Navigating the Wilderness

Contrary to popular belief, I don't believe people hate change.  We love change.  We change our clothes, change our cars, change locations, change activities, change jobs, etc.  It's not change that we fear and hate.  It's loss.  When we feel that we will lose something in a change, we resist it, even if we're not sure what we will lose.

Change happens all the time.  For individuals, organizations, movements, and systems, change is necessary to survive and thrive.  Still, change is not easy.  We become accustomed to certain ways of doing things, even if those methods no longer address the main goal and/or are no longer helpful or healthy.  In our heads we can imagine the benefits of a needed change, and even make some kind of decision (individuals) or take some kind of corporate action (groups and movements) to enact that change.  But between the old way of doing things and the new way of doing things there's a kind of a no-man's land that is unsettled and uncertain.  Writing about the dynamics of institutional change, a leader named Gil Rendle calls this a "wilderness."  The old rules are no longer in place, but the new rules are not yet clear or fully entrenched.  In the meantime it can be foggy and unclear.  And, as a result, people can become understandably uneasy and even frightened.  The old ways, even if no longer helpful or applicable, start to look appealing again.  We're afraid of losing something, even if we don't know what it is.

Rendle uses the biblical story of the exodus as an example.  God freed Hebrew slaves from slavery in the empire of Egypt.  God promised to lead them to a promised land and to make them a people through whom God would be made known to all the world.  At first it way, "Hooray!  We aren't in Egypt any more!"  After a while, it was, "Darn!  We aren't in Egypt anymore!  Maybe we should go back!"  Bad as it was, they knew the rules in Egypt, and the land God promised was a long way off.  Wilderness.  Scary and unsettling.

The irony is that the wilderness is the place for forming, strengthening, re-defining, and sharpening.  Unnerving as the wilderness is, it is a necessary and potent place for new beginnings.  Whether as individuals, teams, companies, clubs, movements, churches, or whatever, the wilderness forces us to focus more on our original core mission and goal, and not on the particular way of doing things at any given time in our history.  It strips away all is extraneous and forces us to decide if we really are committed to that goal or not.  It helps us build strength and resources to move forward into new terrain, and ultimately into new vitality.

Many people of all kinds feel the uneasiness of wilderness.  Our government is in a wilderness, trying to sort out the so-called fiscal cliff.  Individuals are in a wilderness as they face their own cliffs, fiscal or otherwise.  Our world is in a wilderness of tettering and uncertain politics.  I am a part of a worldwide faith movement called United Methodism, and we are going through massive changes in focus, identity, and methods.  United Methodists across North America and around the world are in the uncertainties of the wilderness, as we accept the challenge to be about the mission of making disciples and transforming the world, singularly.  It's a wilderness everyone.

It's hard to move in the wilderness, what it's not clear what's ahead.  In a recent article, Gil Rendle tells, "...the story of a mother who tells her young son to go out on a dark night and check to be sure the barn door is locked.  The son steps out of the house but returns in only a minute to report that he can't do his task because it is too dark to see the barn from the house.  The mother then gives the young boy a flashlight and again directs him to his task.  The young boy steps out of the house, but again returns in only a minute to report that it is still too dark and the flashlight is still too weak.  He still can't see the barn.  His mother responds, 'You don't need to see the barn, just walk to the end of the light.'"  ("Next Steps in the Wilderness" by Gil Rendle.  2012. p. 27.)

And light is there in the wilderness.  Just today at a local restaurant the young woman who waited on our youth pastor and me thanked us for what our church had done for her sister.  Her sister had turned to God because of people committed to our mission of leading people in new life with Jesus and a small group that had embraced her.  And God said, "Just keep walking to the end of THAT light!"

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

The Angus T. Jones Decision

Entertainment news seems to lead the way in headlines each day, which is sad in and of itself.  Still, today's lead story is worth attention.  Angus T. Jones is a 19 year old actor who has been on ABC's "Two and a Half Men" since 2003.  Apparently Angus has entered into a relationship with Jesus and is learning what it means to be a follower.  He has felt led to repudiate the very show that has made him a multi-millionare before his 20th birthday.  Angus says his faith mandates that he tell people not to watch the very show on which he stars.  (I'll bet today's "Two and a Half Men" rehearsal was interesting!)

A multitude of media questions have hit the airwaves and cyberspace.  Is this legitimate or a publicity stunt?  Shouldn't he have taken the matter to his producers and co-stars before going public?  Should he walk away from the show now, or is a Christian obligated to fulfill a contract no matter what?   As believers, when we watch television shows, "Two and a Half Men" or whatever, are we just keeping up with the culture in which we must offer Jesus, or are we just filling our heads and hearts with filth?  (I have to confess a weakness for Chuck Lorre's other show, "The Big Band Theory.")

For now, though, let's just assume Angus' conversation and decision are legitimate and of the Holy Spirit...I certainly hope so.  As followers of Jesus, how many of us are ready to make the decisions that will cost us?  (Yeah, I know...Angus has plenty of money in the bank!)   Right or wrong, Angus put himself out there.  He may have sacrificed relationships, a career, and who knows what else.  I have to ask myself, is my commitment to Jesus and the cause of changing lives anywhere near that level?  Would I go public, at risk of ridicule and rejection, to declare my allegiance to God and God's view of how human life should be perceived.

I'm not pretending to have answers for anyone.  I'm just raising a question with which I think we all need to live for a while.  I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Secession? Really?!?

I have a number of wise and faithful friends.  Today I want to give a shout out to my guitar-playing friend in Christ, a man called Woody.  Woody is a part of a small prayer and Bible study group of men with whom I meet weekly.

Last week we found ourselves reflecting on the aftermath of the 2012 Presidential election in our country.  That had been on my mind and heart a lot in the recent weeks.  Fear seemed to drive so much of what went on.  I've heard from deeply committed followers of Jesus who fear that the United States is on an immoral pathway to destruction that they feel has been accelerated by Barack Obama's re-election.  I've also heard from equally committed Christians who feared Mitt Romney's Morman worldview and/or felt anxiety about a perceived lack of compassion for the poor and powerless on the part of Mr. Romney's camp.  Some Americans apparently are frightened enough to try to convince the states in which they live to secede from the Union.  (Just a historical question...How did that last secession effort by many states work out for everyone?  I'm just saying...)  One e-mail I received asked an apparently desperate question after the election:  "What are evangelical Christians going to do now?"

I'm thankful for this group of men with whom I meet every week.  They know the answer to the question.  What are Jesus-followers supposed to do now?  The same thing we were supposed to do under George W. Bush, the same thing we are supposed to do now under Barack Obama, and the same thing we're supposed to do under the next president - Seek and save the lost; go to all people and make disciples of Jesus the Christ; change lives; transform communities and the world; spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.  Our mission has NEVER been contingent on whoever was in political power.  It has never answered to those in power, nor has it depended on those in power.  Had it ever been so dependent, the movement of following Jesus would have died before the Roman Empire did!  

Observing some of the Christian hand-wringing and paralysis following the election, Woody cried out, "Where's the faith?!?   Why be so bogged down by fear, whoever won?  Where's the FAITH?"  He's spot-on right.  No matter what's going on in the world around us, whether in politics, culture, economics of whatever, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of faith.  If we're driven by fear, that comes from somewhere else.  Fearful as life can become, our mission doesn't change.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.  Republican, Democrat, or Independent - don't be afraid!

Kristallnacht - 74 Years After

November 9 is an important day of remembrance in history, though I doubt if many will commemorate it.  Seventy-four years ago this night National Socialists in Germany unleashed terror on the Jews of Germany.  In a frenzy of vindictiveness they burned synagogues, arrested Jews, and destroyed Jewish businesses.  The night known as "Kristallnacht" served as prelude for one of the most venomous genocides human history has ever experienced.  Sadly, for the most part, the Body of Christ in Germany did nothing to denounce it or stop it.  More than likely, many who would have regarded themselves as Christians were indifferent to the event or even approved of it.

Adolf Hitler made use of a principle that, unfortunately, leaders have used all through the human story.   If you want to galvanize people, particularly people who are discouraged and frightened, give them something/someone to hate and blame.  Would that Hitler's demonic destruction of the Jews of Europe were the only such use of this principle before or since.   In fact, I feel an uneasiness about this even in these days of political uncertainty, financial cliffs, and climate turbulence.  People are frightened and uneasy, everywhere.  You can sense the unsettling scent of people wanting to blame someone for all their difficulty, to channel their unrest into suspicion, judgement, and vindictiveness...whether the target is black people, white people, Hispanic people, people on public assistance, wealthy people, Islamic people, Christian people, old people, young people, or whoever.  The drive to look for a target lurks in the dark side of our souls, and Kristallnacht may not be as far from any of us as we think.

Followers of Jesus must yield constantly to the Holy Spirit, confessing the darkness that shadows our own hearts and seeking God's help to rise above this.  From the DNA of our first century roots we have chosen not to find someone/something to hate, but to find someone to love; specifically the One who died and rose for us and every person for whom that One died.  That is the power that prevailed even when our mothers and fathers in the faith were themselves the target of Kristallnacht-like assault.

