If you are in or around the Baltimore area or know anoyone in or around the Baltimore area, this is where Locust Point Community is heading. If not I would love some comments and thoughts...
If We Build It
Time is precious; once spent it can’t be recovered. Trite, sure, but true nonetheless. Locust Point Community UCC is in an exciting time, and we want you to join us for what’s next. Better yet, we want you to tell us what’s next. Will you give 4 hours one month to build the church you would attend?
Jesus was an intense guy. When he walked the earth he turned all the religious conventions on their head. He changed the way people talked to God, how they interacted with God, and how they treated each other. He broke down barriers, advocated for the outcast, and called the religious leaders to an accountability that they didn’t ask for or want. Is it any wonder that they wanted to silence him?
Religion is one of the most divisive things in our world today. People use religion to justify discrimination, violence, and intolerance. “Religion” is not what we want to be about at Locust Point Community. We want to be Jesus with skin: reaching, serving, loving, caring, healing, holding people accountable, building people, tearing down walls and veils, dealing with the least, the lost, and the lonely as well as meeting with the influential, the wealthy, and the wise. Jesus did all these things and more. Carpenter, prophet, messiah, rabbi, teacher, high priest. At any moment, Jesus was one of these and all of these. If we are going to be Jesus with skin, we need to be ready to take on these same roles, and while no one of us is able to fill them all like he did, as a team we can do great things.
Locust Point Community UCC has been in the neighborhood for more than a century and has no plans of going anywhere any time soon. We recognize that just as people grow, just as the neighborhood has grown and changed throughout the years, so too do people’s understanding of what church is and what it’s meant to be. We will continue to offer a traditional service for those that find it to be the best way to connect with God, while at the same time we recognize the need to evolve with the neighborhood. As the Pastor of this great church, I see no reason why we can’t simultaneously honor the past, and look to the future.
So what does this mean, what’s the catch? It’s simple, actually. We want to welcome people who grew up in Locust Point, people who are new to the neighborhood and area, and people who are tired of a church that makes you feel like you have to have it all together, know a secret language, and get all the boxes checked before you can hope to be accepted. We want four weeks of your time to help us design a new kind of gathering. Four hours for one month, one hour a week we will tackle some tough questions, give you a chance to share your stories, good and bad, about church, God, and “Christians.” We’ll then consider all of these things, plus a few more, and begin to put together Locust Point’s Community Church.
Our aim is to be a diverse group of people seeking to follow Christ, living and working in community for a common goal – to be Jesus with Skin.
Would you come?
What would you want to see in this space?
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Friday, February 13, 2015
What are we afraid of...
Sunday in church we talked about the church in Smyrna. As I prepared for the sermon something struck me that will likely come as no shock to most of the people who know me and read my blog. Occasionally I tweet out sermon snips while I'm preparing for sermons. I like doing it sometimes seeing a like next to a tweet or a post just perks a person up, but I also would like to engage with others and see what their thoughts are regarding some of these ideas that are pulled into conscious thought and usually work on me on different levels throughout the week and beyond. This past Sunday and continuing into this week one of the snips that didn't see the light of day until Sunday continues to work on me. Sunday I talked about two specific issues with the church and Christians in general. The first was the myth of Christianity...I'm guessing it's pretty obvious why I didn't tweet that out while it was still in the brewing stages...the problem is it's still brewing and reaction to the Presidents prayer breakfast remarks has made me realize why. I believe that by and large Christianity in the western world and specifically in the United States has become more mythological as the years have gone by. Track with me for a moment the dictionary defines the word Myth as,a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. So what do I mean when I talk about the Myth of Christianity?
We have unprecedented freedom in the US, especially when it comes to religious freedom, anyone who says otherwise needs to check out what real persecution is, it's not that hard, head over to the Voice of the Martyrs web site and well things should suddenly become clear, if not, if you can still honestly in your heart claim persecution when someone questions your beliefs, or challenges your thoughts on marriage equality, separation of church and state, prayer in schools, the list is endless, I have no words. Along with that unprecedented freedom seems to have come an unwillingness to admit to the atrocities practiced in the name of Christ.
Lets see.
1. The Crusades. They happened people killed people in the name of Christ. Why we are afraid to admit this, why we refuse to own this atrocious past, no matter how we spin it it's true. People perpetuated violence in the name of Christ, misguided, sure, bad interpretation of scripture, obviously, done by some with "good intentions," possibly. Still wrong yes, still evil, yes. We need to own it, not spin it.
2. Oppression and Slavery. Like it or not people in our country have slapped the name Christian and Jesus on all sorts of bigotry, still do as a matter of fact. Our refusal to acknowledge this, or our willingness to sweep it under the rug because it's embarrassing doesn't mean it didn't and unfortunately doesn't still happen.
3. Misinterpretation: One of the arguments many Muslims use when they condemn people who share their faith who perpetuate violence and terrorism has been that the extremists do not speak for or properly interpret the Koran. Of course we know that misinterpretation and extremist groups are relegated to the Muslim faith only...right? There are no extremist Christians? No one in our country or others that uses scripture out of context to justify their behavior...no never happens in Christianity, just in other religions.
I don't understand my more right wing friends need to tear into the President publicly over remarks that were made at the prayer breakfast. What are Christians afraid of?
John 8:31-59 offers some interesting thoughts into this idea, at least to me it does. We have a group of religious leaders who are used to not being questioned, used to not being challenged. The parallels are great, they use rhetoric and long held tradition, or at least long held traditional thought to justify their action, or inaction on various issues. Jesus calls them on it, tells them the truth is important and needs to be embraced, accepted and dealt with. We don't want to do this because it means we may have to change our minds on what it really means to be a Christ follower. We may have to change our reaction to being offended, misunderstood, or called out for hypocrisy. Change is never easy, and many times facing the missteps, and sins of the past can be downright uncomfortable, but it still has to be done. If we as Christ followers have any hope of being relevant, and a bridge to a relationship with God to others, then it's time we stop acting like we are above it all, that our sins of commission and omission are mistakes that should be overlooked. We need to be able to look at the statement that President Obama made
"And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."
The statement stands, it's true, it's accurate, yet "important" Christian leaders have decided that this true statement doesn't fit with their understanding of American Christianity. It's like we are afraid of our past, afraid that people will see us and turn us into our sin...This isn't fun, it's not easy or comfortable but if we believe what Jesus says in John 8:32 (New Living Translation, Second Edition)
8:32 (NLT) And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The truth is that following Christ is hard, it takes time, effort, dedication, and humility. I wish American Christians would embrace the grace, love and forgiveness of God, that they would let him into the places in the institution that have been locked up for decades, let him come into the uncomfortable spots, the places that we have misinterpreted scripture, that we have used it as a club to beat people out of the light and love of Christ and do the work that must happen.
My observation... we're great at specks of dirt, but blind to planks of wood.
We have unprecedented freedom in the US, especially when it comes to religious freedom, anyone who says otherwise needs to check out what real persecution is, it's not that hard, head over to the Voice of the Martyrs web site and well things should suddenly become clear, if not, if you can still honestly in your heart claim persecution when someone questions your beliefs, or challenges your thoughts on marriage equality, separation of church and state, prayer in schools, the list is endless, I have no words. Along with that unprecedented freedom seems to have come an unwillingness to admit to the atrocities practiced in the name of Christ.
