can make any week holy.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

A New Reality in TV

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:42:00 GMT

By Melissa Slocum

Recent years have seen a shift in reality television programming. When MTV debuted shows such as The Real World and Road Rules in the early 1990’s, the premise was to find a group of very different people and document their living together, conflict and all, for a period of months. As the genre became popular, other networks cashed in on the format with shows such as Survivor and The Amazing Race, which added an element of competition.

But lately networks have become more specifi c. Instead of gathering a diverse group of people, channels such as TLC, History, and Bravo have begun to highlight unique subgroups within American culture. Shows like Toddlers and Tiaras, Swamp People, Pawn Stars, Deadliest Catch, Real Housewives, and LA Ink give viewers an inside look into hobbies, professions, or cultures that people might otherwise not know about or see.

What Is Real?

While reality shows, by definition, aren’t scripted, they often coach participants and selectively edit footage to exaggerate conflicts and behaviors to make the show more interesting to viewers. High ratings, and not necessarily a fair treatment of the show’s stars, determine whether a show stays on the air. Not only do we need to be careful about believing all that we see on these shows, but we also need to refrain from passing judgment on the featured groups and subcultures based on these portrayals. There is much about these people that ends up on the cutting-room floor. If we were able to see the many hours of footage involved in producing just one show, we might discover that the stars of Duck Dynasty aren’t as strange as we think.

Unity Despite Differences

Christianity, like reality television in 2013, is diverse, but with many unique subcultures. We may be arranged by denominations and traditions; but even within a denomination (such as The United Methodist Church or the Presbyterian Church (USA)), there are a variety of congregations. Churches come in all sizes; some are urban, others rural, and others suburban; some worship in a traditional style, others embrace contemporary elements; some serve people who speak a particular language or have a particular cultural heritage.

We see this diversity even in the New Testament. As Paul and other apostles spread the good news to people throughout the Mediterranean world, they established many churches, each with its own fl avor and culture. Paul respected the differences among Christians, saying that he became “all things to all people” for the sake of the gospel. But he also stressed unity in Christ. Our differences are important—but not as important as the core truths that bring us together.

Over the centuries differences among Christians have divided the church. The fi rst major split, in 1054, created what we now know as the Roman Catholic Church (in the west), and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The church in the west split again with the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s. Most denominations we know today have formed since the Reformation. While all of these churches profess Christ, they are separated by their understanding of God’s grace and practices such as baptism, Holy Communion, confession, and ordination.

Every congregation and denomination has something unique to offer to the body of Christ. Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, “. . . Let’s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does their part” (Ephesians 4:15b-16). As believers we can work for unity throughout the body of Christ, knowing that the Holy Spirit will guide us through any differences that divide us.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

How Is it with Your Soul?

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:01:00 GMT

By Ben Kendrick

Following the enormous success of Stephenie Meyer’s young adult novel series-turned blockbuster film franchise, The Twilight Saga, Hollywood quickly tapped the writer’s 2008 novel The Host for a big-screen production. This time, instead of supernatural humans, The Host is a science-fiction story centered on the invasion of a body-snatching alien race. Implanting bodies with their parasitic “souls,” the aliens take control of human beings, erasing the original human inhabitants. However, when Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), a human freedom fighter, is captured and mortally wounded, she is implanted with Wanderer—a gentle “soul” who abhors violence and comes to experience conflicted emotions about her race and its occupation of the earth.

Unwilling to be erased, Melanie’s will to live allows her to co-exist with Wanderer and even influences the “soul” with human memories and other experiences, most notably love. Through a series of mutual heartaches, Melanie and Wanderer form a complicated partnership. Combining the best elements of their individual personalities, they push back against the alien occupation, taking the fight to one especially nasty “soul,” The Seeker (Diane Kruger).

Desires of the Soul

The Host takes a science-fiction approach to the “soul,” but Meyer’s novel also draws on Christian themes and ideas. For example, the partnership between the Wanderer and Melanie mirrors the complicated relationship between human desire and divine influence that we experience as the Holy Spirit moves and stirs within each of us. Much like Melanie with her “soul,” we waver between what we want and what the Spirit is leading us to do. We have to balance being in the world— with all its pleasures and offerings—with being of God and called to live in service to God and neighbor.

In the church we often talk about the soul. The word soul appears frequently in Scripture, in hymns, in names of Christians books and programs, and in sermons. We feed and tend to our souls; we sing from the soul; we thank Jesus for saving our souls. But what is the soul?

Traditionally people think of the soul as the part of us that lives on beyond death. The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church offers this definition: “the innermost aspect of humans, that which is of greatest value in them, that by which they are most especially in God’s image.” Our souls are the very essence of who we are. The soul is the part of us that most reflects God’s love and mercy, and it is the part of us that “thirsts for God” (Psalm 42:2). Our soul partners with the Holy Spirit to make us the people God calls us to be.

A Soul Action

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, would begin gatherings by asking his fellow Christians, “How is it with your soul?” All of us can benefit from asking ourselves this question. Young people, who are coming to terms with who they are and what makes them unique, need to consider how their relationship with God factors into their identity. And they need to understand that, regardless of how they answer John Wesley’s question, their friends and peers will know their soul by their actions and behaviors. We should all strive to show people a soul that faithfully reflects its Creator.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

Why You Need a Second Office

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:57:00 GMT

By Shane Raynor

A few years ago, I read a book by a youth ministry guru (I forget which one) who called Taco Bell his second office. He’d take his laptop there, work for a couple of hours, have meetings with parents and students, and presumably get hopped up on the free Mountain Dew refills. He never explicitly said why he did that, but I figured it out for myself later on.

I have a few second offices myself. But since I long ago passed the age of accountability for consuming unlimited soft drinks, my preferred location is now a coffee shop. When I’m in Nashville, that’s usually Dunn Bros. or Panera, but when I’m on the road I generally default to Starbucks. A couple of weeks ago, I was in Columbus, Ohio, and I spent several hours in Starbucks with my laptop. I was surprised at the amount of items I was able to check off my to-do list. It reinforced for me how important it is to have a “second office” and use it on a regular basis.

I like my office space at work, but it’s in the middle of what some of my colleagues and I affectionately refer to as Cubeland. If you’re in a working environment where you can’t isolate yourself from the world when you need to get things done, then you know what Cubeland is like. In Cubeland, there’s usually an abundance of people—well-meaning people—who will distract you with lots of good, important, and urgent things. The problem is, it’s easy to spend your day putting out fires and not dealing with the things that matter most. That’s why it’s good to get out of Cubeland occasionally so you can really get things done. When I’m in a coffee shop, I can be surrounded by a couple dozen people, but by and large, they leave me alone so I can work. I may have to deal with a little noise, but I don’t usually get pulled into a vortex of activity like I do at the office.

Sometimes a change of scenery is a good thing, especially if you do any kind of writing or other creative work. (The sea of beige that is my cubicle just doesn’t inspire me the way it once did.) Coffee shops can be great places to stimulate creativity. There’s something about getting out of your everyday environment and surrounding yourself with people you don’t know that generates ideas. At least that’s been my experience. Watching customer-employee interactions and eavesdropping on other people’s conversations at nearby tables can provide lots of inspiration, especially for writers. And I’ve gotten into a few good discussions there myself.

When I was in college, if I needed to get some serious studying done, I’d head to the library or student center. In my mind, I was on a mission, and I wasn’t coming back to the dorm until I accomplished what I set out to do. Work quality and efficiency is affected in a big way by the way we think. Sometimes going to a new place to do work helps us develop the appropriate mindset to get stuff done. When I take my laptop to a coffee shop, I know I’m going to accomplish something. And even if I don’t, the energy boost I get from the caffeine certainly doesn’t hurt my productivity.

Probably the biggest reason to find a second office is the positive outlook it gives us when we associate that place with working. I’m a coffee addict and I enjoy relaxing in a coffee shop and consuming caffeinated beverages. So when I take my laptop there to write, I’m associating work with the coffee house experience, which actually makes writing more fun for me. It’s largely a mental thing, but isn’t that really how a lot of things are?

If you don’t have a second office, you should get one. But remember to buy coffee and a pastry while you’re there.

Because it’s a lousy witness to mooch free wi-fi and occupy a table without paying rent.

Two Sundays in One

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:49:00 GMT

By Shane Raynor

The Christian calendar certainly seems schizophrenic this time of year. Consider the fact that we’re in the middle of Lent—the forty days when believers prepare for Holy Week and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lent is considered a fairly serious time—one of repentance, prayer, introspection, and self-denial.

But there's some fine print—Sundays during Lent don’t count. That’s right, we don’t really observe Lent on Sundays because they are “mini-Easters." (Although it should be noted that Jesus didn’t experience any such “mini-Easters” during his forty days in the wilderness.)

Depending on how your church observes Palm Sunday (aka Passion Sunday, Sunday of the Passion, and Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord), the day and the tone will either seem a little out of place for the season, or like a liturgical roller coaster.

Some churches do the Palm and Passion readings in one service. Others effectively observe Palm Sunday during the morning services and Passion Sunday in the evening, and the rest save the Passion readings for later in Holy Week. Some congregations from chatter on Facebook and Twitter are moving away from “Palm” Sunday and toward “Passion” Sunday because of decreased attendance and interest in Holy Thursday and Good Friday services in recent years.

If you do try to pull off both Palm and Passion readings in one service, be sure to transition well. You’ll be juxtaposing the the imagery of Psalm 118 with Psalm 31. “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” vs. “my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.” And the triumphal entry of Christ followed by his crucifixion five days later is a major gear shift for one service. But there’s probably not a more effective way of pointing out the irony of that welcome than covering everything in a single worship experience.

How Far Is Heaven?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:10:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Jesus never described the gospel as an escape hatch, whereby we can exchange his current world for a spiritual retreat far away. Never. Rather, his gospel was: “God’s kingdom is here! It is now! Heaven has come to earth!” So when Jesus invited his first disciples to “Follow me,” he was inviting them to get in on the world-redeeming, evil-conquering, status-reversing, life-transforming movement of God that had invaded planet Earth.

Jesus was inviting his followers to live out (not juast pray) the words, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Christ invited us, not to abandon our world that needs restoration, but to become catalysts and conduits of the gracious movement of God in today’s world.

Lately I’ve been using an old Yiddish story from Peter Frost to illustrate this: There was a baker named Morris who had always lived in the same little village. He awoke one morning bored and disgusted with his life. He looked over at his sleeping wife and asked himself, “Why her?”

Rising from bed, he peeped into his children’s bedroom. “Why them?” he muttered and walked out of the house. Looking back at his old tumbledown house from the walkway he was overcome with gloom again. “Why that?” As Morris walked to the village his mood grew darker still: “I’ll never be able to fix up that old house. My wife never gives me a moment’s peace. My children are selfish and foolish. I barely make a living baking bread.”

Then Morris remembered something his rabbi said. “Someday we will all go to heaven,” the old man said, “and there everyone will be happy, content and no one will know trouble or pain again.”

“When will I get to go to heaven?” wondered Morris. Suddenly, he answered his own question: “Now! I will go now to find heaven!” So, instead of walking to the bakery, Morris started off in the opposite direction, the direction the old rabbi pointed whenever he talked about heaven. Off Morris went toward the horizon.

As night fell, Morris took off his boots and pointed them in the direction he was walking, so that when he awoke, he would know which direction to go. He then collapsed into a deep sleep. While Morris slept, an angel came along the same path. The angel stood over the sleeping baker, listening to him snore.

Then the angel noticed Morris’ boots pointing toward heaven and gave a quiet chuckle. He realized Morris’ intentions, and acting mischievously, turned Morris’ boots back toward home and then faded into the night. Morris awoke with the morning sun, put on his boots and started off in the direction they were pointing.

As Morris walked, he noticed that the path looked oddly familiar, especially when he came to an old wooden gate that seemed to be an entrance to heaven. He was surprised it wasn't made of gold or expensive wood. Still, he lifted the latch and went into the yard. This heavenly yard looked so much like his yard back home. The door to the heavenly house also looked familiar.

He entered the house and sat down at the table, the smells of heavenly food making his mouth water and his stomach rumble. A woman, so very like his wife, served him a large steaming bowl of soup and a fat roll. He ate everything put before him.

Meanwhile, two young children danced into the kitchen and smiled up at him. These children in heaven were so nice, quiet and friendly that Morris had to sigh with happiness. “Yes,” he thought, “it is exactly as the rabbi said. I have found heaven, and it is simply wonderful.”

This old Yiddish tale is more than a quaint story. It is the truth of the gospel. For when we ask the question, “How far is heaven?” we never have to look beyond the world in which we live. Jesus, with a clever smile on his face, has pointed our boots back to the place we know best.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Who's a Hypocrite?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:37:00 GMT

By Mike Poteet

This weekend, were you off to see the Wizard? The magical land of Oz and its colorful characters—created by author L. Frank Baum in 1900 and elevated to the status of cultural touchstones by the 1939 movie musical The Wizard of Oz—rarely fail to enchant audiences. The latest adventure from over the rainbow, Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful, shows us Oz from a new point of view, that of Oscar “Oz” Diggs (played by James Franco), the wizard himself.

Oscar is a self-centered, cynical, small-time traveling circus magician in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Kansas who dreams of being a “truly great man.” When a prairie twister whisks him away to the fairyland that coincidentally shares his nickname, he discovers that its inhabitants await a prophesied, powerful wizard to free them from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch. Sensing a chance for wealth and fame, Oscar masquerades as this magical messiah. He uses sleight-of-hand, smooth talk, and sneaky stagecraft to convince people, especially the lovely witch Theodora (Mila Kunis), that he is Oz’s long-awaited savior. Once Oscar’s secret is exposed, however, the stakes rise higher than ever for not only the land’s future but also his chances of growing as, not a great, but a good man.

Who’s a Hypocrite?

Actors in ancient Greek drama wore large masks to depict their characters and to amplify their voices. The word for such a performer was hypocrite. Today we call anyone who wears a metaphorical mask, pretending to be someone else, a hypocrite. Hypocrites want to appear better than they are. Like Oscar Diggs, they want to be great in other people’s eyes, but may not actually be much good.

While hypocrites appear on many of life’s stages—politicians who break campaign promises; business executives who embezzle company funds; professional athletes who rely on performance-enhancing shortcuts—religion is one arena in which hypocrisy especially rankles. When people of faith, particularly spiritual leaders, profess to act for holy and righteous reasons but in fact serve only themselves, reactions can range from disappointment to outrage. Think of news stories about popular, charismatic preachers who live affl uent lifestyles, for instance, or the anger expressed (rightly so) at clergy who commit sexual abuse.

But religious hypocrisy also can take less public forms, and isn’t the exclusive problem of official leaders. We Christians talk about loving neighbors, but sometimes we don’t even take the time to learn our next-door neighbors’ names. Many of us sing “from God all blessings flow,” on Sundays but then we’re reluctant to give monetary blessings back through church and charity, though we don’t think twice about spending it on our personal whims. We claim our relationship with Jesus is of supreme importance, but we’re not always quick to tell others about him, let alone obey his commands. If we want to know where to start looking for hypocrites—there’s no place like home.

Youth and Truth

Youth are usually quick to notice and call out hypocrisy, including (and maybe especially) in the church. They will tune out someone whose pious talk contradicts her or his lifestyle. They want real relationships with people who are genuinely trying to follow Jesus, even if they aren’t perfect.

As one who ministers with youth, you have the opportunity to affirm teens’ desire for authentic faith by highlighting God’s desire for it: God wants “truth in the inward being” (Psalm 51:6, NRSV*). Challenge youth to examine themselves for and rid themselves of hypocrisy, encouraging them to live as “salt” and “light” (see Matthew 5:13-16), eager not for other people’s approval but for God’s, and pointing not to any “greatness” of their own, but to Christ’s.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

Pastor, How Are You on Facebook So Much?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:13:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

I’ve posted a similar answer to this before but in my new role some are asking the question again: Pastor, how are you on Facebook so much?

I honestly think the real question is “Why?” and some think it means I don’t work very much, but if only they knew.

Perhaps, if you follow me online, you wonder the same thing. So, let me try to help you understand.

First things first, I’m probably not on as much as you think I am. If you think so, then the strategy is working. I’ve been doing online ministry since 1996. That’s a long time. I started with a daily devotional that quickly turned into a ministry opportunity. Though they are mostly recycled now, that site is still active. (www.mustardseedministry.com) I learned that if I was going to do ministry with the potentials to reach tens of thousands (the Internet makes the world small), I had to be smart about it.

So, I work smart.

Here are four words to describe my Internet strategy.

Since I’m a pastor, and you’d want me to be pastoral, they all begin with the same letter.

Value – I recognize the value of being online. For the past several years, Facebook has been the most prominent way people reach me in my church. It also gives them a sense that they know me. I hear people every week say they feel they can follow me throughout the week, just by reading my status updates. In addition, I have the opportunity to minister to even a larger group, including hundreds of pastors and leaders around the country.

Vision – I have a vision of not only sharing the stuff I write (which I also see as a ministry), but sharing pieces about my life. I’ve learned it makes me seem more real if you see the person behind the thoughts. That’s why you may read something funny, some random thought, even an encouraging word I have for my wife. I want you to know me, so that when I share something serious, you’re more likely to take it serious because you feel you know me and hopefully I’ve become a reliable source. (Just to be clear, I’m capable of being wrong too, and unless I’m posting Scripture itself, it’s an opinion.)

Velocity – Now as for the frequency. There will always be those who think I post too much and those who wish I posted more. If I’m quiet for a couple days, I’ll hear from people who wonder if something is wrong. I’ve learned people depend on a certain amount of frequency. Plus, for those who are only on once or a few times a day, they may miss some of what I post if I don’t post things periodically throughout the day. The pace of doing so is really easy. I usually have my phone with me. If I have a thought, it takes me only a few seconds to put it out there. You’ll notice I don’t respond to a lot of other comments. I’m usually on and off of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn very quickly. The total time per day is less than it appears. Plus, I can automate many of my posts if I choose to do so. Sometimes I do…sometimes I don’t. I’m not telling which are and which aren’t. The key is consistency and I’ve gotten pretty good at that over the years.

InVestment – (How’d you like the clever use of that V?) I have to believe that online communication is making a difference in people’s lives. I can only judge that based on the feedback I receive, and I receive lots. I’ve been overwhelmed at the responses I have gotten throughout my church and the world. I literally get emails every single day from people saying I was there at just the right time or said just the right thing. I’m not taking credit for that, just pointing out that God uses this avenue in ministry for His glory and I’m thankful to play a part.

Well, that’s my story. Why are you online?

Ron Edmondson is pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, KY. Visit his blog at RonEdmondson.com.

Selfish Motivation

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:23:00 GMT

By Whitney Simpson

Robert Greenleaf, in his book, Servant Leadership, tells of twelve ministers and twelve psychiatrists of all faiths who convened for a two-day off-the-record seminar on the word, healing. They asked these questions, "We are all healers, whether we are ministers or doctors. Why are we in this business? What is our motivation?" After just a few minutes of discussion everyone agreed (doctors, ministers, Catholics, Jews and Protestants). The unanimous answer to the question is this, "for our own healing."

During my recent psychiatric evaluation for my certification (that I ranted about here), I was asked this in a similar way. I was asked how and why I am drawn to a ministry of spritual care, if I have to be so conscious of it for myself. If you know me well, you know I am one that has to work at slowing down to "smell the roses." And even though it does not come naturally, it is what I long to do for myself and for others. I long for greater care of my spirit. I long for healing and wholeness. Yes, I want it for myself too.

Healing and wholeness cannot be bottled and sold. If it could, I would have bought it up a long time ago. And, I'd be rich by now, because I guarantee it would sell. There is a misconception that those of us called to healing ministries have it all figured out. The truth is that we too are longing for healing. My hope is we can journey together toward that healing. Greenleaf says

"This is an interesting word, healing, with its meaning, 'to make whole.' The example above suggests that one really never makes it. It is always something sought. Perhaps, as with the minister and the doctor, the servant-leader might also acknowledge that his own healing is his motivation."

I couldn't agree more.

With My Arms Spread Wide

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:01:00 GMT

By Adam Thomas

Imagine with me a letter written by Simon the Pharisee some years after the events described in Luke 13:31-35.

Simon, a servant of the Lord God, to Judith, my dearest sister and confidant: Peace to you and your house.

I know it’s an inside joke between us that I only write to you when I am vexed or need to process something, but in this case, I write with a more urgent need. Yesterday in the marketplace something happened that has shaken me to my bones. Not only that, but after all these years, this event has caused me to let go of a secret I had been holding onto so very tightly. I need to tell you the truth about myself before you hear others slander me. I hope after you read these words you do not think less of me; rather, I hope you might consider joining me in my new-found freedom. But I get ahead of myself.

Here’s what happened. I was walking with my colleagues, Eli and Reuben, when we witnessed a strange scene. A small boy, no bigger than your grandson, snatched a loaf of bread off a baker’s cart. The boy must have been on his last legs because as soon he turned to run away, he dropped to his knees, nearly fainting. The baker had the boy by the arm when a woman picked up the loaf of bread and handed it back to the hungry child, saying, “Go and eat your fill, young one, and may the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.”

Then she reached into her purse to pay the baker for the bread. But before she could pull out a coin, Eli and Reuben rounded on her. I’ve never known them to be the most zealous persecutors of the followers of the Way, but something about this exchange riled them up. They dragged the woman to the ground, hollering the whole time about her blasphemy. Her trial, conviction, and sentence were the work of a moment, and before I knew what was happening, Eli had a chunk of rock in his hand ready to throw.

I didn’t plan to do it. I didn’t mean to do it. But in the instant after I realized what Eli was about to do, I found myself standing between him and the woman, arms wide, protecting her with my body. It was too late for Eli to stop, and I took the impact of the stone on my left shoulder. “If you’re going to stone her,” I yelled at them, “then you’ll have to stone me, too.”

What I’m trying to tell you, dear sister, is that, for these long years, I have been a follower of the Way of Jesus Christ. But until yesterday, my fear of being disowned by everyone I know convinced me to hold tightly to the secret. Now that my true devotion lies unmasked, I feel suddenly free to share my story with you – and not just free, but full of joy.

You see, you never know on what day your life will change. If you did, then you might be more prepared. You might wear a clean shirt or wash your face beforehand. The day my life started to change was a day similar to yesterday. I was out in the marketplace with a couple of colleagues. Jesus and his disciples were making a scene: throngs of people were clamoring for his attention, and talk of miraculous healing was in the air. You might recall I had met Jesus previously when he came to dinner at my house. That first meeting troubled me because he was so different than the country bumpkin I expected. This second meeting replaced my uneasiness with the seeds of new conviction.

At the time, we Pharisees were tired of Jesus upsetting the apple cart. He had been in our region quite long enough, and we wanted him gone. So we concocted a story about Herod wanting to kill him. The tale seemed plausible enough; after all, Herod had beheaded Jesus’ cousin John and then just continued on eating his dinner. Perhaps Herod did want Jesus dead. Either way, that’s what we told him. And I was completely unprepared for his response. Maybe he was calling our bluff. Or maybe he had no fear for his own life. He told us his plans – and they did not involve fleeing – and then told us to go tell Herod.