Maybe it begins with each of us examining our own hearts for blame-and-hate tendencies, even when we've cloaked those in "Christian" rhetoric.  I think that's where I'll start today.  How will you recognize the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht?

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Pastor Appreciation

Many churches use the months of October as an occasion to express appreciation to their pastoral leadership.  I am blessed to be a part of such a church.  This year our congregation had a special meal last Wednesday night for Pastor's Appreciation Month.   The event featured a large gathering of people giving up a part of their Wednesday evening, greeting cards, gifts (including an iPad!), and many verbal expressions of love and support.  It was a great evening, and my wife and I were very grateful for it.

At one point in the event I paused to scan the whole crowd.  I think the Holy Spirit wanted me to stop and pay attention to how really fortunate I am.  The gathering was a mix of people, but not just a variety of ages, backgrounds, gender, etc.   Some people there had been a part of this congregation for most of their lives.  Some gave their lives to Jesus and became part of this church only after weeks ago.  Some people haven taken huge faith steps to support the church's current disciple-making mission.  Some have been uncertain about the church's outward focus but they are hanging in their anyway.  Some have been my best cheerleaders in leading this church outward.  Others have not been in favor of all the ways I've led the congregation, but they care enough about the church and it's people to stick with it, no matter what.  That takes real commitment and courage.  Some have seen unbelievable blessings in their lives.  Some have walked the deepest darkest valleys and are still in them, but point beyond themselves to new life in Jesus anyway. All of them came to express appreciation.

Looking at all of them together I was reminded that this is the real gift - all of them.  To have the amazing gift of being allowed to be a part of everything God is doing here and to be with this glowing group of God's daughters and sons and sons in the doing of it, that's the real pastor's appreciation gift.  (Though the iPad really is pretty cool...I'm just saying...)

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

She Skips!

My wife and I just returned from an Autumn vacation, mostly visiting family.   We have five grandchildren, the two oldest of which are our granddaughters, one of whom is six and the other is nearly four.  We were blessed with opportunities for extended time with each of the girls individually.  You know how God's Spirit sometimes seems to speak to you by calling your attention to something otherwise overlooked in an ordinary situation?  It happened with each little girl.  The Spirit spoke as we walked together in a zoo, in a restaurant, at a playground, or anywhere.  It's like God's voice said, "Look at her.  She skips!"

Remember skipping?  I don't even know how to describe it in print.  It's kind of hopping, leg lifting, leaping, all in a rhythm.  Nobody has to teach able children how to do it.  There's no single cause of it.  In a task as simple as walking from a front door to a vehicle the girls would simply break into a skip for no particular reason.  It's as if some inner voice says to them, "You're alive.  You're loved.  Something interesting and new may happen at any moment.  Skip!"  Even that explanation is way too anal and adult.  They're just wired to skip as a way to express joy in the moment, and it happens.  It seems that growing up is a process of dismantling that wiring, so that we just walk in a dignified and controlled manner, as mature people are supposed to do.

So why do I look at Paige and Aubrey (our granddaughters) and delight in watching them skip?  Why do I hope that they never stop skipping?   Why do I wish I still broke into a skip now and again?  When I get lost in praise worshipping Jesus, why don't I just skip around the auditorium?   Maybe we really are wired for unbridled, skipping joy, and the burden of being "responsible adults" is our hunger to reconnect with the God-designed joy in us that surges in an impulse to leap before the Lord?

Do something nice for yourself today. Wait until after dark if you're worried someone will see you.  Go outside and say to yourself, "No matter what, I am a child of the living, loving God."  And skip. 
I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Today's Promised Land Is Tomorrow's Egypt!

I sense a phenomenon happening in current North American Christian worship.  Many Protestant churches now sport what are called "contemporary" worship services.  The movement in this direction started around the 1980's.  It was fueled largely by so-called "baby-boomers," who either had no experience with hymnal/robed choir/pipe organ worship, or who identified that with the form of religion they abandoned in the 1960's and 1970's.  Today it simply means worship driven by electronics, percussion, stringed instruments, keyboards, lots of high tech media, and a "come as you are" motif.   This is, of course, the source of the "worship wars" which few churches of any size have escaped over the last twenty years.   (Conflicts largely laughed at by GenY, who look at "traditional" worship as ancient history, and who regard "contemporary" worship as an anything-but-contemporary product of their aging boomer parents!)   For the record, I experience God in both styles.

Ever so slightly, "contemporary" worship is being challenged by new forms of praise and the presence of God.  I'm not sure how this will play itself out in the emergence of house churches, sort of post-Christendom edgy music, the kind of haunting ballad proclamation  of bands like "Gunger," etc.   And church leaders are actually starting to hear some of their most cutting edge "contemporary" people say things like, "We've never done it that way; we ALWAYS do it this way!"...the very viewpoints that drove them away from "traditional" worship years ago.  Today's "contemporary" is tomorrow's "traditional."  Like an insidious and imperceptible force, a vibrant new "promised land" of doing church slowly becomes the entrenched way of doing it forever and ever, amen.  Robed choirs and pipe organs were a scandalous secular intrusion into "traditional" worship in many churches in the late 1800's.  Now churched people will fight to the death to defend them.

This isn't just about worship.  It's about anything we do as the Body of Christ.  Fresh new ways to focus on our mission of making disciples for Jesus Christ are vital.  Unexamined, however, the goal goes from, "Our goal is to use this method to make disciples," to "Our goal is to use this method."  There's a world of difference.  It's the difference between the joy, freedom, faith, and trust of moving toward a new, unknown promised land, and the fearful defensiveness of saying, "We should just go back to Egypt and be slaves.  We were fed there.  That's how we've ALWAYS done things!"

The method is never the goal.  Jesus is the goal.  The method is not the promised land.  If we turn any method into the promised land, it becomes an "Egypt" that will distract us and suck the life out of us.

Here's to the next wave in worship!  It will probably scare me to death, as an aging baby-boomer.  But then, it's not about me.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Newcomers Are More Important

Suppose a church tries to buck the national trend of Protestant churches.  Instead of growing older and declining, they decide to grow stronger and increase.  Imagine a church decides to take seriously Jesus' command in Matthew 28:19; to go and make disciples of all people.  Think what it would be like to measure everything the church does by whether or not it ushers unreached people into the presence of Jesus.  Picture a congregation that begins to focus more on what happens outside its walls than within.  What would it be like to make that dramatic a change, when most Protestant churches in North America are at a plateau or in decline.

Should a church do this, they can count on a restless or fearful comment arising from their own ranks, something like the following:  "Well, it's like the new people and the people we haven't met yet are more important than the people who are already here!"  I've heard this or heard of this over and over in a number of different types of turn-around churches.  When such statements arise, the "culture of niceness" that afflicts most churches might incline us to respond with something like, "Oh, no; the people who are here are just as important as the new people."  But, truth be known, that's not the case.  Something about there being more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who have no need of repenting.  If we take Jesus seriously, the mission field is more important than the folks who are already "in."

Now, if you're someone who's already "in", this might make you feel defensive.  I get that.  I've been there.  However, let me point out that the best possible thing for you is to have the mission field be more important than you.  Christians grow strongest, worship best, and have the greatest impact when they live life as if others are more important than they are.  This is not just a nice virtue; this is the very humbling mode of Jesus himself.  (See Philippians 2.)   When churched people think of themselves as equal in importance to or more important than those who are living far from God, that's not healthy.  It becomes too easy to redefine ministry in terms of that which pleases them, as opposed to that to which God calls them in reaching others.  When that which goes on inside the church walls takes priority, the needs of an unreached mission field are forgotten easily.  And when the mission field is forgotten, churches shrink, decline, decay, and die.  And worse, the Great Commission is neglected.  So, for the sake of individual Christian growth, for the sake of a church's vitality and future, and for the sake of obedience to Jesus, the new people and the yet-to-be reached people must be the most important.

So, if you're in a church where it seems as though the newest faces at the church door are the highest priority, then rejoice!  That's God loving you in the best way possible.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

God Spoke on 08.23.75

God spoke to me loudly and clearly on Saturday, August 23, 1975.   It was shortly after 7 p.m. that it happened.  Up to that point I was a little nervous, especially when I stepped out to face a crowd of over 150 people.  Friends, family members, and total strangers all stared at me standing there in that tuxedo with the ridiculous ruffled (seriously!) shirt.  By that time in my life I was accustomed to getting up and speaking before crowds, but this was different.  My knees went kind of weak.

And then I saw her, and the sight took my breath away.  Coming out of the pastor's office and down the aisle on her father's arm, and all the nervousness evaporated.  I became instantly obvious to the many people sitting in the church pews.  I could have been standing up there in front of them in a tie-dyed T-shirt and a grass skirt as far as I was concerned.  All that mattered in the world was this gorgeous, loving woman, dressed all in white and headed my way.