Lets see.
1. The Crusades. They happened people killed people in the name of Christ. Why we are afraid to admit this, why we refuse to own this atrocious past, no matter how we spin it it's true. People perpetuated violence in the name of Christ, misguided, sure, bad interpretation of scripture, obviously, done by some with "good intentions," possibly. Still wrong yes, still evil, yes. We need to own it, not spin it.
2. Oppression and Slavery. Like it or not people in our country have slapped the name Christian and Jesus on all sorts of bigotry, still do as a matter of fact. Our refusal to acknowledge this, or our willingness to sweep it under the rug because it's embarrassing doesn't mean it didn't and unfortunately doesn't still happen.
3. Misinterpretation: One of the arguments many Muslims use when they condemn people who share their faith who perpetuate violence and terrorism has been that the extremists do not speak for or properly interpret the Koran. Of course we know that misinterpretation and extremist groups are relegated to the Muslim faith only...right? There are no extremist Christians? No one in our country or others that uses scripture out of context to justify their behavior...no never happens in Christianity, just in other religions.
I don't understand my more right wing friends need to tear into the President publicly over remarks that were made at the prayer breakfast. What are Christians afraid of?
John 8:31-59 offers some interesting thoughts into this idea, at least to me it does. We have a group of religious leaders who are used to not being questioned, used to not being challenged. The parallels are great, they use rhetoric and long held tradition, or at least long held traditional thought to justify their action, or inaction on various issues. Jesus calls them on it, tells them the truth is important and needs to be embraced, accepted and dealt with. We don't want to do this because it means we may have to change our minds on what it really means to be a Christ follower. We may have to change our reaction to being offended, misunderstood, or called out for hypocrisy. Change is never easy, and many times facing the missteps, and sins of the past can be downright uncomfortable, but it still has to be done. If we as Christ followers have any hope of being relevant, and a bridge to a relationship with God to others, then it's time we stop acting like we are above it all, that our sins of commission and omission are mistakes that should be overlooked. We need to be able to look at the statement that President Obama made
"And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."
The statement stands, it's true, it's accurate, yet "important" Christian leaders have decided that this true statement doesn't fit with their understanding of American Christianity. It's like we are afraid of our past, afraid that people will see us and turn us into our sin...This isn't fun, it's not easy or comfortable but if we believe what Jesus says in John 8:32 (New Living Translation, Second Edition)
8:32 (NLT) And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The truth is that following Christ is hard, it takes time, effort, dedication, and humility. I wish American Christians would embrace the grace, love and forgiveness of God, that they would let him into the places in the institution that have been locked up for decades, let him come into the uncomfortable spots, the places that we have misinterpreted scripture, that we have used it as a club to beat people out of the light and love of Christ and do the work that must happen.
My observation... we're great at specks of dirt, but blind to planks of wood.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Faithful are the wounds...but what if there's no one to wound you...
Recently one of the best and most influential professors from my college career passed away. What makes it difficult is how hard it is for us to realize how important and special people are when we are around them on a regular basis. If 41-year-old Aaron, could go back and have a chat with 18 to 20-year-old Aaron he would tell him to appreciate his professors more, to let them know that they were important and appreciated.
This past year has seen several of my college professors pass on to their great and as far as I'm concerned well deserved reward and rest. When I read that Dr. Dusing had passed, I was sad, mainly at my failure to recognize and at least thank the men and women who had an impact on my life at a young age, and whose lessons are just now being realized.
I'm blessed to have a couple of the professors of my youth as friends on Facebook. Recently the professor that I would have to say was my favorite at SEC, posted the eulogy he wrote for his friend, as my ADD ran wild during sermon prep for Sunday, i read the document shared with those of us who cared to read it. I will admit to a tear in the eye as I read the love and respect and deep friendship that he shared. Dr. Fettke, thank you for sharing something so personal. Know that I appreciate you and the work, dedication, and calling you have continued to answer throughout the life God gave you.
Now to the not so great part of this blog. The pity party part of the equation, along with the emotion and admiration, I felt very keenly a deep sense of jealousy. Jealousy for a friendship like the one described, spanning decades, full of mutual respect, willingness to say what needed to be said, gracious, loving. I want this, but don't have it, and I have to wonder...
The problems we Gen Xr's have are myriad and have been written on, discussed, studied and debated for years. To some we're angsty, mistrusting, slackers who don't get it. Our personalities punctuated by dark humor, deep sarcasm, and an inability to see the bright side. Our music punctuated with angry guitar licks, foreboding lyrics, and anti-establishment rhetoric, and while I love listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Chilli Peppers, there is more to us. I just think that we don't know how to have long-term friendships. We want them, we know on paper what it takes to maintain a friendship, we know but we don't KNOW if that makes sense.
We used to have friends. People who we could call, people we knew would be around no matter what. We used to have people we hung out with, we called, we would travel across states to be with to talk to, to hang out with, to encourage or to gain encouragement from, but they are all gone. For some reason the connections failed, which is funny when you think about it. We now have the ability to connect with anyone, anywhere in the world. Distance doesn't need to be an issue, we can even play together if we are so inclined on the console or computer of our choice. We can be super social, share pins, use Instagram to keep up to date real-time on vacations, food, family, the list is endless as far as the pictures we can share in a second. All of this is just another condemnation of my own inability to stay connected, to have friends that count.
When I finished reading Dr. Fettke's eulogy of his friend, I told J I was sad, because I don't have anyone that I could write a eulogy for and that would write one for me as full of connection as that one was. It's sad and pathetic, and wrong, but equally troubling is the fact that I don't know how to fix the problem. So much water has gone under the bridges of past friendships, my life has changed, my faith has evolved, my priorities have shifted, I feel hurt and angry at the people I was close to because they don't reach out to connect, but I'm no better, I don't reach to connect either. Making new friends is equally daunting, I want to do it, but always hold back, because they won't be around in 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years. The result, I have acquaintances, people I'm fond of, people I like, people I even call friend, but they aren't eulogy friends.
This all came screaming to the front of my brain and out of my finger tips after a particularly rough day. I got home walked the dog, unbuttoned my shirt, kicked off my shoes, and wanted to connect, to vent, to have someone listen. I ended up tweeting a guy who knows of me, knows the challenges we face in our ministry, because he has lived through similar, but who lives in Canada, ministers in Canada, writes books, and speaks at conferences. He tweeted me back, which was cool said he was sorry to hear it. Real interaction, much appreciated, but sad because I feel closer to a successful author and pastor of a church in a different country than I do with anyone within 50 miles of me. I'm not sure what I expected from the tweet, but I sucked up the response like it was water and I had been in the Mojave for three days.
Vocational ministry is one of the loneliest professions around. Add to that the job description of lead pastor or senior pastor or only pastor or whatever you want to call it, and it's even lonelier. Every service is an evaluation, and the self-evaluation is always much harsher than any you receive from members. Every book you read, every conference you attend speaks to the importance of developing a network of ministers to talk to, to spend time with, to be accountable to. Ministers need friends that are in the business because they understand the issues, and they need friends outside the business that treat them like one of the guys or girls. We know this, we crave this, but it's not easy. I know this I crave this, but I don't know HOW to do it.