But his bravery wasn’t what enthralled me. It was what he said next. A haunted look played across his face as he lamented Jerusalem. I’ll never forget what he said: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Before I could arrange my face into the shocked expression appropriate for a Pharisee, my heart commandeered my body. It was the strangest sensation. Something deep inside me fluttered at his words, like one of the chicks in the hen’s brood. The fluttering stirred up three words that echoed in my depths. “I am willing.”

From that day on, I kept track of Jesus. My three words – “I am willing” – played over and over again in my mind. But I didn’t make the leap yet because I couldn’t chase his image of the hen and her brood out of my mind. What an odd animal to identify with. Why not something bigger? Something with teeth and claws. Something worthy of his fearlessness. Why a defenseless hen? A chicken, for God’s sake?

Later that year, I got my answer. I watched as he was crucified. I heard the dull thud of the hammer striking the nails. He was raised up on the cross, chest bared, arms wide. And as I watched and wept, all I could see was that mother hen, defenseless, spreading her wings wide to protect her brood, giving her life for theirs.

I was his from that moment on. I believe that he rose again and that his Spirit is with us to help us live a life full of God his Father. It feels good to write that down. Dear sister, it has taken me all these years to say it, but the words are there on the page now, never to be erased.

I might have said “I am willing” on that day of our second meeting, but as they say, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So what made me abandon my well-worn lie yesterday? I had gotten comfortable living as his secret follower, even though I knew that meant I was cutting myself off from so much of what being his follower means. Something about the events yesterday brought to my mind the image that so haunted me.

Eli raised the rock, ready to strike the woman who had helped the little boy, and I found myself getting in the way. If I had had time for rational thought, I doubt I would have done it. Perhaps my long years as Jesus’ secret follower finally spurred me to action. My brain didn’t have time to get in the way, so my heart interceded. And since my heart belongs to Jesus Christ, he propelled me to take a risk, to take a chance, secure in the knowledge that I am always and forever standing under the shadow of his wing. In that moment, I knew Christ was alive in me. He used me as the mother hen, defenseless, chest bared, arms wide, ready to absorb the blow. If I hadn’t known I was secure under his wing, I wouldn’t have had the strength to protect someone under mine.

And so this is my prayer for all my days hence: Lord Jesus Christ, sustain my faith so I can be vulnerable. Be my sheltering wing so I can take risks. Help me spread my arms wide as you did on the cross so I can fully and truly embrace others with your love.

My sister, I bare my heart to you in this letter not to convince you to become a follower of the Way like I am, nor to make you worry for my safety. I have written these words simply because I am not afraid anymore. Jesus Christ is alive in me. Therefore, I am resolved to live my life under the shadow of his wings, with my arms spread wide.

—

* Special thanks to Barbara Brown Taylor for her words about this passage found here. They unlocked this sermon for me.

God Said It . . . And that Unsettles It

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:52:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” This slogan is one of today’s all too common bumper sticker defenses of the Bible. The phrase is sometimes amended to read, “God said it . . . and that settles it,” to reflect that personal belief is inconsequential in the matter. Proponents of this view caricaturize the Bible as a divinely dictated book of statutes whose truth is crystal clear to anyone who has sense enough to simply read. Of course, they fail to clarify that what they call the “truth” is their view of the truth, shaped by their unique set of circumstances, experiences, and presuppositions.

I often encounter fervent, sincere, Bible-believing people who say things like, “We need more of the Bible around here.” I don’t disagree, but the sense I get is that what some people really want are for their interpretations of the Bible to be upheld, validated, and shouted at everyone else in the room. They want the preacher to hit all the hot buttons on all the hot issues – and hit these buttons with some zing – so that they can shout “Hallelujah, we are right and everybody else is wrong!” Then they can continue with business as usual, celebrating their own spiritual beauty and criticizing the ugliness of those with whom they disagree.

Thus, “believing the Bible” can create hard-hearted, judgmental, graceless religionists who patrol society with their personalized weapons of rigidity and arrogance. In such cases, both belief and the Bible have been misappropriated. Christians can become “settled” for sure, but are simultaneously nothing like their namesake, Jesus Christ.

I think there is a more principled approach to dealing with the Scriptures (even if my suggestion is shaped by my own unique set of assumptions): What if we begin to read the Bible descriptively rather than just prescriptively? That is, what if the Bible describes the human search for the Holy – and the Holy’s interaction with the human – rather than simply prescribing religious behavior?

Such a change would allow us to be set free from stagnant dogma that “settles it,” and instead put us on a journey of faithful exploration. We could then read the Scriptures, not to confirm our righteousness and others’ wrongness, but looking for clues to how we can better know God. After all, that’s what I believe the Bible is all about: God spoke through the lives, experiences, and writing of those who went before us, so we could know him. And he is best known in the person of Jesus. Everything before Jesus is prelude, everything we read about him is gospel, and everything we read after him is reflection.

So we can see that the goal of the Scriptures is not to give us ideas about religion; not to help us form sharper or better doctrinal statements; or to build theological armaments against those who believe differently than we do, or to answer all of our questions. It is to bring us face to face with Christ, and to become like him.

Consequently, we must be cautious not to fall more in love with the statues of the Scriptures than the actual Subject of the Scripture. We must guard against being more committed to our presuppositions about God than the Person who came to show us who God is and who we can become. We cannot be more smitten with the Bible than we are with Jesus, as strange as that may sound, for that is nothing less than a subtle form of idolatry.

Our faith isn’t built on the Bible. It is built on a Person. There is only one foundation for Christian faith (the Bible says as much!), and that foundation is Jesus Christ. Upon him our faith rests, upon him the church is built, and he is what the Bible is about. I’m not advocating setting the Bible aside, but to actually embrace it, and see to whom it points. This may be an unsettling way to approach the Scriptures, but being “settled” isn’t the point; knowing and becoming like Jesus is.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

7 Ways to Support Your Pastor on Sunday

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:23:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

Sunday mornings are a stressful time for pastors. My ministry includes interacting with dozens of pastors each week. It appears to me that there are some common experiences on Sunday morning for many of us.

I also know most people who love their church…and love their pastor…want to help any way they can to make the Sunday morning experience the best it can be. That’s what this post is about.

Here are 7 ways you can help your pastor on Sunday:

Pray. – Pray for your pastor. Ask God to open the ears of the people, to guide your pastor’s heart and to bless the services with His Spirit.

Don’t critique. – Sunday morning is not the best time to bring complaints. It is very distracting when the pastor is about to speak to hear criticism that will have to be dealt with later. It weighs very heavy on the mind and gets in the way of focusing on the message. Hold those until Monday, but even then, ask yourself if sharing it is personal to you or genuinely helpful to the entire body.

Don’t share something you want us to remember. – Most likely we will forget what you told us by the time Sunday is done. Send us an email later or call us Monday morning. If it must be shared on Sunday, please write it down for us so we can remember the details. Our minds are so clouded on Sunday thinking about a million different things. And, we try hard to make our focus about a message we hope God will use.

Be Kingdom-minded. – Think of others interests even ahead of your own. Keep in mind the temperature in the room may not be your ideal temperature, but it may be exactly the right temperature for someone else. Your song may not be sung today, but it could be the song that leads another to the throne of grace. The message may not address what you’re dealing with right now, but for someone else, it might be life-changing. Be a part of the crowd that says, “I love what helps another” and you’ll help your pastor and the church greatly on Sunday mornings.

Volunteer. – The work of the church can’t function with only a few people. I’ve never met the church that had too many people volunteering in preschool ministry, too many greeters, or too many people willing to do whatever it takes.

Introduce us to visitors. – We love to meet visitors, especially those seeking a church home. It is comforting when the church is bringing people with them or meeting new visitors as they arrive.

Pray. – It really does begin and end with prayer. More than anything, we want your prayer support. The Spirit of God seems to respond when you do.

Pastor, how else can people help you on Sunday?

The Singularity of a Moment

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:56:00 GMT

By Vivian Martin

Many of us can relate to a moment in time that seemed to define our lives. Sadly, far too many of us have experienced a moment like that which brought us shame before God and our families. It was then that life seemed to boil up to a decision made in just one moment of haste, whereby all of one’s history was then defined by what happened before or after that one reckless moment in time.

A defining moment may creep up on us unawares, or it may be the direct result of calculated patterns of behaviors coming to fruition. But however we find ourselves at the summit of that moment, in the final analysis, the choice taken is a deliberate step that only we have made, that only we have intentionally chosen. And we make it alone, however many others may be standing by taking similar action. We may not be able to clearly understand the why or how of the decision arrived at by us. We may not even be able to fully live again because of the consequences of one rash decision. But in that one moment we change our eternity and, without some help from God, life can never be the same again.

Jesus understood the significance of a defining moment and he gave us a model for how to live out such moments so that they could be seen as acts of grace. For him, one could say that his defining moment was crystallized in the Garden of Gethsemane, or maybe during his interrogation by Pilate, or even maybe as he dragged himself to the cross at Golgotha. Yet these moments, though distressing and stressful while he endured them in his gritty human experience, were lived out in acts of sacrificial love for God, and ultimately led him closer to God.

In an age when hasty moments are more prevalent than measured moments of grace, we need not be lured into insipid words or deeds that mar the beneficent Spirit of God whose constant work within us seeks to make our defining moments ones that honor God and God’s creation. As we become the great cloud of witnesses for future generations, wouldn’t these kinds of defining moments be a better legacy to leave to posterity?

4 Names: Mary Magdalene, Philip, Lazarus, and Peter

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:33:00 GMT

By Adam Thomas

If you’ve ever been to a Bible study that I’ve led, then you know that I have a lot of favorite scenes in the Gospel according to John. But John 20:1-18 is easily in the top three. What always strikes me about the scene is the movement from Mary’s desolation when she weeps at the empty tomb to her utter elation when she recognizes the resurrected Christ. John paints the scene with a special tenderness he reserves for only the most intimate of moments between Jesus and his followers. John focuses our attention on this intimate moment, the first reaction to Jesus’ resurrection, because the moment of the resurrection itself is far too mysterious and far too momentous for John to attempt to narrate. That moment belongs to God alone. And so John gives us a sliver of Mary Magdalene’s story – her move from desolation to elation when she realizes that Jesus is still with her as he promised he always would be. And the pivotal moment of this story is Jesus calling her by name.

Names are rare in the Gospel according to John. I went back and counted, and in the entire 21 chapters of the Gospel, Jesus calls exactly four people by name. There’s Simon Peter, first among the disciples. There’s Lazarus, whom Jesus brought back to life. There’s Philip, who had been with Jesus from the beginning. And then there’s Mary, who heads to the tomb before dawn on the first day of the week. In each of the special moments when Jesus calls these four people by name, he is somehow affirming or strengthening his relationships with them.

The first thing Jesus does when he meets Simon is give him the nickname “Peter,” which means “Rock,” which is a pretty cool nickname. We invest all kinds of theological motivation to this name because of Peter being the “rock” on which the church is built. But if they were any two people besides Jesus and Peter, we would see the nicknaming as a sign that their relationship is moving into the territory of good friendship. At the end of the Gospel, Jesus says Peter’s name three times, and this naming reasserts the relationship that Peter had denied three times during Jesus’ trial. In the end, their relationship is repaired because Jesus calls Peter by name.

The Gospel describes Lazarus as “one whom Jesus loves.” When Lazarus dies, Jesus is days away, and Lazarus’s sisters make the faithful accusation that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus wouldn’t have died at all. So Jesus goes to the tomb and shouts out, “Lazarus, come out.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Lazarus, I raise you from the dead.” Rather, he says, “Come out.” Jesus calls Lazarus by name, but does not give Lazarus the option of remaining in the tomb. The naming is joined to Jesus’ command to return to his family and his friendship with Jesus.

Jesus calls Philip by name after Philip says to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that will be enough for us.” Jesus replies, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you all this time? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus calls Philip by name in the midst of wondering how Philip could possibly not know him yet after being with him from the beginning. With this, Jesus calls Philip into deeper, more committed relationship with him.

And then there’s Mary Magdalene, who is weeping at the empty tomb. She is desolate, thinking that her Lord’s body had been stolen and possibly desecrated by the people who put him to death. With tears and the fog of despair clouding her vision, she sees the gardener, who asks her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Could this gardener be in collusion with the body-snatchers, she wonders? And she accuses him of being in on the plot. But then he says the all-important word: “Mary.” And she turns and the desolation vanishes in an instant of delight. And new elation, new hope, new life surges in to fill the void. “Teacher!” she shouts, and I imagine her jumping into his arms. Then Jesus gives her a task – to be the first to proclaim his resurrection.

So why does Jesus saying her name change the story? Why is this the pivotal word? As with Peter, Lazarus, and Philip, saying Mary’s name proves Jesus’ relationship with Mary. Her name is the outward sign of her inward identity. In this way, names are quite sacramental. Know a name and you know something of the person. Who among us didn’t feel elation when we found out our high school crush did, in fact, know our names? On the flip side, take away a name and you begin to take away the humanity of the person. How many Jews had their names erased and exchanged for numbers in the concentration camps?

Saying Mary’s name is Jesus’ shorthand for saying that he has returned just as he promised and that life would never be the same again because their relationship would never end. Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus foreshadowed this when he said, “[The shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Whenever he has gathered all of his sheep, he goes before them and they follow him, because they know his voice.” Later in the same passage, Jesus talks about the command from his Father that he “give up” his life in order to “take it up again.” Thus, Jesus links the power of the resurrection with the power of naming, which is really shorthand for the power of relationship.

This is the good news of the resurrection: Christ rose from the dead to show us that nothing, not even death, has the power to keep him from remaining in relationship with us. Christ knows each of our names. They are written in the book of life. They are written on his heart, just as his name is written on ours. As Jesus called Peter, Lazarus, Philip, and Mary to deeper relationship by saying their names, he calls to each of us. He calls to each of us, speaking our names, and thus ourselves, into being.

These names of ours are special things – they carry within them the promise of eternal relationship with God in Christ through the power of the resurrection. So the next time you find yourself in a moment of silence, a moment of peace at the center of the maelstrom of busyness that marks our lives today, just be still. Be still and listen. Be still and listen for the resurrected Christ calling you by name.

7 Issues That Distract a Leader from Success

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:55:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

I recently wrote about 7 ideas which will help you attain more success. It seems a counter post is merited.

Here are 7 issues that will distract you from success as a leader:

Trying to plan every detail – Ecclesiastes says you won’t plant if you watch the wind. Risk is always necessary for meaningful success.

Lack of flexibility – Things change. Have a great vision, but realize the road to accomplish it may change many times along the way.

Shunning or controlling other people – You can’t do it alone. You don’t have the corner on ideas. You need help.

Holding on to a grudge or attempting to get even – The wasted energy of an unforgiving spirit slows you down from meaningful achievement.

Worrying more than you pray – The unknown brings doubt but faith goes without seeing. Take your pick. Only one answer allowed.

Being stingy with your time, money or influence – The more you try to control what you hold in your hand, the stingier your heart becomes. Stingy hearts are burdened by unnecessary distractions. (The one who loved money is never satisfied with his wealth. Ecclesiastes 5:10)

Having to do things “your way” – When you limit the input of others you rob the team of expanded imagination and you discourage potential leaders from rising.

What would you add?

Are one of these keeping you from accomplishing all you could?

The Arrogant Jesus I Follow

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:30:00 GMT

By Clay Morgan

One of my students I’ve known better than most attended four classes of mine at two different colleges on the way to his degree. He’s crazy smart and always challenges me to think.

As we became friends in recent years our conversations often turned to philosophy and spiritual matters. He considers himself agnostic but only because he knows that calling himself an atheist is self-defeating since it’s a claim of absolute knowledge of the universe, and he’s too smart for such hubris.

A while back we were hanging out at the University of Pittsburgh when he told me about a class he was taking on religion. The professor required students to examine one of the gospels of the New Testament.

“Which one did you pick?” I asked.

“Went with the book of John,” he told me.

“Cool. What did you think?”

He exhaled cigarette smoke and said something that really made me think.

“Well, Jesus kind of seems like an arrogant _____.”

Let me pause for a minute and ask: What would you do with that statement? Do you agree? Does it offend you?

I asked him why he thought that.

My friend said, “He goes around telling everybody that they’re wrong and gets in the faces of the religious leaders.”

“He calls himself ‘the way and the truth and the life’ too,” I offered.

“Yeah, stuff like that,” he agreed.

We had a good conversation about truth, morality, and arrogance after that. These types of conversations often revolve around the basic contention that all religions are basically the same, and why can’t people just pick what’s best for each individual? Also tied up in this debate is usually the idea that Christians think they’re better than everyone else. In other words, Christians are arrogant because we claim to know the only true path to God and heaven.

Aside from the cases of Christians who actually have acted arrogantly over the past twenty centuries, is the claim of Jesus being the only way to God an arrogant statement in itself? Are the claims of Christ in fact immoral?

One thing to consider is that truth has to be exclusive. Like the Highlander, there can be only one. I cannot say that I am a doctor to one person and then walk down the hall and tell another person that I am not a doctor. Both statements cannot be true.

Also, when it comes to belief systems we should remember that every religion has claims of exclusivity. If you say that some ways are right then you’re excluding others. If you say that all ways are right then you’re excluding every system that claims that some ways or only one way is the correct path.

And when you get down to it, calling a belief system wrong is claiming that you are right. Is that not an exclusive, perhaps even arrogant, claim?

The issue isn’t whether or not we like the claims being made but whether they are true and real. If Jesus’ claims weren’t true then he’s delusional or something worse than arrogant. All of my studies and experiences to this point have convinced me that Jesus spoke in love not arrogance. His teachings are consistent and good and for me they are intellectually and existentially satisfying. That’s why I believe them. I have found nothing better or more true.

If you would like to read more about this topic, let me suggest two brilliant, quick reads. The first is called Aren’t All Religions The Same? by Amy Orr-Ewing. Here’s a sample:

“Take a step back and think about what is being said here. Do you see the breathtaking claim that is being made? Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, and Muhammad are all blind, but in fact, I can see! These leaders all had a small perspective, but I am the one who sees the full picture. Now who is being arrogant? It is just as arrogant to say that Buddha, Muhammad, and Jesus were all wrong in their exclusive claims as it is to say that Jesus is the only way. The issue is not about who is arrogant, but what is actually true and real.“

I also highly recommend Aren’t All Religions Equally Valid? by Andy Bannister.

If you have thoughts or questions I’d love to hear from you, either in the comments or via my author page. There’s nothing better to talk about than what we can know about ultimate truth.

This post originally appeared on Clay Morgan's blog.

10 Tips for Recovery After a Major Loss or Disappointment

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:47:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

Sometimes life throws curves at us that take the wind from our sail. If we aren’t careful we can allow the injury to haunt us for life; never regaining what we have lost.

Have you lost a job recently?
Have you had a business failure?
Did you suffer from divorce?
Has the person you trusted the most hurt you the deepest?

What steps should you take to get back on track after a significant loss?

Here are 10 suggestions to consider during a recovery process:

(Choose the ones that apply to your situation)

Reconnect with God – This is always a wise idea, but it becomes necessity at times like this. Some people grow closer to God during a trial (that’s the best approach). Some, however, allow a trial to distract them from their relationship with God. If that’s your story, be like the prodigal and return to a waiting Father.

Evaluate your life – Use this time to reevaluate the decisions you have made in life and, if appropriate, what got you in the situation you are in today. Are there changes that you need to make? If so, be willing to change. If you did nothing wrong in this case, release yourself from responsibility.

Create some new dreams – Don’t allow past mistakes to keep you from discovering your passions in life. Keep those creative forces going in your mind so you’ll be ready when the next big opportunity comes along.

Call in the advisors – Others can usually see things we cannot see. They approach our life from a different perspective. Give someone you trust, who has your best interest at heart, access to the painful part of your life.

Don’t take your pain and anger out on others – It doesn’t make things better (usually worse) and it hurts people who did nothing to deserve it. Don’t hold your past experiences against others who weren’t even there.

Take a break – Don’t expect to recover immediately. Your struggles probably didn’t start overnight and they will not end overnight. Give yourself time to heal. Rest.

When it’s time, be willing to risk again – Yes, you may get hurt again, but just as life is full of disappointments, it’s also full of joy and discovery. Remember that everyone is not the same and every situation is different. Your next great opportunity may be waiting for your next step of faith.

Don’t let failure or disappointment in life define you – Be defined by God’s love for you and His plan for your life. He has one you know!

Do something – Rest yes, but at some point, just do something to stay busy and occupy your mind. It’s true that the “idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. If you lost your job, find somewhere to volunteer until you find another job. If you lost a relationship, find non-sexual relationships through church or civic activities to keep from being alone.

Get back in the game – Choose your next steps carefully and don’t keep repeating the same mistakes, but at some point it will be time to enjoy life again. Life was not meant to be lived on the sidelines.

Are there any you would add to this list?

A Little More Light

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:01:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Leo Tolstoy once compared religious rules to the light given off by a lamp post. It is a bright light. It dispels the darkness. As long as man or woman stood in that light, he or she could see. But the lamp post had limitations, Tolstoy said.

To remain in the light meant going no where. One had to stay put to remain in the light. But following Jesus, Tolstoy said, was like a light or lantern fixed to a pole. A person could carry that pole out in front of him and travel anywhere he liked.

Tolstoy never held a flashlight, I am sure, but we have and can understand the analogy that way: To remain a rule-keeper, is to remain under a street light. To follow Christ, is to take a flashlight in hand, and go somewhere – to explore, to pierce the dark, to have a faith that is dynamic, not static.

Much of the church is locked into keeping the rules. Therefore, they stand in their little circle of light, unmovable and fixed like a stone, barking at the street traffic as it moves along and cursing the darkness. They have light, but the light does not serve them well. They might as soon be chained to a post; they are imprisoned, not growing or going anywhere.

Religious rules, or to use biblical language, “The Law,” has been eclipsed by Jesus. Written words have been improved upon. Yes, the rules were all we had, once upon a time, but now we have something better – we have Jesus himself – showing us the way.

Up to the coming of Jesus, the faithful followed religious codes to please or pursue God; that was their understanding of faith. But religious rules could not give life or spiritual freedom. While the law was instructive and useful, ultimately, it could only constrict and confine. In the words of the Apostle Paul, “The letter (the rules) kills;” it can’t give life.

Now, I know to think of spirituality without rules is a radical departure for many of us who have based our entire connection to God on rule keeping, “being good,” measuring up, and following the jot and tittle of every bit of religious instruction. Of course, when we failed to live up to these demands, and failure was inevitable, we were swamped with guilt, fear, and shame.

Enough of that, for that is not the way of Jesus. Christianity is not a heavy obligation to stagnant, inanimate rules, handed down from the mountain and engraved in stone. Rather, Christianity is the free enjoyment of a relationship with a living person. This is Good News: God, who is now present in Christ, calls people of faith to follow Jesus, not to follow the rules. This is the liberation so many of us have been longing for.

While traveling once, I had two different sets of directions on how to get to where I was going. On the dashboard was a crumpled set of written directions. They were coffee stained, had notes scribbled on them, and unknown to me, did not match recent road construction.

The other set of directions were being called out to me from a GPS system. As I neared my destination there was a terrible conflict. My written directions began to fail me. Following them to the letter, I reached a point that they no longer worked. The streets the written direction told me to take just weren’t there – either that or their names had been changed.