That's when God spoke; not in an audible voice, but I got the message...and I've remembered it ever since.  God said, "Do you see this?  Do you see this woman?   Do you realize what's happening here? Do you appreciate this gracious good humor, this loving heart, this gentle spirit, and this unfettered faith in Jesus that she is?  Do you understand that she is coming to know you, to know everything about you, to know you better than you know yourself, yet she is still willing and eager to spend the rest of her life with you?   Do you comprehend what an amazing, undeserved, freely given gift of my grace she is to you?  This, Geoff, is how much I love you....You're welcome."

Happy 37th, Elaine.  Thanks for saying, "Yes."

I'll see you all around the next bend in the river.

(Posted today, 08.22.12, as I'll be "off the air" for a few days, starting this evening.)

Old Man River

Early this morning I had a chance to spend some time on the riverfront of the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  Some friends are having surgery today at a hospital there.  I went to pray with them before surgeries started, and I decided to spend my morning devotional time on the banks of Old Man River.   It was a glorious, bright morning; unusually cool for the blistering hot and dry summer we've been having in the Midwest.   People who know me know that I pretty much define life itself in and around rivers.  I can turn a river into a metaphor, a principle, or a sermon ad nauseum.  This morning was no exception.

We're experiencing drought, as is much of the country.  The Mississippi is as low as anyone can remember.  I watched two tugboat/barge assemblies struggle to get past each other in the now narrow main channel.  Still, the river moves with resolute determination.  Old Man River might look slow and lethargic from a bridge, but he's moving pretty fast when  you stand at the riverbank.  Drought or flood stage, the river perseveres.  That's exactly the nature of God.  We experience the droughts or flood stages of life and assume God has cut and run.  In fact, God never yields in determination to reach lost hearts, to give hope to the hopeless, to embrace the lonely, to shatter injustice, to change lives, and to transform the world.  The Mississippi never relents.  Neither does God.

That's says something about those of us who would be followers of Jesus as well.  We are to have the same resolute perseverance.  God is determined on our behalf, even to the point of dying on a cross.  A world in need of hope and transformation needs a Body of Christ with that kind of determination.  Too often we let our discipleship become like a pond.  When life is good, and blessings fall like steady rain showers, we're full to overflowing, and we're all about being happy servants of Jesus.  But when life becomes like the scorching sun and searing dry wind of a drought, and we let our spirit dry up.   We wait on practicing spiritual disciplines, on growing in Christ, on serving others, and on witnessing to our faith until we feel full of the rain of blessings again.  We're called to be like a river.  Sometimes there will be drought, sometimes there will be flood stage, and sometimes it will just be steady.  Keep moving.  Move with resolute determination, just like the Mississippi and just like our God.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Weird Christmas, 2012?!?

I got to thinking about a weird possibility for Christmas 2012.  Here's the deal; there's not a thing in the world that I need, materially, that I don't already have.  (Most of what I have I don't need.  It's excess.)   What would it be like if I just didn't get any gifts for Christmas this year?  I would tell the people who know and love me to just keep on loving me and everyone around them, and that would be my gift.  And most of the adults I know, with some notable exceptions, have everything they need and more as well.  What would it be like if I told all the adults close to me that they would not be receiving material gifts from me this holiday season?  I would give gifts only to the children in my life; everyone under 18 years old.

Now, what if most of the adults who worship with me weekly had the same weird idea?  Let's say 500 of us will receive material gifts this holiday season, nor will we give them to our adult loved ones.  Now, imagine that we each would have spent at least $100 on Christmas gifts for the grown-ups we know and love.  Suppose that each of us set aside the money we would have spent on holiday gifts in 2012.  Now imagine that our gift to each other would be to bring that money to one, big, celebrate-the-birth-of-Jesus Christmas Eve offering on the evening of Sunday, December 24th.

Would would it be like if the people and leaders of our church prayed in yielding, discerning petition before the living God starting now, humbly asking to align with God's own heart?   Picture this:  based on how the Holy Spirit leads us, we send a check for $50,000+ to our brothers and sisters in Mozambique to dig five more wells in order to save thousands of lives and baptize hundreds more.  Or we just fund the next Habitat for Humanity project in our community.  Or we start a Hope Center, where anybody can come with any human need or crisis and find the love of Jesus and the helping hand of the Body of Christ.  Or we go to our local food bank and say, "Here.  Feed that many more hungry children in our region."  Or we take the gift to a struggling school system and say, "Take this.  Let's work together to start a program of one-to-one mentoring for student on the edge."  Or we go to a nearby small community with a church that's struggling to stay alive and say, "We're with you.  Let's take this money and partner together to make new disciples for Jesus Christ right here in this community!"  Or maybe God will lead us in some other direction completely off our grid.

What would that be like?  Could that be a God-event that would just push us beyond the edges of our own limitations, change us, and make us more like the Body of Christ?  Or is it just weird.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Unplugged Sabbath!

Americans are nothing if not rushed.  Hyper-busy, multi-tasking, bloated schedules - that's us.  I don't know too many people who wouldn't welcome about six more hours in a day.  Way too many of us say way to frequently, "I don't have enough time."  That's our assumption; time is a scarce commodity.

No wonder we who are followers of Jesus don't "sabbath."  From its roots in Hebrew faith, sabbath is not just about going to worship.  Sabbath is about being reminded of that which really matters.  Christian writer Barbara Troxell says the purpose of sabbath is three-fold.  First, Sabbath is about resting in full awareness of the presence of God.  Second, sabbath is, "a time of companionship, of renewal with others...keeping company with those who are dear to us and those with whom we reach out in hospitality."  Finally, sabbath is about love and service; compassion for a wounded and weary world.  All of this involves a different view of time than, "I don't have enough time!"

What would it be like if we flipped that view?  What would it be like to abandon the presumption that there isn't enough time, and chose to believe that God has given us all the time we need to the three priorities of which we're reminded on sabbath:  To focus on our relationship with God, to focus on our relationships with those closest to us, and to address our individual contribution toward leading people in new life with Jesus to which each of us has been called and for which each of us has been equipped?   What would we do differently to reflect sabbath priorities. 24/7?

Consider the following as an example.  The average American spends 25 hours a week in front of a television, computer screen, or portable electronic communication device.  That's 54 full 24 hour days a year passively stimulated by electronic entertainment!   What could you and I do for God, for those we love, and for the people God calls us to reach with 54 extra days?!?   Let's see what one of those days would look like.  Join me on Sunday, August 5, for UNPLUGGED SUNDAY.   Do not turn on your television (yes, I know the Olympics are on!), stay off your computer, and have your cell phone on to receive calls only - no outgoing calls, except emergencies, and no texting, tweeting, or Facebook.  You may have a few hours of detox to face!  But be open to what the Holy Spirit does in your awareness of God, your opportunity to really be with those you love, and time to focus on what God has called you to do to connect to a world in need.  You might just have all the time required and more.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

The Worst They Can Do Is Kill You!

We've been going through some heavy days in our church and community lately.  We've had sudden, unexpected deaths among our folk, including the tragic death of a Christian counselor who was a part of our ministry team here.   Maybe it's just because of what we're going through here, but there seems to be a heaviness throughout our land this summer.  From drought scorched farmlands to bullet holes and bloodstains on theater walls in Aurora, Colorado, it's like we're in some kind of a dry and barren valley.  We really do live in a fallen world, bad things really do happen to good people, and we really don't have answers for it all.  And in our faith system we acknowledge the presence of a very real and malevolent spiritual power that seeks to opportunize all this, to break our spirits, and to separate us from our God and each other.

It reminds we of a very unique benediction/sending forth I heard at a church conference in 2001 in Goshen, Indiana.  The preacher had been talking about how followers of Jesus most certainly would be victims of resistance, opposition, ridicule, vilification, and outright attack, both by people and by the enemy of God, both from outside the Body of Christ and within it.  His final words to us before the service ended were something like this:  "No matter what they do to you, don't worry about it.  The worst they can do is kill you!"

That sounds ridiculous or even offensive, until you think about a follower of Jesus like Paul.  With uncommon resolution, persistence, and joy he took every opportunity to offer the living Jesus to a world that did not know him and was often hostile toward him.  Assaults on Paul, by both humans and Satan, were the likes of which few of us will see in a lifetime:  beatings, banishment, discrediting, pursuit, shipwrecks, arrests, trials - you name it.  Yet Paul was not only fearless, but exuberant.  He said, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."  (Philippians 1:21)  If he lived, that was that much more time to change lives and join Jesus in transforming the world.  If he died, then he would unite with the risen Jesus and all the saints in glory.  Even killing him didn't defeat him.

This needs to be our posture.  The world needs hope in these heavy days.  The Church, the Body of Christ is the hope of the world.  My late, lamented friend and colleague, Kim Maclin would tell us to lean forward into the darkness, do so in the love of Jesus, and keep moving on, committed to leading people in new life with Jesus.   Let's do so, holding one another up, and praising God.  And don't worry; the worst they can do is kill us!