We went to Ohio for Christmas and while I was walking the dog in our old neighborhood I realized something. The first day I walked down to the park I thought how great it would be to move back, we own a house, there's a great park for the dog etc. I miss this I thought. As the day's wore on though I realized something. I don't miss Ohio, I don't miss the Park or the House, I miss the relationships that defined that time in our lives. I miss my contentedness to friends that I'm no longer connected too.
Am I to blame in all of this, sure. Can it be fixed? I don't like to ask myself that question, because I'm pretty sure I know the answer and well it's not a great one.
I'm almost a hundred percent sure we aren't alone, I'm sure J and I are one of many who feel the same way. Maybe we should start a support group... lol
See you around the Blog...
This past year has seen several of my college professors pass on to their great and as far as I'm concerned well deserved reward and rest. When I read that Dr. Dusing had passed, I was sad, mainly at my failure to recognize and at least thank the men and women who had an impact on my life at a young age, and whose lessons are just now being realized.
I'm blessed to have a couple of the professors of my youth as friends on Facebook. Recently the professor that I would have to say was my favorite at SEC, posted the eulogy he wrote for his friend, as my ADD ran wild during sermon prep for Sunday, i read the document shared with those of us who cared to read it. I will admit to a tear in the eye as I read the love and respect and deep friendship that he shared. Dr. Fettke, thank you for sharing something so personal. Know that I appreciate you and the work, dedication, and calling you have continued to answer throughout the life God gave you.
Now to the not so great part of this blog. The pity party part of the equation, along with the emotion and admiration, I felt very keenly a deep sense of jealousy. Jealousy for a friendship like the one described, spanning decades, full of mutual respect, willingness to say what needed to be said, gracious, loving. I want this, but don't have it, and I have to wonder...
The problems we Gen Xr's have are myriad and have been written on, discussed, studied and debated for years. To some we're angsty, mistrusting, slackers who don't get it. Our personalities punctuated by dark humor, deep sarcasm, and an inability to see the bright side. Our music punctuated with angry guitar licks, foreboding lyrics, and anti-establishment rhetoric, and while I love listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Chilli Peppers, there is more to us. I just think that we don't know how to have long-term friendships. We want them, we know on paper what it takes to maintain a friendship, we know but we don't KNOW if that makes sense.
We used to have friends. People who we could call, people we knew would be around no matter what. We used to have people we hung out with, we called, we would travel across states to be with to talk to, to hang out with, to encourage or to gain encouragement from, but they are all gone. For some reason the connections failed, which is funny when you think about it. We now have the ability to connect with anyone, anywhere in the world. Distance doesn't need to be an issue, we can even play together if we are so inclined on the console or computer of our choice. We can be super social, share pins, use Instagram to keep up to date real-time on vacations, food, family, the list is endless as far as the pictures we can share in a second. All of this is just another condemnation of my own inability to stay connected, to have friends that count.
When I finished reading Dr. Fettke's eulogy of his friend, I told J I was sad, because I don't have anyone that I could write a eulogy for and that would write one for me as full of connection as that one was. It's sad and pathetic, and wrong, but equally troubling is the fact that I don't know how to fix the problem. So much water has gone under the bridges of past friendships, my life has changed, my faith has evolved, my priorities have shifted, I feel hurt and angry at the people I was close to because they don't reach out to connect, but I'm no better, I don't reach to connect either. Making new friends is equally daunting, I want to do it, but always hold back, because they won't be around in 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years. The result, I have acquaintances, people I'm fond of, people I like, people I even call friend, but they aren't eulogy friends.
This all came screaming to the front of my brain and out of my finger tips after a particularly rough day. I got home walked the dog, unbuttoned my shirt, kicked off my shoes, and wanted to connect, to vent, to have someone listen. I ended up tweeting a guy who knows of me, knows the challenges we face in our ministry, because he has lived through similar, but who lives in Canada, ministers in Canada, writes books, and speaks at conferences. He tweeted me back, which was cool said he was sorry to hear it. Real interaction, much appreciated, but sad because I feel closer to a successful author and pastor of a church in a different country than I do with anyone within 50 miles of me. I'm not sure what I expected from the tweet, but I sucked up the response like it was water and I had been in the Mojave for three days.
Vocational ministry is one of the loneliest professions around. Add to that the job description of lead pastor or senior pastor or only pastor or whatever you want to call it, and it's even lonelier. Every service is an evaluation, and the self-evaluation is always much harsher than any you receive from members. Every book you read, every conference you attend speaks to the importance of developing a network of ministers to talk to, to spend time with, to be accountable to. Ministers need friends that are in the business because they understand the issues, and they need friends outside the business that treat them like one of the guys or girls. We know this, we crave this, but it's not easy. I know this I crave this, but I don't know HOW to do it.
We went to Ohio for Christmas and while I was walking the dog in our old neighborhood I realized something. The first day I walked down to the park I thought how great it would be to move back, we own a house, there's a great park for the dog etc. I miss this I thought. As the day's wore on though I realized something. I don't miss Ohio, I don't miss the Park or the House, I miss the relationships that defined that time in our lives. I miss my contentedness to friends that I'm no longer connected too.
Am I to blame in all of this, sure. Can it be fixed? I don't like to ask myself that question, because I'm pretty sure I know the answer and well it's not a great one.
I'm almost a hundred percent sure we aren't alone, I'm sure J and I are one of many who feel the same way. Maybe we should start a support group... lol
See you around the Blog...
Monday, December 22, 2014
That Luther Moment
I think every Christ Follower needs to have what I have decided to call That Luther Moment, a moment when they wrestle with the faith that they thought they knew. Historically we know that it's likely Luther didn't actually nail any thing to the church door in Wittenberg, mainly because his desire was to open a dialog with church leadership regarding the sale of indulgences, a practice that was being abused in the name of God. So while when my Luther moment came I took a page from popular and unproven tradition, it's no less of an important step in my growth as a Christ Follower.
If our faith is comparable to a walk, or a run if you're Paul that implies a beginning and an end. It's hard to see an end to faith but the more I study the more I realize that when we shuffle off this mortal coil, when we finally are able to see face to face instead of through this dark and murky glass (poetic enough for you?) things will change, including our faith. I maintain that our walk or race takes on the most significance when we are willing to entertain the idea that we have it all wrong, or at least huge chunks of it wrong. This is not something that is easy for anyone to do. It means that we have to question what we have been brought up to understand Christianity to be. It means coming face to face with the fact that what we have been taught at church or in Sunday school, may not be the whole story, that there are other sides of things that there are other interpretations of what is being read. That's the thing really no matter what anyone says they are interpreting scripture and as we all know interpretation is almost always tinted with the person doing the interpretations opinion, accent and bias.