Meanwhile the voice of the GPS was saying things like: “Prepare to make a right turn…When possible, make a legal U-turn.” But I kept driving according to my written directions even though it was obvious they no longer worked. Finally, I had to make a leap of faith.

I accepted the fact that my written directions had taken me as far as they could, and now, to get to where I needed to be, I had to listen to the personal voice, now calling me. And that Voice was right all along.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

What 60 Minutes, Sleeping Beauty, and You Have in Common

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 07:30:00 GMT

By Jessica Miller Kelley

A few weeks ago, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes to do a joint interview on the occasion of Clinton's departure from the president's cabinet. The two leaders shared how close they'd become and what a great working relationship they'd had over the last four years, and Steve Kroft asked the inevitable question about whether Clinton would run for president in 2016.

"Steve, I gotta tell you," the President said. "You guys in the press are incorrigible. I was literally inaugurated four days ago. And you're talking about elections four years from now."

Kroft isn't alone, of course. People in both parties have been speculating since before this election about who the candidates will be in 2016, hoping "their guy" has a chance but knowing many primary candidates will come and go before it's all settled. It's four years away, and the excitement of the 2012 race is only recently behind us, but some people have already turned their focus to the next election. For some, it's because they dislike the current administration and are eager for a change, but for many, it's just the fun of speculation, the eagerness of political junkies to get a fix of campaign fervor.

Why is this?

I say it's the same reason we call the wedding at the end of a fairy tale a "happy ending." I think of the little fairy at the end of Sleeping Beauty, sobbing over the dancing prince and princess because she "just loves a happy ending." In that case, they're not even married yet, and have only known each other a few (waking) minutes! But we are nonetheless obsessed with the chase, the adventure, the romance, and are ready to pop in the next DVD without giving any thought to what happens after the royal couple dances off into the clouds.

In short, we are all drama queens and kings. We feed on the conflict and thrill and are bored by what follows. The presidential race is more fun to observe than the actual term in office. The romantic pursuit and engagement are more exciting than Mr. and Mrs. Charming picking out curtains for the castle windows.

But this love of drama and action doesn't stop with our politics and entertainment. We do it in our personal lives as well, and in our faith.

The romance of dating and the thrill of starting out a new life together set a false standard that day-to-day married life doesn't match. Nailing an interview and getting the job offer is a lot more energizing than the daily grind of meetings and reports. And the awe-inspiring joy of experiencing God for the first time or taking a bold step of committing one's life to Christ can fuel a spiritual high that leads to a frustrating low.

Reality is full of hard work, without a lot of star-spangled confetti, signing bonuses, or dancing on clouds. Marriage and family life is less rice on your tuxedo and more legos in your shoes. Talking through a conflict over family finances, staying late to finish a big presentation, and practicing spiritual disciplines even when you don't feel the warm glow of God's presence—that's life, and there is value and joy to be found even in the seemingly-humdrum day-to-day.

We live in a noisy culture in which only the extreme rises above the din. Someone said recently that we've lost the ability to simply disagree—we have to be outraged. We can't enjoy the merely good, we have to make it bigger, better, louder, faster. No wonder we measure life by the highs and the lows of celebration and conflict. But most of life isn't high or low, and it is damaging to our souls to chase after and focus on those extremes.

We need to step back, see the big picture, and cherish the role the "ordinary" times play in the great story of our lives.

Spotting Control Freaks

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:49:00 GMT

By Dyton L. Owen

I recently wrote an article on “10 Things that Kill Ministry.” One of the things I listed as a “killer” was control freaks—those who try to control everything and everyone around them as a way of making themselves look and feel better.

Having had several conversations on the topic since posting that article, I thought I could offer these not to point fingers at anyone, but simply to offer indicators for those who lead so that attempts to circumvent a leader’s work can be avoided. This is not an exhaustive list, but my personal insights from having served in churches and other organizations over the years.

Control Freaks (hereafter, “CFs”) are:

Highly critical. They are happiest when complaining about something or someone. They find it difficult to be positive. If not careful, they can bring down an entire group and can often hamper a ministry.

Controlling. Well, yeah. They like to be in charge…or at least think they are. CFs often try various ways to control people and situations: passive-aggressive behavior, seeking attention, talking outside the group setting (so as not to be challenged), and what I call “deck-stacking;” that is, they like to stack the deck of opinion in their favor by recruiting others to support them. By doing so, they feel powerful and important.

Inflexible. CFs are often inflexible. This allows them to live by the illusion that they are in control. A control freak will remain staunchly imbedded in his/her ways for no other reason than the need to be in control. Even if they are wrong and know they are wrong, their actions will often remain inflexible for the sake of saving face.

Always right (in their minds, at least).This is similar to being inflexible. In addition to always being right in their actions, they also feel a need to be always right in their reasoning and “logic.” To admit their thinking is wrong-headed would be tantamount to losing control. In other words, a control freak must be – in his or her mind – always right in reasoning and modes of operating, lest they lose their illusion of being in control.

Unwilling to listen. You can already see, I’m sure, how each of these markers builds on the others. A control freak will not listen to any voice of reason, no matter how convincing it may be or what level of authority behind the voice of reason. CFs are impervious to insight and will, most often, refuse to acknowledge their own fault.

Commanding. I have met very few CFs who seek input, suggestions, ideas or support from another person – even (or especially) other control freaks. They are focused solely on giving orders in attempts to look as though they know what they are talking about or doing. Often, CFs live by the dictum: Appearance is reality. That is, if they just look and sound authoritative, then others will jump on board and follow orders. Sadly, that is often the case. I have found it to be true that those who most easily bark orders and choose not to include others in decisions are among the ones about which to be most cautious.

Extremely insecure. For whatever reasons – lack of self-esteem, lack of love, the way he or she was raised, etc. –CFs over-compensate for their insecurity by making themselves feel better through control. They reason: “If I can control this person or this situation, I am a better person, a stronger person, a person others will respect.” The downside is that their control often does damage to others, leaving them feeling low self-worth, unimportant or ignorant. Sadly, the control freak does not care what his or her actions or words do to other people or to a ministry. They find it hard to say “I’m sorry” and “You are right.”

Fond of change for the sake of change. CFs often love change—and not in a good way. Frequently, a control freak will introduce or support change not because the change is good and helpful; but because it allows him or her more control. If confronted about the appropriateness of a change, the control freak will snap back “Oh, you just don’t like it because it’s different” or some such vaporous comment. But when examined closely, one can see that the change offered more control to the control freak, which makes him or her very happy, leaving them feeling even better about themselves.

Again, this list is not exhaustive; nor is it necessarily authoritative. It is simply my own experience. I hope it provides some flags for which to be on the lookout.

All of this begs the question of how to deal with CFs. I am certain there are many ways to effectively handle them that are constructive and fair, but firm. How do you deal with Control Freaks?

Christians and Pornography

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:55:00 GMT

By Teddy Ray

What are you consuming? If you profess Christ as Lord, does it impact the decisions you make about what you watch and read? I’ll be candid from the start here – I’m concerned that professing Christians are regularly making entertainment choices that should be absolutely off the table for them.

I was encouraged to see this post by JillAnn Meunier, a junior in college who decided not to read a book for class because of its graphic depictions of sex and violence.

But I’ve been far more often discouraged to hear of a number of professing Christians who have no problem taking in porn.

The book Fifty Shades of Grey has become the best-selling book of all time in Britain and is wildly popular in America. A lot of those sales are to church-going women. But the book is an erotic novel. People are calling it “mommy porn.”

In the last few years, have you watched any of these movies?

The Watch
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Cloud Atlas
The Hangover Part II
Sex and the City
Magic Mike
The Reader
Old School

All of these, at least judging from the raw descriptions of them, are exceedingly vulgar, erotic, and yes, pornographic. Yes, I’m sure I could have chosen others. I thought this was a good, representative sample. Judging by the descriptions of these movies on www.kids-in-mind.com, it’s hard for me to believe there’s a proper place for any of these movies in a Christian’s life.

The New Oxford American Dictionary says pornography is “printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.” By this definition, wouldn’t we say all of the movies listed above contain pornography?

Why are Christian women reading “mommy porn”? Why are proud church-goers (and even leaders in the church) watching pornographic movies without any qualms?

A few of the reasons I think people may give, and my responses…

“I’ve never even considered that there’s an issue with these.”

I’m sure this is true for several people. And that’s one of the reasons I write this. I hope you’ll consider it. You were created and called to be holy. And taking in profane things like this surely is detrimental to that, at best, and an outright rebellion against God’s intentions for you, at worst.

“It’s important for me to share things like this with friends – especially those who aren’t Christians. How can I ever share my faith with them if we have nothing to talk about?”

I get it. You may have truly pure intent behind this. But I just don’t buy it. How far will you go to build relationships so you can be relevant and share your faith? Going to strip clubs with them? Using illicit drugs? Where’s the line?

I wrote about this in “Relevance and Holiness.” I hope you’ll read it, too.

“Speaking of lines, how are you so sure this is where the line should be drawn?”

This may be the most common objection. Why am I drawing the line right here? Maybe for others, the line is just in a different place (e.g. anything that’s not in the “adult” section of the movie store is fair game).

But I’m not drawing the line here. Honestly, I think drawing lines is very difficult – a constant struggle for me. How do we ever decide where the line should be drawn? And yet, we all must draw a line somewhere. Otherwise, nothing would be off-limits.

What I’m suggesting is that all of the particular examples I’ve given here are well beyond the line. If you can acknowledge that something is pornographic, I think that’s enough to say a Christian just shouldn’t be involved with it. Yes, many moral decisions will be difficult, but I think these all pass beyond that.

“I disagree with your definition of pornographic, so this whole argument is null and void to me.”

Okay, you don’t like the dictionary definition I use above. You don’t think that’s what “porn” truly is. Porn is the stuff that gets an X-rating. We can quibble over the semantics, but I think we can agree that the things I’m mentioning are intended to stimulate erotic feelings. And whatever word we assign to those things, I don’t think we can call them godly.

Some may say, “No! The Reader uses these depictions artistically. And The Hangover uses them for humor.” I’ll get perhaps uncomfortably blunt here. Does this material sexually arouse you? I think that was a part of the intent. Don’t tell me the producers of The Hangover weren’t counting on excited young men being more motivated to buy a ticket because of those scenes. Don’t tell me Kate Winslet nude on-screen for the majority of a movie and having sex with a teenage boy is all just art. And even if it is, is it appropriate art? Should you be watching other people have sex? In most other contexts, we would call that person a pervert or a voyeur, right?

But Jesus says, “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them” (Mark 7:15).

Yes, I’m not focusing here on what comes out of a person – good deeds, outreach and witness. And those are greatly important! But are you really going to use this verse this way? Does this verse make it acceptable for you to consume anything you please? I’m just not buying it. Let’s consider 2 Corinthians 6:14-17:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers” is typically used in evangelical circles to tell Christians not to marry anyone who isn’t a Christian. I think the passage intends far more than this. “Come out from them and be separate. Touch no unclean thing.” I think this is telling us that we should expect Christians to touch and participate in markedly different things from the rest of our world. When we abstain from worldly things, can we still be relevant and still have a witness in the world? I sure hope so. If not, I hope we’ll choose to abstain anyway. See “Prophets and Pragmatism” for more on that.

“There are so many other things to consider in our reading and viewing choices. You’re focusing too much just on sexual issues.”

Yes, there are many other issues to address. They don’t make this particular issue any less of a problem, though. If you want to list other things we should consider abstaining from in addition to some of these, feel free. And if you want to say I’m focusing too much on what not to do rather than what to do, well, I think we need both.

The reason this is all upsetting me so right now… At the same time as I’ve seen a number of American Christians making entertainment choices no different from the rest of our world, I’ve been reading accounts of Christians in other parts of the world who were severely persecuted for things like refusing to work on the Sabbath. I’m disheartened at our level of commitment if we won’t abstain from some of these things at no real hardship to ourselves while others around the world are taking much bolder stands at risk of suffering and even death. Would those brothers and sisters around the world, who are persecuted for their faith, be shocked that we call ourselves Christians but can’t abstain from pornography because of our culture’s influence or our own desires?

I know I’m going to come off as a prude to some people. The word prude comes from the same root as prudence. And I suppose that’s what I’m asking for: a bit more prudence (and temperance) in our choices. If you disagree, help me understand what I’m missing.

The Walking Dead: A Story About Hope

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:44:00 GMT

By Josh Tinley

After a four-month hiatus AMC’s hit show The Walking Dead returned to television on February 10. The more than 10 million people who tuned into the midseason finale spent the holiday season eager to see what horrors and challenges will next face the show’s band of Atlanta-area survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

If you aren’t familiar with The Walking Dead, which is inspired by and draws many of its characters and storylines from the comic book of the same name, the series takes place in Georgia in the aftermath of an epidemic that has turned much of the population into animated corpses, known as “walkers” or “biters,” with an appetite for human flesh.

The story begins when Rick Grimes, a sheriff deputy in fictional King County, Georgia, is shot in the line of duty and slips into a coma during his stay at a local hospital. Grimes wakes, alone in the hospital, and emerges to find the outside world in disarray. He eventually finds his wife and son among a group of survivors—including mainstays Glenn, Andrea, and Daryl—and joins them on their ongoing quest for security and stability.

The Walking Dead is a story about zombies. It’s also a story about hope, something that the characters badly need but often have trouble finding.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Hope doesn’t fare well on The Walking Dead. The hope that the CDC will be able to develop a cure dies in a season-ending explosion. The hope that Fort Benning (an army post outside of Columbus, Georgia) will be a refuge disappears as the survivors realize that they will not be able to get there. The hope that loved ones who have turned into walkers will one day live normal lives again fizzles as the characters become more familiar with the epidemic. The hope that the zombie threat will ever be eliminated ends when the characters learn that every human has been infected and will turn into a walker shortly after his or her death.

Multiple characters on the show contemplate suicide. A couple even go through with it. The question, “Why not suicide?” comes up often. Each time it gets harder to answer. Any Walking Dead viewer who makes it through the first season will have a hard time imagining a happy ending for Rick Grimes and company. Instead of a grand, emotional M*A*S*H-style finale, one suspects that The Walking Dead will end when all of the primary characters are dead. (Ideally all of these primary characters will have been shot or stabbed in the head to prevent them from turning into walkers; but circumstances do not always allow for such luxuries.) The characters’ counterparts in The Walking Dead comic books have been dealing with the zombie outbreak since 2004 and haven’t seen any marked improvement to their situation.

Despite their bleak prospects, our protagonists do find hope and reasons to keep living. They find hope in the birth of a child, in a budding relationship, in a fortified prison, in an undiscovered reserve of food or medical supplies. Hope exists, even when despair is overwhelming.

Perhaps The Walking Dead’s zombie apocalypse is just an exaggeration of something we all experience. We know that we will die. And we know that, as we avoid death, the likelihood that we will fall into ill health or watch loved ones die increases. And for some people—such as those who struggle with debilitating ailments or food insecurity or who live amid war or famine—the stark reality of The Walking Dead isn’t that much of an exaggeration at all. Everyone loves a happy ending, but a happy ending is just the product of wrapping up a story before the protagonist faces another bout of grief, sadness, illness, or pain.

Yet, people find hope. We look forward to time spent with loved ones. We cherish new opportunities and experiences. We marvel at human spirit and ingenuity. We see beauty in the natural world. We find enough value in life to keep going, even in a world marred by sickness, violence, and death.

Christians look to a greater hope: hope that death doesn’t have the final say; hope that Jesus, by his resurrection, has defeated death, allowing us to live eternally with God. We have hope that God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, will redeem a broken world and make us whole.

Christians also have hope in the resurrection of the body, a belief we affirm every time we recite the Apostles’ Creed. This belief hits a snag in the world of The Walking Dead, where resurrection of another sort is afoot. But the resurrection bodies that we look forward to cannot be put down by a knife to the brain. We have faith that we will one day be resurrected into much more than an animated corpse. A walker will die again; a resurrected body will not.

As the third season of The Walking Dead moves forward, I’m curious to see where the characters find hope, even as the world they know decays and disintegrates.

Welcome Home!

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:42:00 GMT

By David Lowes Watson

For those of us privileged to be called into Christian discipleship there is a work of grace in our lives that transcends the heights and plumbs the depths of our being as we never thought possible. Not only are we forgiven all that separates us from God—past, present, future, and whether or not we are to blame. We are also reconciled to God in a new relationship that can best be described in two words: Welcome Home!

An Invitation Extended from the Cross

It was the purpose of Jesus' ministry to extend this invitation from God to the whole of the human race, and supremely from the cross. His sacrifice made clear how serious is the human predicament, and how lethal. No rationalization, no self-justification, could ever again disguise the awful reality of human sin. For those who represented us two thousand years ago, it may have been a matter of mistaken identity. For God, it was a matter of life and death.

Grace and Resistance

When we look at the cross and remember our own spiritual homecoming, we realize how much God was willing to risk, and continues to risk, to have us back home. God will always grant the freedom to accept this gracious invitation or refuse it, and since the basic nature of human sin is resistance to grace, God is graciously vulnerable to our repeated rejections, and often our abuse.

The Anguish of a Parental God

We can all recall what it is like to be rejected by anyone, even by a stranger. Much worse is the pain of rejection by a relative or a friend. If God is parental, as Jesus taught, we can only begin to imagine the divine anguish inflicted by this wayward human household throughout its history.

Think of it. Not only one prodigal, but countless millions of daughters and sons across the centuries who have lived their lives away from their true home, alienated from their true family, suffering from the ravages of human sin, and especially those who have been sinned against. How much grief and torment has this heaped on a God more loving and protective than any human mother, more trustworthy and honorable than any human father. At least, so Jesus would have us believe. Why else did he die on the cross?

The Joy of Surrender

This is what makes our surrender to God's grace, our acceptance of God's invitation to come home, such a joyous occasion. It is the relief of giving up on a pointless struggle, the lifting of an impossible burden. Never mind what we would like to do with our lives, the reality is that we are God's family, and we are now back home where we belong.

Empty Places

Even so, our joy remains guarded. We know that the homecoming celebration has not yet begun in earnest. There are still empty places at the table. There are sinners who still need to come to their senses. There are millions of God's family still without enough to eat. There are countless little ones of God still being sinned against with all the demonic ingenuity of a prodigal human race.

We must help Christ invite them home, dry their tears and heal their wounds. At least, so Jesus would have us do. Why else be his disciples?

3 Steps to Setting Achievable Goals

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:36:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

In a previous post, I talked about resolutions in a light-hearted manner. Many say they don’t make them, because they don’t work. The news media doesn’t help. Every year I see the same reports telling us how many people don’t keep the resolutions they make. No encouragement there. So, I shared some broad resolutions that are more life directions than actual resolutions.

I do know this, however. Seldom do we hit a target we haven’t yet identified or located. So, if you want to improve in certain areas of your life, you need some new direction to get you there. You’ll have to make some changes in what you are currently doing.

Call them goals if you want. That seems to be a more popular word these days, but decide a few areas in which you want to see improvement, then put some goals in place to help you get there. Making positive lifestyle changes isn’t easy, but it really does start with that simple of a process.

To help you get started, here are three guidelines I use for choosing achievable goals:

Quantifiable – Make sure you can make the goal measurable. Don’t say you want to lose weight. Decide how many pounds you want to lose. Don’t say you want to read more. Say you want to read one book a month…something like that. You want to read your Bible more? Then set a goal to read one chapter per day. Not…save more money…but save $50 per pay period…etc.

Reasonable – Set a goal you can actually attain. Otherwise you’ll give up easily. If saving $50 per pay period is completely unreasonable, then decide the reasonable number. It probably should be some stretch to make it worth celebrating later (which is a key component in goal setting), but make sure you can do it. Losing 10 pounds per week is going to be tough…perhaps even unhealthy…but two pounds per week…pretty much anyone can do that with a little discipline.

Motivated – Pick goals you are passionate enough about to put the energy and discipline in it to achieve success. Do you really want to lose weight? Do you truly want to do better with your finances? Is reading your Bible absolutely a goal worth pursuing? Your degree of motivation will likely determine how committed to achieving the goal you remain.

If you think through setting quantifiable, reasonable and motivated goals, and then you consistently practice them for a month, or two, or better yet three…you’ll be well on your way to successfully completing them. And, the satisfaction from that will be worth celebrating.

When Ash Wednesday Falls Before Valentine's

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:07:00 GMT

By Jessica Miller Kelley

Have you discussed your Valentine's plans with your sweetheart yet? You might want to be doing that soon, since that either-loved-or-reviled commericalized day of hearts and flowers and candy is coming up next week. For you liturgical nerds who are more likely to know the moveable date of Ash Wednesday than the fixed one of St. Valentine's Day, let me clue you in: it's February 14. As in, the day AFTER Ash Wednesday this year.

"Great! So we swear off chocolate and then the next day someone gives us a big box of Godivas!" I heard one person exclaim.

Indeed, the austerity of Lenten observances, which for many people include abstinence from indulgences like sweets, alcohol, or meat, seems to clash with the way we typically envision celebrating Valentine's Day, with romantic dinners of rich foods and wine, and heart-shaped gift boxes full of chocolates. What do we do when these observances coincide?

Easter is fairly early this year—March 31—so the ashen kickoff to Lent is, correspondingly, fairly early. The earliest Ash Wednesday can be is Feb. 4, which it was in 1573, 1668, 1761 and 1818 and will next be in 2285 (thank you, Wikipedia). It's not terribly uncommon for Ash Wednesday to fall in its earliest possible ten days. It has fallen somewhere between the 6th and the 13th recently in 2002, 2005, and 2008. It will again in 2016, and in 2018, it will fall precisely on the big V-Day.

I'm not meaning to imply that a secular holiday (based on a Catholic saint's day as it may be) is more important than the solemn observance of Ash Wednesday. (I've written numerous times about how it is, in fact, my favorite liturgical holiday.) But given that many couples—or at least one partner in that couple!—do like to celebrate Valentine's Day, here are a few options to consider when celebrating this year:

1. Celebrate Early

If you are a traditionalist, for whom the overlapping of these holidays is most likely to cause a problem, you may want to celebrate Valentine's early this year, going out this coming weekend, or on the day before Ash Wednesday, since that day—Fat Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras—is tailor-made for pre-Lenten indulgence. Christian cultures all over the world have various traditions for going all out before Lent, from the wild parties in New Orleans and Rio to the more reserved Protestant celebration of "Pancake Day." (If you don't booze it up under ordinary circumstances, syrupy-sweet breakfast foods are pretty indulgent in comparison :)

So go all out some night between now and next Wednesday. Enjoy the chocolates, order the bottle of wine and the prime rib—or take advantage of IHOP's annual National Pancake Day (Feb. 5 this year) to enjoy a free short stack and raise money for charity. The contrast will make the solemnity of Lent even more meaningful.

2. Keep It Simple

Valentine's doesn't have to be an elaborate affair. Celebrate your relationship with a sincere note of affection and appreciation. Begin a daily Lenten devotion as a couple, and give thanks for human love as you reflect together on the way of Christ. Far more than the superficial romatic sentiments usually associated with Valentine's Day, the self-giving life we are all called to live as Christians is truly indicative of the committed love we enjoy and celebrate. What a great way to begin Lent, by focusing first on our service to those closest to us, so that we can expand the circle over 40 days (and beyond) to more fully commit ourselves to service out in the world.

See some of the Lenten devotions in Ministry Matters' Lent studies bin.