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Life is a "Moving" Target

Seems like I've been involved in a lot of moving here lately.   We moved some of my late mother-in-laws furniture to our home; a trek of some 350 miles in a U-Haul truck.  Last week we helped by son and daughter-in-law and our grandchildren move from one town in Missouri to another.  And over the last couple of weeks, I have been moving my office from one place in our church facility to another, as part of an overall plan to deploy all our staff in the places that best suit their gifts and skills for their part in the ministry of leading people in new life with Jesus.

Moving is not easy.  It's in the top stresses in life.   It's tiring, to begin with.  I had moments when I thought, "I cannot lift one more box; I cannot drag one more piece of furniture."   Moving can be overwhelming.  ("When did I accumulate all this stuff?!?")   Above all, it's totally disorienting.  I My staff can tell you that I've spent time over the last two weeks sort of staggering around between my old office and my new office, looking kind of lost and bewildered.  I saw the same look on my wife as she struggled with what to do and where to place her mother's furniture in relation to our existing furniture. And I know our son and his family are still in a daze of unpacking boxes and getting acclimated to a strange, new setting.

Unsettling as it is, though, moving brings its own kind of energy.  First, it can be cleansing.  Moving to a new office forced me to get rid of a lot of stuff that I've had for years with no purpose.  Also, there's excitement and potency in a fresh start.  My new office has the feel of hopefulness and eagerness I have about our church's future in continuing our disciple-making mission.

The Church, the Body of Christ, the hope of the world is a movement.  We serve a God who makes all things new, and we follow a risen Savior who commands that week keep moving into our mission field, to change lives and to transform the world.  Continually moving forward is not easy; it can feel much easier just to try to stand still.  Sometimes moving forward leaves us dazed, disoriented, and tired.  But we have to keep our eye on the prize and remember that the most important word in the Matthew 28:19 Great Commission is "GO!"

How God REALLY Wants You to Vote!

A political campaign season can be really wearying for those of us who are independent voters, especially if we are people of faith.  There's no shortage of parties and political groups claiming to most fully represent the Divine.  Stressing personal morality, Republicans claim God is on their side. Emphasizing social compassion, Democrats claim God is on their side.  As if any humanly constructed movement or organization could remotely capture all that God is and all that God's heart wants.  Please...!

Admitting that I'm biased, I think the founder of our movement got it right.  John Wesley is credited for starting the phenomenon known as Methodism in the 18th century.  In 1774, giving advice to those in so-called Methodist classes and bands who were casting votes in England, regardless of how they voted, he suggested they commit themselves to the following:

1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy,

2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against,

3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.

Now there's a voting strategy that is closest to Christ-like!  How much of this do you see on the Right or the Left or anywhere in between?   If we all voted this way, neither Republican nor Democrat nor Independent nor anyone else would have the gall to claim to represent God.  We would simply yield to the Holy Spirit, make an informed and humble decision, and do so in love.  Then maybe this current embarrassment which is the American political scene might become something different.

Okay, that's enough from this old political cynic.  I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Hospitality: A Program or a Presence?

As noted earlier, I spent July 10-17 with ten other people from our church on a volunteers in mission work trip to the Dominican Republic.  We came alongside Dominican and Haitian church people to work on a small place of worship for a new church start in a community called Samangola.  There's a tendency on the part of international work campers, I know, to over-idealize the cultures they encounter.  I don't want to fall prey to that.  However, even from an objective view, we were blessed and graced beyond measure by the people we encountered and the people with whom we had the privilege of working.  And we realized that they had so, so much from which we could learn.

One of those areas of learning was hospitality.  I am blessed to be a part of a church here that works hard on practicing "radical hospitality."  Our congregation has improved in welcomeness by leaps and bounds, and I am so proud of our staff, leaders, and church folks who go out of their way to make the needs of a newcomer more important than their own.  Many established churches struggle to break outside their own closed circles of relationship, and I'm glad to be a part of church people who are eager and willing to raise the bar on hospitality.  However, in our admittedly limited experience of the Jesus-followers of Bani, San Cristobal, San Rafael, and Samangola, hospitality there is not a program, an emphasis, a committee, or a spot on an organizational chart.  It is the air they breathe.  It is the rhythm of their collective heartbeat.  It is a Presence that is undeniable.  The hospitality extended to us and to those in their own culture they seek to reach for Jesus is hard to describe.  It is genuine, warm, unconditional, and energizing all at the same time.  They offer it effortlessly and joyfully.

I found myself wondering why it is this way.  Why do we read books about hospitality, have training programs on hospitality, create hospitality teams, and give instructions on hospitality, while they just live it like it's their own skin?  I'm not sure sure I know the answer, but I intend to find out.  I find myself wanting to go back and just live in their church culture for a time, maybe to absorb how the welcomeness with which Jesus welcomes us all becomes so second nature.

A couple of times in the last week people in are area have asked me, "Are you glad to be back in civilization?"   Trust me, in the area of Christ-like hospitality, many of the Dominican and Haitian Jesus-followers are the "civilized" ones, and I am the "third world" who needs to benefit from them.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Watch Those Bumps in the Road!

I suppose people in general have the right to assume that "bumps" in the road of life are always an interference, a frustration, a temporary setback, or something to overcome.  Followers of Jesus don't have that luxury.  We have to stay open to the possibility that some "bumps" along life's highway indicate the activity of an involved God.

Eleven people from our church spent July 10-17 in the Dominican Republic, the nation that shares a Caribbean island with Haiti.  We worked in a community called Samangola, alongside people from churches in Bani and San Rafael.  Our task was to help in the completion of a simple church building in Samangola, the home of a new congregation there.  For four days we painted, shoveled base gravel, and mixed and loaded concrete.  The church seeks to evangelize among the poor of the Dominican, which includes both Dominican people and people of Haitian descent.  In particular, church leaders seek to reach children.

The bulk of the group planned to fly out of Miami to Santo Domingo on June 9.  (I would catch up with them on the 10th.)  However, the landed in Miami only to find that their flight had been cancelled.  The airline scrambled to reroute them, eventually putting them up in a hotel for the night.  The next day the airline sent them to Santa Domingo - by way of New York City!  (Airlines don't care about geography - just schedules!)  At the time the team thought it was a mild inconvenience at worst and a funny story to tell eventually at best. 

But God was up to something.  The group had several duffel bags of shoes and baseball equipment to distribute in the DR.  Shipping cost was sizable for these items, but our church had been generous in support of the entire project.  As a result of the flight inconvenience, an official of the airline decided to waive shipping costs on all the duffel!   As a result, this leveraged several hundred more dollars to be put into the new church's ministry in Samangola.  A "bump" in the road turned out to be something that furthered the cause of leading people in new life with Jesus.

Don't be too quick to assume that all the bumps in your life's road are bad.  Consider the possibility that God may be at work.  I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

The Next Person You Encounter - Closer to Jesus or Farther Away, Because of You!

Here's how it happened...Not too many years ago a woman named Tracy found the courage to go to a worshipping fellowship. As she describes it, her way of life and her appearance did not fit the mold of most "churchy" people in North America.  However, instead of looking at her with judgment or disdain, the people of that congregation chose to welcome her without question.  Tracy experienced grace there before she experienced anything else.  Thus began Tracy's walk with Jesus and major transformation in her life.

In the course of her journey Tracy met a man named Darryl, a former Major League Baseball star.  The met in a rehabilitation program, as Darryl also had demons in his life with which to contend.  Darryl, notes that he gave his life to Jesus in 1991, but very little changed.  As he says, he was not "discipled."  He did not yield his life to the Holy Spirit fully, and did not have the support, encouragement, training, and accountability of the Body of Christ.  So his life continued to tailspin.  It took Tracy (now his wife) and other followers of Jesus to help Darryl live his commitment to Jesus in 24/7 discipleship.  Darryl and Tracy are now powerful ambassadors for new life in Jesus.

In 2011 Darryl and Tracy happened to be out for dinner one evening at a restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri.  A worship director at a southeast Missouri church and his wife happened to be at a table nearby.  Introductions, conversations, and faith-sharing led to an invitation to speak at a major regional outreach and service event in the Spring of 2012.  Darryl and Tracy accepted.

At the event, Darryl shared from his own experience about the need to be discipled in addition to the need to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  In the audience was a young man named Wade.  Wade's life was at a low ebb.  Having surrendered to Jesus many times, he consistently defaulted back to addiction and destructive behaviors.  Darryl's words convicted him to finally submit to the reshaping power of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.  Wade now meets weekly with a men's prayer, Bible study, encouragement, and accountability group.  Wade will share his testimony of the transformational change of the Holy Spirit in his life in the worship services at his church tomorrow.

Note this:  Had the people of that unnamed congregation years ago judged or dismissed Tracy instead of welcoming her, none of this might have happened.  The next person you encounter - whether someone you know or not, whether it's a lengthy encounter or not - that person will either be drawn closer to God or pushed farther from God because of YOU.  Choose wisely and choose with an eye to the role you may play in a tumble of lives changing!