Verbal language is a complex thing. We know this, anyone who has taken a foreign language for any length of time knows that just because you have the technical aspects of the language down, just because you know the dictionary meaning of a word, doesn't mean you know how to use those words in a real conversation. I took two years of Spanish in High School because back when I went that's what you had to have to graduate. My mom assumed that I could understand the language, and if I were honest I too thought that it would be fine, that I could end up in Mexico or Spain or wherever and instantly be able to order off the menu. Then came college and friends that were from the many places that speak the language, and well I realized that knowing what the words meant didn't at all qualify me to speak or hold conversations, in fact it was the opposite, knowing the dictionary definition could actually hamper the conversation process depending on where the person speaking was from. Somewhere in a box I have a notebook from my freshman year of college where I was attempting to learn conversational Spanish, mainly because there was a girl I was interested in who spoke it and I wanted to know what she was saying, I wanted to impress her, the notebook has a few phrases but then remains empty, likely when my interest in the girl faded...
I think it's the same thing when we look at Christianity and the Bible. We are used to it being interpreted for us by the people that we grew up with. We have pastors, and church traditions and grandparents and parents that all have a certain way of reading scripture, of talking about it and of studying it. We latch onto these things, we grow up this way and so when we read scripture we interpret it the same way they do, and we must be right because, well lets face it that's the way it is because it's all we know, it's all that makes sense to us, it's our language of the Bible, and our language must be right and well everyone else who claims to follow Christ must all follow the same set of rules in interpretation, must put on the same lenses, must read it the same way. We push this further in further into our understanding of faith and what it is, we choose a translation of the Bible and it becomes the "real" Bible only to find that other people use a different translation and to them it's the "real" Bible. Then comes the crisis. The time in our life that we are no longer surrounded by our tribe, and we are exposed to other ideas and understandings of what scripture says, or we come face to face with people who have been raised in a completely different religious system. Suddenly we are faced with the fact that what we knew as gospel truth, what we have been told God meant isn't what someone else has been told God meant, or that their idea of God is even the same as our understanding of God. Please track with me here. I'm not saying that all roads lead to heaven. I don't think all religions are the same, and by that admission I am also saying to my friends of different religions that I think they have it wrong when it comes to the whole eternity thing. I believe when Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me." That means there is one way to God, but even as I write this, I find myself feeling bad, because what about the people who were born and raised their entire life believing differently. It's a hard thing to wrestle with, and I find that doing so is an important part of my faith.
Anyway, when faced with a different set of interpretive lenses for the first time when it comes to scripture, there are several different directions that can be taken. We can dig trenches, build some barricades, surround ourselves with enough ammunition and remain as we are, refusing to even acknowledge that there is another way to look at the Bible. We can decide that we were wrong for all those years, and utterly embrace the new interpretation, throwing away all that we once held dear, many times when we do this it's in some vain attempt to appear tolerant, or evolved or emergent. We can realize that things aren't as black and white as we thought they were and walk away from our faith all together, claiming if there are so many different ways of looking at God and faith that's just proof that the whole thing is a human construct, or we can have a Luther Moment...
Mine came a few years ago, at least the beginnings of it. I took all my frustration and questions and anger and well I nailed the angst that comes from the empty feeling one has when they find out that they may have had some things wrong, to a Facebook wall and unloaded on the leaders of the church of my youth. Unlike Luther I wasn't after dialog, I was past that, I did hope that reading the things I posted could help leadership and perhaps some other person my age dealing with things to walk through them better, but that was as far as the good thoughts behind the post went. Otherwise I was wrestling with people that wouldn't enter the ring, or that were still surrounded by the group, so entrenched that it wasn't necessary to entertain other thoughts.
Here's what that moment did though, proof that all things can work for good, I began to dig into the Bible with a different mindset, instead of looking at things with the lenses I had always worn, I began to look a them without any lenses at all. I began digging deeper for historic meanings to things, looking at what was happening not through modern day lenses but what the people when the scriptures were being written and lived, were going through. I began to look at Jesus, his life, his sacrifice his actions, and I realized that some of the stuff that I had always held as truth may not really be truth, at least not the way I thought it was.
I began to see that there were places in my faith where I was wrong, but I also saw that at least as far as I can tell from reading and studying there were places I was right. Grace is a pretty big thing, but in some circles it is highly under rated. I have friends who seem afraid of the word Grace, they don't like to talk about it or at times attack it because in their eyes it has been appropriated by liberal Christians and turned into an excuse to allow people who don't fit the mold into church and the kingdom. There is also the side that has Grace emphasized to the point that there is no accountability at all, the idea that we're all okay because in the end grace wins. Some of my liberal brothers and sisters, the ones that I seem to be identifying with more and more, fall off the grace deep end and forget that there is a holiness to God that needs to be feared, not in that reverent wow, awe inspiring way, but in that wow I'm really dirty, and can't begin to stand in the presence of a holy God, please don't squash me like the bug that I am way.
What do we do with that, what do I do with that? It's hard to know. Which brings me back to the idea that there is going to come a point when our faith, the faith that we have ends, mainly because when we see face to face, we are all going to realize just how much of it we had wrong, how much of our faith was based on our interpretation of things, not on God's design. If I look at Gods design for humanity, and realize that we were designed to have relationship with God, then sin and grace take on a new identity. Sin is no longer a list of things that you don't do, it's whatever breaks that relationship with God, whatever gets in the way of communion with God, this is huge, because to me at least that realization sheds new light on what Paul says here:
1 Corinthians 10:23–24 (NLT) — 23 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. 24 Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.
There is a freedom that comes from grace, sure but humans in general don't really know how to handle freedom, when we get a taste of it we want more and more and more, and soon what was okay becomes a problem, it begins to eat away at the time we used to spend with God. If this is true then lists of sins don't work, because the list would be exhaustive. In addition to the big 17 (I come to that number based on the 10 commandments and the 7 deadly sins,) we would have to put family, friends, leisure, church, football... the list is endless because as humans everything we do, if we are not careful has the potential to become more important than God, and while we would never admit that it, that's the bottom line. Sure we can make reasons, we don't go to church because God understands we need time with our family, we go to church because well that's what God wants us to do, all the while our spouse and children beg for three minutes of our time. You get the picture. The people at the church in Corinth were doing what we all do. They had lost focus.
My Luther moment more than anything made me realize that I have a long way to go. That I am going to be right about some things when I get to Heaven, and wrong about others. My Luther moment made me realize that I can't wait for the day when my faith is finished, because on that day it will be replaced with what I was designed for, a relationship with God that isn't held hostage by human interpretation, years of tradition, and my own hard fought for nuggets of truth.
Happy Christmas to all. See you in the New Year.
If you are interested in the sermons I preach on Sundays you can find them here...
http://pastoraaronnewell.podbean.com/
If our faith is comparable to a walk, or a run if you're Paul that implies a beginning and an end. It's hard to see an end to faith but the more I study the more I realize that when we shuffle off this mortal coil, when we finally are able to see face to face instead of through this dark and murky glass (poetic enough for you?) things will change, including our faith. I maintain that our walk or race takes on the most significance when we are willing to entertain the idea that we have it all wrong, or at least huge chunks of it wrong. This is not something that is easy for anyone to do. It means that we have to question what we have been brought up to understand Christianity to be. It means coming face to face with the fact that what we have been taught at church or in Sunday school, may not be the whole story, that there are other sides of things that there are other interpretations of what is being read. That's the thing really no matter what anyone says they are interpreting scripture and as we all know interpretation is almost always tinted with the person doing the interpretations opinion, accent and bias.