3. Do For Others

If the purpose of a Valentine's date is to spend time together, why not go together to show love for others by serving dinner in a homeless shelter, or spend what you would have on a fancy dinner on groceries for a local food pantry. Take flowers to your doctor's office, kids' teachers, school secretary, nursing home residents, and other people who might go unappreciated. Buy flowers at a grocery store and give them to the clerk.

Especially for people who tend to "hate" Valentine's Day because it reminds them of a relationship they don't have, remind them they are special and loved nonetheless. Think of single people in your congregation (especially young women and teen girls), recently divorced or widowed persons, and others who might need cheering up. Send them a simple valentine to say "you're special, beautiful, and loved."

4. Embrace the Temptation

If you take Lenten fasting and abstinence seriously (i.e. not giving up chocolate for the sake of your waistline rather than your faith), consider a Valentine's Day that falls during Lent a sacrifice to be embraced. Decline the date to a fancy restaurant (or choose the vegetable plate and water over the Italian feast), and save the candy you receive to eat with your Cadbury eggs on Easter. (If you're really hard core, leave the box of chocolates on the counter as a reminder to pray.) Read about Jesus' time in the wilderness, and reflect on his sacrifices for us in life and death.

Here are a few articles about the meaning of Lenten fasting, to help you prepare.

Coincidences of the calendar are no cause for despair. Love is a blessing year-round, both the human love we enjoy and the divine love we receive and share with the world.

Why Sermon Preparation is Important

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:58:00 GMT

By Joseph Yoo

I was about half a year into my ﬁrst full-time ministry position. I was the Pastor of English Ministries at a Korean church in Aiea, HI. Our college worship service was at an awkward time at 4pm on Sundays. So Sundays were always long, and I was looking forward to going home, especially this particular Sunday because I knew the sermon I gave that day wasn’t my best. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort. It just didn’t seem to connect with anyone, including me. Something was missing. But I was too drained to ﬁgure out what it was.

I’ll go over it tomorrow, I thought as my wife and I got into our car. Before I could even put the key into the ignition, my wife looked over and asked, “What was that?”

“What do you mean?” I responded.

“The sermon. I mean, what was that? Today, not only did you waste my time, but you wasted God’s time.”

Ouch.

I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, I knew that it wasn’t my best, but I didn’t think I was wasting God’s time. I drove off in silence. It was good to know that I had someone in my life to keep me grounded and humbled.

At that particular time, her words shocked me. I'd never heard anyone say anything like that, let alone to me. It’s been years since my wife told me that (and I love to tell this story any chance I get). The shock has long subsided, but those words remain in my heart. Not in a hurtful manner or as a scar, mind you, but as a reminder. A reminder that the sermon is a very important part of the worship experience and it is a responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.

I’ve been through too many worship services where the sermons were, at best, an afterthought of the entire worship service. And I know how judgmental and critical that sounds. But it’s true. We’ve all experienced a bad sermon.

There are preachers who consistently preach bad sermons. And it's not because they're bad preachers—it's because of lack of preparation. I know pastors who consistently put off working on their sermons until the very last possible moment. Perhaps it is because they believe they work best under pressure, so they spend the week thinking that the Spirit is stewing a sermon within them. Maybe they know that preaching is not their strongest gift and the biggest source of stress in their week, so they wait until the last possible minute to work on it.

Whatever the reason, many of our sermons are probably not as good as they could be.

Sundays have become the most competitive time in our culture. Sports clubs and leagues happen on Sunday morning. Many people are exhausted, so Sundays have become their day for rest and sleeping in, and during the fall and winter, the NFL dominates Sundays. Unfortunately, churches now have stiff “competition” on Sundays that we never had before.

So we as pastors and church leaders need to strive for excellence every Sunday morning, giving all that we can. I’m not saying we need to be entertaining church folks, but it would be helpful if people come to church thinking, I wonder what the preacher’s going to say instead of, I hope the sermon’s real short, I've got tee time at one.

We have a wonderful opportunity (and a great responsibility) of presenting God’s Words. We have 15-50 minutes each Sunday (depending on your church) to inspire, teach, rebuke (with grace), challenge, train, to make people laugh and/or cry, to provoke thoughts, and to start conversations. And it’s a sin if we take that opportunity for granted and don't put effort, prayer, and study into our sermon crafting.

I’m not saying we need to hit home runs every Sunday—not even the best preachers do that—but we do need to be consistent. Consistently good.

We live in a culture where information is everywhere. If you struggle with preaching or you’re struggling with a passage or topic, Google it. Or browse through Ministry Matters. There are resources everywhere. Many people will disagree with this next thought, but if it comes down to it, use someone else’s sermon, because that’s better than giving one that's uninspired and ill-prepared.

Each Sunday morning is a unique opportunity for every preacher. So by and through God’s grace, let’s make the best of it.

Bringing the Age Groups Together

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 01:18:00 GMT

By Missy Buchanan

Not long ago I stood with my feet in the clear water of the Caribbean. It was a quiet morning as I lingered and listened to the natural rhythm of the waves that was interrupted only by an occasional boat passing in the distance.

From the corner of my eye, I could see a silver-haired couple wearing tropical cover-ups and hats. I noticed that they walked unevenly, most likely due to arthritic knees, I thought. The older man put his arm under the crook of the woman’s elbow and steadied her as they slowly strolled along the beach. At times, they paused to let the foam curl around their bare feet.

Though I couldn’t hear the conversation, I saw them stop to speak to a young couple as they passed by. The twenty-somethings had fit, tanned bodies and teeny swimsuits. They smiled as they greeted the older couple, then turned back to the water and jumped the turquoise waves. I imagined that they were honeymooners beginning a new journey in life. Not far away, a middle-aged grandmother reached down to brush the sand from her granddaughter’s legs while the grandfather slathered sunscreen on the arms of a toddler.

I reflected on the scene for a while. It was a snapshot of what I wish the church to be. What we are called to be. A place where people of all ages come together and plunge into the life-giving water.
With that image planted firmly in my mind, I watched people of all ages interact at the water’s edge over the next few days. There was an older man leaning on a cane who found joy in watching a preschooler hunt for seashells. A balding father who gently encouraged a self-conscious teenager to give sea kayaking a try. A young family who grabbed hands as they waded into the shallow water to snorkel.

I noticed how the some folks actively pursued water sports while others preferred to walk quietly on the beach. They had come from different backgrounds and had had different life experiences. Some were just beginning the journey of life. Others were nearing the end. But they had all come to the seashore to be refreshed and renewed.

I couldn’t help but think about the things that seem to cause a division between age groups in church. Things like upbringings and traditions. Theological understandings and social issues. Politics and perspectives on history.

Let’s face it. The church has also unintentionally promoted divisions between generations by overemphasizing age-related ministries. In trying to meet the specific needs of children, youth, adults and senior adults, we have created an aura of exclusivity among age groups. Unless we are intentional about efforts to bring the age groups together in ministry, the church will never be truly healthy.

Oh, how I wish that every church was a place where generations would stop and listen to each other and care for one another. It is my prayer that we all gather at the seashore and together stand in awe of the Creator.

Words and Skin

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:27:00 GMT

By Kasey Hitt

"Ok, I can't shake the incarnation..." a friend emailed me. Since receiving her simple email, I haven't been able to shake it either, even though Christmas is long gone! Rather than the season of God-coming-as-a-baby being celebrated and put away with the holiday, it continues to stick with me. Writes the apostle John in the very first chapter of the Biblical book bearing his name, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (1:14)

Sometime during January the past few years I have chosen a "word for the year" or it's more like I've let a word choose me! I invite many of the folks who come to me for spiritual direction to do the same. Here are some of the words that have been shared:

simplicity, vulnerability, possibility,
invitation, kindness, embrace,
beauty, trust, recognize, courage,
linger, patience, enjoy

At a silent retreat earlier this month, someone set up a Scrabble board and invited people to add a word if they'd like, here are a few that showed up over the weekend:

amend, restore,
peace, be, faith,
rest, create, love

What would happen if the above words "became flesh and made their dwelling among us?"

During church services this past month, I've heard my pastor talk about Paul's admonition to the Thessalonian church and so these words have been repeated from chapter 5:16-18 rejoice, pray, thanks. Imagine if our church communities allowed these words to become flesh and dwell among our cities and neighborhoods!

You know, Jesus never told people to worship him but he did tell them to follow him.
So in the spirit of following Jesus, what if we allowed our word, our little part of God to share with the world this year, to become flesh, yours and mine? Consider what your neighborhood, church, home, workplace (even you) would be like if you became your word. Now imagine if each person embodied the word given to them, imagine if only twelve people did, how might it change our inner and outer worlds? What might it be like to have lunch with embrace and restore, work next to rest and create, sit beside courage, shake hands with enjoy? What if words like peace, amend, kindness, thanks became living words?

Yes, I can't shake the incarnation, either, and that's probably on purpose for it seems that Christmas was not only a celebration but also an initiation, a beginning of something. I can't shake off the incarnation because I'm not supposed to, I'm to put it on! The Word has invited us to not only celebrate His becoming human but also to follow Him in allowing our word to become human, too.

By the way, it's never too late to choose a word for the year if this sounds of interest to you. Perhaps there is one that seems to always show up lately in reading and conversation or you might prayerfully ask God for a word and see what pops into your mind. It might be immediate or something you play with for a while until a word emerges and sticks. May the Word, who is the Author of all Words, offer to you the very word you need and the very word the world needs to experience through you this year.

Wondering About Young Families

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:06:11 GMT

By Jacob Armstrong

A 2010 study found that the median age of United Methodists was 57. The median age of those in the United States hovers around 35. This glaring discrepancy has caused a well-founded sense of panic or at least disappointment in the United Methodist Church (most other denominations claim similar incongruities between church age and population age). For some the panic/disappointment is connected to a fear that our institution will cease to exist. For many, though, the emotions connected to this data and the desire to do something about it has more to do with the mission of the church. Our hearts break when we realize we are failing as a church to reach young and younger people and connect them with Jesus.

I am a pastor whose age is less than the United States median and who has 4 other people living in my home who fit that criterion too. The church I serve is a 4-year-old church who has many others below the age of 35 as well (and many above it too!). I want to share some practical advice for churches that might be interested in reaching young parents and young children. I do not share this advice, though, from my experience as pastor of a church with young people. I share it from the experience gained from one weekend when I had the opportunity to take my 3 young daughters to church.

I was taking the Sunday “off”. My family was excited because it was one of those rare Sundays when dad/husband would be home on Sunday morning. The Saturday before my wife asked me where we would be worshipping on Sunday morning. I wondered, “How many of the families that visit my church for the first time begin thinking about it within the 24 hours before?”

Where else would I turn but the internet? I began looking at websites of churches in our area that we might be interested in visiting. I was struck by how many had out dated material on their site. I also noticed how difficult it was to simply find the worship times for Sunday mornings. What I wanted to know, though, was more than the worship time, and even more than the Church’s stated vision or mission (which can be found easily on most sites). What I wanted to know is what my children could expect. The church we chose to visit gave a simple outline of what we could expect to find for our children when we walked in the door, and their presentation of the material made me at least feel like they had welcomed a young family before. We chose the 9am service because our kids get up early. My wife asked me what time we would need to leave and I said 8:30…I didn’t want to be late for church.

Now remember, most Sunday mornings I am out the door before the sun rises. When I woke up Sunday on my day “off” I had plenty of time to sit at the breakfast table and relax. There was a part of my heart that longed for church, a part of my heart that longed to worship. I wondered how many of the folks that attend my church feel that same longing on Sunday morning. Another part of my heart longed for coffee. I didn’t want to move. My kitchen was tranquil, quiet, and all the movement of my week seemed to come to a place of rest early that Sunday morning. I began to consider spending my entire day sitting in that one place looking at my backyard trees and doing nothing. I wondered how many of the folks that attend my church consider that it might be more faithful to sit still at the kitchen table rather than come to church.

At 8:30 we were not ready to go. We were not dressed and we were not in a good mood. We rushed to get everyone’s shoes and coats on and left at 8:44. When we got in the car there was a tangible feeling of tension in the air. Because of our rush it felt as if we were angry at each other. I wondered how many young families that come to my church feel tension as they approach our Church on Sunday morning.

We arrived to the church a couple minutes after 9. The church had someone greet us at the front door and lead us to where our 3 children would go. They had an easy sign in procedure and a safe way of checking our children in. We put our 3rd and 1st grader in their respective rooms. I carried our two year old into the toddler room. I set her down. She screamed. I picked her up and she stopped. I set her down and she screamed again. I began to sweat. I apologized to the teacher and carried my daughter out. My wife and I walked into a darkened sanctuary carrying a crying 2 year old at 9:14am. We had missed most of the music. We found a seat; I sat down and began to relax. Even with all the rushing and tardiness I was glad I was there. I looked over at my wife and realized she has done this alone for 8 years now. I wondered how many single parents come to my church each week and experience all the things I experienced that morning alone.

The sermon was good, really good. Yet, I often thought about my girls in those rooms they had never been in, with adults they had never met, and children they had never played with. I bet I paid attention to 60 percent of the sermon. I wondered what percent of the sermons I preach people are able to pay attention to.

After the service as I walked my young family back to our car, I was really glad that we had come to church. We felt better. The sense of tension among us was gone. We felt happy and thankful that we had worshipped together. It was worth the struggle.

A few things to think about if you are at a church that wants to reach people under the age of 35 in America in 2013.

Make sure your website has the information that a young family needs to know before they bring and then entrust their children to your care. If you can’t prove that to them on the website, chances are they will stay home.
Understand that the spiritual forces of evil want the discrepancy between church age and population age to grow larger. Know that it is hard to get young children to church. Think about what you can do to make that easier for young families from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave. Think about what you can do to make it easier for single parents, and more accessible for parents with children of special needs.
Make sure parents find a safe environment for their children. What procedure do you use for check in? For notifying a parent of a crying child? For ensuring the safety of all children? If you aren’t thinking about these things parents will know it. They won’t leave their kids, they won’t bring them back, or at best they’ll be thinking about it during your sermon.
Remember that there is a deep longing within parents of young children to connect with God and for their kids to connect with God. This is a critical time for the parents and the children. Let’s do everything we can to create a place for them to connect with God.

When Churches Compete, Everyone Wins

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:56:11 GMT

By Shane Raynor

If your church wants to be better, maybe it should start competing with other churches.

Judging from the reactions I get from some church people after I say that, you’d think I’d suggested adding Justin Bieber to the Holy Trinity.

Some of us have become afraid of the word competition. We think the concept is worldly, even evil. But competition doesn’t need to be a bad thing. At its best, competition can make everyone stronger.

In the church world, fear of competition comes largely from a misconception commonly heard in economics discussions. Some of us think that the number of potential church members in a community make up a pie and that the size of that pie is fixed. Each church gets a piece of that pie, and the only way to get a bigger piece is to take pie from the other churches.

This simply isn’t so. Here’s why.

In the business world, if a product has reached market saturation, then the pie analogy starts to have some validity. Theoretically, once there are no new customers for a particular type of product, competing vendors are forced to go after each other’s customers to increase their market share.

But Christianity is nowhere near market saturation, so churches don’t need to compete for the same people. The reality of course is that a congregation that is effective at attracting the unchurched is also going to occasionally steal a few sheep from the church down the street. This is normal and it need not be taken personally. There’s a big difference between directly targeting another church’s members and attracting them while trying to reach a different group. Remember, people in the pews often have the same hang-ups about church as the ones who aren’t already part of a congregation—they just haven’t figured out how to escape yet. There’s no way to attract one group without appealing to the other.

So what’s the point of competing if it isn’t to destroy the competition? Well, for one, to raise the bar and improve everyone’s game. Competition can be friendly. Consider one-on-one basketball. Although you want to win every time you play, if you have half a brain you also want your friend’s game to improve as well. Why? Because that pushes you to continue raise the level of your game.

Playing against scrubs is good for your ego, but it won’t make you a better basketball player.

Remember, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17). Congregations sharpen each other too. As long as there aren’t any serious alternatives to your church, you can get away with sparse ministry offerings, mediocre sermons, and subpar music—for a season. But when NewChurchPlant.tv comes to town with top notch everything, sooner or later it’s going to hit you that the playing field has changed. Actually it was changing all along—the competing church just made it obvious.

There are at least a couple of strategies churches can use as they pursue friendly competition with other congregations. One is the “do it better than the other church” strategy. If the other church’s pastor has great sermons, your sermons will be masterpieces. If their band is really good, yours will be better, and so on. Another strategy is to do what the other church isn’t doing. No congregation can be all things to all people. No matter how successful a church is at reaching the masses, there are always going to be opportunities for other congregations to reach different souls. Some people don’t like rock worship bands. Others don’t like lectionary preaching. Some don’t care for small groups. Others aren’t keen on Sunday School. Every church with strengths also has a few weaknesses. You can capitalize on those weaknesses by making them your church’s strengths.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul writes, “Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win.” (CEB) The next verse tells us, “The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies.” In this passage the Christian life is compared and contrasted with an actual footrace. Our prize is not temporary, it’s eternal. And it’s not finite, it’s infinite. The paradox is, although there’s more than enough of a crown to go around, we’re still supposed to run to win. And since we’re all in the same race, we’re competing with each other, even though we’re ultimately on the same team. Perhaps God is pleased when we try to outdo one another—but in a holy way.

Church is like that too—we’re all working together for the same kingdom, but we’re doing it in competition so we can push the entire body of Christ toward excellence.

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The Gospel of Mark Driscoll

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:29:57 GMT

By Clay Morgan

So Mark Driscoll, right? Eh.

I’ve never been the blogger who jumps on every controversy du jour with a quick take that will get easy traffic. After watching the Driscollversies roll like choking waves week after week lately I might as well offer my take.

Driscoll is a controversial preacher from Mars Hill which is a church in Seattle and not a different planet. He’s often angry and/or saying offensive things. A quick Google search should explain what I mean. I know people who like Driscoll and those who loathe him. Kristen from Rage Against the Minivan recently did a good job describing how @PastorMark has brought a certain Howard Stern style to the pulpit.

Now we can move onto his most recent muck-up. Here’s what the mad chatter said during President Obama’s inauguration:

Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.
— Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark) January 21, 2013

What a guy. In a TOTALLY unrelated note can you believe that some people think Christians are arrogant and judgmental? Where could they possibly get this stuff?

“I can too put my hand on the Bible.”
“Yeah, the Bible for LIARS.”

Here’s what I’m NOT going to do. I’m not going turn the beat around on Driscoll and spit venom back at him. One, that’s not the gracious thing to do. Two, he’s already giving opponents of Christianity enough ammunition without me jumping off the top rope, elbow of justice poised, into the ring of Christian infighting. Although, confession time, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t chuckle at some of these reviews of Driscoll’s new book. Yes, I know that ultimately it’s a sad commentary and stuff, but he kind of asked for it.

Responses to Driscoll’s Inauguration tweet were fiery and explosive. You know we’re living in strange time indeed when one of the best replies comes from, *checks notes, wait that can’t be right*, Alyssa Milano? (Insert Who’s The Boss pun here.)

@pastormark Your last tweet is not very Christian of you. Shouldn't you be inspiring people to love and have compassion and respect?
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 21, 2013

It’s tough to respond in a measured way sometimes (although I recommend this take from Lore at A Deeper Church as well as this one from Christian Piatt). It’s difficult to not rage a little when a high profile pastor feels like he can tell the world exactly what our president believes. Glad to hear Driscoll knows what’s in every man’s heart.

‘But wait Clay, do you really think Obama is a Christian?’ I’m sorry if that question comes to your mind. Here’s a quick rundown on some of the Greatest Hits of Jesus:

Love God with everything you’ve got.
Love others exactly as you want to be loved.
Go tell people everywhere that God loves them and they need Jesus.
Don’t judge people.

Not only are we not supposed to judge what’s in the hearts of others, we are explicitly told NOT to do that. Now, I don’t want to get worked up here so let’s anagram. It helps me relax.

Mark Driscoll=I’m Dark Scroll, Kill Mars Cord, and my personal favorite Mad Rick Rolls.

Okay, now I feel better. Stress gone.

So this is the point where some people say, “Well, what are we supposed to do, ignore the evil ways of everyone? Somebody has to speak up! We expected to never stand up when Obama/people…?”

Here’s the way I see it, and no, I don’t pretend to have it all figured out.

1. The Bible says to respect government leaders and always remember that God is in control (check out Romans 13). New Testament peeps didn’t defy the rulers unless they were told to renounce their faith. Far as I can tell, no one is forcing us to renounce our faith.

2. We’re also supposed to take the plank out of our own eye instead of throwing handfuls of saw dust into our neighbor’s eyes. While Driscoll is saying the president is a liar who doesn’t believe in the faith he professes, many people are looking at Driscoll asking why he says and does the things he does while professing the same faith.

3. And what about Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as we love ourselves? Does Driscoll or any of us like being judged? Should we ask Driscoll if he really believes these things he’s saying then what about the part of speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)? It’s okay to disagree with behavior that God calls wrong, necessary even if you want to be more specific, but we seem incapable of criticizing ideas without attacking others.

I don’t know, maybe Driscoll is tapped into some God line I never read about in the Bible. He seems to have his own gospel anchored in a style that Christianity needs to escape because it’s not always very good news. It’s hard enough to represent Jesus well when we don’t fill up at the pride pump every day on our commute to life. Humility is as closely related to truth as love is. We do well to ensure those virtues are in our own hearts rather than examining the hearts of others.

This post originally appeared on Clay Morgan's blog.

Saeed Abedini, Religious Freedom, and President Obama

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:01:58 GMT

By Shane Raynor

Last Friday during a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney read a statement of “deep concern” over the detainment of U.S. pastor Saeed Abedini in Iran. The White House joined the State Department condemning Iran for its “continued violation of the universal right of freedom of religion.”

The question about Abedini was the last one of the 45 minute briefing, and Carney took only a couple of minutes to answer it, so this certainly wasn’t at the top of the press’s agenda for the day. Still, for Christians concerned about the sparse media coverage of religious persecution, it was a hopeful sign.

The universal right of freedom of religion. We know our country believes in it, but it sure is nice to hear it officially from the White House. And considering the amount of support the current administration gives to so-called “rights” that aren’t explicitly in the U.S. constitution (e.g. abortion and universal health care), Jay Carney invoking a freedom that’s actually in the Bill of Rights was a refreshing throwback to a time when our nation seemed much less divided than it is now.

It’s much easier to condemn human rights violations when it’s our enemies who are doing the violating, but we’ve not been as good at calling out our allies in the Middle East who regularly do the same thing. In Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for example, Muslims who convert to Christianity face harsh prison sentences, and in some cases, death. Earlier this month, an Egyptian woman and her seven children were sentenced to 15 years in prison for converting to Christianity. But we don’t hear much about this from our government or from the news media. And this virtual silence on the issue didn’t start during the Obama administration—it goes back at least to the George H.W. Bush administration and before.

The Saeed Abedini case is more significant than most because Abedini is an American citizen. He converted to Christianity from Islam 13 years ago in Iran, and he and his wife became active in the underground house church movement there. They moved to the U.S. in 2005 to escape persecution, but Abedini returned to Iran in 2009 to visit family and was arrested. He was released when he agreed to end his involvement with the house church movement. Abedini became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and last year he returned to Iran to visit his family and to help build an orphanage. He was arrested in September and has been incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison since then. On Sunday he was sentenced to eight years in prison for allegedly threatening Iran’s national security through his involvement with the house church movement.