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

God-sightings at the Hope Epidemic

Today we experienced our community's second annual mission blitz event known now as HOPE EPIDEMIC.  We had at least 1200 people out doing acts of love, kindness, mercy, and grace this morning.  At noon we started a HOPEFEST celebration using a large former food store facility, offering free health screenings, food, haircuts, and many other services.  Throughout the afternoon we heard testimonies of faith in Jesus through word and music.  Holding the event in a public, non-church-building facility we drew even more people that last year's kick-off HOPE EPIDEMIC event. 

Each of us saw the Holy Spirit at work in a variety of days, depending on where our work projects were and how we were involved at the HOPEFEST celebration.  Here are a few of the God-sightings that graced me:

• Seeing so many people of so many different ages willing to work to help clean up neighborhoods in which they'd never been.
• Watching people pray for each other's needs before we even left the church building to head into the mission field.
• Meeting neighbors we might otherwise never meet.  Breaking stereotypes of "those neighborhoods" and finding caring people eager to receive and offer God's grace.
• Watching part of our crew rescue "the Hope Epidemic kitten" - a tiny thing not even weaned.  "Hope" now has a home.  We're about bringing hope to all God's creation!
• Hearing Christian rapper "J-SON" sing and talk about the pain of child sexual abuse, and watching someone being ministered-to and begin to experience the freedom from bondage that only Christ can bring.
• Seeing people respond to baseball legend Darryl Strawberry as he and his wife Tracy invited people to give their lives to Jesus!
• Watching a recent new Christian eagerly share with someone how God is fully trust-able!
• Witnessing people new to Jesus and/or new to our church throwing themselves all-in for giving real hope in Christ to our community.

And that was just my limited experience today!  The church has left the building - FOR GOOD!

Someone Else's Family Reunion

As a follower of Jesus I have been passionate about evangelism and disciple-making for three decades.  I have been appointed to five different settings as a pastor during that time, and I have worked with and consulted with many more congregations in different communities.  I always get the same answer when I ask an introductory question in any church fellowship - "What's the greatest strength of your church?"  Church folks always say, "Well, we're a friendly church!"  And usually they are right.  The kicker is that "friendly" has lots of definitions.  Most churches are a particular kind of "friendly."  Generally, it's the kind of "friendly" that any of us would experience at a good family reunion.

If your family does reunions regularly and you like them, they are a friendly experience to you.  It's a gathering of people you know, even if you haven't seen them in a while.  They are people with whom you have a shared history and shared traditions.  It's easy to pick up conversations and subjects of interest, even if episodes are separated by up to a year.  There's a comfort level in seeing the same set of faces.  Births are celebrated and deaths are mourned, all as part of the family fabric.  Family reunions give us a sense of belonging and identity.  From this anchored base, the rest of the world can make more sense to us.  Family reunions feel "friendly."  When most churches describe themselves as being friendly, it's this sense that they mean.  We are friendly to those who are already in the "family" or who are coming into the family via birth or marriage.

Now, imagine showing up as a total stranger to a family reunion.  I'm not even talking about the experience of marrying into a family and having to go through the awkward time of "passing muster" with your spouse's kin and acclimating to this new group.  Think of what it would be like to come into such a setting with no built in contact, just showing up.  Do you think that would be a friendly experience?  I doubt it.  It's not about people being mean or intentionally unfriendly.  It's just awkward.  Here's the hard part.  For the vast majority of people who summon up the courage to attend worship in North America, this is what it feels like to show up at a worship service.  It's like crashing someone else's family reunion.

Just this morning I was reading Psalm 68 in the Bible.  In the New International Version, verse 6 starts out, "God sets the lonely in families..."   Do you hear that?  If a person who is relationally or spiritually lonely comes to our churches, Jesus followers, God sent that person!   The burden is not on them to find a way to graft into an already set family-reunion system.  The burden is on us to break open the closed family system and to make the needs of the stranger more important than our own comfort and internal "friendly" feeling.  To do otherwise is to run contrary to the flow of God's own heart.  This is not an easy task for churches.  It's runs against a natural tendency.  I'm very blessed to be a part of a church doing all it can to open its borders to people who are seeking.  We can tell you that it's a constant challenge.  But it is the effort an energy required to fulfill Jesus' command of Matthew 28:19.  Beyond that, it is the source of blessing beyond compare, to be about God's business of setting the lonely in a family that fully adopts them and embraces them in the name of Jesus.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

They Keep Rewriting the Rules!

Transitions happen, sometimes at a pace that outstretches our ability to keep up.  Telephones had cords not that long ago.  People wrote notes on paper instead of Facebook and Twitter.  Computers sat on desks instead of in palms.  Things shift rapidly.  Because of that, life can become disorienting and scary.

When you think about it, it's the rule-changing that throws us off.   Game-changers rewrite the rules.  (Game changers are things like the Gutenberg press, the discovery and colonization of the Western Hemisphere by Europe, the cotton gin, electricity, flight, computers, the microchip, etc.)   For instance, Generals Grant and Sherman rewrote the accepted "rules" of "gentlemanly" warfare, and crushed the South during the Civil War.  Our country is still affected by this shift, rightly or wrongly.  Each time a pivot in history happens, we struggle to figure out the new rule set.  Then, as soon as we do, the next shift hits us.

Look at an example from my world.  The church of which I am a part is one of the many courageous United Methodist congregations in our state that has decided to be obedient to Jesus' marching orders as expressed in Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8.  It has not been an easy journey, here or in any other church like us.  We've had to shift from being a congregation mostly concerned with maintaining our own internal structure and focusing on the people we already have, to restructuring our focus outward on the people who have yet to meet Jesus.  In most established, long-term Christian churches, that's a discovery-of-electricity level shift.  Once church involvement was defined by showing up at worship, maybe attending Sunday School, pledging to the church budget, serving on a committee when asked, and voicing your vote to direct the pastor, the leaders, and the programs of the church.  A missional focus for a congregation rewrites these rules along the lines of the Book of Acts.   Involvement is now defined by making a personal commitment to Jesus, growing in relationship with Jesus in daily and disciplined way, binding with other Jesus-followers in this growth, discovering how the Holy Spirit has called and equipped each of us for ministry, and doing that ministry while introducing others to Jesus.  The old rules were like a democracy making group decisions on directions.  The new, first century model is more like an army under command taking objectives.  For most like me who are into their sixth decade of church or more, this is a seismic change.  It is a complete shift of the rules of the game; disorienting and frightening.

So, what do we do when the game-changers throw us off in any organization or just in our personal lives?   Maybe we just need to remember that we have responded to major game changers already - each one of us.  Once I was in the care of my mother every day, and then I walked into a public school for the first time.  Game-changer!  I survived, and the core identity which is "me" stayed in tact.  Once I lived at home, and then I had to survive on my own in a college dormitory.  It was a major shift, but I managed to navigate the new terrain.   Once I was single, and then I was married and had children.  All the rules got rewritten, but it was worth it.  You get the idea...we have more experience and capability to handle the game-changers than we think we do. 

That being the case, maybe the game-changer shifts in life and the subsequent upset of the rules can be more of an opportunity than a threat.   What if we approached any such transition with an open-ended question:  "What might the game look like now?"

And we can remember that there are some things that don't shift, like core values.  For people of my faith system, God is still God, Jesus is still Lord, the Holy Spirit is still moving in our midst, and our task still is leading people in new life with Jesus.  We just need to keep asking what that looks like when the game-changers happen.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

People Are Dying on My Watch!

Last night a leadership institute group at our church viewed a presentation by Christine Caine.  Christine is a part of the ministry of the dynamic Hillsong Church in Australia.  She has answered a call passionately to do ministry that addresses injustice; the human trafficking trade in particular.  Christine told about a time she was speaking about Jesus in a group of people that included women who had been rescued from the sex slave trade.  When she was done, one recently freed young woman asked her, "If all that you just said is true about your Jesus, why didn't you come sooner?!"  This particular woman had been on a ship full of 60 captive women, 3/4 of whom died from lack of oxygen or being dumped overboard to avoid Coast Guard scrutiny off the coast of Turkey.  Christine Caine was stunned, and broke down weeping.  As she said in the presentation on the video, "She was right.  This happened on my watch!"

On my watch...I'm grateful for being a part of the body of Christ.  I see the Holy Spirit do great things in and through the Church - the Hope of the World.  Yet I've also seen times when congregations of all brand names being so consumed with what's going on inside their calls, that they fail to hear the cry of the people in need around them.  Representatives of our own denomination from all over the globe are currently meeting together in Florida.  One of the matters they discussing is the possibility of restructuring our organization so that we will be more efficient in fulfilling the call to lead people in new life with Jesus.  That's very important, and I'm glad it's being addressed.  Still, while our representatives are in general assembly, I wonder how many people will die or give up on life without meeting Jesus.  I wonder how many will see hope die within them.  I wonder how many will die because they don't receive the basics of life that many of us in the church take for granted.  I wonder how many will die because the world doesn't afford them justice and the Body of Christ did not stand in the gap for them.  How many will we lose while I'm typing this, instead of looking around to see where God is calling me to answer for my watch?