Verbal language is a complex thing. We know this, anyone who has taken a foreign language for any length of time knows that just because you have the technical aspects of the language down, just because you know the dictionary meaning of a word, doesn't mean you know how to use those words in a real conversation. I took two years of Spanish in High School because back when I went that's what you had to have to graduate. My mom assumed that I could understand the language, and if I were honest I too thought that it would be fine, that I could end up in Mexico or Spain or wherever and instantly be able to order off the menu. Then came college and friends that were from the many places that speak the language, and well I realized that knowing what the words meant didn't at all qualify me to speak or hold conversations, in fact it was the opposite, knowing the dictionary definition could actually hamper the conversation process depending on where the person speaking was from. Somewhere in a box I have a notebook from my freshman year of college where I was attempting to learn conversational Spanish, mainly because there was a girl I was interested in who spoke it and I wanted to know what she was saying, I wanted to impress her, the notebook has a few phrases but then remains empty, likely when my interest in the girl faded...
I think it's the same thing when we look at Christianity and the Bible. We are used to it being interpreted for us by the people that we grew up with. We have pastors, and church traditions and grandparents and parents that all have a certain way of reading scripture, of talking about it and of studying it. We latch onto these things, we grow up this way and so when we read scripture we interpret it the same way they do, and we must be right because, well lets face it that's the way it is because it's all we know, it's all that makes sense to us, it's our language of the Bible, and our language must be right and well everyone else who claims to follow Christ must all follow the same set of rules in interpretation, must put on the same lenses, must read it the same way. We push this further in further into our understanding of faith and what it is, we choose a translation of the Bible and it becomes the "real" Bible only to find that other people use a different translation and to them it's the "real" Bible. Then comes the crisis. The time in our life that we are no longer surrounded by our tribe, and we are exposed to other ideas and understandings of what scripture says, or we come face to face with people who have been raised in a completely different religious system. Suddenly we are faced with the fact that what we knew as gospel truth, what we have been told God meant isn't what someone else has been told God meant, or that their idea of God is even the same as our understanding of God. Please track with me here. I'm not saying that all roads lead to heaven. I don't think all religions are the same, and by that admission I am also saying to my friends of different religions that I think they have it wrong when it comes to the whole eternity thing. I believe when Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me." That means there is one way to God, but even as I write this, I find myself feeling bad, because what about the people who were born and raised their entire life believing differently. It's a hard thing to wrestle with, and I find that doing so is an important part of my faith.
Anyway, when faced with a different set of interpretive lenses for the first time when it comes to scripture, there are several different directions that can be taken. We can dig trenches, build some barricades, surround ourselves with enough ammunition and remain as we are, refusing to even acknowledge that there is another way to look at the Bible. We can decide that we were wrong for all those years, and utterly embrace the new interpretation, throwing away all that we once held dear, many times when we do this it's in some vain attempt to appear tolerant, or evolved or emergent. We can realize that things aren't as black and white as we thought they were and walk away from our faith all together, claiming if there are so many different ways of looking at God and faith that's just proof that the whole thing is a human construct, or we can have a Luther Moment...
Mine came a few years ago, at least the beginnings of it. I took all my frustration and questions and anger and well I nailed the angst that comes from the empty feeling one has when they find out that they may have had some things wrong, to a Facebook wall and unloaded on the leaders of the church of my youth. Unlike Luther I wasn't after dialog, I was past that, I did hope that reading the things I posted could help leadership and perhaps some other person my age dealing with things to walk through them better, but that was as far as the good thoughts behind the post went. Otherwise I was wrestling with people that wouldn't enter the ring, or that were still surrounded by the group, so entrenched that it wasn't necessary to entertain other thoughts.
Here's what that moment did though, proof that all things can work for good, I began to dig into the Bible with a different mindset, instead of looking at things with the lenses I had always worn, I began to look a them without any lenses at all. I began digging deeper for historic meanings to things, looking at what was happening not through modern day lenses but what the people when the scriptures were being written and lived, were going through. I began to look at Jesus, his life, his sacrifice his actions, and I realized that some of the stuff that I had always held as truth may not really be truth, at least not the way I thought it was.
I began to see that there were places in my faith where I was wrong, but I also saw that at least as far as I can tell from reading and studying there were places I was right. Grace is a pretty big thing, but in some circles it is highly under rated. I have friends who seem afraid of the word Grace, they don't like to talk about it or at times attack it because in their eyes it has been appropriated by liberal Christians and turned into an excuse to allow people who don't fit the mold into church and the kingdom. There is also the side that has Grace emphasized to the point that there is no accountability at all, the idea that we're all okay because in the end grace wins. Some of my liberal brothers and sisters, the ones that I seem to be identifying with more and more, fall off the grace deep end and forget that there is a holiness to God that needs to be feared, not in that reverent wow, awe inspiring way, but in that wow I'm really dirty, and can't begin to stand in the presence of a holy God, please don't squash me like the bug that I am way.
What do we do with that, what do I do with that? It's hard to know. Which brings me back to the idea that there is going to come a point when our faith, the faith that we have ends, mainly because when we see face to face, we are all going to realize just how much of it we had wrong, how much of our faith was based on our interpretation of things, not on God's design. If I look at Gods design for humanity, and realize that we were designed to have relationship with God, then sin and grace take on a new identity. Sin is no longer a list of things that you don't do, it's whatever breaks that relationship with God, whatever gets in the way of communion with God, this is huge, because to me at least that realization sheds new light on what Paul says here:
1 Corinthians 10:23–24 (NLT) — 23 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. 24 Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.
There is a freedom that comes from grace, sure but humans in general don't really know how to handle freedom, when we get a taste of it we want more and more and more, and soon what was okay becomes a problem, it begins to eat away at the time we used to spend with God. If this is true then lists of sins don't work, because the list would be exhaustive. In addition to the big 17 (I come to that number based on the 10 commandments and the 7 deadly sins,) we would have to put family, friends, leisure, church, football... the list is endless because as humans everything we do, if we are not careful has the potential to become more important than God, and while we would never admit that it, that's the bottom line. Sure we can make reasons, we don't go to church because God understands we need time with our family, we go to church because well that's what God wants us to do, all the while our spouse and children beg for three minutes of our time. You get the picture. The people at the church in Corinth were doing what we all do. They had lost focus.
My Luther moment more than anything made me realize that I have a long way to go. That I am going to be right about some things when I get to Heaven, and wrong about others. My Luther moment made me realize that I can't wait for the day when my faith is finished, because on that day it will be replaced with what I was designed for, a relationship with God that isn't held hostage by human interpretation, years of tradition, and my own hard fought for nuggets of truth.
Happy Christmas to all. See you in the New Year.
If you are interested in the sermons I preach on Sundays you can find them here...
http://pastoraaronnewell.podbean.com/
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Where it counts...
Parenting is a challenge. I'm sure the people who have kids that read my blog are shaking their heads right now and saying with a copious amount of snark in their voice...No Really....Having an almost teen I would say that there are times when Mark 9:29 seems more apropos than the idea that children are jewels or arrows or anything resembling such.
