I've just realized that it's been a month since my last entry; not good for someone who wants to be a regular contributor to the internet hearths and kitchen table discussions. But all of that aside, it's been a busy time. Last month saw me shifting into high speed preparations for and then leading our church's annual mission trip to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
Here it is, almost the end of July, and I'm wondering where the time went. Our church put on it's Vacation Bible Club (VBC) in the last week of June. My family got together with relatives twice during the July 4th holiday weekend. Our mission team celebrated our prep to go with our family and team supper. And then we left, Friday, July 8.
That was almost two weeks ago, and it's hard to believe that this year's mission to North Dakota is finished and in the history books. During our time in ND, our team of nineteen strong, plus four college students who were working for the church out on the reservation, split our team into a VBC team and a youth ministry team - two missions within one - which did their ministry programming simultaneously. Praise God that people responded to our heartfelt requests for many prayers for everything, from the mundane, such as good weather, to the explicit, for the Lord to use our team to either bring kids to Him, or grow them in Him. It was very exciting to watch everyone in our team with something to contribute, and to watch time and time again people stepping up and doing more than was asked of them.
I hope to have a number of posts here, all prayers of mine, from most days of the mission. All in all I can only give thanks to the Lord, who called us to go to Standing Rock for the ninth year in a row, and provided all that we needed to make children and youth to feel welcome and loved by Christ Jesus. Please check back and see what I've posted in prayer!
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Monday, June 20, 2005
what's the difference between the church and a para-church?
I'm looking for your input, if you're out there. Here's the question on my mind: 'what's the difference between the church and a para-church?' This is an ongoing question between myself and other fellow youth ministers (in my Philly suburb context), and I'm wondering what you think about it. Before you answer, I want you to think about it. This is not a question to answer off the cuff, from the hip, or from any other part your anatomy until you've prayed about it, and looked over scripture. But I want to know what you think. It is important to think about the answer. Consider the implications. Consider the broader picture of scripture than just one verse (that you're probably proof-texting). Answer it, and then reply to me. I'm interested in what you have to say. The Church is important. It's important that we understand what it is, what it isn't, and why God loves it so. I look forward to your reply.
Monday, June 06, 2005
We Said, 'Hello'. We Said, 'Goodbye'
Okay, strange title. What I'm putting down here reminds me of the mid-80s when Phil Collins started on his solo career, and put out this album (yes, vinyl or cassette - no Cds). The reason it comes to mind is that last night (Sunday, June 5, 2005), the high school Upper Room youth group gathered at my place for the 'Senior Salute'. This is our annual party, as you might imagine, to celebrate our graduating high school seniors. The underclass students contribute to the meal, bringing side dishes, salads, and desserts. Most dressed up for the specialness of the occassion. We ate chips and salsa, dipped into the vege tray, and drank a lot of soda (yes, not pop, soda) - it was so hot! Then we gathered in my backyard, and I introduced the evening's main event, talking about the seniors and giving them something of a care package (a gift bag filled with stuff that might come in handy in college, as well as some fun stuff). What college freshman doesn't like microwave popcorn? After I got my say concerning each freshman, I opened up the proverbial floor to everyone else so they could share their favorite thoughts and memories concerning our graduating seniors.
It was a good night. Good stories. Good laughter. We ended with a circle of prayer, where any who wanted could lift up in prayer each of seniors. Yes, it was good.
But I have to say, for me, it's totally bitter/sweet. I really don't like goodbyes. Hey, they're a reality. But I don't like them. Of the five seniors we celebrated last night, two had been in our youth ministry since they were in 6th grade - for the mathematically challenged, that means they were with me for seven years. One didn't really start participating until she was in high school. Our one guy didn't choose to come out until he was a junior. And our last girl is a German exchange student who showed up with her host 'sister' (herself a sophomore) when we had our Fall Kick-off last September. Their time in our ministry runs the gamut, but for each of them, I feel a sense of 'hello/goodbye'. I feel like each of them just joined us, and now, all of the sudden, they're gone. Our exchange student alluded to the sense that she would never see us again after she graduated, and went back to Germany. However, during our prayer time, one of my youth leaders reminded us all that even if we don't get to see each other in this life, we do have heaven to look forward to.