With this case, President Obama has a huge opportunity to build trust with some of the Christians who didn’t support his reelection bid in November. It’s no secret that the president is viewed with suspicion by many in the community of faith—his views on abortion are at odds with the views of most evangelicals, and the announcement last year of his support for same-sex marriage intensified the distrust. It also arguably dampened the enthusiasm of some of the president’s own Christian base. Add to that the recent conflicts between the administration and religious organizations over health care, and it becomes clear that President Obama could stand to improve his image within the Christian community.

But what could the White House do to go beyond the statement of concern we heard about last Friday? Well, the United States doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Iran, but the president could use his bully pulpit and the worldwide influence of the United States government to put pressure on the Iranian government to release Pastor Abedini. But this is even bigger than Abedini. He's the current face of religious persecution, but people are harassed for their faith every day in many parts the world. A few speeches from prominent American politicians would help shine a much-needed spotlight on the issue of religious freedom and persecution. President Obama stands to gain a lot with very little risk. Frankly I can’t understand why he’s not running with this issue.

I suspect that if Saeed Abedini were a mainline pastor trying to establish a family planning clinic in Iran (rather than an independent evangelical building an orphanage) his current situation would be getting a lot more press coverage. But whether or not that’s the case, I’m grateful for the fact that we’ve heard as much about him as we have. Many others around the world are in similar situations and we’ve never even heard their names.

Please remember this courageous pastor and his family in your prayers.

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Gun Control: A Biblical and Theological Case

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:32:14 GMT

By Matthew L. Kelley

The issue of gun control in the United States is once again at the forefront of our national conversation due to last month’s school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut—one of many similar incidents whose frequency is on the rise.

A lot of people are giving passionate and articulate cases for their particular position, and as I am neither a constitutional scholar nor an expert on firearms or public safety, I will leave those arguments to those that speak on them with authority.

I do, however, believe that the church has a significant role to play in this conversation, and I believe that the biblical witness and our theological heritage give us reason to support restrictions on firearms such as those currently being debated by the President and Congress.

I do not cite these scriptures as “proof-texts,” nor do I claim that this is the only understanding one has to arrive at to be a true follower of Jesus. I also want to state at the beginning that while I am not a gun owner, I support the rights of people to possess firearms in their home for protection and for use in hunting or other recreation.

With those disclaimers out of the way, here is what I believe to be a biblical and theological case for gun control: I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful.

I have the freedom to do anything, but I won’t be controlled by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12

Everything is permitted, but everything isn’t beneficial. Everything is permitted, but everything doesn’t build others up. 1 Corinthians 10:23

Twice in his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul talks about the intersection of freedom and responsibility. Long before Enlightenment philosophers spoke about the autonomy of the individual, St. Paul recognized that while a person has the freedom to do whatever they want, not everything is necessarily a good idea. This is particularly true if one is in a covenant relationship with others.

Paul’s immediate context in making these statements is sexual behavior and eating meat sacrificed to idols, respectively, but he is also talking about a broad approach to one’s life.

I can go where I want, when I want, spend every cent in my bank account and pick up a lady for a one night stand. But if I want to stay married to my wife and be a part of my children’s lives, I’m going to choose not to do those things. They trust that I’m going to be responsible with our shared resources. They trust that I’m going to live by the values that we as a family have agreed on. I choose to be faithful to this covenant because that web of relationships is more important to me than acting on every impulse I might have.

I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful.

I have the right to buy a plane ticket and fly wherever I want without anyone asking why or wanting to see what’s in my luggage. I’ve never done anything that would make anyone suspect I had intentions to harm my fellow passengers or anyone else. But I take off my shoes and put my laptop in a separate bin in the security line, go through a metal detector or full-body scanner, and accept that someone from the TSA might mess up my nice, neat stack of undershirts. I gladly accept this because I value the safety of the general public more than I dislike the few minutes of inconvenience this causes me, even though I have done nothing to warrant such screenings.

I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful.

I have the right to buy a gun, and I have done nothing to suggest any ill intentions. But I consent to a background check because I value keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people more than I dislike having to wait a few days to complete my purchase. I have the right to buy an AR-15 assault rifle and hunt deer with it, but I choose to use a lower powered rifle with a smaller clip of ammunition because I value lowering the chance of someone walking into my children’s school and killing several dozen kids in a matter of seconds more than I value my right to squeeze off a hundred rounds a minute and feel like Rambo.

I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful.

At the core of many of the arguments opposing any gun control measures is the concept of “freedom.” I put that in quotes because it’s a word that means different things to different people. Some define freedom as “doing whatever I want whenever I want,” which I have just argued is not helpful for those who wish to be in covenant relationships with others.

The question becomes, is there a better definition of freedom? Christian theological tradition would say and emphatic “yes”.

Jürgen Moltmann sees the true definition of freedom in the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity. This relationship is summed up in the term perichoresis, which means mutual interdependence and indwelling. Moltmann sees God’s Trinitarian life as a model for human relationships of loving community: true freedom.

I am free and feel myself to be truly free when I am respected and recognized by others and when I for my part respect and recognize them. I become truly free when I open my life for other people and share with them, and when other people open their lives for me and share them with me. Then the other person is no longer the limitation of my freedom; he is the expansion of it. In mutual participation in life, individual people become free beyond the limits of their individuality, and discover the common room for living which their freedom offers. That is the social side of freedom. (The Trinity and the Kingdom, p. 216)

I willingly give others the space to feel free by agreeing to place a formal societal limitation on my “right” to own an assault weapon because, though I will not walk into a school and start shooting, other mentally disturbed people might. So for the good of the whole, I agree to a legal prohibition of certain guns and ammunition clips. This is the same reason I agree to speed limits, seat belt laws, and blood alcohol limits in the use of my car. This is the same reason I agree to only being able to purchase small amounts of certain cold medicines, so as to help stop the spread of meth.

We are not so naive as to believe that all of our fellow citizens will go along with these societal agreements. That is why we elect representatives who will pass laws to enforce these agreements for the good of the whole.

We do not naively assume such laws will guarantee there will never be another school shooting, any more than we assume there will never be another drunk driver or that meth labs will suddenly disappear. We do believe that such actions will reduce such incidences enough to help us be safer and closer to that true freedom whose full realization is yet to come.

I believe that this is a solid biblical and theological case for gun control laws. May we all open ourselves to the possibility of limiting certain individual liberties for the greater good and progress towards our true, God-given freedom.

Jealousy, Gifts and the Body of Christ

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:03:00 GMT

By Whitney Simpson

Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. Certainly the body isn’t one part but many.
(1 Corinthians 12:12-14 CEB)

These words from Paul always give me comfort. I recently read an article online about women and how we often envy one another and become jealous of the success of even our closest friends. It is so easy to look at other women’s life situations and feel that our life doesn’t measure up to another's sense of style, skills in baking, or ability to craft. It may seem that everyone else has a more successful career, is a regular at the gym, bears more children, has more quiet time, volunteers for great causes and cares well for her aging parents. It is often easier to look at other women and compare our own shortcomings to their gifts and strengths rather than to identify and celebrate our own personal gifts and strengths.

Paul reminds us in scripture that we are the many parts that make up our faith community and continues on to identify some of those spiritual gifts. You may not be employed by a church or be a missionary by trade, but you indeed have a ministry and your gifts and strengths are part of your ministry. Take an inventory; listen to what people admire about you, pay attention to what you enjoy, and simply embrace the gifts God has given you today.

Thank goodness we all have different gifts and strengths. Let’s celebrate fulfilling God’s calling that we be not only his hands and feet but also his eyes and ears. Let’s break the mold and find value in raising one another up and celebrating our individual gifts and strengths rather than becoming envious of the calling and ministry of others. Are you in?

What are your gifts and how do you use those for your faith community? The body of Christ is not complete without you!

Everything Has Changed

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:11:27 GMT

By Melissa Slocum

Many people across the country uttered the words above after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed the lives of twenty children and six adults. Never before had so many, so young been taken from their families in a school that had security measures in place. As those who lost loved ones lived through the shock and grief, unable to comprehend the scope of all that had occurred, the country also struggled with the questions that follow any tragedy of this magnitude: “Why?” and “How?” Images of the grieving parents moved parents everywhere to hold their children closer and to seek comfort and certainty anywhere they could ﬁnd it—through their faith, clergy, family, friends, churches, and the Scriptures.

In the days following, it was as if the wind had been kicked out of our nation and few people knew what to say or do. Discussions about gun control were rampant: Should we enforce greater restrictions on guns? Should we ban ﬁrearms altogether? Is increased security at schools the answer, or even feasible? The topic of mental health also surfaced: How can we improve access to mental health services to prevent future tragedies? At the same time pundits tried to assign blame other factors, including violent videogames, television shows, and movies.

The Question of Violence

Now, over a month later, has anything truly changed? Every day, in cities, towns, and rural areas throughout the United States, people are killed in violent ways. While it seems as though violence is increasing, the FBI’s October “2011 Crime Statistics” report that in 2011 the number of violent crimes declined for the ﬁfth consecutive year. Still, there were more than 1,200,000 violent crimes. That’s almost 3,300 per day.

One tough question for many Christians is: “How can a loving God allow such violence to continue?” A better question (and perhaps the question that God asks us) is: “How can we allow such violence to continue?”

God grants us free will. And while there is no shortage of examples of humans using that freedom to serve God and others, we also have often used our free will in sinful ways, bringing evil, violence, suffering, and death to our world. Though all of us have “sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23), we are accountable for our actions and we don’t have to let sin deﬁne us. As Christians we are called to follow Christ’s example. This means, among other things, not advocating violence and standing with those who are victims of violence.

The Answer of Love

We do not understand why some people choose evil over good. We can react to violence with anger and point ﬁngers at all the things that are wrong with our society; but that will not change anything. In a letter to believers in the Greek city of Corinth Paul wrote, “Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:12b-13, NRSV). We do not know and we cannot know anything fully while we are on this earth, but we can hold onto and live as people of love, faith, and hope.

Shortly after the Newtown tragedy a movement began on Twitter called #26ActsofKindness. Individuals have tweeted 26 acts of kindness, one for each person killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, encouraging others to do the same, paying it forward. We can respond to the fact that everything has changed in our world by changing ourselves, taking responsibility for our sins and seeking repentance, God’s forgiveness, and guidance. We can be a positive presence in other peoples’ lives, offering love, faith, and hope to those who are alone, bullied, ignored, or who suffer or grieve. Responding to violence with love and compassion spreads the light of God’s grace and changes everything.

This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.

Three Words to Encourage Fallen Pastors

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:58:00 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

In the past few years, as a pastor and through my blog, I have had the occasion to minister to some very broken people. Many of those have been pastors or ministers who once had thriving work they were doing for God, but, whether by a personal failure or through circumstances beyond their control, they are no longer serving.

It breaks my heart.

One resource I saw recently showed that 1,500 pastors leave the ministry each month in America. Startling.

I want to help some of those think through a process of restoration. I don’t mean to oversimplify a very difficult situation, but often if people can think in terms of a process they can more easily plan their steps. That’s my goal in this post.

Here are three words of encouragement to a fallen pastor or minister:

Recover – Seek forgiveness. Offer forgiveness where needed. Make things right as much as you can with people you have injured. Now is the time to do the right thing. What you do in this step will often determine the degree to which you can be restored.

Also in this step, most important is that you recover in your relationship with God. Ultimately, He is the One you are seeking to please. You can’t earn His love or re-earn His love, but if fellowship has been broken, confess your sins to the One who is faithful to cleanse. Fall on your knees in surrender once again.

Rebuild – Get counseling. This is usually paid counseling and it will be worth the investment. There are ministries that offer this, and there are those who will fund this, but just as you wouldn’t look for free medical help from a medical doctor, don’t neglect this step even if it isn’t free. It’s necessary in almost every case where disruption in ministry has occurred at a level where you had to resign.

Also important, find a few men (or women if you’re female) who you can trust and who can build into your life, hold you accountable and help you find focus again. Give them freedom to walk with you daily and speak into your life for the months to come, even after you return to ministry.

Rebirth – Accept grace. Launch again. It may or may not be into a ministry such as you left, but if God called you to follow Him with your life, I don’t see examples in Scripture of Him releasing that call. I see where you can reject Him and refuse to follow, but His grasp on you is firm until the end. I don’t agree with those who would say you’re forever barred from serving anywhere. (I’m sure those legalist will struggle with this post.) Where’s the grace in that? It’s certainly not amazing grace.

Don’t rush it. Make sure you are healthy enough. Follow the steps above first, but at some point you’ll need to turn from where you were and start again. There is still much unfinished Kingdom business to be done.

Be helpful to those who may need this post.

What else would you advise?

Quick Links for Lent

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:45:00 GMT

By Ministry Matters

Ministry Matters has lots of bins to make planning for Lent and Easter easier for you. Share the links with your worship planning team or small group leaders.

If you've never celebrated Lent the links below include articles that will explain the season to you. We hope you find them inspiring and helpful.

Shrove Tuesday (see also Pretzel Sunday)
Ash Wednesday
Lent
Palm/Passion Sunday
Maundy/Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday
Easter
Quick Links for Lent with Children (for parents and volunteers in children's ministries)

[Note: content for all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary is included in the bins which will provide more content for planning for those who don't use the lectionary. An online version of the RCL is located in the Ministry Matters Library, additional lectionary content will also be added to our This Sunday bin.]

Namesake

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:54:21 GMT

By Jessica LaGrone

In the classroom I answered to the name of Jessica, but as soon as we hit the playground for recess I had an alter ego, a code name. I was Crystal.

The playground was a place of transformation. We each took on new identities in our pretend games, telling our friends to call us by new names we imagined to be more adventurous-sounding than our own. As Crystal I was beautiful and super strong. I had long, flowing hair (in reality I sported a bowl cut for most of elementary school) and a pretend karate chop that was fierce. I could entertain at the most elegant tea party or run after bad guys and beat them up, just like in Charlie’s Angels.

The picture of whom I wanted so badly to be was vastly different from the little girl who always sat in the front row with the other short kids in class pictures. But calling myself by a different name produced a picture in my head that made me feel as strong and beautiful as I imagined.

The identity I created was an imaginary one. But what if there really is a new name, a new identity, for each of us—one that has been dreamed up in the mind of God? What if your future isn’t determined just by your best dream for yourself? What if you are becoming God’s best dream for you—a dream that, according to Ephesians 3:20, is far better than all we can ask or even imagine? My imaginings and dreams for my life have changed and grown with the years beyond my playground dreams, and I’ll bet yours have too. If we can dream big dreams for ourselves, imagine how great God’s dreams for us must be!

Divided Country, Divided Church

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:46:44 GMT

By Shane Raynor

Monday morning before President Obama was sworn in, Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, sent the following tweet: “Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.”

Shaun King, founder and CEO of HopeMob and former pastor of Courageous Church, called out Driscoll on Twitter using some not-so-charitable words, but he later apologized for losing his cool and using inappropriate language. Shaun, however, maintained his conviction that Driscoll was out of line sending the tweet in the first place, as were the 3,200+ people who retweeted the sentiment. Shaun eventually showed humility, but to my knowledge, Driscoll still hasn’t apologized for what he said.

Tuesday morning, Adam Hamilton, pastor of Church of the Resurrection near Kansas City, gave a moving sermon at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service calling on President Obama to cast a vision that would unify the country. He also cited ways his own congregation has bridged the partisan divide within their own church in order to serve their community. During the sermon, Adam seemed to come across as a voice of reason to the nation, and I even got a real sense that his words were edifying the president.

The question is, how did we get to the point where so many Christians seem to be making politics a test of orthodoxy? What happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt? Why would a prominent pastor publicly question the faith of the President of the United States—and on Twitter of all places? I’m not saying we shouldn’t hold our leaders to a high standard—especially the ones who claim the name of Jesus Christ—but isn’t doing it on a social network under the guise of offering prayer way too cynical?

I’m no fan of some of President Obama’s policies, but his predecessor and I didn’t see eye to eye on everything either. I watched for eight years as George W. Bush’s political opponents, even some of the Christian ones, vilified him mercilessly. President Bush could do nothing right in their eyes, and I heard many Christians question his faith over the course of his presidency. When President Obama was elected four years ago, I had hopes that he might be treated differently. Oh, I knew the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world wouldn’t show him any mercy, but I expected the average, garden variety conservative evangelical to do better.

I was wrong. It hasn’t happened. There have been some glimmers of hope, like this one, but they’ve been few and far between. Not only does it seem like we’ve become two Americas, we’ve become two churches as well— not because of theology, but because of politics. How sad is that?

But the President is pro-choice, you say.

I hear you. That’s one of the issues where I sharply disagree with him. But think about it—aren’t we more likely to do more to reduce the number of abortions if we work together in those areas where we do agree? What good is defending the purity of our pro-life stance by refusing to associate with anyone who doesn’t see things our way? There’s a lot of talk in church circles these days about numbers and accountability. At the end of the day, do you think God is going to hold us more accountable for the unborn babies we could have saved or for remaining rigid in both our position and our methodology?

So I have a challenge for believers of every political persuasion. Stop assuming the worst about others. If someone claims Christ as their Savior, extend them the same benefit of the doubt that you’d want extended to you. And when a fellow believer holds a view that you find absolutely abhorrent, instead of grandstanding or taking your ball and going home, address the disagreement together as both friends and brothers or sisters in Christ. And pray for all of your political leaders, including the President—not in a condescending way, but with humility.

On Monday, after reading Mark Driscoll’s tweet and Shaun King’s reaction to it, I tweeted this: “Tired of political division between Christians. Aren't the body & blood of Christ more powerful than allegiance to political parties?”

The answer to that question is yes. And Christians have an opportunity over the next four years to set an example for the nation by coming together to do God’s work. We don’t have to like each other’s politics, but we do have to love and respect each other. It's one of the responsibilities that comes with being part of God's family.

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You Are Famous

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:55:00 GMT

By Whitney Simpson

Recently, I completed a psychiatric evaluation for a professional certification I am pursuing. The day consisted of three exams including multiple choice and fill in the blank questions. The rumor prior to entering the test was that if you weren't insane before starting you would be before you finished! It was a long and tiring test day. After completing over 500 bubble in questions with a #2 pencil, I felt a bit drained but continued to the written questions with only a short break. One of the questions was to name three famous people (no religious leaders allowed) and then list what qualities you admire and desire about each person. In that moment, I began to think of famous people as the question asked. But, I could not think of a single famous woman who was not a religious leader. Mother Teresa was the only famous woman that would come to mind (and I'm pretty sure she counts as a religious leader). Being the independent and equality focused woman that I am, I was really frustrated with myself and refused to list all of my answers as men. So, I sat there and stared at my paper. I instantly thought of many men of varying degrees of fame including Abraham Lincoln, Louis Zamperini, Martin Luther King Jr., and Shane Claiborne. Of course, there is Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Benjamin Franklin, Bill Cosby, Beethoven, George Lucas, and Steve Jobs. There were many famous men floating through my mind in that split second.

As a woman, I really wanted to include at least one woman in my list of influential famous people. But, why could I not think of any women? I am not certain what my frustration or dis-satisfaction with an all male answer would say of my psychiatric exam results (although I’m sure the reviewing psychiatrist can explain). However, I know that once I sat back, took a deep breath and paused for a few moments, the women came rushing into memory. Women (also of varying degrees of fame) like Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty White, Taylor Swift, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Jen Hatmaker, Lucille Ball, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, and Amelia Earhart. These women have all gained their fame for some reason or another. Like the men who came to mind, the reasons they are famous are all different. Like the men, these women have many other roles than the role the public puts on them. They are not solely known for their fame as authors, artists, musicians, comedians or leaders. They are known to others as daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, and friends. Women today and throughout history have often worn so many hats that fame is simply one more for these women to keep up with. There are many attributes about each of these women that I admire and desire. I narrowed my list and moved on to the remainder of my test. This thought stuck with me, how could anyone, man or woman, handle the added pressures of fame today? Who would ever want to be famous?

After discussing a famous athlete recently in the news, I told a friend at worship on Sunday night that I have no desire to be famous because of the scrutiny that surrounds fame. I told him that fame must surely be hard to manage and to live into. Fame allows the world to feel like they know you and give you every piece of advice imaginable (from your hair color and your baby's name to your philanthropic efforts and devotional routine). Fame pushes you to be a leader and example setter. After all, once famous, people look to you and the choices you make, right? They watch your actions, listen to your words and take note of your priorities. They favorite your tweets and share your status updates. Fame, permissible or not, adds another perceived layer of accountability to one’s actions. Fame seems to require a lot more responsibility!

After my statement about not wanting to be famous, my friend looked at me and informed me that he thought I was already famous. I quickly replied no (with a chuckle) and asked him why he thought I would be considered famous. With true genuineness, he reminded me that to my 8 year-old son and to my niece and nephews and to the kids in our mission congregation, I’m definitely famous. My choices, my style, my language, and how I spend my time and money may not be broadcast on social media or on television. However, as a mom, aunt, spiritual care giver, and a teacher in our mission congregation, I’m famous. And, no matter your title or role, you are famous too.

This thought has stuck with me since listing those famous men and women. It has stuck with me because although we live in a world where it is easy to find fault with others, we also live in a world where it is easy to set a good example, make a difference, give back, create charity, spread good ideas, build community, live passionately, embrace the small things and live fully into the persons God called each of us to be (in my case, a woman!).

I hope you feel famous today. Not for the pressure it may insinuate but for the possibilities it holds. It may be another hat to wear, but how you live your life indeed impacts others.

It's Time

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:08:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Imagine that tomorrow morning I deposit into your bank account $86,400. This money is all yours to do with as you please, no strings attached. Now, not only am I going to deposit this amount into your account tomorrow, I’m going to do the same thing every day next week. That is a combined $604,800 that will be waiting for you.

But I’m not finished. I’m going to make this daily deposit into your account every day for the next year (you are really using your imagination now). At the conclusion of twelve months you will have received more than $31.5 million. What if I told you that you have in your possession, today, something even more valuable than $31 million. I wonder if you would believe me. You see, every day that you awake to draw air into your lungs, you receive that deposit of sorts, though it’s not measured in dollars. It’s measured in seconds.

Every day contains 86,400 seconds; every week more than 600,000; and every year more than 31 million. They are yours to spend as you please. The only catch is this: When each day is over, and after each week passes, and when the calendar turns, your “funds” expire. They have to be spent with urgency, for tomorrow your account will reset. And because it will reset, and because we can only spend those precious seconds we have today, what we do with those seconds matters a great deal. We know this. No preacher behind a pulpit or columnist at a keyboard has to tell us this. Yet, maybe we do need to be reminded.

Because there is always the temptation, as Frederick Buechner said, “To believe that we have all the time in the world, whereas the truth of it is we do not…For each of us there comes a point of no return, a point from which we no longer have life enough left to go back and start over.”

We seemed to have celebrated New Year’s Day 2012 just last week. Now that year, with all its promise, joy, heartache, dread, and transition is gone. And before we can catch our breath from the race that was, we lurch forward into another January and another year. The real danger for us all is to come around twelve months from now and be exactly where we were twelve months ago.