There have been challenges lately, nothing that can't be worked through, nothing in the earth shattering, more small rumblings, in the middle of the rumblings I had a conversation with one of the kids... I took her to the sanctuary of the church that I pastor, mainly because doing so helped me get some perspective, kept me calm, for some reason being in the church makes my reactions more thought out, less frustrated, more calm, I don't know pick an adjective. I react in a nicer way in front of the church than I would, say in our living room. Don't get me wrong, I know that's not the way it should be. We shouldn't act one way in public and another in private. Our lives should be a constant striving to be more like Jesus, but lets face it, we are becoming more like, which is a process that, if I read it correctly, will last until we leave this earthly existence and make the transition. So yea sometimes I don't react the way I should and being in front of the church keeps me calm...
I realized something though when the conversation was over and the kid went down the stairs, and I sat in the church...my church...without any noise, without any music playing either loudly or softly in the background, the smells of a hundred plus year old sacred space subtly working their magic, I saw something for the first time. Don't get me wrong, I see this thing every week, several times a week, as I'm working around the church, getting things ready, planning, walking through the church praying. I saw this...
, and I realized something. Something about myself and about the churches that I have been in and the churches that I have wanted to be in. The ones with thousands, the ones with hundreds, or like ours the ones with a few. We have forgotten this...in our desire to reach the world, which I have, to grab un-churched people, to appeal to a group that is increasingly finding other ways to connect with people and God. I'll admit that in looking at the front of our church there are times I envision an uninterrupted space, but...
That Sunday, as I sat in the front pew, alone I came to a realization, and so I stood up, and instead of doing what I normally do when I pray, instead of walking back and forth I knelt, not on the steps, not by the pew, I knelt right here. It was exactly what I needed. It's what we all need, I think. In our world full of anger, bitterness, fighting and prejudice there's a place for this. I have it in my head and it's increasingly making it's way through the rest of my being, that if we were more concerned with what we do in this spot, personally one on one with God, the other spots would take care of themselves in ways that we could not imagine. If pastors were more concerned with their own time in this spot, the worries about who is allowed in church and who isn't, who can be "saved" and who can't, who deserves a seat at the table and who needs to be prayed for in love would morph into a realization that whosoever is an all inclusive word. If church council, church board, elder boards, decon's whatever your church calls them were more concerned with what happens in this spot on their own dealing with their own walk with God, there would be nothing a church couldn't do in outreach and service to the community, if members and attenders could see their way to spending even a few moments at this space, I believe that the church would look different because in the time, in that sacred space, in those moments of silence, reflection and prayer, at a place designed, built for kneeling, God would give those attenders, those members a glimpse of the whosoever s in their life.
I have to admit I've been wrestling with this post for a while. I took the picture that day as a reminder to myself and knew that there was a blog post in it, mainly because writing is how I make things real.
So many churches look at the picture above and see an obstacle, an old fashioned throw back to a time that was quaint, and nice, but that really doesn't fit in with today's world. That Sunday something clicked for me. That Sunday I realized that there is a better way to see this old fashioned piece of church architecture. Instead of an obstacle, a bridge, a bridge that allows us to connect in a much needed way with the God who lived, loved and died for us. A bridge that when used on a regular basis will begin to expand our understanding of who God is, what He desires for our lives, and how we can be instrumental in showing others what it means to fully live and move and have our being in Christ.
There have been challenges lately, nothing that can't be worked through, nothing in the earth shattering, more small rumblings, in the middle of the rumblings I had a conversation with one of the kids... I took her to the sanctuary of the church that I pastor, mainly because doing so helped me get some perspective, kept me calm, for some reason being in the church makes my reactions more thought out, less frustrated, more calm, I don't know pick an adjective. I react in a nicer way in front of the church than I would, say in our living room. Don't get me wrong, I know that's not the way it should be. We shouldn't act one way in public and another in private. Our lives should be a constant striving to be more like Jesus, but lets face it, we are becoming more like, which is a process that, if I read it correctly, will last until we leave this earthly existence and make the transition. So yea sometimes I don't react the way I should and being in front of the church keeps me calm...
I realized something though when the conversation was over and the kid went down the stairs, and I sat in the church...my church...without any noise, without any music playing either loudly or softly in the background, the smells of a hundred plus year old sacred space subtly working their magic, I saw something for the first time. Don't get me wrong, I see this thing every week, several times a week, as I'm working around the church, getting things ready, planning, walking through the church praying. I saw this...
, and I realized something. Something about myself and about the churches that I have been in and the churches that I have wanted to be in. The ones with thousands, the ones with hundreds, or like ours the ones with a few. We have forgotten this...in our desire to reach the world, which I have, to grab un-churched people, to appeal to a group that is increasingly finding other ways to connect with people and God. I'll admit that in looking at the front of our church there are times I envision an uninterrupted space, but...That Sunday, as I sat in the front pew, alone I came to a realization, and so I stood up, and instead of doing what I normally do when I pray, instead of walking back and forth I knelt, not on the steps, not by the pew, I knelt right here. It was exactly what I needed. It's what we all need, I think. In our world full of anger, bitterness, fighting and prejudice there's a place for this. I have it in my head and it's increasingly making it's way through the rest of my being, that if we were more concerned with what we do in this spot, personally one on one with God, the other spots would take care of themselves in ways that we could not imagine. If pastors were more concerned with their own time in this spot, the worries about who is allowed in church and who isn't, who can be "saved" and who can't, who deserves a seat at the table and who needs to be prayed for in love would morph into a realization that whosoever is an all inclusive word. If church council, church board, elder boards, decon's whatever your church calls them were more concerned with what happens in this spot on their own dealing with their own walk with God, there would be nothing a church couldn't do in outreach and service to the community, if members and attenders could see their way to spending even a few moments at this space, I believe that the church would look different because in the time, in that sacred space, in those moments of silence, reflection and prayer, at a place designed, built for kneeling, God would give those attenders, those members a glimpse of the whosoever s in their life.
I have to admit I've been wrestling with this post for a while. I took the picture that day as a reminder to myself and knew that there was a blog post in it, mainly because writing is how I make things real.
So many churches look at the picture above and see an obstacle, an old fashioned throw back to a time that was quaint, and nice, but that really doesn't fit in with today's world. That Sunday something clicked for me. That Sunday I realized that there is a better way to see this old fashioned piece of church architecture. Instead of an obstacle, a bridge, a bridge that allows us to connect in a much needed way with the God who lived, loved and died for us. A bridge that when used on a regular basis will begin to expand our understanding of who God is, what He desires for our lives, and how we can be instrumental in showing others what it means to fully live and move and have our being in Christ.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Say No to A Child
The month of October was a blur in our house. So much went on in October that I'm kind of amazed we are still standing.
Don't get me wrong it was a good month, we accomplished a lot, worked hard in the church, pushed ourselves to get things accomplished and to have people see our church as a place they can come to no matter who they are or where they are on their journey to find someone to be with them, to listen to them, to share Jesus love with them, a place of rest in a world that has forgotten how to rest. Just like we have forgotten how to rest. Sometimes in my zeal to do the work God has called me to, I fail to take the time I should to be still.