Morbid? Not at all. It may be 'hello/goodbye' for now, but for us as Christians, we don't ever need to really say 'goodbye' but instead, until we meet again. I will probably get to see most of these graduates again, at least for a couple of years, but as they graduate from college, get jobs (probably away from the Philly area), get married, etc., etc., the opportunity to see them will become less and less frequent. It is the bitter/sweet dynamic of my job, my labor. But it's worth it. My work is helping these students come to, know, and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ - a relationship that has both personal, and community dynamics. It's exciting. It's worth the 'hello/goodbye'. I will miss these seniors. I love them. And I pray that they will grow in faith and surpass me in a lifetime of service to our Lord Jesus. I can't wait to catch up with them in the future!
It was a good night. Good stories. Good laughter. We ended with a circle of prayer, where any who wanted could lift up in prayer each of seniors. Yes, it was good.
But I have to say, for me, it's totally bitter/sweet. I really don't like goodbyes. Hey, they're a reality. But I don't like them. Of the five seniors we celebrated last night, two had been in our youth ministry since they were in 6th grade - for the mathematically challenged, that means they were with me for seven years. One didn't really start participating until she was in high school. Our one guy didn't choose to come out until he was a junior. And our last girl is a German exchange student who showed up with her host 'sister' (herself a sophomore) when we had our Fall Kick-off last September. Their time in our ministry runs the gamut, but for each of them, I feel a sense of 'hello/goodbye'. I feel like each of them just joined us, and now, all of the sudden, they're gone. Our exchange student alluded to the sense that she would never see us again after she graduated, and went back to Germany. However, during our prayer time, one of my youth leaders reminded us all that even if we don't get to see each other in this life, we do have heaven to look forward to.
Morbid? Not at all. It may be 'hello/goodbye' for now, but for us as Christians, we don't ever need to really say 'goodbye' but instead, until we meet again. I will probably get to see most of these graduates again, at least for a couple of years, but as they graduate from college, get jobs (probably away from the Philly area), get married, etc., etc., the opportunity to see them will become less and less frequent. It is the bitter/sweet dynamic of my job, my labor. But it's worth it. My work is helping these students come to, know, and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ - a relationship that has both personal, and community dynamics. It's exciting. It's worth the 'hello/goodbye'. I will miss these seniors. I love them. And I pray that they will grow in faith and surpass me in a lifetime of service to our Lord Jesus. I can't wait to catch up with them in the future!
Friday, June 03, 2005
An Authentic Faith
So my last entry may have been too hard-edged for some, but let's face it, trust within the community of faith is often measured and calculated. Why? Because we fear - fear of rejection, fear of failure, and probably fear of many things some of us can't imagine. Hey - honestly, I share in some of those fears. So what's the answer?
John tells us that we should "love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God," and, "God is love" (1 John 4:7, 16b, NIV). Now, there's a whole lot more there to get into and read, but John's words establish for us as believers, disciples, and followers of Jesus, the Son of God, that our community of faith [in Jesus] should first and foremost be a living testimony, really, a living manifestation of God's love. You might wonder how. Remember, John is no slacker. When John is writing this stuff, he must be drawing on his gospel, where, in the third chapter, he records for his readers Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. In the context of that conversation, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that salvation is the fruit of being born anew by the Spirit [of God]. John is connecting his words about love and being born of God and knowing God to those earlier words of Jesus. Here's my attempt at some syllogistic logic: God is love. Christians have been born of God and know God. Therefore, Christians have God's love within them.
If this is so, many churches (gathered bodies of believing Christians) are sitting on an untapped motherload of "gold." Another way to look at it is that we are relying on hamsters on their little tread mills for power when all we have to do is plug into the local power company. No wonder the trust and love levels of so many churches seems so anemic.
I think the solution, the healing, is as easy as remembering who we are and whose we are. John has a lot to say throughout that fourth chapter, but I want to focus on three points he makes:
1) "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13).
2) "But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment" (1 John 4:18b).
3) "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
If we will remember who we are, the forgiven people of grace, the adopted children of God, then we can rest in our God-given love, and not be so fearful that we fall into comparing or judging other believer's spiritual ups and downs. If we will remember whose we are, God's, then we will realize that we have access to a love that is both limitless and eternal, because that love is God, and He lives within us. It's as simple as John says, "We [can] love because [God] first loved us."
It's not rocket science, and yet many Christians (including myself at times) look at God's love as if it were Einstein's theory of relativity - we recognize it, but we're not quite sure how it works.