Still stuck in a job we loathe. Still planning to take that big chance, or make that big move. Still at odds with the long-estranged loved one with whom we hope to one day reconcile. Still tripping over the same addiction, still trapped in that same poisonous relationship, still struck in the same soul-sucking routine.

Time is far too short to live like this, and deep in our hearts, we know it. We know that there is an unmerciful ruthlessness to time that demands we spend what we have – all we have – while today is still called today. Because today we still have opportunity. We still have time. We cannot, then, put off until tomorrow, next week, or next year what must and can only be done while there are still seconds in our banks.

The majestic Erma Bombeck, who cannot be improved upon, provides a summary on this point. She wrote, “I have learned that silver tarnishes when it isn’t used, perfume turns to alcohol, candles melt in the attic over the summer, and ideas that are saved for a dry week often become dated. When I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will be like this: ‘So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfulfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven’t spread around?’ And, I will answer, ‘I have nothing left to return. I spent everything you gave me. I’m as naked as the day I was born.’” Amen.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Some Assembly Required

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:51:44 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Do you know the three most frightening words in the English language? “Some assembly required.” You order something online; a toy or a bicycle for your children. Or you go to a big box store to get a grill or piece of patio furniture.

When UPS brings it to your door or you find the item you’re looking for in the store, it’s not ready to go like you saw in the online catalog or the advertisement in Sunday’s paper. “Some assembly required,” the tag on the box says.

So, you lug this box the size of a queen-sized mattress out to the garage and open it. There are buckets of screws, connectors, rods and unidentifiable small pieces of plastic that you will never use no matter what the directions say. And for the next six weeks you attempt to put this thing together.

The worst case for me was construction of the dreaded children’s play set. When I was growing up our swing sets were just tubes of lightweight aluminum. If you were swinging too high the front side of the entire swing set would rise off the ground a solid foot. Now, we have these play sets made of concrete-anchored-treated-timbers, and screws the length of baseball bats. Assembly requires a civil engineer and a degree from MIT.

When I bought one of these behemoths for my children I was in the back yard with a slide rule and a skill saw for the entire summer. And I lost all credibility with my neighbors. There was no way they were going to that pastor’s church, not with the raging four-letter obscenities flying out of my mouth. When we moved, to my children’s chagrin, I left the play set there; not so much as a gift to the family that bought our house. No way was I going to disassemble it and attempt to put it back together. Once was more than enough.

Some assembly required: This is true of the products you buy, your relationships, the children you are raising, and the person you are becoming. We are all works in progress, even as this relates to our faith. The Apostle Paul said: “Continue to work out your salvation.” We have been given this wonderful gift of grace, salvation and grace. We have come to understand God’s love and have answered a call to a life of faith. This gift is like getting a bicycle in a box or a swing set bound by straps and smothered in Styrofoam peanuts. It’s like possessing a new piece of patio furniture but it’s in a dozen pieces, the materials scattered across the yard.

You’ve got to work it out. You’ve got to put it all together. You can’t ride the bike if it stays in the box. You can’t play on the swing set if it remains disassembled. You can’t enjoy your furniture if you don’t connect the pieces. And faith will not be what it is intended to be – what God wants it to be in your life – if you don’t work it out, if you don’t open the box and put it together. Maybe faith has become such a burden for some of us because we’re lugging around on our backs the box full of assorted spiritual materials rather than putting it all together.

So much informs and shapes our spirituality: The reading of Scripture, prayer and fasting, meditation and retreat, good works done in the name of Christ, service of the poor, worship, periods of contemplation and reflection, times of doubt and frustration. These all come together to make us who we are. Somehow these things become transformational in our lives. Somehow these pieces fit together to form something useful, something valuable, something that looks a lot like faith.

So pop the bands off the box that’s waiting for you in the garage. Put on your work gloves and break out the tool chest. Call your neighbor to lend a hand. Before you know it, all the pieces might just fall into place.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

The Voice (Not that One)

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:26:06 GMT

By Jackson W. Henry

No, I’m not talking about the TV show with people competing for a chance to use their voice and get paid for it. And no, I’m not referring to the idea that our voices are somehow our gift, molded and shaped by our own pursuits. The voice is a beautiful creation of God, and it is a gift entrusted to us. Our job as a church is to be stewards of this gift.

People use their voices for numerous things—communication, expression, beautiful music, alarm, excitement. However, it is also possible for them to be used to commit the deepest violence to God and neighbor as people are marginalized, bullied, exploited, and abused. How is it, then, that we are able to develop a greater sense of stewardship with our voices? One place we can turn is to learn from today’s youth.

My church youth choir, SONlight returned from a 6-day choir tour to Dallas, Texas. Our youth choir gives teens the opportunity to find their voices and use them for praising and serving God. However, it is often not in the ways you would think.

The following is a list of goals on choir tour that allow our youth the opportunity to express themselves and use their voices:

Share the gospel of Jesus Christ
Encounter marginalized members of our society and extend Christ’s love to them
Learn to live together in Christian community
Share one another’s burdens and struggles
Return home ready to use the skills we have developed

The voice is the key to making all of these things work. Learning to use our voices means not being afraid to share the Good News of Christ’s resurrection and creatively working to usher in the Reign of God. In singing the songs we prepared for tour and visiting with the people in every situation we faced (from assisted living to homeless shelters to inner-city children’s afterschool programs), the choir became actively involved in proclaiming the Christian truth. They also engaged one another in conversations that led to stronger friendships and trusting relationships. They lived together in much the same way that the earliest Christians did, holding everything in common and relying upon one another in times of need. We can only pray that we all have the opportunity to be as faithful as our youth choir when we leave worship and go into the world.

It is clear to me that SONlight is not a group of teens preparing for adulthood, nor are they simply passing through adolescence awaiting greater blessings and opportunities in the years to come. They are leading our church now as they live by Christ’s example and use their voices to show the way that leads to life.

Is it too late to find my voice? No. Have I missed the opportunity to feel the warmth of the Spirit in ways that our youth may be encountering for the first time? No. So… how will I know how to lead? How will I know what to say? How will I know where to go? Listen for God’s voice, and then stand up and use yours. Any payment you receive will be better than cold hard cash—your heart will be changed.

Jackson Henry has contributed several songs to Worship & Song.

Why Churches Should Be Starting More Schools

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:10:36 GMT

By Shane Raynor

I got into a really interesting discussion with a pastor online today about God and public schools. We talked about Adam Hamilton’s blog post a few days ago, and Adam’s views on God and public schools. While I agree with many of Adam’s points, and I greatly admire the work his church is doing to help some of the public schools in his area, I believe Adam is looking at the public education system, at least partly, through rose-colored glasses.

Before I go any further, let me clarify that I don’t endorse mandatory prayers and religious instruction in public schools. But in many cases, the religiously neutral public schools that Adam Hamilton envisions aren’t always so neutral—some are actually hostile toward religion. You see, religion is closely related to worldview, and if you don’t allow religion to play any role in education, then the worldview that is shaped in schools, whether intentionally or not, is going to skew toward atheism.

The argument, of course, is that it’s the job of parents and churches to teach religion, not the public schools. I agree with that (to a point) but in practicality, churches have at most two or three hours a week with kids, while schools have over ten times that amount. Even if you assume an hour a day of religious instruction in the home, you’re still looking at a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio in favor of schools. Now in a world where it’s really possible for schools to be religiously neutral, those ratios might work, but what about a world like ours where religious values are increasingly challenged in the classroom? And what about lower income parents who work multiple jobs and don’t have the time or energy to give their children as much religious instruction as they’d like?

It amazes me that many in our country have become so fired up over alleged government “intrusion” into health care, yet we’ve allowed the government to maintain a virtual monopoly over the education system for years. Think about that for a moment. We don’t want the government to have too much say about how we care for our bodies, but most of us have no problem letting government-run schools shape our kids’ minds every day. Granted, public education isn’t a monopoly if you’re wealthy and can afford a private school, but for everyone else, that’s what it is—a monopoly.

Don’t misunderstand me. There are many good, hard-working teachers and administrators in the public schools. But the system is flawed. The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has been so broadly interpreted in recent years that even the generic non-sectarian Judeo-Christian civil religion of years past is now taboo in the classroom. We expect educators to teach our kids about values and rights, but we tie their hands so they can’t even mention the one who gave us those values or created us with those rights. It’s very difficult to shape values without bringing God into the picture. And if you think schools aren’t a place where values and morals are shaped, you’re kidding yourself.

Education is the new civil right, and I believe that in the years ahead, more people are going to see the need for bringing competition and choice into the education system. If America truly wants to be a land of equal opportunity, then we need to make it possible for lower income parents to send their children to the same schools wealthier families have access to. The most efficient way to do this is with vouchers. Under a voucher system, some parents would choose to send their children to private religious schools, and some would choose non-religious private schools. Some would choose traditional public schools, while others would choose charter schools and other non-traditional public schools. Some would choose to homeschool their kids. But no one would be forced to spend 7 hours a day in a failing school or in a school that teaches values that ignore or oppose the values taught at home or in their family’s religious community. And many public schools would improve if they were required to actually compete for public funding.

Nowadays we hear a lot about church planting. New churches are exciting, and they’re certainly needed. The more the merrier! But we also need more congregations that are interested in planting and subsidizing schools, especially in areas where the public schools are failing. It’s not fair to lower income kids to make them wait for their schools to be fixed, and we can’t afford to wait for politicians to see the light on school choice. Christians can act now and take the lead on fixing the education problems in this country. And we can do it by starting new schools.

Wouldn’t it be great if that became as hip as church planting?

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Ditto

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:38:49 GMT

By Jessica LaGrone

I remember the conversations we had when trying to find a name for our first child Drew. We decided to continue a family tradition of giving a kid his dad's first name as his middle name. Drew's name is Andrew James. His dad, Jim's, is James Robert. His dad (Drew's Pawpaw) is Robert Alan. It's a way of embedding a little bit of history in a name. A subtle nod without going so far as: "Jim Junior."

I grew up around quite a few guys named "Junior." It took me a while to figure out that wasn't their proper name, but a place-holder. A way to distinguish them from their male relative for whom they were named. Some guys went by "Bobby," or "Little Ken" when their dads were Robert and Kenneth. A few were the third bearer of their given names. John Tristan Alexander Ill went by "Tripp." Norton Barrett Hargis Ill was "Tres." Clever.

My favorite, though, was a kid named "John" after his father—from an early age he was simply called "Ditto."

Ditto. That's really what these families are saying when they give a child the same name as one of their parents or relatives. Ditto. Repeat. Do it again. You want them to emulate the qualities that make that person great. You want them to grow up to be, not a copy of that person, but a reflection of their strengths.

When you share a name with someone, you want the commonality to mean a resemblance of sorts. For the namesake to share more than just initials. To grow up into a likeness that the original can be proud of.

When you pray, pray in my name, Jesus said.

I've been wrestling lately with what Jesus really meant by that. I'm pretty sure it's not some kind of spiritual credit card where we can charge up what we want, like: Just put it on my Father's tab.

I think it might be closer to: Take my name. Call yourself after me. Be my namesake. Let your prayers be my prayers. Your actions be like my actions. Ditto.

That's a tougher one than just ordering up the prayers I want and naming Jesus as a kind of magic word at the end. Abracadabra... In Jesus' name! Instead, while I'm praying I'm supposed to check my motivations, survey my heart. What do these prayers say about me? If I'm growing into the name "Christian," do my desires reflect the Christ at the center of that name?

I want to grow up to resemble that name that I'm praying in.

I hope Jesus is proud that he offered it to me in the first place.

excerpted from Jessica's blog www.jessicalagrone.com

Get Out!

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:17:22 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Churches are peculiar places. I’ve had the opportunity to serve a few of them. Some of my pastoral experiences have been overwhelmingly rewarding: Baptisms, weddings, the transformation of individuals and families. Some other experiences have been about as much fun as a sharp stick in the eye.

And the churches which I have served have met in a diverse number of places: In the hollow of a school gymnasium; in a leaky storefront on the wrong side of the tracks; in a multi-million dollar sanctuary with all the technological bells and whistles; in an old redbrick church so old it barely escaped the fires of General Sherman’s army (some of the deacons in that old redbrick church building may have served in Sherman’s army; but I digress).

Here is one of the many things that make churches peculiar: The most heated arguments in the church were not over our location or theology or future plans. No, the worst controversies I ever endured were over our style of worship.

Should we use hymnals or modern worship music? Should drums be allowed in the sanctuary? Is it blasphemy to move the pulpit to accommodate the children’s choir? What would happen if someone clapped or raised their hands during the solo? These are the questions that send the ulcerated pastor scurrying to his or her gastrologist.

See, with all these exotic locales came an equally exotic variety of worship styles. I’ve preached after a stately anthem performed by robed choir members and pipe organs. I’ve tapped my foot and clapped my hands to the cranking riffs of old hippies with electric guitars. I’ve listened closely to the tight four-part harmony of southern gospel.

I’ve worn a suit and tie to church; I’ve worn shorts and sandals. I’ve delivered time-honored three point sermons with a poem and a prayer; and I’ve preached with the technological assistance of multimedia, projectors, videos and fog machines. I’ve witnessed the traditional Easter cantata; and I’ve even seen a few interpretive dance steps across the church podium.

And all this worship diversity is in a single strain of the Protestant tradition! This doesn’t account for the truly wild multiplicity of worship expression that stretches across the Christian biosphere from the Pentecostals to the Presbyterians.

Which of these styles is “right?” I don’t presume to know. Our form of worship will always be dictated by our traditions, our culture, and our context. A look at how Christians from other countries and times worship proves this point. “Which worship style is right” is, after all, the wrong question.

The better questions are, “Does our worship push us out of our church sanctuaries (or wherever it is we meet) to be Christ to the world? What happens when the worship service is over?” These are the more appropriate questions.

If our worship moves us past ourselves to the risen and redeeming Christ sent to love the world, then the worship is “right.” If our worship sends us into the community as the Father sent his own Son, then it is empowered with spirit and truth. But if our worship focuses us, even in subtle ways, on ourselves, then it is selfishness at best and sacrilege at worst. It isn’t worship at all.

The final words of the old Latin mass were, Ite missa est – “Get out!” The priests who daily invoked these words over their congregations understood worship’s purpose. When the last song is sung, the last prayer offered, and the last homily delivered, the goal of all worship is to redemptively and missionally leave the sanctuary in service to others.

So, take your pick: Sermons or liturgy; southern gospel or rock and roll; drums or pipe organs; corporate prayer or contemplation; kneeling benches or mosh pits. But if these things do not translate into loving action in the community, if these things do not force us out of the building and out to others, we aren’t being worshipful at all. Do our worship styles matter? Sure they does. But what happens afterwards matters all the more.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

When Rules Prevail

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:37:04 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Question: Why won’t some people go to church?

Answer: Because they have been to church.

Even Jesus fell into this category. After a “bad church experience,” he left the establishment and never returned. The incident is recorded in Luke 13. Jesus was attending synagogue on the Sabbath day, when across the sanctuary he saw a crippled woman bent double by affliction. Jesus’ heart went out to her. So with just a word and a touch he made her well. The woman exploded with praise to God, for after eighteen years of suffering, she was free. The crowd gathered on that day likewise was astonished. But not everyone was happy with this turn of events. The leader of the synagogue exploded as well, but in rage.

Imagine you are seated in church on Sunday morning. It is your church, the one you have attended for many years. It is a good Sunday as far as worship services go. You were tempted to play golf or sleep in, but there you are as faithful as ever. The church is three-quarters filled. The worship leader is doing his usual dance of weaving the old hymns with the modern worship choruses to keep everybody semi-content. It’s not too bad. The children’s message was entertaining enough. The Cooper kid blurted out another embarrassing revelation about his mother in front of the whole congregation. It got a good laugh and a few red cheeks.

The Miller family has packed their pew in front of you as is their custom. Across the aisle sits Mr. and Mrs. Walsh. Mr. Walsh is the one who always gets there early to open the doors, turns on the lights and the air conditioning, and he is the one who stays late to lock things up. Mrs. Walsh is always patient and gracious as she waits for him, even though her osteoporosis has all but broken her in half. She has shrunken down to no more than five feet tall.

Standing for the Offertory and the Doxology, you see a young man, a man you have never seen before, seated in front of you. He is wearing a faded and frayed plaid shirt, old khaki pants, and Wolverine work boots. He is short, but looks lean and strong. His hairline is receding a bit and his face bears a three-day beard. You notice he has eyes of fire – kind and compassionate eyes – but like fire nonetheless. He has several friends seated with him, including the Gardner brothers who used to live one street over from your house.

As the pastor rises to deliver his sermon, the young man rises as well. He walks directly over to where Mrs. Walsh is sitting. With a warm smile he whispers something in her ear, gently touches her shoulder, and returns to his pew. Suddenly, like lightning striking, old Mrs. Walsh stands up, as straight as a string, as tall and fit as she was thirty years ago. The congregation erupts with wonder and thanksgiving! Mrs. Walsh shouts for joy as her husband, his cheeks wet with tears, hugs the young stranger. Mouths fall open. Eyes bulge from their sockets. Miss Juliet Palmer nearly faints.

Then, from the pulpit, the pastor calls the whole place to order. His face is scarlet with anger. His eyes flash. He looks down at the young, smiling, wonder-working intruder as if he could grind him between his teeth. “This is the Lord’s house,” he booms across the sanctuary, “and this is the Lord’s Day. You will not turn it into a spectacle with your parlor tricks.” You and the congregation hold your breath and look to the young man in the Wolverines for what is next.

After this event we never find Jesus attending synagogue services again. Never. Who could blame him? A religious system whose rules and traditions are more motivating and more powerful than its compassion for people is a system of rank hypocrisy.

Maybe you don't have miraculous physical healings in your church, but I bet there are some Christ-like actions that get the stink-eye in your church. What are they?

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Christians and the Law

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:05:00 GMT

By Shane Raynor

I was reading the first few verses of Psalm 119 this morning and started thinking about the Christian's relationship to the Old Testament Law.

When I was working in youth ministry, our church ran an after-school youth basketball ministry on Wednesdays. It grew quite popular, and soon the "church" kids were outnumbered by the new kids. At the beginning of the school year, we seemed to have more discipline problems, partly because of typical boundary testing by teenagers, and partly because the relationship dynamics had shifted. There were so many kids we didn't know yet!

One year, things got out of hand the first couple of weeks of school so we decided to "lay down the law". We made a big sign to display in the gym with all the rules. No cussing. No disrespecting church property. No extended hugs or touching. We had about 10 or 12 rules. I'm embarrassed to say we even printed them in red letters.

I hated that sign, and I arranged for it to "disappear" within a few weeks. I didn't like the atmosphere it created. It's not that the rules were bad. But in a way, we were sending the message to the nonchristian kids with that sign that being Christian is based on performance and not on grace.

That's what happens when Christians try to keep the law. It's not that God's rules are bad. In fact, they're good. God didn't give them to us arbitrarily, they're for our own benefit. But because of our sin, attempting to follow the law can't get us to heaven or into the presence of God—only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. But the cool thing is, when we receive Christ, we're under his blood and we're no longer slaves to following the law.

Does that mean we throw God's law out the window? Absolutely not! We couldn't if we wanted to! It's written on our hearts! But we're no longer bound by it. We don't have to worry anymore if we're good enough.

Back to the basketball ministry, the interesting thing was, each year as we developed relationships with those high school kids, we found we didn't need to hang up a sign with all the rules. For the most part, the kids did what was right, and the veteran kids helped coach the newer ones. We had problems from time to time, but we always tried to handle those issues with both firmness and grace.

Galatians 3:10-11 reads: "All those who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse, because it is written, 'Everyone is cursed who does not keep on doing all the things that have been written in the Law scroll.' But since no one is made righteous by the Law as far as God is concerned, it is clear that 'the righteous one will live on the basis of faith'." (CEB)

What's your take on Christians and the Law?

5 Tips for Preaching and Teaching on the End Times

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:06:15 GMT

By Shane Raynor

I suppose there’s always the chance that the apocalypse could happen later today, but unless there’s a dramatic turn of events, it looks like the Mayans got it wrong. Or more accurately, someone interpreting the Mayan calendar got it wrong. Either way, if you’re teaching or preaching this weekend, I hope you didn’t blow off preparing just because you thought today was going to be the end of the last act.

As Christians, we shouldn’t really be using “end of the world” language anyway, because we don’t believe there’s an end to this story. Our eschatology is built around the return of Jesus Christ, a new heaven, and a new earth. No doubt there will be times of trial as those events draw closer, but this weekend probably isn’t going to be the time.

Unless I’m wrong.

The end times will always fascinate people, Christian and nonchristian alike, and widespread interest will continue to see a natural ebb and flow. A sermon series on the last days, for example, may not create much buzz next week, but once people’s fatigue from the Mayan apocalypse-that-wasn’t wears off, some event or group of events will spark people’s imaginations all over again. So eschatology isn’t something you should avoid. Besides, it’s fun to speculate about the end times.

If you do get bold and decide to do a message series or teaching unit on the end times, here are a few things you should keep in mind:

Keep your teaching balanced. Use a variety of material from different thinkers. Rapture, no-rapture, pre-trib, post-trib. (It’s especially fun doing this because some self-appointed watchdog is almost guaranteed to get a little bent out of shape when you suggest the possibility that the other viewpoint might be valid.)

Don’t promote fear when teaching about the end times. Teaching people a healthy fear of God is fine, but teaching them to live in fear of the future isn’t what Christianity is about. Teachers and preachers should aim to encourage believers—not scare them—even when dealing with difficult topics. Don’t hold back hard truths, but do attempt to deliver your message in a way that builds up and offers hope to others.

Stay positive and keep it fun. Eschatology is serious business, but don’t take it (or yourself) too seriously. People enjoy discussing Bible prophecy and the last days for the same reason they enjoy talking about life in outer space, conspiracy theories, time travel, and the nature of the afterlife. It’s serious stuff, but it’s fun. Don’t let all the seriousness take away all the fun.

Don’t set dates. Jesus was pretty clear on this, but in case you didn’t get the Messiah’s memo, “Nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son. Only the Father knows” (Matthew 24:36 CEB). I suppose it’s okay to speculate, but the more you do it, the dumber you’re going to look when things don’t happen the way you said they would.

Use extrabiblical material. Relax, I’m not suggesting that you give equal weight to the Bible and a Hollywood disaster movie. But there’s nothing wrong with bringing in contemporary film and literature, or even other ancient texts as a jumping off point or to enhance a Bible-based discussion or presentation. The end of the world has often captured imaginations outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, and exploring those ideas can offer valuable perspective when studying the Bible.

If it’s done well, a good end times message series or Bible study at your church can really mix things up—in a good way. It’s interesting, relevant, and has the potential for controversy—almost always a winning combination for congregations that are willing to take risks.

Only a Clown

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:52:32 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

A few months ago I was sitting outside of a café in Orlando, Florida. As much as anywhere, Orlando is a crossroads of the world. Watching and listening, we saw European tourists who were speaking German, French and Spanish. A large, cigar-smoking Italian sat to my right, who I learned was a chef at a restaurant down the road. To my left two young men sat, obviously a couple, drinking their beer and talking about work. The owner of the café came by – he was from Miami originally and was working hard to make a living, we learned.