This "being still" is something that I have been able to do when I head to Orange. I know it seems counter intuitive for me to say that going to a conference full of 5000 people, that moves from arrival to departure is a time to be still but it is for me. The take away's are huge, and I love being with people who are working so hard to make Jesus real to generations that have been either forgotten or counted as loss to the church world in general.
If you follow me on Twitter at all you may notice that I have a few hashtag's that I use when it comes to family and the kids. #rememberingmymarbles comes from two years ago, and #sayyes comes from this past year, I may also put #sayyestoachild but you get the idea. If it's something I want the wider Orange community to see, because hey we all like to brag on our kids, I'll usually add an @orangeleaders.
The concepts that I have learned at these conferences have made a difference in how I interact with my family and with potential families that need to be connected to a faith community willing to support them, and share who Jesus is with them. There are times when I will remember them, usually when I want to react instead of interact. There are times that my wife, who has not gotten to attend has said them to me, usually when she sees my frustration level begin to increase, or when I just want to say no because I am tired, having spent so much of myself for the work that we are involved with. I believe it is very important for me to Say Yes to my child and the children that we come in contact with in our neighborhood. I also am grateful for the ability to remember my marbles, especially when I look at the 12 year old who was just 2 yesterday.
Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way, on to the reason for the title.
Saying no to a child can be just as important as saying yes. We need to be willing to say no, and we need to realize that there is a Biblical, God principle in the idea of saying no to a child.
Proverbs 3:11–12 (NLT) — 11 My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. 12 For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
Don't get me wrong. I am not talking about saying no because it's easier. I'm not advocating using the concept found in this verse to abdicate actually interacting with a child. Correction and discipline are not supposed to be tools to allow for grown up time. Manufacturing some obsolete infraction of the rules to get kids out of the way so people can have me time just causes resentment, anger and a ton of bitterness.
What we sometimes forget is that sometimes we say no, because no matter how unpopular the word is, no matter how much anger it brings from the child in our life, we need to. There are times that they don't understand, that they don't see the big picture, and that they won't make logical, safe decisions. There are times that we need to say no because they really have missed the mark, or they haven't lived up to logical and attainable responsibilities for a kid their age.
I love my kids, all three of them are awesome, and I am equally happy that there will be no more than three. I love to give them stuff, to take them places, to spend time with them, I don't love having to take things away because of behavior, or bad choices, but as the parent as the one that is supposed to be training them up in the way they should go, I have to be willing to say no.
Our oldest wants a phone, listening to her one would think that without a phone she will suddenly stop breathing all-together. Living in the city of Baltimore there are times that J and I want her to have one. On several occasions in the last few months we have even flirted with the idea. I get it in my head for us to have the discussion and well, then things go south, she makes a bad choice, and it gets put aside, or she gets a hold of her moms phone and suddenly becomes a PhoneZombie, the world as she knows it evaporates and she is stuck in phone land.
Recently here in Baltimore a 12 year old girl went missing, and it was found that she had been chatting across social media with older guys, much older guys, in fact this was a pattern, so when my oldest asked for an Instagram account attached to my wife's phone and then put up a picture that could have been very easily misconstrued to show improper use of a certain digit. I said no. No to Instagram, no to a phone no to her very own Facebook, no to snapchat. Not because I'm anti technology, far from it, and not because I want to keep her from interacting with her friends and the wider world, but because as her dad, it's important for me to keep her safe. Sometimes I have to say no because I love her, and because she doesn't know how to or won't because at 12 it's more important to be accepted than it is to be safe.
So if you're a parent or even a fellow Orangeer...Remember. It's okay to SAY NO TO A CHILD...
Don't get me wrong it was a good month, we accomplished a lot, worked hard in the church, pushed ourselves to get things accomplished and to have people see our church as a place they can come to no matter who they are or where they are on their journey to find someone to be with them, to listen to them, to share Jesus love with them, a place of rest in a world that has forgotten how to rest. Just like we have forgotten how to rest. Sometimes in my zeal to do the work God has called me to, I fail to take the time I should to be still.
This "being still" is something that I have been able to do when I head to Orange. I know it seems counter intuitive for me to say that going to a conference full of 5000 people, that moves from arrival to departure is a time to be still but it is for me. The take away's are huge, and I love being with people who are working so hard to make Jesus real to generations that have been either forgotten or counted as loss to the church world in general.
If you follow me on Twitter at all you may notice that I have a few hashtag's that I use when it comes to family and the kids. #rememberingmymarbles comes from two years ago, and #sayyes comes from this past year, I may also put #sayyestoachild but you get the idea. If it's something I want the wider Orange community to see, because hey we all like to brag on our kids, I'll usually add an @orangeleaders.
The concepts that I have learned at these conferences have made a difference in how I interact with my family and with potential families that need to be connected to a faith community willing to support them, and share who Jesus is with them. There are times when I will remember them, usually when I want to react instead of interact. There are times that my wife, who has not gotten to attend has said them to me, usually when she sees my frustration level begin to increase, or when I just want to say no because I am tired, having spent so much of myself for the work that we are involved with. I believe it is very important for me to Say Yes to my child and the children that we come in contact with in our neighborhood. I also am grateful for the ability to remember my marbles, especially when I look at the 12 year old who was just 2 yesterday.
Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way, on to the reason for the title.
Saying no to a child can be just as important as saying yes. We need to be willing to say no, and we need to realize that there is a Biblical, God principle in the idea of saying no to a child.
Proverbs 3:11–12 (NLT) — 11 My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. 12 For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
Don't get me wrong. I am not talking about saying no because it's easier. I'm not advocating using the concept found in this verse to abdicate actually interacting with a child. Correction and discipline are not supposed to be tools to allow for grown up time. Manufacturing some obsolete infraction of the rules to get kids out of the way so people can have me time just causes resentment, anger and a ton of bitterness.
What we sometimes forget is that sometimes we say no, because no matter how unpopular the word is, no matter how much anger it brings from the child in our life, we need to. There are times that they don't understand, that they don't see the big picture, and that they won't make logical, safe decisions. There are times that we need to say no because they really have missed the mark, or they haven't lived up to logical and attainable responsibilities for a kid their age.
I love my kids, all three of them are awesome, and I am equally happy that there will be no more than three. I love to give them stuff, to take them places, to spend time with them, I don't love having to take things away because of behavior, or bad choices, but as the parent as the one that is supposed to be training them up in the way they should go, I have to be willing to say no.
Our oldest wants a phone, listening to her one would think that without a phone she will suddenly stop breathing all-together. Living in the city of Baltimore there are times that J and I want her to have one. On several occasions in the last few months we have even flirted with the idea. I get it in my head for us to have the discussion and well, then things go south, she makes a bad choice, and it gets put aside, or she gets a hold of her moms phone and suddenly becomes a PhoneZombie, the world as she knows it evaporates and she is stuck in phone land.