When we give in to this God who loves us so powerfully, so scandalously, so completely, we can be authentic. That's the kind of person, the kind of Christian you and I can trust. That's the kind of Christian I want to be. That's the kind of Christian I'm seeking to be. With God's help. The cool thing is that we don't have to just imagine what that kind of church, that kind of community of faith would be like. We can be that church. Really, we are that church; we just don't realize it.
Let's pray for our churches, our congregations, our pastors, elders, and deacons, our families, our marrieds, our singles, our children, that all would see themselves authentically in Christ, and therefore, look upon one another with that perfect love that drives out all fear [and breeds trust and authenticity] to the glory of God!
John tells us that we should "love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God," and, "God is love" (1 John 4:7, 16b, NIV). Now, there's a whole lot more there to get into and read, but John's words establish for us as believers, disciples, and followers of Jesus, the Son of God, that our community of faith [in Jesus] should first and foremost be a living testimony, really, a living manifestation of God's love. You might wonder how. Remember, John is no slacker. When John is writing this stuff, he must be drawing on his gospel, where, in the third chapter, he records for his readers Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. In the context of that conversation, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that salvation is the fruit of being born anew by the Spirit [of God]. John is connecting his words about love and being born of God and knowing God to those earlier words of Jesus. Here's my attempt at some syllogistic logic: God is love. Christians have been born of God and know God. Therefore, Christians have God's love within them.
If this is so, many churches (gathered bodies of believing Christians) are sitting on an untapped motherload of "gold." Another way to look at it is that we are relying on hamsters on their little tread mills for power when all we have to do is plug into the local power company. No wonder the trust and love levels of so many churches seems so anemic.
I think the solution, the healing, is as easy as remembering who we are and whose we are. John has a lot to say throughout that fourth chapter, but I want to focus on three points he makes:
1) "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13).
2) "But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment" (1 John 4:18b).
3) "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
If we will remember who we are, the forgiven people of grace, the adopted children of God, then we can rest in our God-given love, and not be so fearful that we fall into comparing or judging other believer's spiritual ups and downs. If we will remember whose we are, God's, then we will realize that we have access to a love that is both limitless and eternal, because that love is God, and He lives within us. It's as simple as John says, "We [can] love because [God] first loved us."
It's not rocket science, and yet many Christians (including myself at times) look at God's love as if it were Einstein's theory of relativity - we recognize it, but we're not quite sure how it works.
When we give in to this God who loves us so powerfully, so scandalously, so completely, we can be authentic. That's the kind of person, the kind of Christian you and I can trust. That's the kind of Christian I want to be. That's the kind of Christian I'm seeking to be. With God's help. The cool thing is that we don't have to just imagine what that kind of church, that kind of community of faith would be like. We can be that church. Really, we are that church; we just don't realize it.
Let's pray for our churches, our congregations, our pastors, elders, and deacons, our families, our marrieds, our singles, our children, that all would see themselves authentically in Christ, and therefore, look upon one another with that perfect love that drives out all fear [and breeds trust and authenticity] to the glory of God!
Friday, May 27, 2005
"I don't trust you"
I'm going to cut to the chase here. It's summed up in the observation that people who call themselves Christians, those who make up the Church, often live lifestyles that don't seem all that different from those who don't follow that faith. If we are the people of God who are sharing an incredible message of hope and love from God to a world that is desperately looking for purpose, meaning, and a future, than why aren't people flocking to our doors?
I'd like to offer some of my own observations as to why this is.
For one thing, as noted in his recent book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ron Sider submits that when you boil down "accepting" Jesus to responding correctly to a few propositional statements that ask for no committment, don't emphasize a change in heart and doesn't call each professing believer to a life of discipleship, then it's no wonder that we see a "Church" today that resembles it's family tree in little more than name only.
A second point that we might examine is a fact that because we generally view and/or act like the Church is little more than a voluntary organization, not only are we not committing ourselves to Christ Jesus, we are withholding our very selves from the very essence of conversion, that is, transformation.
And a third point, that builds on this last one, is that without discipleship, without transformation, we don't learn what it means to love God by loving others, and we don't let others love us. Hence, we end up not learning to trust each other.
These points are all related, one to the other. If my "faith" is based on responding to what essenially amounts to a survey ("do you believe...you fill in the blank"), and it doesn't seem to be all that different from the health club I just tossed out some cash for, and I might end up looking around and wondering what's supposed to be happening to me? And if it's so easy to join a Church by answering a few propositional questions, and there's nothing particularly expected of me accept show up once a week (but don't worry, you'll only get an occasional phone call to check up on you), then it seems it's actually easier than joining that health club. Honestly, I'm not so sure I see any difference in the lives of many so-called other believers. And if I don't see any difference between the people next to me, if I don't see their lives beyond the one hour I show up on Sunday mornings, then how can I trust them when I struggle with the pressures and temptations of life?