People were getting off of the airport shuttles in droves, wearing everything from Mardi Gras beads and rainbow wigs to pinstripe suits and night gowns. There were young families and couples, drag queens and hookers, cops and business men, diners and shoppers, users and pushers, Mickey Mouse, and at least two preachers – all together in the same place. I thought for a moment: “I know what all these people have in common. I have probably never said anything in twenty years of speaking from church pulpits that matters to any of them. They don’t care what we have to say.”

In the world in which we now live, where everything and everybody is so different than the Christian world that incubated and shaped us, how do we say anything that matters to those who do not know or follow Christ? One of Soren Kierkegaard’s legendary parables begins: “It happened that a fire broke out backstage at a theater.” Kierkegaard goes on to explain how the fire spread quickly and threatened to consume the entire building.

One of the actors backstage at the theater that evening was a clown, and it fell upon him to go onto the stage and warn the public of the danger. He stepped onto the stage, dressed as he was, and the crowd began to laugh and applaud. He stopped them and gave his warning: “You are in great danger! Run for your life!” They laughed all the more. He repeated his warning, even more forcefully this time. The crowd laughed and shouted even louder. On and on this went, the clown growing more and more passionate and the crowd more and more entertained. They did not take him seriously. “But after all,” Kierkegaard says, “he was only a clown.”

Why are we as Christians not taken seriously when we speak? Maybe it is because it doesn’t matter what we say as much as it matters more how we live, and who we are? Then, and only then, will we have anything to say that is honest, credible, or effective to the society that surrounds us. It is a worn out cliché, but there remains some truth in it: People don’t care about what you know until they know how much you care. What matters at the end of the day, at the end of our careers, at the end of whatever time God gives us – what matters is that we cared, and cared deeply, for the people who crossed our paths and that we served them as Christ served us.

Taking a truly compassionate approach, where we see people as people – living, breathing, laughing, crying, struggling but priceless creations in the image of God – and not as statistics or votes or sales or dollars in the coffers or names on the roll or notches in our gun or people who will agree or oppose us – this will infuse the church with credibility and integrity so needed in the world today.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

In the Arms of Love

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:47:59 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

While in Central America earlier this year, I visited the Mayan ruins at Tazumal, El Salvador. Tazumal is one of the best preserved ruins in that country, and I learned from my guide, that it was a central religious site. Tazumal was a place where the ancients gathered to ceremonially soothe their cruel, bloodthirsty deities.

If a severe drought struck the region, then the gods were angry; shed some blood. If the rainy season was monsoonal, the gods were perturbed; shed some blood. If the spring corn crop refused to grow, the gods were against the people; shed some blood. Sickness, plague, earthquakes, tidal waves, floods, or accidents; these all had the same explanation. The fickle and nefarious gods had to be appeased.

All ancient religions were built on a similar foundation: God is angry and humanity stands in constant danger, thus someone has to pay. Much of current religion is anchored to this mooring as well. Is it no wonder then, that the world is filled with hate, bloodshed, panic, and terror when religious people, the vast majority of the world’s population, expect the same from their gods?

Regrettably, faith has failed to mature or evolve beyond its most elementary and primitive beginnings; and when Christianity succumbs to this type of fear-driven hysteria, it is especially disconcerting. That God is an unpredictable executioner with an itchy, twitchy trigger finger that must somehow be pacified is a gross misrepresentation of our faith, because it is a gross misrepresentation of Jesus Christ, his person, and his mission.

We who are Christian believe that Jesus “is the visible image of the invisible God,” as the Apostle Paul wrote. Paul continued, “And through Christ, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth.”

Put simply, the Advent of Jesus, his coming into the world that we celebrate during this season, was not to save us from God, but to show us what and who God is really like. And what is he like? He is at peace with us. He has reconciled all things. There is no anger to placate and no blood to shed, only his love to receive, explore, and share.

God loves us, not because we are good; not because we are loveable; not because of what we can do for him or for others; and not because of the way we make him feel. He loves us because he is actually, truly, really that good. And what we and our world need more than anything – a world up to its collective ears in fear and bloodshed – is that kind of real, unconditional, healing love.

I enjoy how Father Richard Rohr explains this. He tells a story about eating dinner with a family from his parish. They had a wonderful meal and the whole time the toddler in the family, who had just learned to walk, was running about everywhere. The little guy could really move, but he had a problem stopping.

He ran to the top of a set of stairs but could not find his “brakes” in time to stop. He toppled, over the edge, banging and careening his way downward. No one at the table moved; they all held their breath in dread. Four, five, six, seconds passed. The father finally jumped up and ran to the stairwell. There the youngster was at the bottom of the steps, only bruised a bit, but lying in shock, his eyes bugged out over what had just happened to him. Only when his dad got to him and picked him up did he start crying.

Father Rohr made this appropriate observation: “We can never acknowledge our pain and let the healing begin, until we are taken up in the arms of love. Love allows the crying and the mending to begin.” God wants to take up the hurt and injured into his arms to love and mend, not destroy. So let the mending begin in each us, and we might discover that the mending will begin in our world.

America's Sunday Supper

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:17:36 GMT

By UMCOM

Over the last few years, tens of thousands have come home from war … bearing wounds both visible and invisible, facing unemployment, housing, and other domestic issues.

Rethink Church invites you to participate in raising awareness and support for veterans and military families as part of a national campaign called “America’s Sunday Supper” which takes place throughout January, and which honors the Martin Luther King Day of Service (Jan. 21, 2013). Raise awareness by screening a free movie and discussing the needs of troops transitioning back into society. Raise support by engaging your local community in a service project for those who've served. There are many ways to get involved in rebuilding the ruins left by war.

Sign up for free resources, including videos to guide your local church in understanding recent conflicts and needs; a guide to host a free movie screening and discussion; ideas for service projects; promotional graphics and more. Go to America's Sunday Supper or email Rethinkchurch@umcom.org for details.

For Overachievers Everywhere

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:18:41 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

Scientists have a name for it: Ergomania. It is a word composed of two Latin roots. “Ergo,” meaning work, and “mania,” which means passion. Ergomania, thusly, is a “passion for work.” In contemporary society we use a different term for an individual suffering from this condition: The “workaholic.” The condition is not limited to corporate offices or the manufacturing plant. It thrives in houses of worship.

It’s been my experience that we religious people work very hard, often killing ourselves for God, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Why? I believe it is because we do not believe that God is love or that he really loves us. Most of us are working like slaves to earn an ambivalent God’s love, unaware, it seems, that his love is already ours in abundance. That God would take us just as we are, that he loves us just as we are, is too much for us to accept.

And why should we believe it? Our parents never accepted us without conditions. This merciless culture is constantly judging us and our level of success. Our spouse left us for someone younger, better looking, or richer. Our coach tells us we’ll never be good enough to make the team, and yes the church gets in on it too.

When we were young, it was all about perfect attendance pins, achievements, and all those little check marks on our weekly reporting at Sunday School. We learned quickly that we could measure a person’s spirituality, thus their worth as an individual, by how many gold stars they had beside their name. When we got older, the exercise continued, now measured by different gold stars. Volunteer, serve, give, teach Bible study class, lead the choir, chaperone the youth group, chair the Stewardship Committee; and the leadership and congregation will sing your praises. But the second you relent, the moment you acknowledge your exhaustion, that you just can’t keep up, then that familiar conditional approval will rear its ugly head.

Conditioned like this, when Jesus shows up and says, “If you’re tired I can help with a little grace,” we just can’t believe it. Yet, that’s exactly what Jesus said when he showed up! With words that make most type-A congregational leaders cringe, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Eugene Peterson’s translation of those words is more pointed: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. Walk with me…watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

The unforced rhythms of grace: That is what we religious laborers need, because the people that Jesus most wants to set free are those of us who are eyeballs deep in religious work, we who are religious ergomaniacs. He wants us to see that our religious work really doesn’t work; it works against us. His invitation is for us to get off of the spiritual hamster wheel and to crawl out from beneath the choking yoke of religious workoholicism, and dance freely to the easy tempo of grace. Grace will teach us to serve God, not to make him like us, but because he already adores us. It will teach us to give up our overachieving and slaving ways, and find peaceful rest for our souls.

Now, if you are happy with doing all your religious work, then please, just keep doing it. If work is your passion, and time spent on the treadmill suits you just fine, then disregard all I have said as useless drivel and carry on. But if you have had it; if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired; if you’re looking for a way out; if you are desperate for your life to change; if you are finally at the end of yourself and need a rest, have I got good news for you: That is exactly what Jesus offers. Go with him, and he will give you the rest you need.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Almond Jim

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:03:04 GMT

By Whitney Simpson

A friend of mine at Gallatin CARES who walks all over town - literally - is one of the most joyful people I know. He is also one of the most faithful members of our weekly Wednesday Bible Study and shows up no matter the weather, on foot.

I will also admit, he is the kind of friend that has had to grow on me. At first, I wasn't so sure how to respond to him. My friend, we will call him Jim, is full of excitement and praise - loud praise. The first few times I delivered the message at our Sunday service, I got multiple "Amens" and "Uh-huhs". I wasn't sure if he genuinely liked what I was saying or if he just liked that I was quick to get to my point and not very long-winded!

Jim will often interrupt me when I am leading Bible Study each week to be sure I don't miss any points. He also repeats much of what I say either because he wanted to make sure he understood or because he couldn't hear me the first time. Sometimes I have to kindly and clearly ask Jim to simply sit down and be quiet. Jim will give me a good hearty "Hello" and "How are you doing?" the moment he catches my eye, every time he sees me (or anyone in his path). Let's be honest, Jim, may not have been the most likely choice for a friend. The fact that he has daughters older than me is just one of the many differences in our lives. Jim and I have one thing in common, we both want to grow in our faith and sometimes that can be uncomfortable.

The week we practiced silence as a spiritual discipline in Bible Study was especially challenging for Jim. However, he practiced. Jim was the only member of our Bible Study to report back to me that he practiced his silence every single night that week. He did also follow up with how hard it was to practice silence (that got a good honest giggle from the other friends hearing his silence update). Jim wants to be in on the action. He wants to be included and part of a community. Jim wants to learn. Jim wants to give back.

Recently, Jim picked up his bag that he carries all over town and began digging to the bottom. He told me he had something special for me and I was not sure what he was going to pull out of that bag. It reminded me briefly of an episode of "Let's Make a Deal", but not being sure what he was digging for, I was a bit hesitant to reach out and receive. Jim pulled out a tiny container of Almond Joy coffee creamer (the kind you find at a gas station coffee bar). He held it up to me with a giant smile on his face and a giggle in his voice. He told me he wanted me to have this highly coveted flavor of creamer and asked if I drank coffee. I enthusiastically replied yes (which is a slight stretch of the truth since the closest I get to coffee is a Decaf Starbucks Via in my favorite Chocolate Mocha Smoothie). I said yes because I couldn't not receive this gift of joy - Almond Joy.

Christmas giving can be so routine. It can be stressful. Jim has taught me a lot. He has reminded me of the story of the widow's mite (Mark 12:41-44). He has taught me it is not about what I give, but how I give. I hope I can give this season with an ounce of the joy that Jim gives.

Mostly, I think that my unlikely friend, "Almond Jim", has taught me to receive. He has taught me it is indeed possible to receive in both the silence and the noise this Advent season.

May you find joy this Christmas!

10,000 Hours

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:05:00 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

When I watch my children skim-boarding in the surf, I remember what it is like to be blissfully young, oblivious to danger, and as flexible as a rubber band. I am none of those things now. That is why you will not catch me performing very many “ollies” or “shuv-its” on the beach. For my children, skim-boarding is a gnarly good time. But for me, it is a nothing but an extended, unbridled, fall that more resembles a hydroplaning hatchback than an act of athleticism.

Plus, I haven’t forgotten my time as a chaplain in a beachside Emergency Room. Moms, dads and grandparents were hauled in to the welcoming arms of the orthopedic surgeons by the ambulance-full. I prayed over more than a few broken ankles, wrists, and collarbones of well-meaning middle-agers who were only trying to keep up with their kids. Now, the youngsters have their own share of pain and suffering from this sport. Mine certainly do. They fall, sometimes very hard, barely able to bounce back to their feet. But rise they do, leaving the beach carrying their skim-boards and more goose eggs, bruises, zings, and sand rash than should be on a human body.

It begs the obvious questions: How can anything that hurts so badly be worth it? How can something so painful, be so much fun? But it is fun, not because there is no danger, but because after each fall they get up and try again to master the board and the water; something I’m not willing to do. Truth be told, getting up and getting on with it after you fall might be one of the most defiant acts possible, and the real secret of a joyful life. There is no shame in falling down, none. The test of our mettle is whether or not we get up to try again.

Malcolm Gladwell has written a fantastic little book called Outliers. In it, he operates with the hypothesis that the most successful people are not those who are simply born with great ability. Rather, success is dictated more by environment, community, and some very hard work. Gladwell proposes the 10,000 hour rule. He states that mastery of a subject – any subject – is not possible until the student has put in 10,000 hours of disciplined, dedicated practice. This applies, according to Gladwell, to everything from playing hockey to skim-boarding, from the Beatles to Beethoven.

For context, 10,000 hours is roughly twenty hours of practice and performance each week for a decade. In other words, it takes more than ability. It takes the tenacity to get up off the sand, get back on the board, and keep trying – even when it hurts. The Apostle Paul knew a little about pain. In an autobiographical sketch detailing some of his hard times, he wrote about being beaten with rods, nearly stoned to death, and suffering shipwreck. He was victimized by robbery, legal troubles, imprisonment, sleeplessness, starvation, his own poor health, and the regular pressures of being a human being. And why did he suffer these injustices? Simply because of his faith.

Yet, he was the same writer – the same person – to say, “Don’t give up in the hard times. Good things come to those who don’t lose heart.” Hard times and hard falls come to us all. Anyone who has ever stepped onto a skim-board knows that. But what we do with those hard times, those hard falls that knock the breath from our lungs and plant our faces in the surf, that makes all the difference. Like me, we can step away and never try again, and thus never enjoy again. Or like joyful children, we can get up in scorn of the pain, and stay at it.

Joy is not always something that spontaneously arrives, like an unearned, unexpected gift. It is the product of hard work, a few broken bones, and your own share of cuts and bruises. But to stay with something that matters – really matters – is to be rewarded with a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:54:51 GMT

By St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

The Little Way

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:58:45 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

One of my favorite Brennan Manning quotes is about heaven, but only indirectly. It’s more about how to best live our lives today. Manning says, “Heaven will be filled with preschoolers. No adults will be allowed admittance.” Brennan’s quote duplicates the words of Jesus: “The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children,” Christ said. Jesus wasn’t idealizing childhood or emphasizing a child’s innocence with those words. No, he was pointing to the status of a child. If you want to get somewhere spiritually, Jesus says, you don’t get there by clawing your way to top. You have to descend to the lowest possible place in the social strata. You humble yourself, because you have to get small to fit through the door that leads to the kingdom of God.

So every time we feel ourselves being led away from childlike simplicity and dependence upon God, we must return to the nursery, remembering that there can be no status-striving in the ways of God. We resist and remove those things that lure us into a state where we are not wholly and completely dependent upon God. No, the world doesn’t operate this way, but this is exactly why the witness of the church is required. In a society marked by smear campaigns, scraping and fighting to get to the top of the heap, grotesque levels of inequality and greed, broken promises and broken deals, cheating and killing just to get to be number one, when we become as humble children, we show society a better way to live.

Thankfully, from time to time, God gifts the church with those rare individuals who remind us of Jesus’ words. One of those people was a French teenager who lived a century ago named Therese Martin, better known today as St. Therese of Lisieux. Therese entered a Carmelite convent when she was only 15, with one ambition: To become a saint. The Carmelites certainly lent themselves to her pursuit. The Carmelites demanded strict obedience, continuous prayers, long periods of fasting and silence, vows of isolation and poverty, and overall a severe approach to spirituality. This was the perfect place for one looking to achieve the peak of the religious honor system. And this was the exact place that Therese utterly failed.

Six years into her cloistered life in the convent, and suffering from poor health and debilitating bouts of depression, she realized that all her striving and religious go-getting was useless. She was exhausted by it all, and simply could not do it. Giving up on sainthood altogether, and despairing of life, it was about this time that she read a single line from the book of Proverbs that changed everything: “Whoso is little, let him come to me.” She named this discovery “The Little Way,” realizing that the only way up, was down. For the rest of her very short life (she died at the age of 24), she quit trying so hard at trying so hard, and learned to become a child once again.

She wrote, “Children are always giving trouble, falling down, getting themselves dirty, breaking things; but all this does not shake their parents’ love for them…I rejoice to be little because only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet.” Often critiqued as overly simplistic and naïve, Therese and her “Little Way” are rejected by those who feel the need for greater complexity or intellectualism in their faith. Maybe these critics reject her conclusions because they simply feel the need for more: More responsibility, more steps up the religious ladder to the top, more ways to gain respect, status, or a higher standing, and the need for a more honorable reputation.

Yet, Therese was right on target, and not because her way ironically led to her sainthood. She was right because her way reflected the way of Jesus. And reflecting Jesus is more than enough, because his way, “The Little Way,” always leads us to abandon ourselves like a child, into the arms of God.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

The Return of Christ

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:31:36 GMT

By Shane Raynor

With all the uncertainty surrounding the 2012 phenomenon, it seems a little more fitting this year to actually focus on the second advent of Jesus Christ during... well... Advent. Virtually every Christian denomination believes in the return of Christ, although there’s disagreement on the details. Even Muslims believe that Jesus (Isa) will return to earth near the end of time (although Islam has very different beliefs than Christianity about who Jesus is.)

The Second Coming has fascinated believers since the first generation of Christians. Many of them believed that Jesus would return during the first century. No doubt there was much eschatological rethinking as the years went by, and Christ’s prohibition against date-setting likely began to be understood in a much broader sense.

The Nicene Creed, which was adopted by the first ecumenical council in 325 AD, clearly states a belief in a future return of Christ: "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end."

The Bible, however, doesn’t give as many details as some of us would like concerning how and when that’s going to happen. Oh there’s a good bit of information there, but there are also a lot of dots to connect. And boy have people throughout history tried to connect them. Throughout church history, date-setters have shown up from time to time, predicting the days or years of Christ’s return, only to find themselves (and those who believed them) disappointed.

The most widely known occurrence of this in recent years was the prediction of May 21, 2011 by radio evangelist Harold Camping. Archbishop James Ussher in the 1650’s predicted 1997, and even 19th century Methodist theologian Adam Clarke speculated in his Bible commentary that 2015 might be the year. There have also been many other predictions.

Some Christians believe that Jesus will return to collect believers (an event commonly known as the Rapture), then return with them after a period of great tribulation to judge the world and to reign over it. Some believe the rapture will take place before this tribulation, some believe it will happen in the middle of it, and others predict it will happen at the end. (Of course, in order for that to work out, believers would be caught up to meet Jesus, then everyone would immediately come back down to earth. To me, that view doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.) Other Christians don’t believe in a rapture, but rather in a single return of Christ at the end of the age.

Whatever you believe about an intervening rapture, the return of Christ appears to have at least four main characteristics, according to Scripture:

We don’t know when it will be, and many people won’t see it coming. Matthew 24:44 says,”Therefore, you also should be prepared, because the Human One will come at a time you don’t know.” According to Matthew 24:36, “Nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son. Only the Father knows.” Date-setters over the years have done eschatological gymnastics and created all kinds of loopholes to explain why they really do know when Jesus will return. They’ve been wrong so far. (We don’t know yet about Adam Clarke. But, to be fair, he didn’t claim to be setting a rigid date when he wrote that.)
It will be a worldwide event. “Every eye will see him, including those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him,” according to Revelation 1:7. Matthew 24:30 says, “Then the sign of the Human One will appear in the sky. At that time all the tribes of the earth will be full of sadness, and they will see the Human One coming in the heavenly clouds with power and great splendor.” I sometimes try to imagine how this would play out if it happened today. A couple of hundred years ago, every eye seeing one event would have been hard to picture. Today we have satellite television, the internet, and mobile phones. People have the ability now to watch monumental events in real time.
It will be instantaneous. No one knows exactly how it will all really unfold, but when it does, don't blink. It will be instantaneous. According to Matthew 24:27, “Just as the lightning flashes from the east to the west, so it will be with the coming of the Human One.”
There will be clues that the time is getting closer. “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. Then they will see the Human One coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near. (Luke 21:25-28)” This language is somewhat cryptic, and I caution anyone against using it to read too much into world events. Still, Jesus must’ve said it for a reason. So we watch, wonder, and wait.

Will we be the generation that witnesses the return of Jesus? I can't answer that. But whether we are or not, we're told to be prepared for it, because we never know what the next minute will bring—Christ could come back, or we could make an unexpected exit (either by rapture or the old fashioned way—by dying.) Either way, our perspectives are going to be radically different once it takes place.

Boring Endings: Ya'll Come Back, Thanks for Coming, Go Eat

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:27:00 GMT

By Betsy Hall

If I visited worship at your church how would it end?

My personal worship pet peeve is boring endings. You can spend hours with your worship team planning the entire service only to have it fall flat as you "excuse everyone to leave."

In traditional churches the last thing said is a blessing or exhortation as people leave (usually called a benediciton) followed by an organ postlude. I like to visit a church here in town because they have their benediction followed by a postlude played on a pipe organ, and I usually leave with goose bumps. At my contemporary church we have a blessing and then the band plays one of the songs again as people leave or as some of us stick around to sing along at the top of our lungs. Both churches end worship with a blessing and music, and I leave feeling like the whole service was planned from the moment I arrived to the moment I left.

Let me encourage you to rethink the benedition, blessing, or last prayer during your worship service. Whether traditional, contemporary, or something in between, challenge your worship team or liturgist to offer the closing words with enthusiasm, to smile, and look at people's faces. And begin to encourage everyone to listen to the postlude or sing their hearts out.

I found these Advent benedictions in The Abingdon Preaching Annual written by David Mosser several years ago. I've reprinted them here just to give you and your team some ideas for an inspiring farewell, but by all means be creative!

Season of Advent

Go forth under the protection of the Almighty, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Go forth and be the people of God. Amen.

“The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).

In this blessed season of Advent wait with patience for the salvation of our God! Amen.

In the bleak midwinter and in any scorching heat, the Lord is our light and our salvation. God’s Spirit of strength and patient endurance be yours as you go out into the world proclaiming God's goodness and God’s greatness to humankind trapped in despair. Remember the Lord is your guide and your shield. Amen.

Christmas Season

May the Lord, made in a likeness of our flesh, remind each of us of God’s tender mercies given as a gift of grace to a people whom the Lord created. Take the Christmas joy of Christ and give it to the world, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

As candles burn bright and the carols ring out harmoniously, share the wonder of Christ’s incarnation with all you meet. Let the truth of the gospel shine forth in your life, knowing that you are under the protection of the Almighty from now and henceforth. Amen.

God: Man's Best Friend

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:47:30 GMT

By Ronnie McBrayer

My friends have a new dog. His name is Chowder. Chowder is a globe of fuzz and fun with one ear that points due north and another that falls like a floppy patch over his right eye. Full-grown but not even knee high, I don’t know how this charming little mutt could be any cuter. You just want to scoop him up in your arms, throw a tennis ball for him to chase, or scratch behind those mismatched ears of his. But he won’t let you; at least he won’t let me.