There's a great commercial by the United States Marines that shows people running in panic from a smoking horizon.  Then the camera swings to a view of Marines running toward whatever the conflict or catastrophe is.  The text on the screen reads something like, "Some people run toward the sound of chaos."  That's a great line, worth pirating.  With the power of the risen Jesus, we are to recognize that people are lost, endangered, and dying on our watch.  Our task, as the Body of Christ, is to run toward the sound of chaos, whatever that means for each of us and each of our churches.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Generat Conference 2012 - Does It Matter?

In a few days the United Methodist Church denomination will hold its 2012 General Conference session in Tampa, Florida.  The General Conference will bring United Methodist delegates from all over the world into one big assembly for several days.  (If interested, you can follow the happenings at www.gc2012.umc.org/ )   Dating back to 1784, and meeting every four years, the General Conference is the official voice of my denomination.

In some ways a General Conference mimics a large, temporary legislative assembly.  Outside of worship occasions, speakers, and presentations, the business will bear similarity to most representative governments.  Certain hot-button issues will be debates by persons representing a variety of theological and political views.  This year there's a great deal of buzz around the structure of our expression of the Christian family.  Some are calling for sweeping changes to enable United Methodism to better navigate an era of rapid change.  Others are calling for caution.

What difference will all this make?  What will be the impact of thousands of United Methodists gathering in Florida?  I've had the opportunity to serve on a General Conference/Jurisdictional Conference delegation from our state four times.  (Admittedly on the "junior varsity" of each delegation.  Frankly, barely made the team each time!)   I learned a great deal each time and I valued each experience.  Every time, though, I had to ask whether or not we actually made any difference.  Have we stopped our denomination's overall membership decline.  And, vastly, more important, have we increased our capability to introduce people to Jesus, to change their lives, to grow them as disciples, and to get them involved in the central mission of leading people in new life with Jesus?  I'm not sure I know the full answer.

I do know this - addressing the main thing (our disciple-making mission) ultimately does not depend on large representative assemblies, any more than it depends on the latest book, the latest seminar, or the latest "how-to-grow-your-church" package.  It depends on leadership...passionate, Christ-centered, willing to risk and sacrifice leadership.  I'm very blessed to be in a part of the country where United Methodist state-wide leadership currently is very strong this way, from our Bishop to our state-wide staff, to many, many of our pastors and church leaders on the front line.  These people aren't perfect, but they see the mainstream of that which God wants, and they lead us in getting into it.  Whatever else the General Conference does, I hope it provides structure, legislation, discussion or whatever is necessary to foster more of that type of leadership.

Whether United Methodist or not, please join my in praying for the delegates to General Conference and for the General Conference itself, praying that, in the words of one of the great United Methodist leaders in our state, "We keep the main thing as the main thing!"

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

No Right to be Boring!

I had the joy of being in Easter worship services last weekend that radiated with the excitement of the Resurrection Day. Energy built even before the first song or before the acolyte (candle lighter) walked in with the symbol of the light of Jesus the risen. It wasn't about the preaching. It wasn't about the hospitality, the music, and the worship leadership, though all of those were stellar. It wasn't something that could be measured. It was more atmospheric. Obviously people bathed the worship in prayer. Many leaders and participants came with expectancy, passion, and hope. The experiences invited the presence of a risen Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you are a follower of Jesus, I hope that happened for you as well. And I hope it happens for you again at your next worship opportunity. For those of us who are committed to Jesus, every occasion we worship is an Easter. The facts that Jesus has died, that Jesus is risen, and that he is coming again should evoke a level of anticipation, excitement, and hopefulness each time we gather to worship in his name.

I once heard it said that Christians have no right to offer boring worship. I used to think that meant that we should make sure our worship is engaging and attractive to church people and new folks. Now I realize this mandate is not about people; it's about who and what Jesus is. If we show up for scheduled worship just to see the choir in robes doing their thing or to have the praise band give us that good, glowing feeling again, that's not worship at all. It means we're just touching familiar bases to make sure we maintain a comfort-zone sense for ourselves. It's not about worship styles. Whether pipe-organ driven or guitar-driven, if worship is just a checklist of the expected then it is untrue to the nature of the good news we proclaim. And, because of the nature of Jesus, whose name we claim, we have no right to let it be that way. God in Christ makes all things new. That means that every time we worship we must come wondering, "What is God going to do today?" When we do that, we come with expectancy, energy, and hope. If that happens, then every worship day is Easter!

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

All Suffering Is Rooted In Separation

Larry Crabb and John Eldredge are two impacting Christian writers. In their writings I have been exploring this basic principle: all suffering is rooted in separation. (See their books, Shattered Dreams and The Journey of Desire, respectively.) Ultimately, I believe this is true. Think about it. A sick person is separated from health. A person struggling between buying gas and buying food or medicine is separated from adequate income. A lonely person is separated from relationship. A parent of a wayward child is separated from the hopes and dreams for that child. A defeated person is separated from "success", whatever that means. A depressed person is separated from soul-happiness, and on and on...

What about unjust suffering? What about the cruelty going on in Syria or Darfur right now? Even there, it's about separation. The oppressed are separated from liberty, dignity, and life itself. The oppressors are separated divine, inalienable values that should keep them from oppressing the weak and powerless. Those who do harm to others, those who violate others are separated from a sense of what is right. Their victims are separated from living lives in abundance.

Pealing back all the layers, Crabb and Eldredge suggest that suffering ultimately anchors in separation from God. When we experience disappointment, loss, isolation, or pain, those experiences are real and legitimate. We are separated from someone or something of great value.
Crabb suggests, though, that through suffering we can discover that our real desire, though we are out of touch with it, is our desire for an intimate relationship with God. Eldredge says that all of our desires, good or bad, are ultimately veils for our real, inborn desire for the One who gave us life and who loves us with a love that no one and nothing else can provide.

Yesterday I heard the horrible news of a tragic accident in a community near ours. Someone accidentally ran over a two year old child with a car. Did this happen because the driver was separated from God? No. Did it happen because it was God's plan that the two year old die this way? No. As Eldredge says, "I want to state clearly that not every trial in life is specifically arranged for us by God." (The Journey of Desire, page 92.) But through this crushing grief of this child's death, family members will either come to know and desire the presence of One who cannot be lost by death or disaster, or they will yield to escape mechanisms or despair. They will helped by caring people stay connected or to connect with their core desire, or this will know crushing, numbing separation.

Google the name Betsy ten Boom. Secure or download the book about Betsy written by her sister, Corrie ten Boom - The Hiding Place. It's an amazing story about a women who overcame being separated from liberty, justice, health, and eventually her life by staying connected the desire for which she was designed.

Tomorrow is the Resurrection Day. It's all about God gracing us with the risen Jesus, that we might never be separated from God again, and that no separation in this life or the next would overcome us. Happy Easter. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Can Geoff Posegate Just Stop Talking?!?

Last week I chided the 700 Club's Pat Robertson for thinking out loud too much and making insensitive and unChristian remarks. God has a good memory and a good sense of humor. God has caught my attention with an admonishment to take care of the log in my own eye before I start making judgments about the speck in another's eye. I think I wrote about this subject years ago in this blog, but now it's time for me to deal with it.

People frequently steal a glance at their watches when I start talking. It's too obvious for me to ignore. This happens with all kinds of people in all kinds of social settings. This fraction-of-a-second act includes friends, acquaintances, colleagues, church folks, and family members. I can try to spin this any way I want to, but I have to face the truth. By previous experience people know that if my mouth opens they may be in for a long haul.

Some of this may be an occupational hazard. Like all church pastors I largely make my living verbally. Let's be honest, pastoral colleagues; for all our altruistic motives, we're all in love with the sound of our own voice to some degree. Someone once said that preachers are people who take thirty minutes to say something that could be said in five.

Beyond this, though, I'm concerned that I cave-in too easily to the cultural mantra of "it's all about me!" The more I'm talking the more the focus is on me and not on another human being. The more I'm telling stories and making pronouncements, the less I'm asking questions through which I could learn about other people and the world around me. The more I'm flapping my gums the less I'm listening. Some followers of Jesus practice an economy of words as a spiritual discipline. This means saying only what needs to be said and otherwise listening, inquiring, and engaging the world which is our mission field. Reportedly, St. Frances of Assisi once said something like, "Preach Jesus. If necessary, use words."

And here I am, having written more than I need to. I need to do better. We live in an information age, but most people are bombarded with information with limited listening and caring attached. From the perspective of people who are all-in for Jesus, we can't be leading people in new life with Jesus that way.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river. I'll keep my mouth shut this time.

Can Pat Robertson Just Stop Talking?

So, Pat Robertson, of the apparently still functioning 700 Club on television allegedly hinted that God's justice would be served if quarterback Peyton Manning's injury was aggravated again once he begins playing for his new NFL team, the Denver Bronco's. Apparently, like many of us who are Tim Tebow fans, Pat feels Tim was dealt an unfair blow by being replaced as starting quarterback by Manning, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts. I'm not any happier than Mr. Robertson, (though I secretly hoped Tim would end up with my favorite team - the Kansas City Chiefs!), Pat isn't helping the cause of leading people in new life with Jesus, the very cause for which Pat claims to stand.