Admittedly, this is harsh. I'm not trying to point the finger at anyone, person or church. My point is that if I'm going to be honest, I think one big reason why the Church in the U.S. of A. is in trouble - and it is - it's because we don't trust each other, nor do we trust God. Let me be honest on a personal note, (oh, this is going to hurt someone's feelings) I don't think I trust the majority of people I gather with for worship on Sundays. Why? Some of it is probably my own issue(s). At the same time, I often get the feeling that a lot of the people that come for services are Sunday Christians. They come for the service, do their obligation, their duty, and out they go to live life on their own terms Monday morning through Saturday night. What do you think?
If I am wrong, then why do most of our churches have people who struggle with both personal discipleship and understanding what it means to be part of the church? I would loved to be proven wrong here. Okay, okay. I'm not trying to pick a fight. What we have here is Jesus' 'wheat and tares.' But those of us who are struggling disciples have to live differently. We need to be real. We need to show ourselves as trustworthy to those who aren't real or aren't sure.
In a [Church] culture that struggles to be faithful to a biblical witness, it's difficult to find love when people are struggling with life's challenges and temptations. How can we, beyond truly having faith that they have honest-to-God given their hearts to God? How can we when we hear the merciless gossip, the comments about certain people, the way people are treated when they're down?
Trust is a big issue for us as American Christians. And I'm not sure it's there. What do you think?
I'd like to offer some of my own observations as to why this is.
For one thing, as noted in his recent book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ron Sider submits that when you boil down "accepting" Jesus to responding correctly to a few propositional statements that ask for no committment, don't emphasize a change in heart and doesn't call each professing believer to a life of discipleship, then it's no wonder that we see a "Church" today that resembles it's family tree in little more than name only.
A second point that we might examine is a fact that because we generally view and/or act like the Church is little more than a voluntary organization, not only are we not committing ourselves to Christ Jesus, we are withholding our very selves from the very essence of conversion, that is, transformation.
And a third point, that builds on this last one, is that without discipleship, without transformation, we don't learn what it means to love God by loving others, and we don't let others love us. Hence, we end up not learning to trust each other.
These points are all related, one to the other. If my "faith" is based on responding to what essenially amounts to a survey ("do you believe...you fill in the blank"), and it doesn't seem to be all that different from the health club I just tossed out some cash for, and I might end up looking around and wondering what's supposed to be happening to me? And if it's so easy to join a Church by answering a few propositional questions, and there's nothing particularly expected of me accept show up once a week (but don't worry, you'll only get an occasional phone call to check up on you), then it seems it's actually easier than joining that health club. Honestly, I'm not so sure I see any difference in the lives of many so-called other believers. And if I don't see any difference between the people next to me, if I don't see their lives beyond the one hour I show up on Sunday mornings, then how can I trust them when I struggle with the pressures and temptations of life?
Admittedly, this is harsh. I'm not trying to point the finger at anyone, person or church. My point is that if I'm going to be honest, I think one big reason why the Church in the U.S. of A. is in trouble - and it is - it's because we don't trust each other, nor do we trust God. Let me be honest on a personal note, (oh, this is going to hurt someone's feelings) I don't think I trust the majority of people I gather with for worship on Sundays. Why? Some of it is probably my own issue(s). At the same time, I often get the feeling that a lot of the people that come for services are Sunday Christians. They come for the service, do their obligation, their duty, and out they go to live life on their own terms Monday morning through Saturday night. What do you think?
If I am wrong, then why do most of our churches have people who struggle with both personal discipleship and understanding what it means to be part of the church? I would loved to be proven wrong here. Okay, okay. I'm not trying to pick a fight. What we have here is Jesus' 'wheat and tares.' But those of us who are struggling disciples have to live differently. We need to be real. We need to show ourselves as trustworthy to those who aren't real or aren't sure.
In a [Church] culture that struggles to be faithful to a biblical witness, it's difficult to find love when people are struggling with life's challenges and temptations. How can we, beyond truly having faith that they have honest-to-God given their hearts to God? How can we when we hear the merciless gossip, the comments about certain people, the way people are treated when they're down?
Trust is a big issue for us as American Christians. And I'm not sure it's there. What do you think?
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