Recently here in Baltimore a 12 year old girl went missing, and it was found that she had been chatting across social media with older guys, much older guys, in fact this was a pattern, so when my oldest asked for an Instagram account attached to my wife's phone and then put up a picture that could have been very easily misconstrued to show improper use of a certain digit. I said no. No to Instagram, no to a phone no to her very own Facebook, no to snapchat. Not because I'm anti technology, far from it, and not because I want to keep her from interacting with her friends and the wider world, but because as her dad, it's important for me to keep her safe. Sometimes I have to say no because I love her, and because she doesn't know how to or won't because at 12 it's more important to be accepted than it is to be safe.
So if you're a parent or even a fellow Orangeer...Remember. It's okay to SAY NO TO A CHILD...
Monday, October 27, 2014
Reactions...
It's been a while. There is so much that goes on when pastoring a church. I love what I do, but there are so many things that pull for your time, especially when for the time being you are the church office staff. We are working hard and praying hard and doing life with the people we are called to serve. I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it does make my writing, for pleasure or commentary drop off. Having said that there are times when I read something in my quiet time, or when I see something that is happening in the wider church world and I feel a need to get out my thoughts on the subject.
My thoughts regarding the church unitedstatesal...(see how I made up a new word just for my blog...man have I missed that) has lost it's way, especially the evangelical establishment. Instead of following Jesus, many follow a denomination, an individual, or a political party. It's hard to admit that Jesus has been taken out of the equation, His teaching reduced to suggestions or antiquated in some respects. I don't understand some things, and on occasion I find myself shaking my head when I read some of the things that people in the church are doing and how they are interacting with people that need to have a relationship with Jesus, I cringe.
Recently the mayor of Houston decided to subpoena the sermons of several pastors that disagreed with the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. While I agree that she or the city had no business or right to do so there is a wider principle involved in this thing for me...
Here are two headlines from Christian publications...
The Pastors Strike Back (CBN), Houston's Sermon Scandal:Is This Enough For You Ms. Mayor (The Christian Post)
Then Mike Huckabee in what I can only describe as a childish oh yeah moment called for Pastors to Flood the mayors office with Sermons.
I don't get this. If we are supposed to be more like Christ we should attempt to react like him, and in all my study of the life of Christ, I can't see him doing what is being done in this instance. Looking at Jesus interaction with people who were lost, or hurting, or in need of an encounter with God was always marked by compassion, grace, mercy and more importantly forgiveness. Don't get me wrong, Jesus never once said that sin was okay, it's obvious that it's not, but he never turned a person into their sin, that's a church thing, it was a church thing in Jesus day, it's still a church thing in ours. It's always been interesting to me that when Jesus reprimands or rebukes people publicly, when he cleans house as it were, it's always attached to religious leaders, and religious people Jesus harshest words are reserved for the people who claim to have a relationship with God, the ones who claim to speak for God, the ones that were teaching how to have a relationship with God.
What would happen if people who claimed to be Christians would focus more on being like Christ and less on their rights guaranteed under the constitution. What would happen if instead of waging verbal ideological war against the federal, state, or local government, they decided to be more concerned with the least of these? What would have happened if the guys that were asked for the sermons simply sent them over? What kind of testimony could that have been. I didn't say that the pastors should stop preaching the Gospel, or what they feel God has laid on their heart. I didn't say that they should roll over and hand the state their pulpit, but think this through. If instead of reacting in the predictable way that the person who sent the subpoenas had to know would happen, what if they had just said sure thing, then when the sermons were delivered what if they had requested a meeting with the mayor and her staff, not to argue, not to prove a point, not to point fingers but to ask them if they could pray for them for anything, if they could help out in some way, if they could be a part of any initiatives that the city had, that didn't go against their principles, morals, or beliefs as Christians? What if they and countless Christian media outlets had reacted in such a way that would make the people involved take notice of a group that reacted in a completely different way than what they have always done when it comes to dealing with people who are outside the club?
I am becoming increasingly convinced that a better way of dealing with people "out there" is to treat them better than we treat the people "in here." Instead of complaining all the time about how unfair it is, we were excited about the fact that we have a relationship with the creator of all life, and that that relationship is larger, and the freedom that comes from that relationship is greater than the freedom we so desperately feel we have to fight for?
My thoughts regarding the church unitedstatesal...(see how I made up a new word just for my blog...man have I missed that) has lost it's way, especially the evangelical establishment. Instead of following Jesus, many follow a denomination, an individual, or a political party. It's hard to admit that Jesus has been taken out of the equation, His teaching reduced to suggestions or antiquated in some respects. I don't understand some things, and on occasion I find myself shaking my head when I read some of the things that people in the church are doing and how they are interacting with people that need to have a relationship with Jesus, I cringe.
Recently the mayor of Houston decided to subpoena the sermons of several pastors that disagreed with the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. While I agree that she or the city had no business or right to do so there is a wider principle involved in this thing for me...
Here are two headlines from Christian publications...
The Pastors Strike Back (CBN), Houston's Sermon Scandal:Is This Enough For You Ms. Mayor (The Christian Post)
Then Mike Huckabee in what I can only describe as a childish oh yeah moment called for Pastors to Flood the mayors office with Sermons.
I don't get this. If we are supposed to be more like Christ we should attempt to react like him, and in all my study of the life of Christ, I can't see him doing what is being done in this instance. Looking at Jesus interaction with people who were lost, or hurting, or in need of an encounter with God was always marked by compassion, grace, mercy and more importantly forgiveness. Don't get me wrong, Jesus never once said that sin was okay, it's obvious that it's not, but he never turned a person into their sin, that's a church thing, it was a church thing in Jesus day, it's still a church thing in ours. It's always been interesting to me that when Jesus reprimands or rebukes people publicly, when he cleans house as it were, it's always attached to religious leaders, and religious people Jesus harshest words are reserved for the people who claim to have a relationship with God, the ones who claim to speak for God, the ones that were teaching how to have a relationship with God.
What would happen if people who claimed to be Christians would focus more on being like Christ and less on their rights guaranteed under the constitution. What would happen if instead of waging verbal ideological war against the federal, state, or local government, they decided to be more concerned with the least of these? What would have happened if the guys that were asked for the sermons simply sent them over? What kind of testimony could that have been. I didn't say that the pastors should stop preaching the Gospel, or what they feel God has laid on their heart. I didn't say that they should roll over and hand the state their pulpit, but think this through. If instead of reacting in the predictable way that the person who sent the subpoenas had to know would happen, what if they had just said sure thing, then when the sermons were delivered what if they had requested a meeting with the mayor and her staff, not to argue, not to prove a point, not to point fingers but to ask them if they could pray for them for anything, if they could help out in some way, if they could be a part of any initiatives that the city had, that didn't go against their principles, morals, or beliefs as Christians? What if they and countless Christian media outlets had reacted in such a way that would make the people involved take notice of a group that reacted in a completely different way than what they have always done when it comes to dealing with people who are outside the club?
I am becoming increasingly convinced that a better way of dealing with people "out there" is to treat them better than we treat the people "in here." Instead of complaining all the time about how unfair it is, we were excited about the fact that we have a relationship with the creator of all life, and that that relationship is larger, and the freedom that comes from that relationship is greater than the freedom we so desperately feel we have to fight for?
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Until I Wasn't
I've been writing some different things lately. This one has been kicking around in my head the last few days so I decided to go ahead ...