People who have yet to encounter Jesus will be quick to point out Pat's lack of being congruent. (They will call it "hypocrisy.") Representing Jesus, Mr. Robertson claims to stand for all that Jesus is. This includes radical, forgiving, life-transforming love. This includes esteeming others as better than ourselves. This includes unwillingness to judge, lest we open ourselves to judgement. This includes a just and righteous God, but a God who has chosen to become one of us and die for us, rather than dismissing us. I've heard Pat Robertson speak. He can be passionate and focused on God as known in and through Jesus of Nazareth. However, Pat does not offer congruence with all that when he directly or indirectly to wish harm on someone because a follower of Jesus (Tim Tebow) might not have been treated fairly.

Nor am I offering congruence if I come down hard on Pat. Grace and forgiveness are grace and forgiveness, without selectivity. I have to acknowledge and repent of my own lack of offering congruence between what I profess and how I actually live. And that's the point for all who claim Jesus. An unreached world needs our proclamation to match our actions and our day to day living. Faith in Jesus is more caught than taught. It is more impact by how we live than what we say. And it matters. If Matthew 28:19 really is the marching order of the Body of Christ, being congruent is crucial.

Ironically, as least until now and at least as far as I can tell, Tim Tebow is the one who has done his best to push past the hype, the ridicule, being dismissed and everything else in his world to genuinely and humbly yield to Jesus.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Overwhelmed!

Gas prices are inching toward $3.70 a gallon in our area, and we've on the low end nation-wide! People are choosing between food and gas. And that's just one factor overwhelming many people. The high cost of medical care...rampant bullying in many schools...endless bills and shrinking incomes...family difficulties...relationship pain and break-ups...and on, and on, and on.

Has life ever been overwhelming to you? Is it now? Here are some resources that might help:

• GOD'S OWN SELF: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:18 - New International Version of the Bible.) This is true for you.
• SHATTERED DREAMS by Larry Crabb. Helping us to see that sometimes being overwhelmed, painful as it is, shows us more clearly the One on whom we were designed to depend.
• THE SHACK by William P. Young. A novel about a man who loses a child suddenly and violently, and who encounters God in the midst of being overwhelmed by grief.
• STREAMS IN THE DESERT by L.B. Cowman. A daily devotional guide specifically for those who are overwhelmed and discouraged.
• THE JOURNEY OF DESIRE by John Eldredge. Beyond all that overwhelms us, helping us to realize that for which our hearts and passions really desire.

For those in our area, our church is exploring how to live faithfully and well in the midst of being overwhelmed. We're doing this through our Wednesday worship service in our Chapel at 6 p.m. each week between now and Easter. We'd love to have you join us, as we let God navigate us through overwhelming times.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

A Lesson from a Ridiculous Fencing Class

A Jesus-following leader named Paul used the image of a 1st century Roman soldier to describe how a follower of Jesus should be prepared for spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is about dealing with attacks that come not from human efforts, but from the enemy of God. In the Bible used by Jesus-followers, in a section known as the letter to the Ephesians, Paul identifies several elements of "the full armor of God," using the language of a soldier's garb of that time...things such as the helmet, the breastplate, the shield, etc. (Ephesians 6:10-18) Virtually all of the items are for the purpose of defense or protection. The one exception is the sword, identified as the Spirit of God via God's Word and prayer. (verses 17 & 18)

Most every week I spend time with a group of Jesus-following men who gather to pray together, to dig into the Word together, to encourage each other, to address the primary mission of making disciples for Jesus, and to stand with each other in spiritual warfare. A couple of those men wisely noted that most Christians spend a lot of time on the defensive side of spiritual warfare. We just hunker down and hope to avoid damage and to protect each other. They note that, with the sword being part of that armament, we're expected to be on the attack, joining with Jesus in the battle for the human heart! So we've been examining what that would look like in our context.

In college my wife (girlfriend, then) and I took a class in fencing. It was more entertaining than formidable, but I did learn a couple of things about swordplay. First, to be on the attack, mistakes are necessary. In swordplay, the vast majority of your swings, thrusts, strikes, etc. will fail. You'll miss, they'll be blocked, ducked, parried, whatever. Yet you keep doing it for the one movement that will hit and score. Sometimes Christians are so afraid of failing, so afraid of risking, and so afraid of image, that we try one thing to further the Kingdom in some way, and, if it fails, we quit. Nothing is a failure if we learn from it. And we're not going to learn unless we're willing to fail. The second follows on this: don't quit. In fencing, you have to thrust and strike, over and over. If you just defend, you score no points, and the match is lost. Too often we let ourselves get discouraged and give up on that to which we were called. The greatest testimonies in scripture and life are of those who moved resolutely forward when all the evidence pointed to failure, when no encouragement was forthcoming, when derision was all around. In my experience, for Jesus-followers to move from being nominal to being impacting, and for churches to move for inward maintenance to outward growth in leading people in new life with Jesus, is not about flashy technique, charismatic leadership alone, or even about the illusive "momentum." Ninety percent of it is dogged persistence in that which pleases the heart of God and that which draws people to God.

Those are my initial thoughts on the "sword" in the "full armor of God." Your thoughts? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Why I Am What I Am; Why I Do What I Do

People follow Jesus for a variety of reasons: to get to heaven, to feel love, to have purpose, to please others, to fight for God's Kingdom, to get blessed, to succeed, to feel like they're "right" and a host of other reasons. Some are good reasons, and some are not. Last Monday I was gifted with of a reminder of the "why" for me. One day each month I take a "day apart" just to go to a local retreat center and spend time alone with God. At noon on those days a treat myself to lunch at a favorite restaurant in a nearby town that overlooks the Mississippi River. It's there that I had the reminder.

For the last several years in my own prayer life I've been captured by the concept of "praise."
As indicated in the Bible, praise is due to God not because of what God has done, is doing, or will do for us. (That's actually called "thanksgiving.") We praise God because of God, not because of us. The biblical witness indicates that the nature of God evokes praise, regardless of how we benefit or fail to benefit from that. That's probably a pretty foreign concept for many people.

My chosen prayer verse from the Bible is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God." (My friends at the Disciples of Christ Church in our town once had this message on their street sign: "There are two things you need to know - 1) There is a God, 2) You're not Him!") Identity, purpose, hope, and joy are not a function of us. They come from losing ourselves in the One who is our origin and our destiny. We are created for relationship with the Creator, and nothing this life gives us, great blessings though we may receive, will fill what intimacy with God will fulfill. As creatures we have this unavoidable tendency to try to replace God with a thousand different things. We are the architects of our own distance from God. God won't settle for it, though. Jesus is proof of that. His life, his death, his rising, and his promised return are God saying, "This is how much I love you. This is how resolutely and passionately I am reaching for you. You and I together; that is what you were designed for and designed for. Everything else will ultimately fall short. I will not."

In the last several years I have known both glorious circumstances and challenging circumstances in my life, my health, my family, my church, my vocation, and every aspect of my life. Overall, externally, I am blessed more than I could imagine or deserve. Regardless of all that is visible and measurable, though, I know a deep relationship with a God who is real, personal, powerful, and persistent. Like an underground stream gushing up an Ozark spring, God is consistent and vibrant no matter what is happening on the surface. By centering on this God above all, I best love those whom I love most in this life, and I best serve those I am called to serve. I did not have to work for this, earn it, or deserve this relationship. It is a gift, always ready to be given.

Without planning, the morning of my day apart last Monday just kind of gave way to being lost in praise. I'm a relatively shy, retiring, analytical person, not given to bouts of emotion. Yet I just got lost in love for God. So I went to lunch overlooking the Mississippi in this kind of spirit. I was the first one of the lunchtime crowd. A very congenial waiter took my order, then left me alone on the second floor, CNN on the television screen near me, ESPN on the screen above the one or two patrons at the bar below, and blues music in the background. Out of nowhere a question rambled across my mind. "What if this was it, Geoff? What if it ended for you right here; you're number is up and yours days are done? No one knows you here. You're basically alone. They'd have to check your wallet once you keeled over. What if this was it? Would you be okay?" I thought about that. I have a beautiful wife and family who have been the epitome of God's grace for me. Sure I'd like more time with them, but if this is it, I cannot begin to say how much I've been blessed by them. I serve a fantastic, vibrant church. I'd love to serve it for years to come, but, if this is it, I'm so grateful for what I had in every place I served. I have friends who mean the world to me. I'd miss them. But I have God, who I know personally in Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And with all the things done, and the many things undone, that which is resolved, and that which is not, with the pains that are healed, and the pains that continue, I would be more than okay. If that had been my moment, glory to God. I'd exit rejoicing. (The waiter probably wondered why his customer was smiling but a little weepy over a southwest salad!)