My friends’ new pet is a rescued dog who must have suffered a terrible life of abuse before his adoption. Chowder won’t let me – or any other male for that matter – get near him. His fear is very real, and very severe. Whenever I visit my friends Chowder barks, howls, squeals, and eyes me as if I were carrying a loaded gun. If I get too close to him, he bristles and bares his teeth, so I keep my distance. Usually, he settles beneath the dining room table where he whimpers, chews on the chair legs, and wets himself and the floor with his terrified bladder.

His owners tell me Chowder is improving, however. He used to react to them the same way. But now he greets them at the door with a wagging tail, sleeps at the foot of their bed every night, and is the overall reliant companion that makes dog man’s best friend. He still cowers from them on occasion, retreating to the safety of the dining room table; especially if there is an unexpected loud noise or a quick, sudden movement. But all in all, Chowder is learning to trust his new owners. I hope one day he will learn to trust me.

I thought about my little friend Chowder after a recent talk I gave. Most of my talks pursue the same theme: Jesus came to show us how to live, how to be free, how to know God. Jesus came to save us from ourselves, not from God. After sticking with this script yet again, a person approached me as the lecture crowd was dispersing. She asked me, “Do you really believe in the kind of compassionate God you talked about tonight?” I explained that in Jesus, that is the only God I can see, not the religious images we have been sold; so yes I believe. She answered, “I really want to believe in this God – in this Jesus. I really do. But I am afraid.” I asked her, “What are you afraid of exactly?” She responded, “I am afraid this is all too good to be true, and if so, I could not stand the disappointment.”

It was then I thought of little Chowder. His experience has been our own. We have been spiritually abused. Our understanding of religion’s God has been this ugly, angry, violent being with nothing but a clinched fist and a kick off the front porch if we bark just once. We huddle under the table, afraid to get close to God or anyone who represents him. We can’t help it – it is the only experience we have. But I believe this experience has terribly damaged many of us. For this reason, among many, I find Jesus to be so liberating! Jesus shows us a different God than the one we have known; one who loves us, not abuses us; one who has painstakingly adopted us as his own, not given us reason to fear him; one who wants to care for us, not hurt us.

Can we learn to trust this God? Can we learn to believe this God really loves us? Can we come out of the dark place where we cower in fear and give him a chance to care for us? Can we give up our dread and live out our lives in his good grace? Can we? This is not too good to be true – it is far better than you can imagine. Just ask Chowder.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me.

Notifications Are of the Devil

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:49:56 GMT

By Adam McLane

Do you catch yourself in a compulsive loop sometimes? For me? Right now it starts with email. Then I go to Twitter, then Facebook, then Instagram, then ESPN.com. If things are particularly interesting I’ll go around the loop 2 or 3 times in a row.

This is what psychologist John Grohol calls FOMO Addiction. (Fear of missing out.)

Like the old-school Crackberry addict, we’re now all in the grip of “FOMO addiction” * — the fear of missing out on something or someone more interesting, exciting or better than what we’re currently doing.

Link

Web developers depend on exploiting this phenomenon. Since most social media sites are fueled by ad revenue– in turn depending upon millions and millions of pageviews where they can display millions and millions of ads per day, engineers use lots of psychology to get you to add their web application to your loop. Each time you go from site-to-site on your addictive loop you see new ads on your Gmail, Facebook timeline, sponsored tweets, etc.

For the engineers, getting into your loop is like offering free crack to a crackhead unlimited, all day and all night.

They have you.

But they want more.

Notifications Supersede the Loop

Texting gave rise to a disturbing trend for these same engineers. While desktop users have continued, even increasing their addictions; smartphones delivered a brand new way to fuel the loop even more.

At the same they noticed that texting guaranteed an interruption of the loop. Receiving a text, unlike receiving a phone call, would cause a person to almost immediately type a response. Various studies show that something like 98% of text messages are read by the recipient within 15 minutes and the response rate for texting, particularly amongst teenagers– the most influential demographic for spending, is nearly 100%. (related source)

Compare that to an email marketing message, where 20% open rate and 5% response rate are considered excellent, and you can see why web engineers knew they needed to build their own loop interrupters to supersede your loop with their content.

That’s how the notification was born. If your phone beeps or buzzes in your pocket you are almost guaranteed to check it. Likewise, if something pops up on your screen or even if a number in your peripheral vision ticks up from 22 to 23, you will check it.

Your wife could be in labor. Your house could be on fire. You might be driving through white knuckling snow with your kids in the back seat. You might be having sex. If you get a notification the neurology of that moment is against you. You will check it.

Why? Dopamine. Recent studies show that the same neurotransmitter that fuels many other chemical addictions also is released when you get a notification from a text, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, etc.

A notification causes you a tiny bit of pleasure… and the drive for that impulsive pleasure will augment your loop and interrupt whatever you are doing.

In my new book, A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Social Media, we explore the this more and its impact on teenagers.

But, for now, let’s talk about what you need to do.

Notifications are of the Devil

When I say that notifications are of the devil I’m only kidding a little bit. If you think about it, web engineers are exploiting a very similar neurological response to many other life-endangering addictions.

Doing drugs gives you a big hit of “dope.” Meanwhile checking hundreds of notifications per day is lots and lots of tiny hits of “dope.” You decide if that’s the devils handiwork. I tend to think it is.

Notifications may be ruining your quality of life (and perhaps your safety).

So turn them off. All of them. Notifications on your phone, your laptop, your tablet, your email… turn them all off. (Here’s a Google search to get you started) You don’t need any of them.

Next, make it so your phone never vibrates. Think about it, if you are having lunch with a co-worker or are in a meeting, or are watching a movie. Do you really need to check that text message? Nope. And if you turn off all visual, audio, and vibrating notifications you can simply ignore all of that.

Web developers, in an attempt to get you to view the next ad, are driving you crazy. Literally, they are fueling an addiction that is stressing the relationships in your life simply so they can make more money.

So make the choice.

Reclaim your life.

Turn off all notifications.

Do it now.

P.S. Like this post? Want to be a better parent of a teenager in a social media infused world? Pre-order my book, A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Social Media.

RELATED INFOGRAPHIC: Facebook Psychology: Is Addiction Affecting Our Minds?

A lifelong youth worker, Adam McLane is a partner at The Youth Cartel and principal at McLane Creative. This post was originally published on Adam's blog.

The Spotlight

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:26:29 GMT

By Adam Thomas

I put the guitar down on the wooden bench, dropped my right knee to the root-strewn ground, and produced the ring from my pocket. The green light that shone through the trees of the outdoor chapel glinted off the diamond and sapphires, a perfect analog for the light that I felt sure was bursting from my own chest. The last words of the song I had just finished singing clung to the hot, humid, late-July air and surrounded us with the most important question I have ever asked: “Leah, darling, will you marry me?” She nodded her head once, unable to find her voice. Then, after an eternal moment during which I could feel in the depths of my soul the momentum of our entire lives converging on that one point in time, she whispered the single word I longed to hear: “Yes.” My hand trembled so much that I had trouble finding her finger with the ring. And as we embraced, I realized something profound—profound and wonderful. I realized that I was no longer the main character in my own life.

For the first 27½ years of my existence, my chief concern, whether I acknowledged it or not, was me. I was Numero Uno, first in line, the Big Cheese. I was in the spotlight. Sure, I lived my life with a dollop of self-sacrifice, of serving the other at my own cost, but this behavior was much more garnish than entree. I was the main character of my life: the rest of the cast never really could rival me for my own attention. Then I met Leah and everything changed. Suddenly, not only did I desire to share the spotlight, I would have been excited to give the prime spot to her alone. A whole new world of service opened up to me that I don’t think I was ever aware of before. When we came together as a couple, I finally understood the joys of self-sacrificial love.

Looking back on those days two years ago, I chuckle at God’s sense of humor and rejoice in God’s providence. I can just hear God the Father saying to God the Son: “You know that Adam Thomas fellow? He’s my beloved child, he’s even a priest of the Church, but he just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand your words, Son, when you said to your friends: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ ”

“You know what we should do?” says God the Son. “We should get him to Massachusetts so he can meet Leah Johnson. I think she will clue him in.”

You see, I spent 27½ years – that’s 93.2% of my life, by the way – trying to have my cake and eat it to. I tried to follow Jesus and remain the main character in my own life. But Jesus’ words and his own self-sacrificial love show us a different way.

Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” We Americans are programmed to cringe at the thought of “denying ourselves.” We want giant SUVs that have great fuel economy. We want the beer to taste great and be less filling. We want to treat ourselves to chocolate desserts that don’t have any calories. We want to pursue our happiness, and we don’t seem to mind advertisers telling us just what our happiness should look like. These marketers know they will rake in so much more money if they continue convincing us that being the main characters of our own lives is the best way to live.

Until I met Leah, I bought into the hype. I’ll let you in on a secret: when I was in elementary school, my parents sent me to a session or two of therapy because of how awfully and brutally I insisted on getting my own way. The temper tantrums I threw if we didn’t go to the restaurant I wanted to go to were the stuff of legend. One of these tantrums happened on my mother’s birthday. While that behavior faded as I got older, I still succumb all too often to our me-first consumer culture. I’d be willing to bet that you do too.

But when we deny ourselves and stop striving to be the main characters, we no longer feel shortchanged when Jesus spins the spotlight away from us and shines the light on others. These others are always the ones that Jesus desires us to see: the ones who seem to us to be the ensemble, those brought in just to fill out the cast, the extras. In our film, these extras are those who have no roof over their heads or who have no money for food or who lay in the nursing home with no one to visit them. But in God’s film, these extras are the stars. When we insist that the spotlight stay on us, these others remain in the shadows, too unimportant to garner any attention. But when we follow Jesus Christ as he yearns for us to, we let go of our stranglehold on the spotlight and finally see those whom he would have us see.

And when we see in this way, when we notice those outside our own spotlights, something happens that the advertisers and marketing directors never prepared us for. We discover a latent desire that Jesus’ words planted within us when we were looking the other way. We discover the desire to be generous and welcoming to those who never enjoy the spotlight. We look the ensemble cast members in the eye and realize that we want to know their names and where they grew up and what their hopes and dreams for the future are. We turn out our pockets and volunteer our time and invite the stranger to become friend because by doing so we notice clearly the footsteps of Christ walking one step before us. We feel the life of Christ welling up from within us and connecting with the life of Christ welling up from within the other, who now shines in the spotlight.

Jesus Christ is always walking one step before us, but we don’t always walk one step behind him. We stray, we go off on our own, we set up camp rather than continue following. But even with all of our wilderness wanderings and our prima donna tendencies, he continues to stay one step away, calling us back to his path. His path is hard: the way of denial, of self-sacrifice, of cross-carrying. But his path is also the way of true joy.

When we walk down Jesus’ path, the spotlight is never on us, but on those around us, those walking with us. Now that God has blessed me with a partner to remind me that I am not the main character of my life, I have crept slowly and haltingly onto this path and found the joy of stepping out of the spotlight, the joy of generosity and welcoming and service. Perhaps you have, too. Perhaps, as we turn the spotlight on each other and on those Jesus would have us see, together we will notice, there marking the ground in front of us, the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

The Christ in Christmas

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:31:50 GMT

By Robert J. Morgan

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. Churches must be assertive, unyielding, and unapologetic in presenting a Savior who came upon a midnight clear. For some reason, lots of people want to strip Christmas of its historical and spiritual heritage. And many more fight tooth and nail to "keep" Christ is Christmas. But I want to say for the record that it’s actually pretty hard to get Christ out of Christmas.

The word Christmas spells our Savior’s name in its first six letters.
If they want to call it a holiday, let’s remind them that the word is derived from the words “holy day,” and it refers to the holiness of the birth of Christ.
If they want to call it Yuletide, that’s the old phrase for the 12 days of Christmas—the Feast of the Nativity.
If they want to talk about the seasonal holiday, we’ll tell them how Jesus is “the reason for the season.”
If they want to talk about Santa Claus, let’s explain that there really was a Christian named Saint Nicholas in the city of Myra, Turkey, in the fourth century, who was famous for his generous gifts to the poor.
If they want to talk about gift-giving, tell them about the Magi who brought the first Christmas gifts to the Christchild.
If they talk about the songs and sounds of the season, tell them about the first choirs that filled the Bethlehem skies on the night Christ was born.
And if they want to use the abbreviation Xmas, point out that the “X” is the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter and the symbol of Christ.

It will be pretty hard to get Christ out of Christmas, especially if we take full advantage at my church and yours as we shout it from the mountaintop and spread abroad the good tidings of comfort and joy.

Eyes on Israel

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:42:23 GMT

By Shane Raynor

Last week, Kim Kardashian found out just how fired up people can get when someone dares to bring up the subject of Israel. On Friday, she tweeted to her 16+ million followers, “Praying for everyone in Israel.” She was deluged with responses, mostly negative, including some death threats. Although she tried to calm the waters with a follow-up tweet, the vitriol kept coming. Eventually she deleted both tweets. Kim Kardashian isn’t an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, so her naïveté is understandable. But how could a tweet about prayer create such a firestorm?

Well, for one, just recognizing Israel’s existence is enough to push many people over the edge. At around 8,000 square miles, the state of Israel has roughly the same land area as the state of New Jersey, and since it came into existence in 1948, Israel has been a hot spot of tension and conflict for political and religious groups worldwide. Almost no one is neutral when it comes to Israel. Or so it seems.

Israel’s existence has created unusual alliances. Both religious and secular Jews who are pro-Israel have been joined by many American evangelicals and other Christian groups in the United States in building a political climate in America that, for all practical purposes, strongly supports the Jewish state unconditionally. On the other side, there are other Christian groups, often mainline and progressive, that have been more critical of a no-holds-barred pro-Israeli stance.

Then there’s the whole end times thing. Many Christians, especially evangelical dispensationalists, believe that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and its subsequent capture of Jerusalem in 1967 are signs that we’re living in the last days. (Of course, when you’re talking about almost two thousand years since the Roman Siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, “last days” is a relative term.) Some argue that people who hold rigidly to this “we’re in the last days” eschatology have created such a formidable movement that some unfolding events may really be self-fulfilling prophecies. As these end times “experts” have gained influence over the years, some have compared them to spectators at a football game who decided to join the game and influence the outcome.

On the other side there are believers who have rightly pointed out the plight of Arab citizens of Israel, including many Palestinian Christians who feel trapped in the middle of all the tension. War and conflict always have their costs, and innocent people sometimes suffer and die. When that happens, no matter how great the cause may be, it’s a tragedy.

Unfortunately, many people think they have to be pro-Israel or anti-Israel, no qualification, end of discussion. Others recognize the need for a third point-of-view (the seeing gray approach) that recognizes valid claims on both sides. But I believe it’s hard to be completely impartial on this. So I won’t be.

I generally support Israel for a number of reasons, but not without exception. Israel gets things wrong sometimes. And at the end of the day, it’s largely a secular nation (although it’s officially a “Jewish and Democratic state”). But it’s America's most loyal ally in the Middle East, and although it’s not one and the same with ancient Israel and Judah, we can’t overlook the fact that its very existence is extraordinary. It’s the world’s only Jewish state—over 75% of its population claims a Jewish identity. And most Jews in the world live either in Israel or the United States in almost equal numbers (5.3 million in the U.S., 5.7 million in Israel). Even if we don’t consider the significance of its geographical boundaries, the fact that Israel is the world’s only Jewish nation with a plurality of the world’s Jews living there is a big deal.

In Genesis 12:3, God told Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of earth will be blessed because of you.” Christians, of course, read this verse through the lens of the cross. But it’s undeniable that God blessed the world through the Jewish people with a Jewish Messiah. And although Christians are the children of a new covenant, we should maintain a special respect for the Jewish people because God still has a special relationship with them. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to share Christ with Jews, but it does mean that we should take God’s covenant with Abraham seriously. I believe that extreme replacement theology (i.e. the church is Israel now) has been responsible (at least indirectly) for much anti-semitism in the church throughout history.

The current headline at the ABC News website reads “Hopes Rise for Gaza Ceasefire”. Let’s pray for peace in Israel. For such a small piece of real estate, it sure does get a lot of the world’s attention. And deep down, we know there’s something very special about this little country.

Keep watching, and keep praying.

Advent Apocalypse

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:46:08 GMT

By Shane Raynor

Advent is one of my favorite times on the church calendar. But when I was growing up, it was little more than the Christmas pre-season, a countdown to the birth of Jesus... and the cool benefits for kids that came with commemorating that event... time off from school, presents, and lots of food. The real meaning of Advent would escape me until I got older.

Advent is sometimes misunderstood. Most people with a traditional church background understand that it’s observed the four Sundays before Christmas, but we don’t always understand the significance of the season. And churches that use the Lectionary are sometimes caught off guard by the passages that reference the second coming of Christ. (“We haven’t even celebrated the first coming yet!”)

And that’s the point. Contrary to what you may have heard, Advent is much more than the beginning of the Christian year. It’s also the end of the Christian year. It’s a beautiful season of hope and mystery where we simultaneously commemorate the first coming of Christ and wait with expectation for the second. I didn’t really understand that for the longest time. I’d hear the haunting songs of Advent (when we weren’t sneaking in early Christmas carols) and I tried to put myself in the shoes of the people living before the birth of Christ. But it’s hard to really get into the groove of that, especially when you know how everything turns out.

The cool thing about Advent is that we’re waiting for Christ too, and we’re dealing with an element of uncertainty the same way people were 2,000 years ago. We don’t know when it’s going to be! And we don’t even know exactly how everything’s going to go down. I sometimes get amused when people get dogmatic about certain end times theories. A few years ago, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins shattered sales records with their apocalyptic fiction series Left Behind, and with the success of that series came an increased interest in eschatology and the end times. Hal Lindsey had created similar buzz a generation before with his Zondervan bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth.

But it turns out, many people aren’t very flexible or generous when it comes to end times orthodoxy. Mention the Left Behind series in most mainline circles (and even in some other Christian groups) and your comment will likely be met with derision. "Only people who don’t understand the Bible could believe in something as ridiculous as the rapture!" And this attitude goes the other way too. In 2005, after Tyndale had released the first book in a fiction trilogy with an alternative viewpoint, Tim LaHaye blasted his publisher: "They are going to take the money we made for them and promote this nonsense."

The truth is, we don’t know every detail of what the end times will bring, or when everything will take place. Odds are, we won’t even be the generation that sees it all unfold. (Not from our current vantage point anyway.) I love talking about different end times theories, and I try hard to be patient with people who think they have everything all figured out. Some of us may concede that we don’t have all the answers, but we’re way too sure that the other guy doesn’t have any of the answers.

No matter what your favorite end times theory is, two things are certain. One is that we’re all going to enter eternity at some point, and for most of us, we’re going to do it the old fashioned way—by dying! The second is that Christians can always face uncertainty with hope. That’s what the season of Advent is about—hope. Hope gives us confidence that God is going to work everything out in the end. Hope is the reason many churches have switched their Advent colors from purple to blue in recent years. Purple is a color that generally represents penitence and fasting (think Lent), while blue symbolizes hope. No doubt many disagree with this, and if you spend much time around liturgical purists, you’ll see how seriously people take this stuff. Personally, I’m partial to blue because I think it helps differentiate the tone of the season from Lent.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at how the Advent season relates to the end times. With the 2012 phenomenon and all the speculation surrounding December 21 this year, it seems like as good a time as any. It should be fun and informative.

Just don’t stop making your mortgage payments yet.

7 Ways to Gain and Keep Trust as a Leader

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:09:08 GMT

By Ron Edmondson

People follow people they trust. Do you want to be a trusted leader? Let people learn to trust you.

I’ve found trust develops over time and experience, as we witness trustworthy behavior. Honestly, it’s a delicate balance, because while the leader needs to be strong, independent and confident, a trusted leader must be approachable, inclusive and humble.

Here are 7 ways to gain and keep trust as a leader:

Always display confidence, but never cockiness. People will trust a competent leader, but one who is arrogant will be dismissed quickly.

Always follow through, so don’t over-commit. When a leader does what he or she says they will, people gain trust. When the leader always bails on responsibility, people begin to doubt everything the leader says.

Always put trust in others, so they’ll put trust in you. Trust is a mutually exclusive commodity. People won’t extend you trust they don’t feel they receive from you. Always extend grace, but be firm in some non-negotiables. (I wrote mine HERE) We need to allow people the freedom make their own way, including the freedom to fail, make mistakes, and be assured we will forgive them if needed. We should have, however, some standards which are not open to discussion. Those should usually be issues of character, vision or values.

Always try to be knowledgeable and aware by constantly learning, but realize you don’t know everything and you’ll know far more with a team. People trust a teachable leader. They are leery of a leader who knows it all…or pretends they do.

Always exhibit humility, but take great pride in your work. A humble, but diligent and effective leader is a trusted leader. It’s as simple as that.

Always value people more than you value progress. This is especially difficult for driven leaders, but people trust people they trust care for them.

What other ways would you add to gain and keep trust as a leader?

Tending to Seeds and Soil

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:49:41 GMT

By Kasey Hitt

Silent retreat days allow space to consider what's going on "under our surface" and give us time to tend to the seeds God has planted in the soil of our hearts. The following is a guide used at silent retreats during the fall season but such reflection may be used anytime, anywhere. Autumn is a season of new beginnings as nature scatters seed, the evidence to be seen later on.

How might this speak to your life? How might you tend to your own seeds and soil?

Mark 4:1-20, 26-32

Seeds

How can you tend to the "seeds" given to you? (ex. identity, calling, true self, words of encouragement, insights, etc.)

Remember.

Ask God to show you scenes from your life, especially childhood, when you felt the greatest joy, when you felt "yourself." Or, look back over your life and recall when something that was "lost" or the "door closed" turned out to be seeds of new life to come.

Spend time with these seeds.

Relive them. Write them down, do a collage/drawing/sculpture based on a story or scenes from your life or take a walk, even gathering seeds you find along the way.

Ask God, "Is there a certain 'seed' you would like me to tend to at this time in my life?" Pay attention to what comes to mind.

Soil

How can you prepare the soil of your heart to receive these seeds?

Rest.

Care for yourself in ways that God has created you to be renewed.
A nap, a walk, being still, listening to the sounds around you, noticing your surroundings, breathing deeply, gratitude, rubbing lotion into your hands, stretching, being with people, being by yourself, enjoying the smell and taste of food, creating somthing...

Recognize.

What seems to be your biggest challenge in allowing this "seed" to take root and grow?
Easily stolen (by unbelief/refusal to believe, opposing words of others, fear, etc.)
Withers (with trouble, persecution, personal loss, etc.)
Choked (by anxiety, envy, worry, stress, etc.)

Respond.

Imagine yourself having a conversation with Jesus about this "seed" and your current "soil conditions."
Or talk with God while on a walk, through art or journaling.
Let Him know what you need for this seed to take root and grow. Listen. What is His response? Ask Him if there's anything else He'd like to show you in regard to the soil of your heart and the seeds of your life.

Imagine what your life may look like if/when this seed takes root and grows in you. And that's just the beginning. Read Mark 4:20, 26-32 in gratitude for what God is doing in you, for the seeds He plants and helps you grow (even when you're unaware of it).

To dig deeper into becoming a gardener of your own soul, read Parker Palmer's books: A Hidden Wholeness and Let Your Life Speak.