That is what I long for every human being to feel and know. That's why I am what I am, and that's why I do what I do. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Gas Prices

In some places gasoline is already nearing $5 per gallon. In our area, low by comparison it will hit $4 per gallon by May. It's a more complex issue than a simple mind like mine can tackle, but here are some thoughts.

First, as a culture, it's our own fault. Blame Big Oil, environmentalists, foreign oil, or anybody else, no one's hands are clean in this. We want convenience, we don't want to sacrifice, and we don't want to change. While computer technology leaps forward daily, internal combustion and auto technology have move at the speed of a dinosaur heading for extinction. We have the means for alternative fuel sources and alternative technologies, and we have all collaborated to stay addicted to fossil fuel. Let's just accept that, and start working together on a better direction.

First, the macro-level: We need to stop polarizing in our country and start collaborating. We must lessen our use of foreign oil. So, for a time, we're going to have to access domestic oil, deciding at the starting gate that we will do so in an environmentally friendly way. Then, we need to hold ourselves to a firm timeline, recognizing that our use of petroleum, foreign or domestic, must taper and stop. We must fast-track new transportation technologies and intentionally phase out fossil fuel use and/or the internal combustion engine itself. This is urgent; we must stop this selfish myopic habit of taking care of our generation only.

The micro-level: Our goal must no longer be to maintain our individual lifestyle. We must start sacrificing. For the general public, this is a necessity. For followers of Jesus, this is our DNA. High gas prices effect everybody, every business, and every aspect of life in these United States. We must do our part to minimize use. Limit driving, consolidate trips, carpool - you know the drill. Hard economic times pull the layers back on our real priorities. Our priorities need to be mutual and sacrificial, not individual and protective.

I have joined others in a commitment to sacrifice money in 2012 for Kingdom causes. Specifically I and others are setting aside $10 a week over and above what we already tithe. That's $520 at least for the year. As gas prices rise, it's going to be easy to think about dipping into that, and just going back to the tithe. We can't do it. I have to start walking, getting back on my bike, consolidating my trips to the larger community a half a mile north of us, etc.

I think I remember that the root of the word "crisis" has something to do with a decision point.
We're all there. I'll see you around the next bend in the river; and it will have to be a river that's pretty close!

Awesome Ash Wednesday!!

I witnessed a holy, awesome moment not an hour ago! First, you need to know that today (02.22.12) is a day regarded by many Jesus-followers as "Ash Wednesday." It is named such because many who follow Jesus will allow a small mark of dark ashes to be placed on their foreheads, which they will wear throughout the day. Ashes are an ancient symbol in the Jewish faith signifying two things - our mortality and our penitence. We recognize that God is God and we are not, and that we have put much distance between us and the heart of God. Ash Wednesday starts of Christian season of the year known as "Lent." (From an ancient word that means "Spring.") Lent is the 40+ day period of time when followers of Jesus prepare for facing Jesus' execution and Jesus' resurrection. At our church, one of the Ash Wednesday options is to come to our chapel early in the day for individual worship and to receive the ashes.

This morning one of our newest followers of Jesus came to experience Ash Wednesday for the very first time. She came with that uninformed eagerness that characterize people who are completely new to some of the practices of following Jesus. As she came forward to receive the ashes, she was a little nervous and said, "I don't know what to do?" That opened up a whole discussion about Ash Wednesday, Lent, and how this fits into walking daily with Jesus. Turns out she was on the Internet most of last evening trying to learn about this dimension of her new found faith.

That was a cool enough Kingdom moment by itself. Then, as she was leaving the chapel, two women were entering. These woman have walked with Jesus for years, have long been a part of the Body of Christ, and have had ashes placed on their foreheads for quite some time. They met the newcomer just outside the chapel, and had a long, energetic, engaging conversation. I heard one of the veterans say to the newbie, "We are just so glad to have you with us!"

I think of how our church has prayed and struggled like so many congregations in order to turn from inward focus and maintenance to outward focus and leading people into new life with Jesus. I am so humbled and honored to see instances like this happening all around me in these days. I can't think of a better way to start Lent!

For those of you who follow Jesus, I pray for a powerful Lenten season for you. Keep your eyes and hearts open for the people who don't have a clue about Jesus, much less about ashes and what the word "Lent" means. God is making holy moments happen everywhere!

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Rick Murray - A Great Commission Hero

Last Sunday's worship in our church focused on Matthew 28:19, about making disciples of all nations. The word translated "nations" in most English Bibles is the Greek word "ethne," meaning much more than just political boundaries. It means every possible way human beings group themselves or are grouped, officially and unofficially. For first century Jews it could also signify any non-Jews, and thus all groupings with whom they believed they should not associate.

At one of our worship services a friend of mine, Rick Murray, was able to attend. Most Sundays his job keeps him away from our Sunday worship opportunities. He works as a guard at a state penitentiary in our area. From the time he started this job he has prayed daily that God would help him exemplify and communicate the living presence of Jesus to those he would encounter among prisoners and prison employees. Rick works in an "ethne" that most of us will never encounter, nor, honestly, would we want to do so. He realizes that that he may have one chance with any one inmate to help him connect with the One who loves them enough to die and rise for him. Rick was able to come on Sunday because he is on a short injury leave. He was injured trying to deal with an altercation on one of the prison floors.

When Rick realized the focus of our worship and message, the Holy Spirit compelled him to share with the congregation. In the midst of the altercation at the prison that injured him an inmate came to Rick and assured him that if he was ever in a vulnerable position like that, the inmate would have Rick's back. This was a convicted rapist and murderer, who is among the many for whom Rick has tried to be Jesus' ambassador in this volatile, harsh environment. At one time Rick would have never thought that any connection would be made with this man. Now, Rick reported with tearful joy, the door is open.

Rick wanted to encourage us never to underestimate what God can do when the Holy Spirit causes us to step out of our contexts and comfort zones and into another "ethne" to represent the grace of God in Jesus. I am convicted of the number of times I have acted as if the great commission of Matthew 28:19 says, "Stay inside your church buildings and wait for people who look and act like you to come to you, and then make them my disciples..." The key word is in the actual verse is "go..." Rick chose to go when sent, and the Kingdom of God is impacted because of it.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river, and in the next "ethne" to which God guides us!

Must We "Feel" God's Presence for God to be Near?

I'm reading a very impacting book by Larry Crabb - SHATTERED DREAMS: GOD'S UNEXPECTED PATHWAY TO JOY. I don't agree with all of it, but I get the basic premise: Nothing in this life provides for us that which a relationship with Jesus gives. We are designed for that. Everything we think we need in life; those things/people/situations without which we believe life is not worth living will all fall short of filling that which knowing God through Jesus provides.

In this book, Larry Crabb makes this radical statement: "When (God) said, 'I will never leave or forsake you,' apparently (God) didn't mean, 'and you'll always sense that I'm there.'" (Page 157.) Think about that. In our culture we are conditioned to measure life in terms of how we feel. If I feel good, then life is good. If I feel bad, then life stinks. We ourselves become both the lens through which to see life and the barometer by which to measure life. (We're a very ego-centric bunch, when you think about it!) So, God's closeness, God's activity, and God's love all then are assessed by how we feel. If we feel close to God, then God is close. If we don't feel God's presence, then God is somehow absent.

Crabb suggests that this is not the biblical view of God. In multiple instances people did not feel God near. There are too many to mention, so let's just go straight to the top. Jesus did not feel God near while dying at Calvary. (See Matthew 27:46.) Did that mean that God in fact was not present and not doing something? If so, all Jesus-followers need to find something else to which to give our primary allegiance, because our salvation and new life in Jesus would then be a lie.

I would suggest that experiencing "nearness" to God is more a function of our surrender and obedience than it is a function of how we feel. Something for 21st Century western Jesus-followers to consider...I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Less Sacrifice Than We Think

Dollar figures can be overwhelming, especially in hard economic times. Many non-profit organizations struggle in these days, as Americans tighten their discretionary giving. Against things like skyrocketing fuel costs and a deflated housing market, people battle to maintain their lifestyle. It makes be thankful to be a part of church of so many people who have been heroic in giving to the mission field and the cause of leading people in new life with Jesus in the midst of economic uncertainty.

Still, dollar figures make us gasp. Think of $100,ooo. To the average person, especially the person teetering on the edge of the lower middle class/poverty line, that's a staggering amount. Or is it...

Several Jesus-followers in our area have accepted the radical challenge to sacrifice money, over and above what we already give to the cause of Jesus Christ, to put toward life-changing mission and ministry. My first thought was to fast one meal a week, call that a $10 expense I am foregoing, and set aside that money as my "over-and-above" what I already commit. If just 200 of us did this throughout 2012, that would be over $100,000 extra to be put into the mission field. And suddenly that number doesn't seem so big! In fact, in these first few weeks of fasting a meal a week, I'm starting to think, "This isn't that big a sacrifice at all. What else might Jesus being inviting me to sacrifice so lives will be changed?"

Maybe these aren't the scarcity days we seem to believe they are. What if God has placed in us all the resources needed to do God-sized things for people in need in 2012? Maybe there is really no lid on what God can do.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.